Southern Germany + Austria with Ryan and his friend

We had a wonderful time visiting with Tyler's best friend Ryan and his friend Greg who were touring Europe before going to their friends' wedding in England. Tyler had a few days off and my schedule is pretty flexible so we headed down to one of our favorite spots - Garmisch, Germany. From Garmisch we took day trips to Innsbruck, Austria and Ruete, Austria.

We took the guys to Neuschwanstein Castle and visted the nearby Hohenzollern Castle ourselves.

Waiting for the tour to start and great view of the castle.

Hohenzollern Castle was on of the boyhood homes of King Ludwig of Bavaria who built the "Cinderella Castle" (Neuschwanstein).

Around the castle grounds.

Fantastic photo op.

Very interesting.... do you see the deer?

We took Ryan and Greg on our favorite hike through the Partnachklamm Gorge.

It was so charming to see sheep grazing on the hill above the gorge.

We were able to visit Linderhof Palace, Ludwig's smallest castle.

Taking a break after a long hike around the palace grounds with Lucy.

On the grounds of the palace there are small and strange buildings, like this Moorish style temple.

The beautiful Neptune fountain (left) and the Venus statue (right).

On the left is the hounding "hut," which looked like a tannery and on the right is a chapel where Wagner's music is constantly played.

In Innsbruck, Austria we went to the top of one of the mountains in the Alps, but due to cloud cover we couldn't see anything!

Tyler looks creepy here!

In Ruete, Austria we explored and climbed on this old castle ruin. Again the view was spoiled by the cloud cover. We joked that it was following us!