Schloss Neuschwanstein

Ok so this pretty much sums up the weather the day we went to King Ludwig's II most popular castle. This is the one in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the one Cinderella's castle was designed after. Can't you tell? Well despite the weather the we had a fun day - and the inside of the castle was spectacular. This is taken from the parking lot - if you look really hard you can see the castle.
Taken once we got up to the top.Taken on the hike up.

Outside a store in the town at the base of the moutian the castle is on.

The Scenic Route

On the way to Schloss Neuschwainstein we took the scenic route from Garmish via Austria and ran across this very cool Dam. It is called the Lechfall. It is part of a series of flood control and hydro-electric dams. The kids had fun running around looking at the water however the bridge bounced up and down a bit more than we would have liked!It was raining and cold!! If you click on the photo to make it bigger you can see the high water mark dates - I would not want to be there when the water was that high!!
A cool spot for a photo - we ran into other Americans there. They were Geo-cacheing with their GPS.

Schloss Linderhof

This past weekend we headed south and stayed at the new Armed Forces Recreation center in Garmish - it is a new big hotel with over 300 rooms, several restaurants, a spa, and pool. The kids had a great time swimming in the pool. The weather was horrible - rainy and cold but that did not stop the Amos Family. Saturday we went to visit one of many castles build by Ludwig II. This is a small castle know for its beautiful grounds and Fake Grotto that Ludwig built for his own personal music performances. He wanted a grotto - did not have one - so he built a fake one! It is a small castle and Ludwig spent only a few days a month here since he was made to be in Munich most of the time working.

The front of the Schloss Linderhoff.This fountain and garden were on the side of the castle This fountain was behind the castle.

Another view of the fountain behind the castle. This fountain is fed by water run-off from the mountains surrounding the castle.
This view is from way behind the castle.
The kids found a tree stump on the way to the grotto - which was about a 10 minute hike up the mountain behind the castle.
Part of the pathway leading up to the grotto.The inside of the Grotto. It is all fake! The tour guide told us that it had the first electric lights installed in German. He had red, green and blue!

Another shot of the Grotto with the painting backdrop.

This is where the King sat (where the red light is) to watch the performers. The blue light is where his guests would sit -however Ludwig never had any guests. He built this Grotto because apparently every time he would go to the Opera all the people would stare at him instead of the Opera - he found this very distracting so he built his own.

Here is the Grotto lit up in Red.

Jeff and the kids on the stage of the Grotto (the boat is in the background).

Kings Island

We took a day and when to Kings Island when we were at Ohio visiting Jeff's family this August. Jeff's Dad and Sister Heather enjoyed the day with us as well!