This past month of October, I had one of the most magical experiences ever: riding the Hogwarts Express. Although the journey didn't end at Hogwarts, it was a LOT of fun. Given that we went on a last minute trip to Scotland for a long weekend and we didn't have much time, we decided to take a tour with Discover Scotland. 

Their minibuses leave from Glasgow and take you on a scenery route to Mallaig, following the full length of Loch Lomond, stopping at both Glencoe, where you can already see some of the locations from the movies, and of course, Glenfinan, where you get a glimpse of the famous viaduct. 

Once you arrive at Mallaig, you have time for a walk in this quaint little coast town and for a quick lunch. We opted for fish and chips to take away and we sat at the harbour, enjoying the beautiful views.

And then it's train time! At Mallaig train station, you board the Jacobite, the actual steam train used in the movies as the Hogwarts Express. Not only that, the Jacobite follows the West Highland Railway Line, a journey described by many as one of the great railway journeys of the world. 

During the journey, that lasts about 2 hours, you have time to sit and enjoy the stunning scenery, take as many pictures as you want and basically get ready for the most magical moment. The train crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct, known not only for its remarkable engineering BUT as the way to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As you cross the viaduct, the atmosphere inside the train is crazy. Everyone is trying to get the best pics, squealing and basically having a great time. I have to say though that I had to fight for a good spot to capture this moment on camera. But given that the viaduct is quite long, I think everyone had enough time to get their own memento. 

Once you arrive at Fort William, you can still get a couple more pics with the engine. From there, we continued our tour to go back to Glasgow, stopping at Drovers Inn, which is said to be “haunted” and there are many tales and sightings of ghouls and ghosts wandering around this ancient Scottish Inn. For us, it was the perfect place to enjoy some evening refreshments by a roaring log fire.

All in all, a magical and steamy day! I had never taken a steam train before and just enjoying its sounds and smells was already a treat. Definitely an experience I recommend to any Harry Potter fan looking for something a bit different. If you have more time, you can buy return tickets and follow the whole journey from Fort William to Mallaig and back. But if you are tight on time, taking a tour like ours is a great idea. 

Husband and I moved to Munich in January and since then we've been slowly exploring this city and the area around it. We've been to little medieval towns with a lot of charm, to beautiful lakes, to beer festivals and to huge markets and flea markets. So I've decided to share our little adventures with you all.

Salzburg is only a couple of hours away from Munich, so we decided to spend a weekend in this part of Austria and on Saturday, we visited this beautiful town. Salzburg is basically famous for being Mozart's birthplace and because the iconic The Sound of Music was filmed here. But once you're in Salzburg, you soon discover it has so much more to offer! The architecture is stunning and there are many green areas where you can just sit and relax. 

We arrived by car and parked it next to the train station. This area is not very nice but it's close to the city centre and its attractions. After a ten minutes walk, we arrived at the beautiful Mirabell Palace and its gardens. It was built in 1606 and its name actually means "admirable" anb "beautiful". The place has certainly earned that name. It's now the town hall and you can visit some areas during the week, but not on weekends.

The gardens surrounding the palace are divided in different sections. My favourite parts were the rose garden, with stunning views to the fortress and the collection of gnomes! After having a stroll around, we continued to the river. Still on this side of the river, there's one famous landmark: Mozart's Residence (the house where he lived is now a museum). Actually, make that two famous landmark, there's also the Sacher Hotel, where you can have the original Sacher Torte!

Once you've crossed the river, you are in the old quarter. Here, the streets are narrow and packed with shops (some really touristy ones, but others really nice). There are also street musicians and other artists, so it make for a really nice walk.






After that, we were exhausted, so we decided to say goodbye to Salzburg and take the car to Werfen, a small village in the Alps where we had our hotel for the night. I'll tell you all about our day in the mountains on my next travel post!

Husband and I moved to Munich in January and since then we've been slowly exploring this city and the area around it. We've been to little medieval towns with a lot of charm, to beautiful lakes, to beer festivals and to huge markets and flea markets. So I've decided to share our little adventures with you all.

I'm sure you've heard about Neuschswanstein Schloss, or at least, you've seen it in pictures. It's probably so famous because it served as inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. This makes it one of the most visited attractions in the whole Germany, with more than 1,3 million people visiting every year, especially in summer. We visited it on August, and I can tell you that it was packed with tourists. But both the castle and its surroundings are stunning, so totally worth a visit.

Neuschwanstein Castle is located in the village of Hohenschwangau, about two hours away from Munich. What you probably don't know is that in this village there's another castle called Hohenschwangau. It was King Ludwig II of Bavaria's childhood residence and apparently he fell in love with the area, especially the waterfalls, and because he was quite reclusive, he decided to build himself a personal refuge on the mountains. He also built himself a replica of the Palace of Versailles, you can read about it here.

When you arrive at the village of Hohenschwangau, you can already see both castles, Hohenschwangau is just a 5 minute walk up the hill and Neuschwanstein is up the mountain. There's a bus that takes you up there but it's quite an easy hike and most people, us included, opt for walking.

Also, in the village there's a gorgeous lake where you can swim if it's warm enough or take a little paddle boat. Before going to the castles, and if you want to get inside, you need to go to the ticket office in the village. When we were there, we arrived at around 11 am and they were selling tickets for 6pm already. So we decided to just have an outdoors day and come back in winter when there're less people and discover the interior then. 

So after having a walk around Hohenschwangau Castle and its gardens, we started walking towards Neuschwanstein. It takes around 40 minutes to get there but as I said, it's not a challenging walk at all. Another option is going up with a horse and carriage ride. This seemed to be the preferred option for children and it looked quite fun. I guess that's how Ludwig himself must have done it.

As soon as you get to the top, the views are amazing. Not only of the castle itself but of the landscape, with two huge lakes on the other side of the mountain. I must have taken a hundred pictures. Without a ticket to go inside, you can still get into the castle and see the patio. Which is spectacular, but now I'm really curious to see how opulent and elegant it must be inside. 

Husband and I moved to Munich in January and since then we've been slowly exploring this city and the area around it. We've been to little medieval towns with a lot of charm, to beautiful lakes, to beer festivals and to huge markets and flea markets. So I've decided to share our little adventures with you all.

The Chiemsee is a beautiful lake on the south east of Munich. It took us about an hour by car to get there, but it's easily accessible by train too. Plus, we saw that for the last stretch of the train line to get to Prien am Chiemsee, they use a really old steam train, so this would make for a real fun day trip from Munich if you are visiting.

In the lake there are two islands that you can visit by boat from many towns around the lake. So after having a stroll around the lake in Prien, we took a boat. It first takes you to the bigger island, Herreninsel (island of the men). There, you can get off and explore this island. As you can imagine, it has a brewery, a couple of restaurants and a biergarten but the main attraction is Herrenchiemsee, a palace built by kink Ludwig II in 1878. The curious thing is that the palace is a replica of the Palace of Versailles and even if the king died before it was completed, you can now visit it and enjoy this little piece of France in Bavaria.

Husband and I moved to Munich in January and since then we've been slowly exploring this city and the area around it. We've been to little medieval towns with a lot of charm, to beautiful lakes, to beer festivals and to huge markets and flea markets. So I've decided to share our little adventures with you all.

Ulm is a small town situated on the River Danube. It belongs to the state of Baden-Württemberg and it took a bit more than one hour and a half to get there from Munich. Apparently, Ulm is known for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world (161.53 m or 529.95 ft) and as the birthplace of Albert Einstein. 

We actually didn't know these facts before visiting so when we arrived, we decided to climb to the top of the cathedral (Ulmer Münster) to see the views and get an idea how the town was arranged. We started going up the stairs... and going up... and up... and up... I kid you not, there are 768 steps to get to the top. I repeat, 768. Have you ever climbed 768 steps (as in really high and steep Medieval steps)? I wanted to give up several times but we did manage to get to the top at the end. Yay! And the views were impressing, I even felt a bit dizzy up there as there was not much room.