Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Germany we go...

Hi ho, hi ho into Germany we go... With a wave to Austria and a paper vignette, hi ho, hi ho!

We bid a tearful goodbye to Italy, but not so tearful goodbye to the crazy drivers and the ZTLs. Hello, autobahn!!! Hello, another language we don't understand!!! The words are longer and less like Spanish or English.

We were able to navigate to Neuschwanstein, the famous castle build by King Ludwig II and inspiration for Disney. It is quite a wonder! Self-flushing toilets, a telephone, and double hung windows..all in the 1880's. We felt just like princesses looking at our home, until we walked the winding staircase up, up, up, up and up. No wonder the king had his own floor, it took a lot to get there. The pay off is the view: spectacular! We walked around his home castle, Hohenschwagnau, but did not go inside. Both seemed smaller on the outside, but were grandiose on the inside...maybe that is something else that inspired Walt Disney!

The view of Neuschwanstein from our hotel

The view from Neuschwanstein.  You can see the other castle Hohenschwagnau.

We drove through gorgeous green landscapes to the Black Forest. We can imagine Hansel and Gretel getting lost and we might have seen Little Red Riding Hood going to her grandmother's house. With our eyes wide open to spot more fairy tale figures, we started the fairy tale road in Hanau. We took a picture of the Grimm brothers's statue in the town square to officially start the Brothers Grimm portion of our journey. We discovered that Hanau was a bit more industrial than the thatched roofed houses we had imagined.

We returned to our chariot and began the regal journey to our accommodations for the night...Sleeping Beauty's castle in Sababurg!
We stopped for a bite to eat and a performance of "Rapunzel" at Trendelburg castle. Wishing we could speak German, we stood silently when the rest of the audience participated in the performance. It was a sweet show with Rapunzel and the prince telling the story (in rhyme) and asking the crowd to chime in. We were too shy to get their autographs, so we headed to Sababurg. There we saw a performance of "Sleeping Beauty" in English!!!! We were the only two in attendance, so it was really a special show. We did take pictures with Sleeping Beauty and the prince.

Rapunzel's tower (can you see the braid of hair hanging down?)

Rapunzel is ready to let her hair down for the prince

Finally they are together!

Sleeping Beauty's castle in Sababurg, Germany

Pictures with Sleeping Beauty and the Prince

We finally found a red circle sign that we could enter!  It says for hotel guests only!  That's us!

After a meal at the castle restaurant we slept soundly as the sheep bleated beneath our window. We think we heard them saying "Good night fair princesses."