For our second day in Austria we headed to Germany. When you are planning on 8 countries in one summer and see the opportunity to add an 9th the decision is clear. Go for it!

We drove to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castle region. We were able to book a tour of the Hohenschwangau castle but not the Neuschwanstein Castle. It is extremely popular and must be booked much further in advance than we planned. Both castle were built in the 1800’s and both have plenty of amazing history behind them. We enjoyed our tour of the 2nd and 3rd floors, although we wish we could have seen much more.

We took a hike to the Marienbrücke suspension bridge for a fabulous view of the Neuschwanstein Castle. We were glad we arrived somewhat early (11:30am) as it was crowded but no line. As we took pictures it only got more crowded and the line was growing longer.

Soon return to the town we had a traditional Bavarian meal at Schloss Bräustüberl Hohenschwangau. It was definitely geared toward tourists with the staff in traditional dress and the music and ambiance making it feel almost theme park like. This made it even more fun for us, not a place you want to be everyday but fun for a meal. In fact after our tour we returned to enjoy dessert.

On our way home the rain that had come and gone throughout the day continued and we spent our evening packing up and listening to the rain.

Our day started at the St. Beatus-Höhlen, Swiss Caves. The cave is in the side of the mountain to get there you must first hike up to the entrance. The views of lake Thunersee are amazing which almost made the million stairs worth it.

The cave was more tourist driven than others we have seen with cemented flours and no sticky rules or tour guide. there were many great features in it which were great to see. It was a wet cave which still floods from time to time. The waterfalls and pools of water inside the cave made it very loud at some parts and also beautiful.

After our tour of the cave and the beautiful Thunersee lake we stoped for pizza. Pizzeria Landhous was part of an RV park, which ment we had to take a walk around. The European RV life is quite different from the US and we enjoyed the opportunity to get an up close look.

Our next stop was Aare Gorge this is a glacier made ravine with a walkway on the cliff side and through tunnels. It was gorgeous, the water was glacier milk blue like all the Swiss mountain lakes. There was a light mist in places and everything was green and lush.

We ended our day in Beakenburg at our chateau overlooking lake Thunersee. Unfortunately dad had hurt his back during the day so he did not get the chance to really enjoy the amazing view but C and mom took full advantage of it.

Our schedule through Switzerland is packed full of adventure so even with dad’s back not doing well we were off again the next morning. We made a stop to get some hiking sticks, who knew this would be our most expensive souvenir of the trip.

Our main goal of the day was to ride a mountain coaster or summer toboggans. There are many of these throughout the area but we chose Frakigaudi Summer Toboggan as it was on our way to Lucern and recommended by a friend. We rode the Gondola up to the coasters and found they also had a ropes course, hiking, and a cafe. Plus amazing views.

The coasters are popular and we had to wait over an hour to get on but we passed the time talking to our neighbors and enjoying the fact that we were in Switzerland. Once we made our way to the front of the line we were able to speed down the track through tunnels and around curves. It was really cool. When we got to the bottom we were hooked up to a rope and pulled back up to the top of the ride. That part was great as you could not enjoy the views when racing down but you got lots of time of the ride back up.

Everyone walked away super happy if the line was not so long we definitely would have done it again.

After our coaster ride we headed to our rooms in Lucern. We stayed above Bistro Krienbrüggli. The kids were thrilled to finally have separate beds for a couple of nights and although the bar did not close until after midnight once we closed our windows and had the fans going we could not hear a thing.

Being in the old town area was super convenient to walk out to the Chapel Bridge and Spreuerbrücke bridge. We were able to see the summer commuters on their way home. In Lucern it is common in the summer to get home by swimming down Reuss River. what a refreshing way to commute.

On our second day in the Lucern area we choose to do a hike between the Klingenstock and Fronalpstock ski lifts. We read it was about a two our ridge hike with rides up to it and back down. It sounded amazing and it really was. The only issue was it definitely took longer for us than 2 hours. The hike was approximately 4.4miles and 90 flights of stairs!! By the end we were exhausted and hungry. Good thing there were plenty of restaurants and we were able to sit down to enjoy some traditional Swiss/German food at Restaurant Sternegg in Stoos.