I went to Germany by car in September and kept it here until I returned it at Christmas. During the autumn I used it very little, Mercedes and Porsche in all glory, but Stuttgart is not a good city to drive in. However, public transportation works very well. Together with Hans there was always the plan to use the car to go to Schloss Neuschwanstein, the model for the famous Disney castle and also the most visited attraction in all Germany. In December time was running out and we finally went there together with Pete and John, the two Englishmen.

It took quite some time to get out of Stuttgart, but once out it was full throttle towards the very south of Bavaria (Bayern). The weather wasn't very good and soon it started raining. Approaching the highlands the rain was replaced by fog. Anyway, our first stop was in the small city of Füssen, close to the castle and at the Austrian border. In Füssen we made the obligary stop at McDonalds and also looked at the totally empty (but very nice) city centre. So finally we went for the castle, paid four Euros for a parking ticket in the middle of nowhere and then six Euros each for entrance, before we started climbing the mountain which the castle is situated on. After about 30 minutes of snowball throwing we reached the castle, which to our disappointment was covered in fog as thick as milk. We went in on the guided tour and learned that the castle, devoted to the fairy tales and to the myths, was built in the end of the 19th century by the Bavarian king. The castle Hohenschwangau, seen from the parking place (pic13), we learnt was let built by his father. My conclusion is that what there is to be seen at Neuschwanstein is great, but there isn't that much to see.

Next we went to the Austrian border just a few kilometres away and beeing terribly hungry we decided to continue to Innsbruck to eat real Austrian Wienerschnitzel. Driving to Innsbruck, situated on the other side of the mountains, was quite something. In the fog on the narrow, heavily trafficked, winding mountain road, we could not see more than 30 metres in front of us. Driving in 30-40 km/h it took us quite some time to get to Innsbruck, but there and after visiting their Christmas market, the Wienerschnitzel tasted great!

After a few hours in the biggest city of western Austria we left, and not very surprisingly we decided to take another way home, a way which would also lead us to Garmisch Partenkirchen and to Augsburg. Our choice of road wasn't that good this time either though, leaving Innsbruck the icy road took us straight up a mountain. In the heavy fog we could just imagine how far below us the big city was situated. Driving even slower now, 20 km/h for an hour and seeing less than 10 metres in front of us, we defeated the mountain. Time was getting late as we reached Garmisch where we just stopped to have a brief look at the olympic facilities before we continued. Now the fog was gone and the trip to Augsburg went fast, although we had some problems with the lights of the car. Again it was a very short stop, just to straighten our legs, and we were soon on our way home to Stuttgart. After driving the others home, getting totally confused several times, although there was no traffic, I finally arrived at home exhausted, more than 17 hours after I had left.

As a summary of the trip I just want to say that it was GREAT!