Neuschwanstein Trip: Part 1 - Hohenschwangau Palace and the Carriage Ride

We decided to take a car ride up to Neuschwanstein (the Disney Princess Castle) in the Bavarian Alps while Mindy was here. We picked a wonderful, but freezing day to hit the road. It was more picturesque than we all thought. Even Steve, our resident German expert, was impressed at the beauty of Crazy Ludwig's extravagant alpine hideaway. These pictures show the ride up to the palace itself.

But before we get too far into the details, none of this would have happened if we weren't informed immediately of the imminent closure of the ticket booth, which is not inside the castle but at the bottom of the mountain. How this makes any sense at all is beyond our understanding, but we sent Steve to work his German magic, and luckily he caught the last ticket booth employee before he closed for the day.

As a note, the Palace at Hohenschwangau below Neuschwanstein is also pretty impressive, although we didn't have the time to take the tour.

Here we are in front of our noble steeds.

There was some traffic on the roads on this day!

All bundled up on the coach ride to the Palace.

Here are Liam and Steve in front of the palace at Hohenschwangau. Pretty cool, huh?

Miscellany in Liechtenstein

Mindy, Delaine's mother, visited recently, and we wanted to post a few images of some of the things we have done during her visit. She certainly got a real taste for our day-to-day lives here in Europe. We are so glad that she made the journey despite a busy schedule of her own. The boys were happy to have Oma Lister with them here, and we all had a great time. She seemed to have brought the nice weather with her in the beginning of her trip, but by the end, winter had certainly returned.

Mindy with Liam on her lap. The snow gear was a necessity.

Liam and Everett on a "Double-Deckah" bus, as Liam calls it with his New England accent.

Mindy and the boys in front of the street by our apartment.

Liam and Everett are partaking in the sweet goodness of the pastries of Austria!! Mmmm...

Everett playing Legos, his game face is on...

Everett is so proud of his latest temple picture...

Vaduz with Oma Lister

So, Grandma Lister is in town, and we took her to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. We have blogged about the main drag in the town, but it must be said that Vaduz is awesome. It has lots of Bronze statues, cool buildings, museums, and shops. The boys can run around without fear of getting run over by the passing Lamborghinis and Ferraris, because it is a pedestrian zone. Grandma had a great time as the boys showed her all the cool stuff to see.

This is the world record holding Swiss Army knife... it has the most functions of any pocket knife... and it costs almost $2,000.00 so save your pennies.

Here is the flag of Liechtenstein with a couple of local fans.

Liam and Everett are Matchy-Matchy as Everett likes to put it...

They both decided to sit down in the Tourist Center downtown.