Castles in Bavaria, 9/11/00 -Happy Birthday Mom/Jane!

We started the drive to Lugano from Munich in the morning, skipping shopping to get ourselves on the road earlier. Good thing, since as we were driving we remembered we still needed to go to see the crazy bavarian castle, Neushwanstein. We missed the turnoff for the Romantic Road #7, there was tons of traffic there. so we took the road #2 which was just as beautiful through the rolling hills with mountain views.

We pulled in to Fuessen to go to Neuschwanstein,

drove into the tourist area and found the road to drive up - so we did just that. we started to notice that quite a few people were walking up and down, including those that we would normally think would rather do anything but walk. but hey, we were invisible - the horse carriage drivers and people didnt seem to notice us or mind, until the "top" point where we paused and looked confused long enough for a carriage guy to start babbling something to us about a permit on the windshield. we decided to ignore him and drove to the little parking area where there were a handful of cars. they did have permits. oh well, we were there already. so we ditched out of the car and went up the 8 minute walk to the castle to look around and get some photos to show all of you!Proof we were there..

the drive back down it was uneventful even though we were very nervous they were going to take Cliff away as he waited around the car - he had seen the castle many times in his life.

we continued on down the road through switzerland even touching on lichtenstein - the views were very similar to this one hereall along switzerland. The drive was very hard and very long, staying awake was difficult for such a long drive! but billy did a fantastic job getting us there safely.- i'll tell you if it were'nt for the chocolate and those disgusting red bull energy drinks i'd have to stop, or let michelle or cliff drive. i loved driving too much to do that. the roads are always so smooth and in perfect condition. the winding roads through the hills and mountains are so much fun!

Lugano, Switzerland 9/11/00 -Happy Birthday Mom/Jane!

Well, this was a little disappointing, unfortunately. maybe it was just that we were so spoiled already by the places we had been and the way we were treated along the way. Lugano was loud, with lots of cars buzzing around. we stayed in a nice little hotel on the main shopping strip, the international - it was nice. we spent the evening, starving already, going to 4 different restaurants before we actually got a meal to eat. quite an adventure. we were looking for a hotel romantik that had a nice restaurant but without a map and location. we went first to an italian place recommended to us, and we just couldnt eat there. we ordered wine and our waiter came up with a huge oozing gash on his finger handling the glasses and the wine, it was very unappetizing. so we paid for the wine and continued o nto another place- we walked in and ordered there, found out they had no wine (no alcohol restaurant we found out through sign language essentially) billy looked around and found a similar situation with this restaurant and cleanliness so we left there too. on to the one we were looking for i nthe first place, very fancy. we get there and they wont let us sit inside since billy had on shorts and sandals - so we sat on the patio and ordered wine. half an hour later they had still not come to take our order (it is common in europe to take a long time but this was a really long time) so we left there too and went to the last place in the frommers guide and ate. it was almost 11 by this time so we just ate and went to bed, anxious to get going in the morning.Road from Como to Bellagio! yeehaw! man was this ever a fun drive. the road winds along the rim of this huge lake.it's just a narrow catwalk perched on the cliffs. i can't figure how they ever managed to build houses attached to the cliffs like these. the speed limit was 50 kmph (about 33 mph), the road was so winding that there were blind curves every 50-100 yards. not only that but the road was only wide enough for two cars, and i mean there was no margin for error, one foot on each side at the most! there is a steep stone wall, cliff or house on one side and a guard-rail or just the lake 500 feet below. sometimes people honk their horn as they come around the corners, but no one slows down. luckily no busses came around the corner.., but it was just a crap shoot. cliff thanked me for the workout, as he held on to the handles above both doors. said his arms were getting a workout hanging on as we went around so many curves-good sport!