Operation Honor: Neuschwanstein Part II - Our Adventure

Hello All!

Welcome to Neuschwanstein Castle, part 2! Our journey began in the town of Fussen, a bustling little tourist village nestled at the foot of the castle's mountain. From the crowded streets you can see both Neuschwanstein Castle away up on the hillside as well as its sister castle, Schloss Hohenschwangau. (We want to know who named that. Really light and feminine sounding, isn't it?) Also, just across from Neuschwanstein castle is the Marienbrucke, or Mary's Bridge, which our great-grandparents visited and which we were eager to photograph. Our only dilemma lay in a firm rule that NO cameras, photography, or videography is allowed in Neuschwanstein Castle - and there is nowhere safe to leave your cameras in the castle! We had worked out what we thought was a brilliant plan to ride the bus up to the castle, take our tour, ride the bus back down, grab our cameras from the car, catch the next bus back up, photograph the bridge, and ride the bus a final time down (are you confused yet? Still, we thought it would work...). And indeed, the plan seemed to be working quite well. After figuring out where we were supposed to buy our tickets for the bus ride up, we were able to get settled for the short, bouncy ride up the winding road the castle. The bus lets its passengers off near the Marienbrucke, and we set out on our ten-minute walk to the castle.

Who wouldn't love a walk through this kind of scenery? 

Our journey thus far has seemed to include a lot of cold and rain (definitely 180 degrees opposite of our sunny and hot California home), but the scheduled weather for Fussen was actually quite nice. It was sunny and beautiful, and everything was green—a foreign color in contrast to our brown landscapes at home. We really enjoyed our tour, which was described in more detail in the previous post! It was incredible to see so much beauty and elegance. As you walk down the hallways, it's easy to slip away for a few brief moments into an imaginary world where you can be a princess (or prince - whatever your case may be!) walking through your magnificent castle.

The waterfalls below the Marienbrucke 

Once our 5:45 pm hour-long tour was over (we stayed longer talking with our charming guide), we hurried back up to fulfill part 2 of our plan. In case you've forgotten, that was to ride the bus back down the mountain to fetch our photographic gear. Except that our brilliant minds were also a bit jet-lagged and travel-weary when we made that plan, and we didn't think to check what time the last bus left. And that happened to be 6:45. And by now, it was 7:15. It really doesn't make sense that you'd have castle tours until 8:00 pm but stop the bus rides at 7:15...but, oh well, ours was not to reason why. Ours was, however, to somehow get ourselves back down the mountain - via a nearby pebbly, unpaved walking path. With resilient and hardy American-Scottish resolve, we set forth down the steep and rocky mountain trail.

Perhaps if we were normal people, the story would stop here. Except that we're not particularly normal, as anyone who has met us will attest to. We were eagerly looking forward to photographing the Marienbrucke above the castle as part of one of our side-adventures - a goal to replicate pictures that our great-grandfather took during his stay in Germany in 1944-1945. Complete with scarf and 40's lipstick for us girls, we fully intended to take pictures from the same places Nana and Papa had stood on the Marienbrucke. In order to more closely resemble our great-grandmother (who was always dressed to the nines and wearing bright red lipstick) in the 1945 images, Savannah faithfully carried a cute dress and heels all the way from the US and on three flights, and put it on for our day in Fussen. She was definitely regretting that as she traversed down this steep mountain trail in a knee-length summer dress and 2" heels.

Again, we think, if this was any somewhat normal story about normal people, it would stop here. Except that we're really not normal people, and our stories are never normal... and because of that, our adventure continued with the addition of a thunderstorm. Since it was so sunny and warm at the beginning of the day, we had put on our warm weather clothes. Now those lovely, sunset Alpine skies began to turn gray and began to trickle rain drops down on what was once our carefully-styled hair. (Yes, the hairstyles you are about to see here in these pictures are NOT the hairstyles we began the day with. Ahem. To say the least.)

"Wouldn't it be funny," Dad said, "if it started raining really hard?"

As soon as he said this, we clapped our hands over his mouth and looked about with some apprehension, hoping that the cloudy sky had not heard him. Unfortunately it had, and being somewhat generous, it cordially granted his request a couple minutes later and released tremendous sheets of rain down on us. We were a very comical sight - three American tourists climbing down a steep mountain trail, with one of our company wearing a short summer dress and  heels, and all of us thoroughly wet (complete with dripping hair and running mascara)!

At last we reached the bottom of the hill. We were tired and had sore feet, but we really wanted to get those matching pictures up on the bridge. Unfortunately for us, cars weren't allowed on the bus road! Mildly daunted but very determined, we traded in heels for walking shoes (which looked great matched with that summer dress) grabbed our cameras, and found another path to get back up the mountain. Fortunately evenings in Germany seem to last for hours, and it had stopped raining, so by God's grace we were able to climb up the mountain (huffing and puffing), reach the Marienbrucke, and see Neuschwanstein Castle from the very same bridge that our Papa and Nana had stood on. The word "surreal" has appropriately defined so many parts of our adventure so far, and this was no exception.

Freezing cold but enjoying a beautiful moment!

Yes, it's true- we have the best daddy ever.
Sorry for all of you who didn't get him!

We had a magical time up on the bridge, looking at the view and wondering how Nana and Papa must have felt when they were here in 1945, just after the end of World War II. The hike (despite the high heels and summer dress) was completely worthwhile as we took our photos in the same spots that Nana and Papa had photographed 69 years ago.

These two men have a great deal in common- both kind, adventurous, intelligent, loving husbands, dedicated daddies, veterans of two wars...the Grant girls are incredibly grateful that we have such great men to look up to in our lives! 

"Nana" Gertrude Rose... a West Point beauty who is remembered as a loving wife and mother, a lady who exemplified 'class' during even the hardest of times, and a gracious and gentle friend. Nana fearlessly followed the love of her life all over the world, even moving herself and her children to war-devastated Germany in 1945 in order to stay near her husband. We would be honored if we could one day be a tenth of the woman she was. We love you, Nana!

 God has displayed His great faithfulness to our family throughout many generations, and this moment of our trip was another reminder of His goodness. We praise God for the legacy of honor and service that our great-grandparents left behind, and a chance to see and appreciate it firsthand.  

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28