Sleeping Beauty's Castle

On Saturday the 14th of Jan. we decided to show Anika Cinderella's castle.  Of course, she was so excited!  She also wanted to see Sleeping Beauty's castle so we told her we were going to see that one too.  Why not?  Hohenschwangau could be Sleeping Beauty's and Neuschwanstein could be Cinderella's.  Or is it the other way around?

We drove the 3-4 hours from our house to the Castles.  Unfortunately, we got a late start.  When we got there we got our tickets to tour both castles but knew we wouldn't have time on the way home to stop by this awesome Rococo-style church in Wieskirche (HERE) before it closed.  I was seriously disappointed - I honestly didn't realize how HARD it is to travel with 5 kids.  I'm serious!!  What should have taken us 2 or 3 hours here took us 5.  FIVE HOURS!!  And it wasn't an easy 5 hours; it was hard!  I came home all committed to build my muscles back because I was so physically drained from carrying Kenneth ALL DAY.  (We have come to the conclusion that traveling with a stroller is a lot more work than it is worth.  We use are Ergo carriers everywhere.)  I didn't talk much on the way home I was so tired, disappointed, and frustrated.  It's a good thing we are here for 3 years - it's going to take us that much time to 'scratch' the surface of Europe.

Anyway on with the castles ...
Hohenschwangau was the castle King Ludwig grew up in and lived in while he was having Neuschwanstein built.  The tours were really interesting and we tried to pick out 1 or 2 really interesting facts to focus on for the kids with each room we went into.  I think Emi and Paige 'got' it, not quite sure about Evan.  Anika made a friend.  This little 'friend' was SO LOUD and we were constantly trying to separate them during the first tour of Hohenschwangau.  On the second tour she was giddy to see her friend again and was skipping around full of happiness.  They were holding hands and hugging and giggling the entire tour.  It was rather sad to separate them to go home.

(The kids in front of the entrance of Neuschwanstein)

(The Fam in front of the Neuschwanstein Castle)

(A close-up of our family so you can see Anika's face.  What in the world?  What kind of face is that?  I guess Anika got the prize for ruining this particular family picture (there is always one in each family).  When Miles and I saw this we couldn't stop laughing, I was crying I was laughing so hard.  That is one awesome facial expression!!)

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