This Fairy Tale Life: Honeymoon Days 1&2

Disclaimer: I apologize for the long post and multiple pictures!

I'm so excited to share our travels with you all! We were fortunate enough to have Shay from Mix and Match Travel plan our honeymoon to Germany and Austria for us and I'm so glad she did. Never in a million years would I have thought renting a car would be a good idea, but it was one of the best parts of our trip. Being able to explore the countryside and spend however much time we wanted at different places made our trip so enjoyable!

We left Kansas the Monday after our wedding and, after a slight delay, we made it to D.C. to catch our international flight to Munich. I had never flown internationally before but was certain I wouldn't have any trouble sleeping on the plane-I was wrong. I tried so hard, but I think my internal clock was still set to my work schedule so I stayed awake the whole flight.

We landed in Munich at 7:30am their time and hit the ground running. After getting our bags and rental car, we drove to our hotel to drop off our bags and go explore the city. The heart of the city was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We saw St. Michael's Church and the New Town Hall. Every day at 11:00 and noon, the Glockenspiel "jousts" and we were fortunate enough to see it while eating lunch at the Glockenspiel Cafe.

The altar at St. Michael's Church

New Town Hall

After lunch, we headed back to our hotel to take a quick nap, shower, and get ready for our Beer and Brewery Tour later that evening. At 6:00 we headed back to the New Town Hall to meet our tour guide and the rest of the group. We met a couple from Columbia, Missouri, a couple from Seattle, and a couple from New Zealand. Our tour guide was originally from Ireland and did a fabulous job explaining Germany's beer industry. We visited one bar and one brewery before ending the night at the Hofbrauhaus.

One of the beers ordered on our Beer and Brewery Tour

At the Hofbrauhaus, you could only order a liter of beer so Aaron obliged. We also tried a pretzel, schweinshaxe (pork knuckle), and a potato dumpling. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was so much fun! There was live music and the waiters and waitresses were dressed in traditional Bavarian attire (dirndl and lederhosen).

Please excuse our attire-we were running on very little sleep and it was quite cold in Munich.

Pork knuckle and potato dumpling in a broth.

The next morning, we left Munich and headed for Neuschwanstein Castle. The drive was beautiful! I loved going through all of the villages and seeing the houses with their porches and flower boxes. When we arrived at the castle, we got our tickets to go inside and then made the mile trek uphill to the castle. They didn't allow photographs to be taken inside the castle, but it was remarkable!

Our view of the valley below from Neuschwanstein Castle.

After our tour, we walked up to Mary's Bridge for the best view of the castle before making our way back down to Alpsee Lake. Hohenschwangau castle was right next to us, but we opted not to go inside it and instead headed towards Linderhof Castle. Both Neuschwanstein and Linderhof were built by King Ludwig II before his early death.

Mary's Bridge

Hohenschwangau Castle on the right and Alpsee Lake

Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that Disney modeled Sleeping Beauty's castle off of. Also, can you believe this was only 1/3 finished before King Ludwig II died!?

The drive to Linderhof was even more picturesque and neither one of us could believe how nestled into the mountain the castle was! We ended the day exploring Oberammergau, eating at a fabulous little restaurant, and visiting a fun Christmas shop before heading back towards Munich.