Bavaria

Now this is when the story gets interesting (or maybe just ridiculous/funny/frustrating)...all of the above.
We woke up early the next day in Salzburg and took a train to Ingolstadt, Germany. The town seemed cute and small (just like we wanted) and arrived at our hotel that was super sweet. However, when we actually sat down to plan out our next few days, we realized that Ingolstadt wasn't anywhere near where we wanted to go! We had literally chosen a town in the middle of nowhere. The most embarrassing part about all of this is the fact that we thought Bavaria was a town in Germany, not AN ENTIRE REGION. You are probably thinking to yourself, "How did they mess that up so badly?!" Well I will tell you: in my search for fall break destinations, I googled 'Top 10 things to do in Germany' and Bavaria showed up as the top result. So then we searched Bavaria on Google maps and a little point showed up in Germany. In our ignorance, we thought this was where 'Bavaria' was located when in all reality what we had done was google an area the size of Switzerland.....brilliant. Needless to say we were a little frustrated with ourselves and quickly got train tickets into Munich to take a day tour for the following day. At the time I was really upset at my own stupidity, but looking back, I know that that experience will make me a better traveler in the future! I would rather make mistakes now and learn from it so that future trips can go that much smoother. We spent the rest of the day walking around Ingolstadt, enjoying the good weather, and appreciating the quaintness of it all. There was only one main street and some beautiful churches, houses, and museums. And apparently they have a famous Audi museum there, random I know.

Ingolstadt?! What were we thinking?

The next day went much better! We took a train from Ingolstadt to Munich and had a couple of hours to walk around Munich before our tour started. On our train ride to Neuschwanstein Castle, our Swiss/Indian tour guide told us all about the history of Bavaria and we couldn't help but laugh at ourselves since Bavaria was a country of it's own only 100 years ago, and we thought it was a city....
As we approached the castle, the Bavarian Alps came into view and we couldn't stop taking pictures of them! They are a striking dark blue and stand in all their elegance with snow capping the tops. And of course all that is below them is cute German houses and glass-like lakes. It was comical as the three of us girls, along with several other people from our tour group, moved from one side of the train to the other, trying to get the perfect picture of these incredible mountains. I'm sure our tour guide thought we were very entertaining!

We arrived in the little town of Fussen, where the Neuschwanstein Castle is located. This castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella castle and I can see why! It is unlike any other castle I have seen. The funny/ironic part about it is that King Ludwig ordered a castle to be built to replicate the great medieval castles of old and yet it looks nothing like those castles! I learned that Ludwig was really just a spoiled brat, who became King at 18 and all he cared about was building his own castles. He even sold Bavaria to the King of Germany, just so he could have more money to build his castles....a pretty ridiculous man. Ludwig never actually lived in this castle and actually died before it was finished. The outside of the castle, and the landscape around it are much more impressive than the inside...but we got a great view from some of the top floors! This castle is literally tucked into the foot of the Bavarian Alps and looks out over gorgeous rolling countryside. We had about a 30 minute hike up the castle, in the snow, and the view was beautiful all along the way. All of the leaves were changing color for fall and there were several water falls close by. We were so grateful that, despite our epic mistake, we still managed to see the parts of Bavaria we wanted to! And with snow to make it that much more magical! :) On the hike back down, we stopped at a little food tent and I had the best doughnut I have ever tasted in my life. Note to all: go to Fussen if you would like to have a doughnut that will change your life! haha. After the castle, we had some time in Fussen to explore the little town and grab some dinner. We then made the 3 hour journey back to our hotel in the middle of nowhere....We had a great tour group though and that made it all the more fun.
This part in our fall break in Ingolstadt really made me have to stop and think. In our moment of panic and frustration, I thought about all those sermons and devotionals that tell us to trust God is hard circumstances, give your plans over to Him, etc. and I realized, "Wow, it only matters if we actually put our trust in Him right this moment, in the midst of our stupidity and mistakes. When our plans don't work out." I had to just take in all in stride and roll with the punches (including extra train fare, travel time, etc) and make the best of it. In the end, God still provided and that part of our trip wasn't a complete loss. I have learned my lesson for sure! Never wait to research the places you are going and make sure you are staying in an actual city, not a region....may you all benefit from our mistake!