So I feel like literally EVERYONE has been in Europe this past summer. Every time I open up my newsfeed, it is full of amazing pictures of people I know enjoying some stunning location. And I’ve been soooo envious… but I knew my time was coming. So here we are- six lovely weeks in Europe with my precious friend Anne.

While I have heard that Munich is a fabulous city, my choice will generally be to quickly move out of the major cities to the smaller towns. I’m sure if we’d stayed the night and walked the old town it would have been a blast, but straight from the airport we boarded the train and headed for the fabled ‘Romantic Road’… only a couple of hours’ train ride from Munich.

Packed with turreted fairy-tale castle studded valleys, built by mad kings, along with grand palaces, historic cities and medieval walled towns where flowers spill from balconies of timbered homes, rolling vineyards basking in the sun and lake studded countryside sparkling against towering mountains… the Romantic Road really lives up to its name.

After about 38 hours travel, we arrived in our first destination… exhausted but ready to explore. Our first couple of days are in the gorgeous setting of Füssen- a picture perfect 700-year-old medieval town nestled amongst a cluster of majestic mountain peaks and an idyllic lake landscape… with a sparkling turquoise river that runs through its centre. It could never fail to captivate anyone.

The first stop on any trip will always be exciting and from the moment I stepped onto its cobblestoned streets, I loved it. The quaint centre of this 700-year-old town is truly a delight to stroll through. It has centuries-old streets and buildings and walking around, we stumbled upon baroque churches, gothic houses, a medieval town wall, and even a castle right in the middle of town.

The facades of the buildings along the streets and lining the river banks are coloured in all sorts of wonderful pastel shades, making it a dream to photograph.

And of course there are cobble-stoned alleyways. And flowers everywhere. And I love cobblestones and flowers!

Unbelievably, this little town has not one castle, but two. Perhaps the singular showstopper of the whole Romantic Road is Neuschwanstein, a dramatic castle with towering turrets floating against an equally stunning landscape of craggy mountains and piercingly blue lake. The ‘mad’ King Ludwig II’s reign was defined by a love of art history and architecture, the latter of which included the construction of several great fairytale castles, including this one that was so fantastical that Disney modelled Cinderella’s castle after it. This earned him the nickname Märchenkönig, or the fairytale king. These construction projects cost vast amounts of money; money that King Ludwig did not have. The borrowing caused bankruptcy and the eventual removal of Ludwig from his monarch’s perch.

Ludwig was an intriguing and tragic person… certainly eccentric, reclusive and emotional, and increasingly out of touch with the political realities of his diminishing kingdom. He was just 18 when he became king of Bavaria in 1864, utterly disinterested in politics and rather than live with the frustrations of a modern constitution and a feisty parliament reining him in, he spent his years living in a dream… lost in Romantic literature and operas… hanging out with the composer Wagner, with who he was obsessed… (or perhaps in love), as only a gay young king could… even financing his whole life and career.

Loved by his people, but hated by his ministers, his heritage is more about culture than of great victories in battle. He was declared insane in 1886 and deposed. Neuschwanstein would also be his last place of residence before he was taken to Berg Palace on the banks of Lake Starnberg. On June 19, 1886 he mysteriously died in the lake. To this day the circumstances surrounding his death are unknown. Was it an accident while Ludwig was trying to escape, was it suicide or even murder by his political opponents? And sadly, the construction work was not completed until after his death.

I wanted to see this beautiful castle at sunset, so hopped on the bus to the nearest village to catch the shuttle up to the castle… only to find that they had stopped for the day and we’d have to walk 40 minutes up the steep, rocky goat track to see it. Exhausted, having had basically no sleep for two days, this was not ideal, especially since the last bus back to Füssen was not too far away. So I pretty much had to run up and back (my poor body) if I wanted to to see it. And I did… and it was worth it.

Afterwards we went to a lovely little character filled old wine bar that we had noticed earlier while wandering, where we enjoyed a delicious antipasto and a glass of wine and then headed to bed.

After a well-deserved great nights sleep I was awake early and decided to go for a sunrise walk along the river. Simply stunning as the sun rose above the mountains and turned the mist to gold.

We then headed off to the Tegelberg cable car for another stunning view of the ‘mad’ king’s castles.

At the top we were greeted with panoramic views over the stunning Bavarian landscape… which was also a very popular spot for paragliding (not on my plan this time).

Our plan was to walk down but after looking us up and down, we were strongly advised not to attempt it. Not completely sure if this was an ageist judgement or the fact that we were not wearing actual hiking boots and had no hiking poles but we decided to listen to the advice and cable car’d down again. At the bottom we discovered the next bus was not for two hours so we joined a lovely young American couple and wandered through the stunning green countryside…

… to the nearby Alpsee where we walked around the crystal clear blue lake…

… (which took much longer than we anticipated) for more stunning panoramic views of the castles.

If we had swimmers, it would have been very tempting to jump into the freezing water but didn’t think anyone would appreciate two naked sixty-something years olds disturbing their serene lakeside relaxation.

Just loving all the traditional Bavarian homes and hotels with window boxes full of cascading displays of colourful flowers.

Decided to visit Lechfall on my way home… a man-made waterfall not too far from our apartment. I walked along the turquoise river Lech to reach the falls and somehow managed to get lost… and again on my way home 🤷🏼‍♀️. The gorge and falls were beautiful and well worth the short walk with a wonderful panorama view of the colourful waters of the Lech River seemingly held up as a lake just upstream of it.

We had somehow managed to skip lunch so with all the walking today (17kms for me) we were starving and headed out early for some delicious traditional German food before an early night. A new destination beckons tomorrow. Stay tuned…