Due to a change in forecast, we had a last minute change of plan, and instead of heading to the Pongau/Pinzgau area, we ended up heading to the edge of the Allgäu, where Katherine and I climbed the Tegelbergsteig while Becky walked up due to her wrist, before we all descended back down via the Marienbrücke for the views over Neuschwanstein Castle.
The ascent from the Tegelbergbahn is very steep up a concrete road straight out of the blocks, so you do not get a chance to properly acclimatise to the heat/humidity nor to warm up your legs. The route is always enjoyable, but unsurprisingly for a sunny Saturday there was lots of queuing on the route, and multiple groups with small children who were not having a particularly good time on the crux sections.
As ever the route isn‘t that photogenic due to climbing a NW facing cliff, and therefore being in shadow for the majority of the day. Due to our queuing Becky had been waiting at the top for a while, so when we got off the Klettersteig, I had to try and keep up with Katherine which turned out to basically be impossible!
This chase to the top definitely meant that I needed some refreshment at the Tegelberghaus, so after some refreshing drinks we set off down on the descent. The descent was really beautiful with changing views along the route which went in and out of tree cover, hiding the views until the moment they were revealed.
It wasn‘t too long until we started to have views of the stunning Neuschwantstein castle, which is a beautiful castle which is the basis for all the Disney castles. While I have been here before, there were two problems previously which meant that I didn‘t see it, the first being that it was in the cloud, and the second being that the Marienbrücke was closed. Thankfully this time neither of these were a problem and we were able to view the castle in all of its glory.
It was a very hot day, so by the time we were down at the Marienbrücke we were really feeling the heat, and could have done without the descent from the castle or the hot walk along the valley back to the car!
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