Who has ever heard of the country Leichtenstein???? I hadn't either. Anyway, we have now visited it and this is the beloved site of our first snow angels....(due to fabulous depth of snow). Nestled between Austria and Switzerland, one of it's borders the famous Rhein, Leichtenstein is an absolutely miniscule country that appears to be mainly industrial, and is home to the best accessible snow that we have seen to date...
Andrew, Rachel, Sequoia, Pheonix and I set out at the most rediculous hour of 5am on Monday (2nd January) with a very full itinery to visit 3 new countries and also visit the famous Neuswannstein Castle (the one the Disney Castle is modelled on).
Austria is absolutely gorgeous!!!!
After our early morning start, Rachel, Sequoia, Pheonix and I all had naps....poor Andrew! For some reason, we all suddenly woke up all at the same time and lo! we were in Austria!
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| The Hills are alive....!!!! |
We took a quick pitstop just inside the border whilst we worked out where we would breakfast...watch out for that black ice!!!
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| Our Austrian breakfast hotel |
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| Nice setting, but we sure missed bacon and eggs, hey, kids??? |
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| Just gorgeous! |
Once, our bellies were full, and our purses a little lighter, we ventured back over the border into Germany to check out Neuschwanstein Castle (the castle the Disney Castles are modelled on)
The little town at it's base is very sweet. It would have been a very cold, slippery 15 minute walk up to the castle, but just because we wanted to have an 'authentic' experience, we took the horse and cart, of course!
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| Neuschwanstein township |
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| On the cart....we sang 'Sound of Music' songs all the way up - much to the chargrin of the others riding with us! |
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| Our relations! |
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| Plenty of lovely views |
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| Castle Entrance |
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| Castle Model |
Unfortunately, we could not take photos during the tour of the castle, but there are some beautiful rooms throughout...I could definitely live there!!!!
Next, we drove back into Austria and on to Leichtenstein, which is a tiny little country nestled between Austria and Switzerland, with the River Rhine along one of it's borders....better not blink or you'd miss it!
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| Don't blink!!!! |
At this point in our journey, we stopped to make snow angels...
Next, we headed into Switzerland for dinner...we found a little place not far from where the ferry would take us back to Germany over Lake Constance. The chef was a friendly man who was happy to point us to local specialities on the menu. The waitress and co-owner, quite frankly, would have been quite at home at the rally grounds back in Nuremberg...
The food was alright, but was terribly expensive (they obviously saw us coming!), but the highlight for me was downing two of those horrendous-sized steins of local beer. I must admit that I staggered henceforth and I do believe my brother had to very chiverously finish the bit I left in the bottom of my glass that I had left.
The drive back to Goetteldorf was much fun with air guitar (to the fast bits of Bohemian Rhapsody) all around!
All in all, a fabulous day!
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