Day 7 started with cold showers (the only misgiving we had with Hotel Tautermann) and the breakfast was great even though we only had bread, rolls and cereals. We finally left Tautermann hotel at 9.30 am. Let’s get the distances first. Innsbruck to Fussen (where we went to see the Neuswanchstein Castle) was 110 km. Fussen to Munchen (Munich) was another 110 km and finally Munchen to Frankfurt was a further 390 km. So, total of 610 km. Long and tiring journey but Alhamdulillah we planned well thus made it without much of a problem; except a few inconvenience due to combinations of lack of visitor management, bad road construction planning and terrible customer service at our hotel in Frankfurt – all happening within the German borders.
We arrived at the parking area for Konigschlossern (Royal Palaces) at about 11 am. From there we found out that there are 2 castles that can be visited; apart from the very popular Neuswanchstein, there is also the Hohenschwangau castle. Walking up the road towards the visitor information centre cum ticket office, we noticed a long queue - at least 200 metres out of the centre. It took us a few moment to realise that it was the queue for the tickets. We looked around for information about the attractions and unfortunately none was available. We therefore joined the queue and after about 20 minutes we got to a point with a sign saying "waiting time approx. 40 mins".
It was VERY frustrating. We asked the person manning a kiosk next to the line and was informed that this is the NORM....it's not like he had somehow hit a special peak day/time. It made us wonder why they couldn't have made it more efficient knowing the demand. As we had only planned for a short stopover there, it was not good.
Finally, after an hour of queueing up, we got into the Ticket Centre and we saw signs saying when is the next tour for the castles. And the next one for Neuswanchstein was at 3:20 pm. That was bad enough...but by the time we got to the ticket counter itself, it was alreadt at 3:50 pm. That's a wait of nearly 4 hours. Anyhow, apart from that, it's a 40 minutes hike to the castle and you can take a coach or horse-carrieage but there are other queues for the tickets for them and then further queues to wait for them.....queues upon queues upon queues.... unbelievable. The only way to visit these castles would have to be a full day-trip.
In the end, we decided against going in and continued our journey. It was there at the parking area we decided to head to Munchen, instead of directly to Frankfurt. That would add another 1.5 to 2 hours to our journey today but we felt that's manageable. Journey to Munich (aka Munchen) was smooth and uneventful except for the fact that we started to get onto the world-renowned Autobahns of Germany - you know the ones where there is no speed-limit... yup no speed limit at all. Of course, it's not simply free-for-all throughout the highways. There are areas / sections where there are limits imposed especially where it's busy but otherwise, it's you (and your car) against the road.
We arrived at Munich at 3pm where we headed to the BMW Welt (next to the BMW HQ and Museum). Nicest 'car showroom' we've ever seen. It's huge and all the various beemers and bimmers were exhibited. The staff were friendly and the facilities were comfortable. After about two hours there including a short visit to the BMW Museum, we were on our way again. Initially we planned to do a stopover in Dachau but timing was too tight therefore we headed straight to the autobahn towards Frankfurt.
UNFORTUNATELY, we hit the worst traffic-jam since we left Malaysia. 2 hours to get thru 10 km of the famous autobahn - must be a record for speed there. It's all due to a bottle-neck at a bridge being built reducing the 3 lanes to 1 combined with rush-hour traffics out of Munich. It was like getting fresh air after holding your breath underwater when we finally crossed that bridge. Considering that we still had a distance of more than 350km to cover and our original plan had been to arrive in Frankfurt before 8pm, things were not looking good. We did not to stopover anywhere for Zuhr and Asr thinking of offering them in our hotel in Frankfurt but we were reviewing that plan as we moved away from Munich.
It was during the long trip to Frankfurt on the autobahn that our car was pushed (possibly close to its limit) and while it's not the top speed we reached, we got a photo of one of the stretches (photographer was taking a nap at the top most speed we reached ;)).
Maghrib was at 9 pm in Frankfurt and when we were still 150 km away and it was 7.30 pm, we decided to stopover for solat...somewhere. The kids were excited as they had never experienced doing solat outside a musolla or a house. We stopped at 2 rest areas before finally finding a suitable one at our 3rd stop. Alhamdulillah, there was an open field next to the parking area and unexpectedly, there was also a huge banner advertising Pepsi behind which was a suitable area. Our general criteria - clean, quiet and if possible, away from general public. Alhamdulillah by 8.15 pm we had all performed our solat and after a quick stop at the restaurant in the rest area for something to eat and a cup of coffee to keep the driver awake, we were again on the road. We had a chat together about the importance of solat and how anywhere in the world is a suitable place to pray with a few exceptions. The kids had a lot of questions and having experienced the solat in the park, the appreciated it more. In fact our eldest made the comment that it was more khusyu' as the greatness of Allah is felt in making it easier for us to be able to perform solat on the road.
We finally arrived at B&B Hotel, Frankfurt at 10.15 pm and again we were disappointed by the German's customer service. After more than 13 hours on the road, despite our booking saying that we can have a child in a room for 4 that we had booked, we were told that we have to get an extra room. AN EXTRA room for a 5 year old child....basically doubling the cost and the only thing we can think of is simply them taking advantage of a family desperate to get a rest. Anyhow, we did ended up paying for 2 rooms eventhough we still only used 1 and that German's hospitality.
We had not plan to spend much time in Frankfurt and the experience above made us resolved to leave early in the morning for our next destination....Amsterdam.
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