Day 10 Disneyland, in more ways than one.

The dining-room in the Ludwigshof is tiny and communal, Willy and myself made quite an impression and scared all of the children away. Most families took their breakfasts to their rooms which was ok by me. Our next stop required a loop back through Austria and more picture-postcard, Heidi-like, train-set scenery, really beautiful and we had good weather for it. As we re-entered Germany and approached our target, I spotted it through the trees and started to crack up. Willy asked ‘Why the joviality?’, ‘Just you wait’, I replied.


Neuschwanstein is the castle used as the model for Disney, it was built in the middle of the 19th Century in a mock Medieval style but today it was encased in scaffolding and draped in tarpaulin – not great. Not great also was the fact that there were thousands of people there, hundreds queuing for entrance tickets, toilets, horse and carriage rides, sausages, you name it, there was a queue. By unanimous verdict we vetoed the visit to the supposed castle/building-site and queued for beer and sausages instead.

Straight back to Munich and our final hotel the ‘Golden Leaf’ on Mariahilfplatz http://www.golden-leaf-hotel.de/. Very pleasant but the only other hotel on the whole trip to want to charge for wifi, and both in Munich. The staff were great and pointed out that the wifi was a rip-off but that’s what head-office says. Time to hand our car (a brand-new VW Golf Diesel) and say goodbye to Betty our trusty GPS, we might have had our differences and I might have shouted at her but we grew very close, Betty and I.

The drop-off for the car was the Hauptbanhof, one of the great railway stations of the world and we walked back down to the Marienplatz, the centre of town.We stopped off at ‘Augustiner’ on Neuhauserstrasse http://www.augustiner-restaurant.com/, what a mega-bar, it just goes on and on.

One of the high points of the trip has to be the visit to the Hofbrauhaus, http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/ The Number 1 Beerhall in the World and one of my top 5 bars that I have ever been to ( there is still no Number 1). The atmosphere is amazing, it must be on top of a lay-line or in the electro-magnetic pulse from another Galaxy. Both locals and tourists mix together to enjoy the great beer, the wonderful food, the Ooompah Bavarian Band, and the shop (hehehehe). We had the full 1 Litre ‘Stein’ of beer as well as a selection of sausages, washed down with, oh, another beer. The great thing, for the owners, is having a shop on the way out. After such a good time you just want to keep on shopping so, I am suitably attired and equipped with Hofbrauhaus merchandising for the foreseeable future. We started walking back to the hotel but our instructions were a tad askew and we ended up asking for directions and the very obliging couple brought us in their car, straight to the door. Wonderful, or Wundershoenlich as I have invented.