we went to europe: neuschwanstein & the alps

So, if I am to ever go back to Germany in my lifetime, it will be to southern Germany. Absolutely. You know those postcards with little churches on the hillside, cows, and wildflowers? Yep, that's southern Germany. After leaving Johnny's sister's house we decided to head south for a little sunshine, and on the way we hit up the "Disney castle" of Neuschwanstein. We were so so excited to see it--we fly all the way across the world, drive all the way down the Romantic Road, find the village it's located in, and guess what, it's covered in scaffolding. I'm not kidding. Like the whole entire thing is covered in sheets and metal scaffolding for renovation. We just looked at each other and laughed.

We still hiked up and toured the castle, which was absolutely incredible inside. It was designed as a tribute to the musician Wagner with an opera auditorium on the top level. As we were in the auditorium, a man who is performing in a Wagner opera next month asked to sing. Oh. My. Gosh. Talk about amazing. It was the highlight of the whole day for sure.

We then hiked up to a bridge to take pictures of the part that wasn't covered up. The bridge was about four feet wide and, oh, 1,000 feet above the ground. Johnny is afraid of heights so our pictures aren't that great as he took a few and then ran. (How is he a pilot, I wonder?)

We then made our way through the Austrian/Italian Alps which are un-be-lievable. I wanted to get out of the car and find a hill and sing "The Sound of Music" but my moment never came. But that didn't stop me from singing "The Lonely Goatherd" and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" in the car, on repeat, all day. It was a good day.