Fussen, Germany

Hello again for the last time,

I went into German to finally get to a castle. I know there is a bunch in Austria but I wanted to visit the famous Neuschwanstein castle. I know of it from a couple of places. First the Walt Disney logo is a variance of the castle and I bough girlfriend 3D puzzle of the castle. Neuschwanstein Castle is perched on a hilltop in the Bavarian Alps near the town of Füssen, near the border with the Austrian province of Tyrol. Construction of the castle Neuschwanstein took over 17 years- from 1869 to 1886. It has 360 rooms. In the end, the king Ludwig II only lived in the palace for a total of 172 days before his death. At which time the castle was opened to the public

Here is a picture I took.

Here is what it looks like in the fall and winter months.

The cost is €9 for adults €8 for students. They are open April to mid October from 8am to 5 pm and mid October to March from 9 am to 3 pm.

Hallstatt, Austria

After my parade in Pöchlarn my drinking buddies invited me on a road trip through almost 200 km of Österreich to Hallstatt. The drive was amazing. I got a bunch of great pictures including the one below. I have included a map of my long drive.

I had only planned on traveling a max of 80 km a day but I broke the rule when I saw pictures these guys had of Hallstatt. Take a feast on this gem of a town tucked in the high mountains.

 It kind of awestruck me when we arrived. We stayed in a guest house for $235 a night for three beds and a bath. They are more like our vacation rentals. The first day we didn’t waste any time and visited the world’s oldest salt mine. Hallstatt has been a salt mining town for over 7,000 years. We took the full tour of the mines it was only €8.50 per adult. We even saw the corpse that was discovered in 1734. The body was oddly shaped but well preserved due to being in a salt deposited. Man in Salt is what he is called…CREPPY. On the lighter side the mine was very interesting and the history was awesome to learn about. Plus we slide down a giant slide into the mine. We ate dinner at the historic Rudolfsturm Tower, once the fortification that defended the mining area against invaders. The view was great for the village of Hallstatt and its lake. Here it is below

 I had the Reinanke or trout from the lake. It was €13.80 for the fish and a glass of wine. The view was well worth it. I asked the waiter jokingly if everything comes out really salty due to how much they love salt here. He was very concerned until he understood my sarcasm. The fish was perfect not at all salty. To finish the day we went to the picturesque square in Hallstatt. It is really a touristy part of town but still seems genuine. We strolled downtown visiting a few store and candy shops. It such a cool place the entire town was copied in China. That tells you how unbelievable this place really is. http://www.hallstatt.net/about-hallstatt/sehenswertes-en-US/familienerlebnis-salzwelten-en-US/ http://www.rudolfsturmhallstatt.at/index.php?lng=en http://business.financialpost.com/2012/06/05/china-unveils-knockoff-version-of-an-entire-austrian-village/

Pöchlarn, Austria

Oh boy I had a good time this last week. I drove about 90 km to a town called Pöchlarn (still in Austria). The city is right along the Danube River. The river always has passenger boats traveling on. The town has approximately 4000 people.  

I stayed at a hotel-Restaurant Moser for $107.An interesting thing about this hotel is that when you buy a room it includes everything like bicycles to ride around town, Wi-Fi, and parking. That’s becoming a rare tradition in states.

 The restaurant Moser serves tradition cuisine from the lower Austria’s. I tried the Tafelspitz it is supposed to be one of the tastiest types of Austrian food it was only €8. A picture is shown below. The meat comes from the cow's back, just where the tail starts. The meat itself is lean, and has just a thin layer of fat on the upper part of the cut.

http://www.vienna-unwrapped.com/austrian-food.html#.Uxzcu_ldV8E

It was a really good timing to be in Pöchlarn, since it was the fasching week. They had a lot going on for the festivities. I guess it's the Mardi-gras equivalent in Germany, Bavaria and Austria. This pre-Lenten celebration seems to have a weeklong celebration the week before Ash Wednesday. The festivals are very important to adults in the town. On Friday a parade was held to celebrate fasching. Before the parade I went for lunch at “Waldi’s Bierstadl.” This locally owned restaurant was packed full of people. In Austria it is not uncommon for people to just join a table. I decided to join a table with five 20-24 year old Austrians. I found out they were have a pre-celebration before they walked in the parade. We spent about 3 hours in the bar drinking telling stories. Lunch was about only €6 and beer was on special for fasching. They were really interested in Boise. When we left one of the guys had too much to drink and could barely walk out of the bar. They were unsure what they were going to do about it they needed him for the parade. So I piped up that I would do and you can see in the postcard that I walked behind a man riding a flamingo. Everyone dresses up for fasching including babies. I snapped this picture while in the parade.

The weather here has been great. Very little wind, sunny and no clouds. The temperature is just at freezing during the night and ranged from 12-17^o C during the week highs. All in all I was very pleased with my visit in Pöchlarn. I hope to visit a castle soon since I hear Austria has many spectacular medieval castles still standing.

http://www.adeenidesigngroup.com/blog/fasching-is-starting-today-at-1111am/

http://german.about.com/od/culture/tp/Fasching-In-Germany.htm

http://www.bierstadl.at/

Gaaden, Austria

Huete ist Freitag 14. Februar 2014,

Hello all,

I stopped in Gaaden, Austria today. It was a short car ride from Vienna, but I am sure am glad to make it out of the city. I ended up taking this beautiful picture. It reminded me of mornings in my grandmothers orchard and alfalfa field. These trees are right before the city begins. You can see from the picture it is absolute beautiful here today. The dew frosted over night as our low was -1˚ C. After the morning I decided to walk around town looking for places to eat. “Krone Gaaden” sounded like an interesting place to grab lunch. The location of the restaurant was right outside the city limits. The atmosphere was fairly odd though, seemed as if the place was used more for special occasions than just a normal bite to eat. I met a man there selling his freshly harvested mushrooms to the owner. He told me this was a popular location for the town weddings. The Décor was elegant and tasteful for a wedding atmosphere. I soon realized it was obviously a place for a wedding due to the gigantic dance floor in the back half of the building. I would recommend this to other travelers but only if you can crash a wedding. I have included some pictures of past weddings from there wall. Visit their website to crash the next wedding.
http://www.kronegaaden.at/