I know that probably means nothing to you. Let me clue you in:
This is the castle that inspired Cinderella's castle in Disney World/Land!!!
Day 4 was our free day, and honestly, I didn't know what to do with myself, UNTIL...I started chatting with some friends and we deciding to spontaneously check out this famous castle.
Five of us woke up at the crack of dawn to take the 8am train, and our dedication was soon gratified with the sight of gorgeous, snow-capped mountains.
About two hours later, we arrived and boarded a bus that took us uphill to the tiny town that surrounds the castles. All of us grabbed the very back row of the bus, and got a British dude to snap a photo of us for the memory. The little town is essentially composed of restaurants and cafes for people to dine at after touring the castle. We soon saw two castles from the bus window! One was the one we expected, beautiful in all it's Cinderella-esque glory:
The other reminded us of Spanish culture:
We bought our tickets, deciding to tour only the Cinderella castle, and then learned that we could take either a bus or a horse and carriage up to the castle. Can you say FAIRYTALE?! To save on Euros and precious time we opted for the bus. But seriously. A HORSE AND CARRIAGE!! Okay I'm done.
The bus driver made sure that he packed us all in as tightly possible which brought me right back to UF (anyone who rides the 38 from Gainesville Place to campus for an 830 class...you feel me). THEN he proceeded to take the tiny, winding road at high speed! My friends and I clung to each other, holding on for our dear lives and observing aloud to one another that if we were to slip by taking a turn too fast, the small guardrail would be no small feat for the bus to topple over...and down the mountain we would go...
"He does this drive so many times every day", someone tried to reassure. We tried to distract ourselves, and soon arrived at the top of the mountain, where the castle was!
We had about twenty or thirty minutes until our tour began, so we walked up a hill to "the bridge" that we had heard about. This rickety thing brought me right back to The Emperor's New Groove:
Uh-oh.
Don't tell me. We're about to go over a huge waterfall.
Yep.
Sharp rocks at the bottom?
Most likely.
Bring it on.
BOO-YA-HA-HA-HA!!
Genuinely felt like that was going to happen, and quoted it aloud to my friends but hey, I'm still here! Alive and well. Except I'm sick. But I'm alive!
ANYWAYS, after weaving through loads of tourists (that's the other thing, there were people packed tighter than we were on the bus on this bridge), we started taking photos.
Because it was a breathtaking view...
On the other side too:
The weather was rather overcast, the air was damp and cold. My friend Katie wished the sun was out for better picture light, but I remarked that I loved a bit of melancholy in life. I know it was a castle, and usually fairytale things are bright and sunny in my mind, but for some reason it seemed fitting. The castle was gray and regal, and the weather matched its color and dignity.
After an extensive photo shoot, it was time for our tour! It was a bit of a hike to the actual castle, and we put a bit of pep in our step to make sure that we weren't late! ...We ended up being early, which meant...more photos!
And then we went inside.
I wish, SOMEHOW, I had the words to describe the magnificence that was the castle interior. Photographs were prohibited, so I will leave the images to your imagination...
We moved through a hallway, past servants quarters, and entered the throne room. The tour guide described various features of the room, most significantly, the gigantic murals on the walls. She told us that the twelve disciples were depicted in two lines of six, and above them, a row of kings. And the top, she said, was the King of Kings.
I looked up at Jesus, ruling over all of those noble and amazing people, truly holy and the most amazing of them all.
Goosebumps covered my entire body.
If this is the throne room of a particular king, WHAT will the throne room of THE KING of Kings look like?!
The astounding beauty made me wonder HOW I ever doubted the existence of God.
The details simply never stopped. Even the floor was made of mosaics.
The other rooms were quite beautiful too, and before I knew it the tour had ended. And I could not stop picturing that throne room. I still can't. Such regality.
Of course, there was a gift shop. My friends and I bought postcards and such, then made the trek back to the bus to take us to the little town, where we had a casual lunch outside.
The next part of the adventure is the most exciting...
We finished our lunch and noticed that a bus was waiting to head back towards the train station. Katie asked us if we should try and catch it. Unsure, and distracted by insanely delicious french fries, I hesitated. Two or three minutes later, we actually got up and started hurrying towards it. As life would have it, the driver pulled away just as we were approaching the rear of the bus.
Frustrated, but also laughing (because we had joked about such a thing happening), we waited in line for the next bus. ..The next bus did not come.. for almost forty-five minutes we waited, knowing that if we did not get to station soon, we would miss our train. There was another train at six, but we were tired after rising early and were ready to get home and pack, as we were leaving for Salzburg early the next morning.
FINALLY a bus came. We were first in line, so we jumped on quickly. To our dismay, the driver waited for EVERYone to get on....which took at least five minutes (hey, that's a long time when you're in a rush to catch a train)!
The ride felt like eternity, as we were watching the clock intently, feeling that truthfully, there was absolutely no way we could make our train. Trains are almost always extremely punctual in Europe, departing exactly when they say they will, if not earlier.
Nevertheless, with determination, we kept off the bus as soon as it stopped, and sprinted towards the train station. We looked around, and almost everyone around us was sprinting with us, trying to catch the same train back to Munich! Adrenaline pumped through our blood as we caught sight of the train, miraculously at the station! We reached an entrance, and suddenly noticed that Leann and Katelyn were not right behind us, and Leann had our train ticket! I anxiously craned my neck, hoping to spot their faces somewhere in the stampede, and after a few minutes, saw them running towards me! They had gotten trapped in a crowd, but MADE IT.
We grabbed seats near each other and sat down with long sighs of relief. What a day.
Still in disbelief,
Princess Samantha
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