Munich Day 3

Our last full day in Munich! We started by checking the weather forecast again and it said 80% change of thunderstorm (that was what it said the past 2 days we were here and we never had rain except at night!).  However, the sky was gloomy today but we still went out. First we headed to BMW museum. We bought the partner day pass for 10.20 € which covered all our transportation to most tourist attractions.  We got off at Olympiazentrum stop and walked out to the BMW headquarter. It was tough finding the entrance to the museum, we got in by the cleaning lady opened the door for us.  The museum admission was 9 euros each and turned out to be not really worth the price! There wasn't as much cars nor as big as I expected; we finished the museum in less than half an hour! We walked across to BMW welt and saw the 2013 models.

What a cute little car! Looked almost like a toy!

Afterwards, we took the underground metro to Rotkreuzplatz and tried to look for Tram No. 12 to get to Schloss Nymphenburg but saw a notice that the tram line service was stopped because of construction.  Other details were in German so we had no clue how to get to Schloss Nymphenburg! We went back to the metro station and took the train back to Munich center for lunch.  We were looking for Yum (Thai Restaurant) near Viktualienmarkt but it open for dinner only! So we ended up having our lunch at a Chinese/Thai restaurant which was across from the Viktualienmarkt but it was really bad!!!

After lunch, we decided to go back to Rotkreuzplatz and perhaps we could walk to Schloss Nymphenburg! I looked at the map and found a bus stop name near Schloss Nymphenburg that matched one of the stop of the bus line that was temporary replacing Tram No. 12.  We waited for the bus 112 or something like that and got in.  The stop was Romanplatz and we were right, it was close to Schloss Nymphenburg!  Once we got off Romanplatz, we followed the map and walked around 10 minutes to reach Schloss Nymphenburg.  And we were so lucky that the sky started to clear up!

We purchased the combo ticket for 11.50 € each and we started with the palace.  We walked up a small staircase and the first room we saw was absolutely stunning!  I love the light green and gold; the color mix gave a very comfortable and elegant feel!

Wish I can have this purple crystal chandelier:

We walked through few more rooms, the palace was huge but only a few sections are opened to the public. After we finished with the palace, we walked toward the Marstallmuseum filled with carriages and sleighs. The craftsmanship on those carriages were unbelievable!

Next, we walked in the palace garden and followed signs to other smaller palaces.  First we reached Amalienburg. It was pink on the outside and looked very cute!

We showed our ticket and walked in.  I was totally amazed by how beautiful this little palace is!  I loved the blue and silver tone of the room! The details of the ceiling was flower pattern, absolutely gorgeous.  If I am a princess, this would be my perfect room!

I really don't want to leave this beautiful room! The palace garden was huge, getting from one little palace to another was at least 10 minutes of walk!  We visited the rest of the 3 small palaces: Badenburg, Pagodenburg, Magdalenenklause. Badenburg had a big bath room which more like a prince's place. Pagodenburg looked very cute on the outside as well.

Pagodenburg was decorated with Chinese wallpaper and porcelain like ceiling.

We had a hard time finding Magdalenenklause because it looked very old and cracked on the outside that we passed by few times and thought we were in the wrong place!  We finally walked in to check it out and inside was a little chapel.

We spent around 3 hours in Schloss Nymphenburg and then went back to Munich center at around 5:45 pm.  We walked back to Yum and got there at 6 pm just in time for it to open.  We walked in without reservation but luckily there was a table free until 8 pm!  The restaurant was fully booked! Yum was well decorated with Asian furnishings.  The Thai food was excellent!

We were glad that we chose Yum as our last night's dinner in Munich!

Overall, I like the palaces in Munich - not crowded like in Paris so we were free to slow down and explore. However, I preferred Nuremberg over Munich because Munich was filled with tourists.  I liked Nuremberg's  relaxing atmosphere better.  

Neuschwanstein Castle

We woke up early today and looked out the window to check out the weather.  It wasn't raining and some sunshine so without a doubt, we decided to take the tour to Neuschwanstein Castle!  I did some research online prior to the trip and decided to go with Radius Tour. We walked across to the Munich Hbf and found the Radius Tour office just across from platforms 32-34.  We got there early and bought our tickets.  The tour begins at 9:30 am so we still have time left to have breakfast in the train station.

We came back around 9:20 am and waited.  Our tour got delayed due to railroad constructions; we started at 10 am instead.  Our tour guide was Roland, he was a very friendly and funny guy from England. Before we begin the trip, he explained to us that due to the constructions, we had to re-route our transportation plan.  Normally, the tour back to Munich around 6:30 pm but today will be around 8:30 pm.  Radius will offer a full refund if anyone change their mind due to the changes (very professional)! We had no problem since we were here already and our goal was to see Neuschwanstein Castle.

We got in the train at around 10:15 am and got off at some small town train station. From there, we got in an arranged bus which gets us directly to Neuschwanstein in around an hour. The bus was comfortable and with AC.  On the one hour bus ride, Roland told us some history of the Neuschwanstein area. The bus driver was kind enough to stop and let us take some pictures of Neuschwanstein Castle from far away. We didn't have our zoom lens so instead we took a picture of this church in the middle of "no where":

We arrived at the village of Hohenschwangau and have time for a quick lunch. 

The "symbols" on this pole gave an overview of what this village/town has, for example, castle (on the top left  icon).

Roland showed us the Hohenschwangau Castle where King Ludwig II (who built Neuschwanstein Castle) grew up.

The lake and the mountains were very beautiful:

A whole family of swans!

There is a picture of a beautiful cafe/hotel nearby:

After that, Roland clearly explained the routes we could take to reach the castle but our meeting point is the Mary's Bridge:

1. Hike up with them.

2. Take the bus and stopped at near the Mary's Bridge 

3. Take the horse carriage and stopped at the castle (had to walk up to the Mary's Bridge)

We took the 2nd option; the line for the bus was pretty long but we made it to get on the first bus.  We were up near the Mary's Bridge and found out the bridge was closed!!!  After few minutes, we found out that there was an accident on the bridge and it is closed for rescue mission! We were shocked and didn't know what to do, we waited until the rest of our tour group arrived from hiking up.  Roland said in that case we'll have to visit the castle first.  We walked down to the castle and saw the rescue helicopter!  Everybody was rounded up to see what happened. Someone said that there was this guy who was drunk and climbed on the bridge to sing then somehow he felt down and landed on the water on the bottom of the bridge. Very shocking! The rescue crew got him out and flew away (pray for the best for him!). Roland then came up with a plan that if we could all meet up right after our tour of the castle, we could have some time to go back up the bridge again for some photos!! Thank you Roland!

We toured the interior of the castle, the castle was pretty "new" compared to others because it had running water and flushing toilets! The rooms were dark and gloomy as expected since King Ludwig II was a shy king. After the tour, we meet up and walked up to Mary's Bridge. On the way up, the landscape was beautiful, no wonder Ludwig chose this location to build his fairy tale castle:

Yay, Mary's Bridge was open up again! We were the first two arrived the bridge and OMG here is the fairy tale castle! I was so carried away by the amazing view of the castle that I wasn't afraid to be on the bridge (I am very acrophobic!!) I kept taking photos and videos that I have no time to look down to realize how high it was!  But on the bridge, it was very windy! The view of the castle from Mary's Bridge is the best! I was so glad that we went up to the bridge and took some one-of-a-life-time photos of the castle! Thank you Roland again!

Roland helped us took a picture...my fairy tale dream fulfilled!

Roland also walked down to the gorge with us. If he didn't lead us the way, we would never have a chance to see a totally different view.  The hike down to the gorge was manageable even though the roads were narrow.  It was worth the walk since it was very scenic and great opportunity for photos!

The bus was waiting for us to drop us off at Fussen where we catch the train back to the small town station.  Due to construction, we had to wait for an hour for the connecting train.  We got back to Munich by 8:30 pm as promised.  It was a long day but definitely worth it.  I had fulfilled one of my dream: visited the fairy tale castle!!!

So glad that our hotel was next to the train station, we decided to have our dinner in the hotel.  Food was great and the desert was one of the most colorful I have ever seen: