How to Spend 72 Incredible Hours in Germany {Guest Post by Disney in Your Day}
While I'm taking a bit of a maternity leave to get some snuggles with my new little one (and my preschooler, too!), I asked Becky from Disney in Your Day to share a post about her travels. While she primarily writes about her love of all things Disney--from her visits to the parks to monthly souvenir subscription boxes--Becky also shares her experiences in blogging and community theatre. I'm a fellow Disney fan, so I was so excited to meet Becky through her blog (which has quickly become one of my must-reads!).
Today, she's taking a break from her love of Disney to focus on the Germany trip that she and her husband took earlier this year. Read on for Becky's tips on how to make the most of a quick trip to Deutschland!
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Last month I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Paris (I’ve been writing a bit about Disneyland Paris over at Disney in your Day!) – and we managed to add a couple of days in Germany too! We met up with friends who are stationed over there due to the military. And these are actually friends we made thanks to the Disney community! Megan and Chris have shown that these “Disney friends you meet on the internet” can really become close friends – basically family.
My husband and I arrived into Frankfurt airport on Friday morning, where Megan was kind enough to come pick us up. We spent some time with them (feeling rather jet lagged!) before driving up to Garmish, Germany, where we’d be spending a couple of nights.
The next morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast before heading off to Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle was actually built in the mid/late 1800’s in the style of a medieval castle by “mad” King Ludwig II. So it had some of the modern amenities of the time in the style of an old castle. It was never actually completed before Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances. The castle is very beautiful on the outside and the rooms that were completed are quite opulent. The castle is high on a hill and normally you can take a bus but it wasn’t running that day, so we had to walk. It was about a 25 minute walk for us uphill so quite a workout!
While we were at Neuschwanstein we also got to see the “cow parade”. Apparently it is something that happens 2 times a year there. Once in the spring to bring the cows out for summer, and once in the fall when winter is coming. All of the sudden there were all of these cows passing us – like a ton of them! It was a pretty cool thing to be able to see.
To end off our day we had dinner in a German restaurant. It felt very German which was definitely an experience we wanted. I had veal schnitzel with a side of spaetzel, as well as enjoying some German beer. While we ate there was an accordion player and some German boys who came out to dance. It was neat to have entertainment while we ate! As a side note, this was the only place during our trip that we encountered someone who didn’t really speak English. Our server was extremely nice and put up with our attempts and German.
The next morning we were off to Munich for Oktoberfest! We arrived around 10:45am. While most of the tents there fill up with reservations, we managed to get into one early enough where they let us sit at a table before the reservation had it at noon. The beers there are huge – they are 1 liter each! We each enjoyed a beer as well as a giant pretzel, currywurst, and ½ chicken. We heard people rave about the chicken and they were right – it was absolutely delicious. We walked around the festival for awhile but it was raining so then we tried to get into another tent. We lucked out that there was one with some open seating upstairs so we enjoyed some more beer and snacks before heading back to the hotel!
Oktoberfest is definitely a unique experience. It rained most of the day so we didn’t spend too much time at the outdoor festival, but there are lots of carnival games, rides, parades, and souvenir stands. One thing I didn’t realize before I got there is that many of the guests dress up in lederhosen and dirndls! If I had known that I would have gotten an outfit myself, as I love to get into the spirit of things by dressing up. If I ever go back I will make sure to get a dirndl!
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