Garmisch and Neuschwanstein

Two weeks after our trip to Chodovar we headed to Garmisch for another weekend away.  This had actually been planned before our previous trip to be another relaxing weekend!  We left early Saturday morning and began our 3 and a half hour drive down to the Alps.  Garmisch is so beautiful I could honestly go every weekend.   The town is nestled right in the Bavarian Alps and the views are just breathtaking.  This was our second trip to Garmisch.  The first time we had gone hiking with some friends back in the fall.  For this trip we decided to stay at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, which is military owned.  I personally really enjoy staying in European hotels and truly getting to experience the culture, but Edelweiss was gorgeous.  The hotel is so nice and it was truly like a little piece of America from all of the amenities, to the décor, and even the food.  After we checked in we went down to grab lunch 10 minutes before the buffet closed.  Obviously this was not the best idea because a lot of the food was already gone but it was the quickest option for us.  It was an American type buffet with some German influences to include some brats.  After we had lunch we went back up to our room for a bit to rest.  Long distance driving (even just over 3 hours) always makes me tired!  To make this a truly relaxing weekend we had scheduled a couple’s massage for the afternoon.  I had never had 2 massages in the same month before but I could definitely get used to the frequency!  We both enjoyed an hour massage with views of the Alps out the window.  This massage was a lot more like what I had been used to back in the states and while it was great, we both agreed we liked the ones in Chodovar better.

After our massage we decided to head into the center of the town and walk around a bit.  By this time it was a little after 5pm and even though Garmisch is a pretty touristy place pretty much all of the stores were closed.  It was a really nice evening so we walked around for a while and then sat down at an outdoor café and had some drinks.  We had made reservations for 7pm at an Indian place that was highly recommended on Tripadvisor.com so it was nice to waste sometime outside and people watch a bit.  Lots of people were walking around with their dogs.  Germany is so dog friendly it is great.  I wish we could have brought Rocco with us but unfortunately Edelweiss doesn’t allow pets.  The hotel we had stayed at the first time we came to Garmisch did allow dogs and we brought him with us, even though he spent most of his time in the hotel room.  We left the café a little before 7 and walked to the restaurant for dinner.  We both really enjoy Indian food so whenever we go away somewhere and find an Indian place we like to try it.  We ordered some naan with cheese and I had butter chicken, my usual.  Even though I was really explicit about the fact that I was allergic to sesame seeds the naan came out with small black seeds on them.  They didn’t really look like sesame seeds so I decided to just brush them off.  The first piece was find, but after the second piece I realized even though I had brushed off the seeds I was still having a reaction.  Oops!  Luckily it wasn’t a bad one, but we still left the restaurant quickly just so I could get medicine if needed.  My throat started to feel better about an hour later so we headed down to the restaurant in the hotel and had a drink to finish off the night.  I had a nice frozen margarita which I hadn’t had in forever since that’s not really a typical German drink!  We ended up calling it a night after that and after planning our day for Sunday went to bed.

 We woke up Sunday morning and got ready to check out of the hotel.  After leaving there we went and found gas on post in Garmisch and we were on our way!  We were going somewhere that I had always wanted to go since arriving in Germany and I was so excited!  About an hour away from Garmisch in Schwangau, Germany is Neuschwanstein Castle (pronounced New-shwan-stine) which is known as the inspiration for the Disney castle!  We decided to take the way through Austria and through the Alps a bit.  While in Austria we were driving right by huge mountains and saw a lot of people skiing.  We had reserved a 1:00pm tour of the castle so after parking we walked up to the ticket office only to see a huge line!  Luckily since we had reserved our tickets online we were able to go right up to a desk and get our tickets.  I definitely recommend that for anyone ever visiting the castle.  I noticed that there was an English tour starting at 12:40 so I asked if we could switch to that and luckily they let us.  The only downside about booking the tour online was that it didn’t tell me when the English tour was.  From the ticket place up to the castle you have 3 options to get there.  You can pay a few euro for a bus ride, pay a few more euro for a horse and carriage ride, or walk it.  They said the walk was about 45 minutes and since we had about an hour before the tour started we chose to walk it.  It took us only about 20 minutes so we had some time up at the top to enjoy the view and take some pictures.

Unfortunately the castle is under construction until 2014 so there is scaffolding all over the exterior, which doesn’t make for the best pictures!  They have tours starting every 5 minutes and it is an incredible system they have going up there.  So we just enjoyed being at the castle while we waited for our tour to begin.

The castle was ordered to be built by King Ludwig II.  The design and interior decorating was all inspired by the composer Richard Wagner.  So a lot of the paintings on the wall depict Wagner’s pieces.  King Ludwig moved in prior to the completion of the castle, but he only lived there for 172 days.  It is said that King Ludwig was in his bed chamber in Neuschwanstein when he was told that people believed he was insane and not fit to rule.  He left Neuschwanstein that day and was found dead the next day.  It is still unknown how he died.  Unfortunately, after his death construction on the castle stopped, but it was opened to the public.  During the tour we were able to see most of the rooms that had been completed.  We saw the servant quarters, throne room, bed chambers, a secret room, and the ballroom.  They don’t let you take pictures in the castle which I think is a ridiculous rule, but believe me if you try to take a picture they get mad at you…I speak from experience!  The throne room was absolutely incredible.  All adorned in gold, but there was never a throne in it because the castle was never finished.  Another breathtaking room was his bed chamber.  Everything was hand carved out of wood.  The top of his canopy type bed had over 70 carved steeples.  It was very impressive.  Along with a devotion to Wagner’s works, the castle has a lot of swans throughout it.  (Hence the name!)  There was one room that had over 100 swans in the wood carving and paintings and even the door knob.  After the tour we visited the gift shop and purchased a beer mug with the Bavarian flag on it and some post cards.  The castle was definitely worth the trip!  When we left Neuschwanstein we headed back up to Nuremberg to pick up Meghan who was flying in for a visit!  More on that later!!

Chodovar Beer Spa

A few weeks back we were able to take a trip to a small town in the Czech Republic called Chodovar.  I had found out about it online and its known for its family brewery and beer spa.  The week prior to us going was extremely crazy so it was a much needed trip!  Let's back track a bit...On Monday morning I drove a friend's father to the airport, luckily I didn't have to work that day so I could relax a bit during the day.  That night we went out to celebrate the same friend's birthday!  Tuesday I substituted in a wonderful 2nd grade classroom and then had an FRG leaders and POC meeting that night.  Wednesday I shadowed the teacher I took over for maternity leave to meet the kiddos and that night we had Hail and Farewell that we needed to go to.  Thursday was Shayne's company's BBQ so I was up early that morning making two large pans of my Aunt Jan's chicken ceasar tortellini salad (which had become my go to for events and is always a huge hit!) and 3 dozen regular and 4 dozen mini chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.  By the time I finally finished and got there it was around noon but it was a beautiful day and all of the families had a great time.  That night we went out to dinner with friends to a great chinese buffet in Weiden.  So needless to say we were both VERY ready for a nice relaxing weekend!

It was a quick hour and fifteen minute drive to the quaint little town.  We got there around 10:30 and went right to our hotel.  The hotel we stayed at was connected to the spa and right down the street from the brewery and restaurant.  I've begun to realize that Europeans really don't like it when you arrive prior to check in time at the hotel.  Luckily they had a room ready for us and we checked right in.  We had reservations for the spa later in the afternoon so after relaxing in the room for a bit we decided to go explore.  First we headed down to the restaurant for lunch.  It was a really cool place because it was built into a hill, so you were under ground the whole time.  You walked through a rock enclosed tunnel to get to the restaurant.

After sitting we ordered some food and beer and enjoyed our lunch.  We both really enjoy Czech food.  It is more flavorful than German but still has a heavy emphasis on meat.  We had some time before our planned events so we walked back to the hotel room for a bit.  We noticed there was a minibar with some beer and water, both produced at the brewery down the street.  When I looked at the price I saw each beer was 20 Czech Koruna.  For those of you not familiar with the Czech currency (because honestly who would be unless you lived in the Czech or close by!) their currency does not hold a lot of value in comparison to ours and the euro.  So 20 Koruna is the equivalent of $1.06.  With that being said we definitely took advantage of the minibar!  At 2pm there was a tour of the brewery so we headed back down to the restaurant, bought our tickets, and waited.  Obviously they knew we did not speak Czech (it is a very hard language, similar to Russian and I don't even know how to say hello) so when the tour guide came out to start the tour she handed us a sheet of paper that told all about the brewery.  So as we went to each stop we read our packet while she talked.  Having been to a lot of breweries now, both in the states and in Europe we've seen a lot of the things that were on the tour but unfortunately couldn't understand any of the jokes she told or any of the questions asked.  So I probably wouldn't recommend the tour to non Czech speaking people.

After the tour it was time for our spa services!  It was called the "Beerrarium".



We walked over to the spa and were given a white sheet (like a top sheet for bedding) and were told to undress and put that on.  Once we were ready we went for our beer bath!  We got into a large metal tub that was filled with beer and relaxed for 20 minutes.  They also gave us a beer to drink while we were enjoying our bath.   When our time was up the woman opened the curtains grabbed the first sheet and held it up in front of her face.  We quickly gathered that we were to get out of the bath and be wrapped in our sheet.  They then led us to our "relaxation room" where we were wrapped in a fleece blanket, given another beer, and listened to calming music for 20 minutes.  After being wrapped up with was quite difficult to try and drink you beer without completely undoing your burrito wrapped blanket.  I'm pretty sure we spent more time laughing than actually relaxing but it was still great.  When we left there it was time for our massages!  This was Shayne's first massage, but it was a bit different than ones I had back in the states!  I was always used to being shown into a room being told to undress and get under the blanket and then the masseuse would come back in and begin the massage.  Not in Europe!  We were still wrapped in our white sheets at this point.  The area for massages was a long, large room that had curtain dividers up around each massage table.  We were told which table to each go to and once we got inside the curtains we were told to put our sheet on the chair and get on the table.  I guess you would say Europeans are very free with their bodies!  In the end it was actually one of the best massages I have ever had!  After they finished the massage they wrapped us up in blankets again and left us for some more relaxation time.  This time I almost fell asleep.  When we left the spa we headed back to our hotel room to relax for a bit before dinner.  We went to the same place for dinner that we did for lunch. It was great traditional Czech food.  We started off by sharing a bread and cheese plate.  Everywhere in Europe has had great cheeses and here was no exception!  After we finished that we both weren't that hungry anymore so we just shared a meal that had meat, pickled red and white cabbage, and potato dumpling balls.  I had never really had cabbage before but this was really good!  And the dumplings were very heavy and dense but great also.  The town we were in was very small and there wasn't much else to do so we ended up heading back to our room after dinner.  Unfortunately there were no English channels on our tv in our room so we watched some winter sport games in German.

The next morning we woke up and headed to breakfast.  As I'm sure I've said before, I always enjoy European breakfasts.  This one was no different.  There was a selection of meats and cheeses as well as breads and pastries.  I usually always look forward to a piece of baguette with some Nutella, but we were visiting during Lent and I had given up chocolate so I had to go with something else.  After breakfast we did a little shopping at the little store next to the hotel, buying a glass, some beer, and a magnet that had the brewery mascot on it, a yellow lab!

Since there was nothing really to do in the area we decided to just head home.  So we left, went and picked up our furry friend who was staying with friends and finished up our weekend!  This is something that I definitely would love to do again.  And it was so affordable!  For the one night of hotel, beer bath for 2, and 2 massages it was $183!  We lunch, dinner, beer, and souvenirs we ended up spending around $250 total.  That was a great weekend get away!  Anyone who comes to visit, if you would like to take a trip there we are always willing to go back!!

Sbohem!