Garmisch, Neuschwanstein Castle, and tiny towns in between

Hotel in Garmisch

Cameras strapped around our necks by day and kickin it with locals by night, Tres and I always manage to find a way around places the most fun way possible. In the daytime on vacation, you can find us snapping hundreds of pictures elbow to elbow with people whose zipcodes are miles away, just like ours. But at night, we are likely to end up with a friend or two, preferably whose zip code is right where they are sitting. We love locals!

Day number three, we hit up the tourist traps (which are most of the time reason for going on vacations in the first place... take that, Anthony Bourdain, you douche), and by night we were at a local hotspot. Neuschwanstein Castle was our tourism outing for the day, and like I mentioned, it was more than worth it.

Eating halfway up the castle... me wanting Tres food. Nothing new here.

I'm no historian, but I learned enough about King Ludwig to be pretty certain we would have been big buds back in the day. I am referring to BEFORE he went crazy and AFTER he built those two splindid castles. Attending a party on that mountain top in that lux would have been quite fabulous. Probably more fabulous than I would technically be invited to, but since he no longer exists, I can dream!

Castle tour down, I conquered my fear by walking across (umm... a fourth of the way across) Mary's Bridge. Tres talked me into it and the view was worth it, so close to tears I did it. We had another tourist take our picture, and I watched in horror as she climbed on top of a step on the bridge and leaned over backwards to get our picture "Just right." Nu uh, no mam... I almost had a heart attack for the gal, and at the time almost told her I could do without the picture. But wow... it really turned out to be one of the best from the trip. Thanks, brave lady for risking your life.

The "near death" picture. Oh, so worth it!

After picture snapping with the best of em, we hopped back in the family truckster and headed to the brewery we heard about right outside of Garmisch. Technology took over with the German GPS, and soon enough, we were on the top of a mountain where the "main road" ran out. Confused and about to be on our way down, we were still asking ourselves where the heck the brewery was. Out of no where, a man with an ax appeared. No big deal. We were a family of five on top of a mountain the in middle of Germany, and a stranger with an ax (and very thick beard, might I add), was walking towards our car. This could have very easily been the scene from a sick horror movie, but luckily the guy was extremely nice and gave us correct directions. In English? Nope. Thank goodness my family understands and speaks decent German.

The brewery turned out to be in a quaint little village that you can just vision the perfect Christmas ever taking place there. Beautiful cobblestone streets, tiny shops, interesting restaurants with little bistro tables set up outside. It was divine! As was the beer tasting. We tried them all and had a blast doing so.

Another car ride later, we were back at the hotel, and me, Tres, and my brother were on our way to dinner by foot. It was late, and at this time of night, we questioned any restaurant being open. But there's always a Local, isn't there? I say Local not in description of a person but as a restaurant. Maybe "Cheers" would better describe what I'm talking about. You know, a place..... "Where everybody knows your naaaaame... and they're always glad you caaaame!" The bar we came across was called Local, which funny enough, back home in Memphis, our favorite restaurant/bar is also called Local. We did not walk but RAN in the door.

The inside was better than the out... 80's music playing, people speaking both German AND English, and the best smell of burger I smelled since our layover before leaving the states. And the smell proved itself. Those burgers were so good we were back two other times on the trip for more! We met a few folks, discovering the restaurant was owned by an Irish family. And I thought a hamburger was an American food. English, German, Irish... who cares. If I go back to Garmisch, I'm immediately stopping there for lunch or dinner. YUM!