Monday August 23

We arrived in Venice Italy around 6:00 PM. We parked the car and took the passenger ferry trip through the grand canal on the way to our apartment. Venice is really beautiful but a little smelly. We got off the ferry at the wrong stop and I could not figure out how to use the payfone..more about that later. It is about 11:00 PM here and I'm exhausted. I will post pictures tomorrow morning.

Sunday August 22 Breakfast in Fuessen, Dinner in Austria and Sleep in Berchtesgaden

This was the busiest day so far. We got up had a delicious breakfast (included) at the hotel and headed to the Neushwanstein Castle. We got there at 10:00 AM and it was really busy with tourists, imagine that! We took a horse drawn buggy (with 8 of our new friends) and went up to the castle. It takes 20 minutes to get to the top then another 15 minute walk to the entrance. When we got there we were among 300 other tourists waiting to take the tour. Unfortunately, the next tour we could take was over two hours later.

We decided to go to the next castle Herrenchimsee which is on the island of Chiemsee.

We then went to Salzburg Austria to see the birthplace of Mozart. It was really busy there and we decided to have dinner in the open plaza area outside, really cool. We then headed to Berchtesgaden and check in to our hotel. We were 30 minutes late and almost lost our ability to check in. The gal behind the counter was really nice and checked us in anyway.

We had the most  UNBELIEVABLE lightning and thunder storm ever at 2:00 AM. I video taped some of it and let me tell you, it was LOUD! We are off today to Hitler's Eagle's Nest and then down to Venice Italy!