Our drive to Germany

The second day of our trip did not start out as well as our first day in Como had. Now me being the girly girl that I am, I knew that I would need to be able to blow dry and flat iron my hair in order to stay sane on this trip. So in knowing this about myself I had prepared accordingly by bringing an adapter and a converter for both my flat iron and blow dryer. Unfortunately the converter we brought did not work so I borrowed my mom’s. Well, I learned the hard way that even with a converter, flat irons are not capable of switching electrical currents. When I plugged my flat iron in, it started to smoke and smell of burning wires. I immediately pulled it out of the socket and in doing so, burned the top half of my middle finger so badly that it instantly bubbled up and you could see the lines of the converter burned into my skin. Well, being the blonde that I am, I decided to try the converter in a different socket (thinking somehow the electrical current would be different). Well much to my surprise, it wasn’t. After having the flat iron plugged in for only a few minutes, we heard a huge pop. Much to our dismay, the converter had blown up and had destroyed my beloved chi flat iron in the process. In only a day we had managed to ruin all of our converters, along with any hope of doing my hair! That was until we arrived in Austria (later post).

So after my not so fun experience with Italian electricity, we all piled in the car and headed for Germany. We started our trek through Switzerland and that was quite the drive! One road we took had about 50 STEEP switchbacks up the side of the mountain and so from the bottom it looked like huge stairs. As we were driving up we passed this 70-year-old or so man who was biking up. I was amazed because I don’t even think I could walk up that road, let alone bike up. When we finally got to the top we had a beautiful view of the Swiss Alps.

I have always wondered what determines the borders of a country and Mike’s theory is because of the terrain. It’s amazing how as soon as you drive into a new country the landscape is completely different. In Italy you have vineyards and rolling hills and then as soon as you pass into Switzerland steep mountains surround you.

On the way to Germany we stopped in St. Moritz, a ritzy little ski town in the Swiss Alps. A few years back my mom went on a ski trip with her good friends and she wanted to see the area she had skied again in the summer. It was a beautiful little town and I was glad we were able to stop and see it. I think Mike would have preferred to stay and ski instead of loading back up into the car for the long drive though!

After we spent a bit of time in St. Moritz, Mike took on the driving for the first time and drove us all the way through Switzerland and Austria and then into Germany. We had brought a GPS system along with us, which may have been the best thing EVER! It really helped us get around and I highly recommend investing in one if you ever plan on driving around Europe or anywhere unfamiliar. Unfortunately we had only purchased the maps for Italy and the surrounding countries so as soon as we drove into Germany we lost our trusty GPS system. It was quite the challenge to try and find Fussen without a map and without being able to speak German. I kept making fun of Mike about how useless his 4 years of German was to us. :-)

Finally after looking for a bit, we were able to find the town of Fussen and head up to the Neuschwanstein Castle. The Neuschwanstein Castle was built for Mad King Ludwig in 1869 but was left unfinished after his death in 1886. It opened for tourists in 1896 and then became the model for the Cinderella Castle in Disneyland, and I can see why Disney thought it encompassed everything a princess castle should. It has an amazing view of the German landscape and is incredibly massive. Although we really enjoyed seeing the exterior of the Castle, the interior tour was rather boring. I think the most interesting part of the tour was when my mom asked our timid German tour guide if King Ludwig and Richard Wagner were more than friends. You should have seen the tour guide’s face! Wagner was a German composer who Ludwig built the Castle as a retreat for, so it was common belief that they may have had a romantic relationship.

After our tour of the castle, we hiked up to Queen Mary’s Bridge, which is a wooden bridge that suspends 200 feet in the air over a deep gorge. Now I am not afraid of heights, but this did get my blood bubbling a bit, especially because each time I took a step I felt as though the wood was going to snap underneath me. If the scenery wasn’t so breathtaking, I don’t think I would have spent much time on that rickety bridge.

We ended our day by driving around looking for a place to stay. We were able to find a cute little bed and breakfast with a view of the Castle for a very reasonable price. After settling in to our rooms we headed out for some authentic German food and beer. I much prefer authentic Italian but it was nice to try something new and different. After finishing our dinner we retreated back to our B and B and while I prefer Italian food to German, I definitely think Germans make a much more comfortable bed. It was definitely a long day but we saw so many wonderful things and I am grateful we were able to experience so much in such a short time.