April 2019:
Day 1: Steingaden, Schwangau and Fussen
First part of our Easter holiday week was spent in south Germany. We landed at Munich airport and rented a car from the airport. Our first destination was Schwangau in Bavaria, gateway to the Alps and famous Neuschwanstein Castle.
En route, we first visited the UNESCO listed world cultural site in Steingaden – “Wieskirche“. The Pilgrimage Church of Wies was built in the 18th century, between 1745 and 1754. This is an extremely well preserved church located in beautiful countryside of the Alpine valley. The church offers regular prayer services and entry for sight seeing tourists is not permitted during those hours. Since we were there during the Easter week, it was beneficial that we checked the visiting hours in advance. We were amazed by this masterpiece of Rococo art and the serenity.
Schwangau is 25 kms from Steingaden and it took us approximately 25 minutes to reach our hotel (in Horn village), driving through the scenic Bavarian countryside. We spent rest of the day in the village and a short tour of the Fussen town.
Day 2: Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein was built in 1870s for King Ludwig II. This was the king’s dream castle that was built to replace the old castle, where he grew up in Hohenschwangau. The castle is located in a small village called Hohenschwangau which is about 3 kms from Schwangau town center. In order to avoid the crowd, we decided to visit the castle as the first thing in the morning. It is possible to visit the interior parts of castle only with a guided tour.
The tickets for the tour can be bought at the ticket office at Hohenschwangau village or online. Tickets are not required if you do not plan to visit inside the castle. I had reserved tickets for the (timed) guided tour in advance through their official website. Collection of the ticket bought online is also from the ticket office at Hohenschwangau. It is highly recommended to do so, especially during the peak season, considering the long queues and unavailability of tickets at your preferred time. Sadly, photography or filming is not allowed inside the castle.
We had to leave our car in Hohenschwangau since private vehicles are not allowed near the castle. It is quite a steep 45 minutes (1.5 km) walk up-hill from ticket office to the castle. Other options: bus (3€ two-way) or a horse carriage (10.5€ two-way).
This building reminds us of castles from fairy tales. As I later understood, Neuschwanstein was the inspiration to Disney’s castle for Cinderella. No wonder!! Another 15-20 minutes walk up-hill from the castle is Mary’s bridge. Getting a view of the castle from Mary’s bridge is a must-do part of the visit. Truly spectacular view (especially, when the weather is good)! We were quite lucky with the weather. It was possible to trek further uphill after the Mary’s bridge to get a higher view of the region and castle. The path was clearly marked but wasn’t in a suitable condition to take little kids along. This region pretty much offers you enough scenery to make your own post cards and wall papers. We spent almost 5 – 6 hours in the region before heading back to our hotel.
The day had been a bit more tiring (after all the walking) than fun for our small kids. They did enjoy the horse carriage ride and visit to the castle, but it wasn’t what they had hoped for. Take us to a playground!! That wasn’t difficult to find. We went to a playground near the Tegelberg cable car station. I would call this as the most ‘scenic’ playground that I have ever seen. Right below the majestic Alps mountains, a playground with lots of fun offerings for our kids. Basically, that is where we spent rest of the afternoon. Tegelberg cable car ride offers a spectacular view from top of that mountain. Since we had a similar view earlier in the day, we didn’t take this ride. We let kids have fun in their favourite part of Bavaria!
Day 3: Heidelberg
After spending couple of days at the foothills of Bavarian Alps, we drove approx. 350 kms to Heidelberg. Driving through the express ways of Germany, definitely is an experience. With kids in our car, I didn’t dare speeding beyond 150 km/h. The university town of Heidelberg has an important role in the history of Germany, especially being one of the few towns that were untouched during the World War II. The best experience in the town is to walk through the narrow streets of old city. We did not visit the Heidelberg castle as we had just seen the best one in Germany.
Day 4: Rhine Valley
Lined with several small towns, beautiful castles and vineyards on both sides of the Rhine river, the 65 kms stretch from Bingen to Koblenz is listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. Oberwesel is one the small medieval town / villages located in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Our agenda for the region was visiting couple of beautiful towns (Bacharach and Oberwesel) along the river and a true experience of the lifestyle with a stay at an old castle-turned-hotel in Oberwesel.
We reached Bacharach, one of the most popular and historic towns in the region by 11 AM. A beautiful medieval town which makes you feel time stands still since several centuries! Winding cobblestone paved streets, wooden houses and old buildings with shops and restaurants is what this well preserved town offers. We did some sight seeing walking through the narrow lanes of Bacharach and ate lunch from one of the restaurants in town.
At the river side in Bacharach, near the car park where we had stopped, we saw a ticket and information office named ‘KD‘ boat tour agency. I approached the lady at the counter to enquire if there were any trips soon that we could take, as we still had few hours before being able to check-in at the hotel (our main agenda for rest of the day). The first thing she told me was that her English was bad. With the little English she spoke, I understood that a return day cruise trip would cost 70 € per pax and she also showed a map with several stops between Mainz and Koblenz. Bacharach was almost mid-way between Mainz and Koblenz. There was a boat arriving in 45 minutes that was going towards Koblenz and vaguely understood that we could be back in Bacharach after 3 hours. An unplanned cruise with sight seeing of the valley and relaxation for 3 hours! That sounded perfect and we bought the tickets.
We boarded the boat from Bacharach and sat on the upper deck. Soon after the boat left the jetty, we had crew taking orders for drinks and snacks. It was a very good decision we took. It was a lovely way to experience the rhine valley. As we had read about, the valley is lined with small villages, beautiful castles and vineyards. On the west side of the valley is a railway line connecting Koblenz and Mainz.
From the intial excitement mode, we switched to relaxation mode after an hour or so, enjoying the cruise and beautiful scenery.
After a while we realized that it was more than 2 hours since we boarded and the boat was still heading towards north. I approached one of the crew members to ask when the boat would turn around and what time we will be back in Bacharach. He replied that the boat was heading towards Dusseldorf and the service would stop at Koblenz for the night. WHAT???? That was an unexpected twist in our story. I explained that we had to get back to Bacharach, get our car and drive to our hotel in Oberwesel. The crew checked our tickets and explained that we should have got off at Sankt Goar (a stop about an hour ago), spend approx 1.5 hours sight seeing in that town and taken another boat back to Bacharach. I then realized that this is what the lady at the ticket counter tried to explain to me on getting back to Bacharach in 3 hours! Now, the only option we had was to get off at the next stop (after an hour) in Koblenz and take a train back to Bacharach.
From relaxation mode, we soon switched to ‘little’ panic mode. The boat was scheduled to reach Koblenz at 6:00 pm. I quickly checked on google maps and found a train leaving Koblenz at 6:35 pm reaching Bacharach at 7:15 pm. The other option was to take a taxi which according to the crew, might cost minimum 200 € for the 50 kms drive. We had to catch the train somehow. Next planning was, how to get to the train station from the boat stop in Koblenz. Train station was over 2 kms away from that place. Without having our 2 year old’s stroller with us, we didn’t want to walk 25 minutes carrying her. The crew member informed us that there was a bus stop near the jetty with a direct bus to the train station. Again, thanks to google maps, we figured out that there was a bus leaving 6.05 pm from that bus stop. We were OK to take a taxi if we could find a taxi stand which the crew wasn’t sure about.
The boat arrived in Koblenz and soon we were on our way to the bus stop, a walk of approx 500 m. By the time we reached there, we were 2 minutes late and the bus was already gone. The next bus was after half an hour and waiting for that meant we will miss the train. Plan B, find a taxi! That road was so quite that not even a bicylce passed us. We walked towards a historic building which looked like a museum at the end of that street. Still, no taxis to be found. We approached few pedestrians asking where to find a taxi, either they didn’t know or they didn’t understand a single bit of English. Finally, a young guy helped us with a phone number to a taxi company. Time was 6.15 pm and if the taxi arrived in 5 minutes, we might still be able to catch the train at 6.35 pm. I called the number and the taxi service agent, thankfully spoke English. When I requested a taxi to Koblenz train station, the agent asked for our pick-up location. I had no clue where we were waiting, to give the address for pick-up!!! Doesn’t this mean we were completely lost? I searched for any signboards, shops or landmarks or buildings or street names. None to be found!! Looking around, I found an open car park and walked towards its entrance. There I saw a signboard which I read out to the agent – Parkplatz Peter-Altmeier-Ufer. Thankfully, he understood and promised to send a taxi soon. He hung up without giving us any taxi number, booking number or arrival time. We kept waiting at the car park entrance and no taxis arrived in the next 10 minutes.
We knew that the train would be gone for sure by the time we reach train station. According to google maps, the next train was at 9 pm which means that we will not be able to make it to our hotel before 10 pm. That’s definitely not what we want, considering the ‘experience’ we hoped for. Fine with spending a bit extra, we decided to talk to the driver and change the taxi’s destination to Bacharach. At 6.30 pm a white private car stopped near us and asked if we had booked a taxi. Inside the car, there was another passenger sitting in the front seat, next to the driver. We had booked a private taxi! We got into the car and he started driving. We were feeling completely unsafe; rash driving and a stranger sitting in the front. On the way, a police car stopped us and warned the driver to use his seat belt!! I definitely didn’t want to take this taxi to Bacharach. We hoped to be able to find a real taxi at the train station. Without changing our destination, we sat behind checking google maps, just to make sure we were heading in the right direction. Thankfully, he dropped us at the train station and informed that the guys sitting next to him was a trainee.
It was 6.45 pm when we reached the train station. The train we originally planned for, was already on its way to Mainz. Before getting a taxi, with very little hope, I went to the information counter and enquired when was the next train to Bacharach. Surprisingly, there was a regional express train that was faster and had fewer stops leaving Koblenz at 7.05 pm reaching Bacharach at 7.25 pm. We had enough time to freshen-up, buy some food and drinks before getting into the train. After settling down in the train seats, we switched back to normal mode!!
Finally, we were back in Bacharach after an exciting experience in the Rhine valley. We drove to Oberwesel and reached the hotel by 8 pm. It wasn’t much we could explore outdoors at that time, still, we took a good tour of the old castle and had a wonderful local cuisine dinner from the hotel’s restaurant. It definitely was a fantastic stay giving a short teaser of how the Lords of that region lived like!
Day 5: Frankfurt to Amsterdam
After checking out from hotel, we drove approx. 90 kms to Frankfurt train station. We returned the car rented from Munich airport at the Sixt drop-off point and walked to the train station. As part of continued search for south indian food, I found a Saravana Bhavan close to Frankfurt train station. I had just enough time to buy packed lunch from Saravan Bhavan before boarding the ICE International train from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, our next destination. The 4 hours train journey was relaxing and comfortable. We had enough time to rewind and discuss the ‘detailed’ sight seeing of Rhine Valley.
Part 2 of the Easter holiday trip continued in the next post…
Life is a Journey.. 