(Recommended by Fadoinka - Val)

Schloßhotel Lisl & Jägerhaus
Neuschwansteinstraße 1-3
87645 Hohenschwangau
Tel - 8362/8870 ~ Fax - 8362/81107
Email - info@lisl.de
7 Singles - 35 Doubles - 7 Suites
Rooms/Suites with bath/shower/toilet, phone, TV, balcony

..Our trip to Hohenschwangau would be our longest driving segment of our trip. I did have a little bit of trouble finding the exact roads that I had printed out before leaving home, but we managed alright. We stopped for gas and lunch and did some turn arounds. We probably lost close to an hour in drive time, but most of that could be accounted for by our stops. The scenery was some of the most beautiful we had ever seen...simply can't give it justice by the mere written word! We especially loved the back roads right outside of Hohenschwangau...no fences for the cows and we saw lots of them just meandering down the road...so adorable!

We finally made our destination...the Hotel Lisl in Hohenschwangau. This hotel was suggested to me by BavariaBen. It is a nice hotel with a fantastic location, just at the foot of both Hohenschwangau Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle.

While the rooms were rather basic, the bathrooms were lovely and very modern. Great water pressure (I just knew you were all dying to know that) and the toilet paper was the closest thing to Cottonelle that we had encountered our whole trip! (I've vowed to write a book which rates hotels on their quality of toilet paper...stay tuned!)

Upon our arrival, it had started to rain. This continued through the night and all through the next day. We just put on our rain gear and headed down the street to check out the town. We happened upon a nice restaurant, the Gruebel I think, where we had our requisite beer and talked awhile. Then we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner. We decided not to have dinner at the Lisl as the fog had totally obliterated Neuschwanstein for the evening.

We did eat at a small gasthaus...the Alpenstube... and had a nice meal of tomato soup and mixed salad, with a very good riesling wine...very nice! Since we were all tired from our long ride, we decided to head back to the hotel.

What the heck...a nightcap in the hotel lobby bar would be nice. And nice it was! Michelle and I ordered Planter's Punches...some of the best I have ever had! Couldn't have just one, could we? Ed lit up one of his Backwoods cigars that he had brought from home...the vanilla kind. They smell like heaven! Hanne, one of the waitresses became enthralled with the smell and we became fast friends. Ed ended up giving her his last three cigars! She then introduced us to Willi, the bartender. Another friendship molded! We spent the night conversing with these two great kids and had lots of fun! Then bed.

It rained continuously throughout the night and we awoke to a dark, rainy day. We dressed quickly to hurry down to the ticket center to retrieve our tickets for Neuschwanstein Castle. We had tried to pick up our tickets the evening before, but this wasn't allowed...I don't understand why not. After all, we had reservations (made online without any problem) and were there, but had to wait until the morning of our tour to get the tickets.

We ran back to the hotel for breakfast. The Lisl had a nice breakfast buffet set up with made-to-order omelets...a nice touch. After packing our bags and checking out, we head for the line to catch the bus to the castle. We left our bags at the front desk.

The line was huge and, as seems the custom in Germany, everyone was trying to jump line. Tour bus after tour bus dropped off their passengers and were politely told to head to the back of the line. We finally got on a bus but it was obvious we were going to miss our 10:00 reservation time. We only have to wait about 5 minutes to catch another tour in English. Seems there were quite a few of us who had missed the 10:00 a.m. time slot. The castle was very nice and our tour guide was very informative. Loved the view of the waterfall near the Marienbrucke and got a few nice pictures of it from the castle...flash photography is not allowed, but our camera did a nice job without using a flash. After our tour, Ed and I headed for the Marienbrucke for pictures.