Swiss / German Camping & Stormin the Castle

We left Friday afternoon and headed towards Arbon, Switzerland. Mike, Sonila, Gage, Jessica, Cotton & Me. Our first campsite we arrived incredibly late and had to sneak in quietly and find a spot to set up camp.
Remember Cotton? He came along with us for our camping weekend. He is adorable. Yes. He is a skunk. Property of Jessica and Gage.

Sonila dancing "quietly".

First shot out of the tent come morning. We were right up to the Swiss side of Lake Konstanz. It was nice and cool, not the kind of morning sun that pierces through the tent making you grasp for air. We cooked breakfast and I read down by the water. I was so happy when I looked up and saw all these sailboats appearing from the thick fog.
Next destination was Neuschwanstein. This is the first shot we got of the castle as we were driving towards our new campsite.

The next site, near Fussen (Germany) was a little more crowded and we ended up with this site with a huge mud pit smack dab in the center. We grabbed some wooden planks and turned our most unfortunate circumstance into a nice, and rather handy, porch.
After setting up camp, we headed towards Neuschwanstein for some hiking and exploring. Of course Cotton came with us. Now, is this not the cutest Skunk you have ever seen?
Neuschwanstein, home of Ludwig II of Bavaria who actually only stayed there a few nights if I recall. It is an amazing castle and incredibly easy to see the influence of the Disneyland Castle. We walked up to the top of the hill and then around the back side to this incredibly shaky bridge that had definitely surprassed it's capacity limit. The day was perfect and we even continued past the bridge and hiked up into the mountains to get different views of the castle.

As we continued on the trail up around the castle, you get a nice view of his father's castle way down below. The view of the valley, the lakes, the mountains is really picture-perfect. Looks like a backdrop.

After stormin the castle we headed into Fussen to grab a snack before we headed back to camp. It was starting to close down so we shared... an ice cream... and just enjoyed the window shopping. Cotton is a people catcher so we had a lot of kids coming up to ask and wanting to pet a skunk. It was fun to see everyone's expressions.

After dessert we decided to cook dinner: A satay and couscous dish followed by some french biscuits, hot chocolate and a long game of Dominoes.

This is a shot from of the Castle from our campsite.

After dinner, I had some Katie time and just walked around and enjoyed the scenery. Here are some snapshots of my walk with me.

The next morning, I was wide awake bright and early and found myself, again, getting pulled to the water. So I went down to the lakefront and had a good Sunday morning moment. Everything was calm, still, and it was just me and God. I love those moments.