Sunday, June 19, 2016

Mountains, waterfalls and princess castles



So we slept a little later (like until 9am) because the check-out time was at 11am and we were a little worn out from last night's drive. The morning mood was way better, the house wasn't spooky at all in the daylight. We had a slow morning, the sun warming through the open balcony door, a mountain river running under our window with huge power and loud voice, snowy mountains and goats roaming around with clinging bells in their necks. I was brushing my teeth and walking around the hotel lobby, said hi to the passing owner that was the only person besides us and a few hikers we ever saw at that hotel.



We felt fresh after a well slept night and shower. But hungry for breakfast. So we drove around this little mountain village we had not seen in the darkness when we arrived. And holy macarony it was cute! We even managed to found a supermarket even cheaper than Aldi (I myself did not believe something like that could even exist). We went around and bought ourselves salami, rice puddings and fresh pastries. Again we headed out to hunt for a place to eat them. I think my expectations were something like a meadow with a view over the town so we drove up towards the ski jumping place that Oberstdorf was so well known for. Arno passed all those ”don't drive any further” signs to be a little rebel and all the sudden we saw water floating. We had found our place!




So we backed our Hyundai into this obviously legal parking spot on a hill and continued towards the sound of water carrying all breakfast needs in a backpack. And instead of a river we found a huge, wild waterfall behind the bushes. Beautiful. The fresh mountain air, nature around us and the drops of water keeping us cool under the sun. We sat ourselves down and started eating our rich brunch enjoying the moment and thinking about all the crazy places we have eaten all around the world. So we sat, talked, enjoyed the filling meal and took a few pictures. I was wearing a white skirt that kept on coming up because of the power of the falling water and white shoes that got black from climbing on the slippery rocks and wood stocks. And of course like always in most of the picks my long hair was covering my face that I had painted in the morning with not so waterfall proof makeup. But we got some cool shots after all.



Because our Hyundai was dying to hit the roads where every BMW, Audi and Porsche flew past it, we started our journey. Navigation pointed us towards this Disney princess castle my inner little girl had been dreaming about since my fearless prince had googled it a few weeks ago and of course I pulled him all the way to Germany to see this castle that had inspired so many princess movies. Neuschwanstein! (Yep I still can not spell it, thank goodness for Arno).



After driving for a few hours we saw the castles in the horizon. And the hundreds of tourist that we did not expect to bump into in the middle of a German forests. But of course. And with the tourists comes the service. And the cost of the service. We drove to the parking lot and this parking guy informed us that our little drop by at the castle would cost us at least 35€. I mean you know parking, tourist bus tickets, guided tours and all. So we turned around on the expensive parking lot and headed away from the castle until we found this private tennis club parking like 400 meters further. So we parked for free, changed clothes, filled water bottles and started hiking towards the castle.




It took us like 20 minutes to reach the top, much more fun also than sitting on a tour bus. But damn the castle was huge and b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! I felt like a Disney princess (only thing braking that picture in my mind was the fact that we did not arrive with a white horse but a gray Hyundai that doesn't actually even move much faster than a four legged)! We walked around the castle, courtyard and surroundings. You could see the mountains, villages, a waterfall, a lake and the neighbor castle on the mountain next to us. I really felt like moving in!



Too bad after taking a ton of pics and walking around there wasn't much more to do so we headed back down the same way we came up. Our reliable car was waiting for the up coming cruising cause now we started making our way to Prague, Czech Republic. And as many of you know about Germany we were excited to get to speed on the Autobahn where there are no speed limits. So we both got this little garidge of ours going for little under 185 km/h! (When you pedaled the gas as much as possible and went downhill with no wind pushing against it... but anyway) I had never driven that fast since it is not really a legal habit in Finland or USA – Zimbabwe again is a whole different story with the bumpy roads that you can not speed on. And so we were cruising on the fullest speed the car could go. Yet there were still people passing us with the speed of over 200 km/h. After that, slowing down to 130 felt like walking.



We were selective about our dinner place and it ended up being our doom. So we found ourselves at a gas station eating leberkäse (German meatloaf kind of super delicious food I had been craving for a long time) and fried fish. Not the best option but it got us all the way to Prague where we arrived after midnight and checked in late and super tired. So ready to get some rest for the upcoming day.

Hugs,

Linnea

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