Weekend o' Castles

We ventured out on a trip to Bavaria and the Tirol this weekend, returning home just in time to celebrate the fourth back home in Hessen. We drove first to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, DE, home of the 1936 Winter Olympics...and now home to a quite a few Americans lucky enough to be stationed in such a beautiful location! Nearby was Linderhof Castle, one of the palaces of "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria... it's definitely the coziest of his castles, and my favorite. One of the best things about it is that the king purchased/built several outbuildings and a grotto on the grounds surrounding the palace, which makes for a really cool walk around the castle itself... To see Linderhof (and the surrounding buildings, too!) check out this link for a good overview of the park: http://www.schloesser.bayern.de/ . Click on "English", and then on "Linderhof" on the list of castles. We spent Saturday evening in Garmisch enjoying an outdoor concert in the town square by the "Big Band der Bundswehr"-the German Army's band: apparently, German radio isn't the only place you'll hear all of the old 80's tunes you could ever wish for! It was a lot of fun...even if we WERE the only people who danced! We then drove back across the border to Reutte, AT, to call it a day. On Sunday, we headed out early to Neuschwanstein Castle...another of Ludwig II's palaces. THIS is the castle that you see on the posters of Germany in the travel agents' offices! Supposedly, Neuschwanstein was also the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland...it's not hard to see why! Take a peek here: http://www.neuschwanstein.de/english/. After spending the morning at the castle, we headed on down the autobahn, stopping off at Innsbruck, AT, for a quick leg stretch (I got to see the ski jump from the Olympics, at least!) and then on past Lake Chiemsee to Salzburg, Austria. We arrived there in the late afternoon, did a walking tour of some of the major Mozart sites (and inadvertenly, a few of the sites from Sound of Music, too!), and had a great dinner. We even had time to go running that evening in some neighborhoods just outside of downtown Salzburg...it's a really beautiful place, and our first trip was enough to convince us to go back for a second sometime in the (hopefully near) future! We arrived back at our adopted home in Germany late the next afternoon, just in time to celebrate the fourth amongst other Americans...it was a wonderful weekend! Hope yours was, too!