Fairy Tale Road Trip

Color me excited!! Wait, what color would excitement be if it were a color?? Anyway...

I'm already in the process of planning Eric & I's vacation for our fifth year wedding anniversary. Fifth!? Wow! Time flies! Yes, I realize it's not till July, but still...you gotta be on the ball when it comes to taking time off from work and making reservations where ever it is you're wanting to go, especially in Europe. 

So, we have about a year left in Belgium (sigh) and I don't wanna leave Europe without seeing some really beautiful, fairy tale style castles. Sure, I've seen various castles throughout Belgium and the Netherlands, a few there and there in Germany..but I wanna see the ones that'll make you stop dead in your tracks and stare in awe. After checking various sites, I found a hotel for us to stay at that's only 10 minutes away from three fantastic castles!

Neuschwanstein Castle

Whoever hasn't heard of this castle must be living under a rock. Word on the street is that Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for Walt Disney's famous fairy tale castle that you always see at the beginning of his movies. 

Then again, there's so many gorgeous castles throughout Europe..especially Germany, it wouldn't surprise me if he made a hybrid castle out of all the various ones they have. Here's some info on the place via Wikipedia.

Number two is a different style of castle I wanna check out is Hohenschwangau Castle. Obviously, it's nothing like Neuschwanstein, but hey, it's Germany :) What else would you expect? Info from Wikipedia.

 The third castle is Hohes Schloss Castle. It's not as high profile as the others, but it's still a castle to check out :)  It's one of the oldest standing Gothic castles they have for that area. 

While we're in the midst of all that greatness, I really wanna check out the Museum of Bavarian Kings. 

When Eric and I were in Berchtesgaden last year, we learned some pretty interesting things about the various mountains and lakes and the kings they were named after. So, I figured it'd be pretty interesting to see some of the actual things from the kings who owned these amazing castles and their history, aside from their fantastic homes.  Although if I remember correctly, it was King Lugwig II that built the majority of the massive castles in southern Germany. 

Last but not least...

Hohenzollern Castle

This one was actually suggested to me by a gal here since she & her husband had visited it. She even said that this particular castle is better than the previous two I listed! That says a lot since Neuschwanstein Castle is a pretty heavy hitter! Here's some amazing information on the castle provided by Wikipedia. 

We'll be hitting this one up on the return leg of our trip since it's about three hours from where we'll be staying. After looking through their site, I already know that cameras aren't allowed within the show rooms (which is everywhere I wanna be), so, I'll see what I can do in terms of getting some sort of pictures during the visit :) At least they offer guided tours! I figured it'd be for the best that we get there, go on a tour and take our time since it looks like a pretty large castle, chill for the evening then head out the next morning back for home since it's a five and a half hour drive. 

 Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED our trip last year when we went to Berchtesgaden (here's the second part of that trip) , but that was such a long long drive that by the time we got home, we were pretty spent. 

I'M EXCITED!!!! :D