Fairytale castles, snowy villages and mountains...

[KnackeredOldWoman]

Where is this place? I have a vague idea....I know I can find this sort of scenery in Germany &
Austria, but where should I be looking specifically?

I'm not looking for an action holiday, can't ski and don't do any sports. I enjoy eating, drinking, visiting beautiful places and doing a bit of shopping. Thank you

Freiburg in The Black Forest
You can go up into the mountains by train to see the lake. Amazing food and drink and shops
It's one of my favourite places in the world

Slovenia?

Ooh thank you, whereabouts in Slovenia though?

I've always wanted to go to Neuschwanstein in Bavaria

I've been there.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany is like you describe.

Saltzburg?

Not quite what you want possibly, but bear with me.

DH and I had a lovely couple of days exploring by train out of Geneva. There is a rail company called "Goldenpass" that primarily runs scenic trains out of nearby Montreux (castle on lake is a busride away) up into the Alps to Gruyere (has castle) and across through Gstaad to Zweisimmen and beyond. The views were stunning and the panoramic trains and old-style trains were fun.
www.goldenpass.ch/en/goldenpass/offer/index-lines

To make things easy we bought a "Lake Geneva and Alps pass" that gave us travel on the local train/bus/boat network for 2 days (choice of durations).

www.goldenpass.ch/en/goldenpass/offer/view?id=64.

I was going to say Vevey or Montreux! It is gorgeous, it is hard to describe how breathtaking Lake Geneva is.

We also took the train to Gstaad which was pretty but not much to do apart from browsing designer shops. It was fun to see alpine cows with bells around their necks. It was like a postcard!

Frieburg is also wonderful. Very old winding streets with little drainage canals running alongside.

As above, you're probably thinking of mad King Ludwigs castle in Bavaria (Neuschwanstein). Disney modelled their castle on it. Went there ages ago on a day trip from Munich (train & then wooded walk). Munichs nice for a couple of days so you could combine both. Other ideas for snow, palaces and countryside are Innsbruck & Salzburg. Lucerne is great in winter (no castle though) and Prague is unbeatable (you'd have to travel out for countryside).

When do you want to go? Snow is not guaranteed in Bavaria around Christmas, you may get it, you may not.

Garmisch is nice, Neuschwanstein as well. You have also Hohenschwangau (next to Neuschwanstein), Linderhof (another Mad Kind Ludwig) plus lots of others dotted around Bavaria.

Do you want to drive? Germany has winter tire mandatory, better check if you think of taking your own car.

PP mentioned Slovenia. Bled is where you want to go! Seriously. www.bled.si/en/

Its a 25 minute drive from Ljubljana airport, daily flights from Stansted (easyjet) and Luton (Wizzair).

If you're interested, we live in Bled and have some self catering tourist apartments available for rent 5 minutes walk from the lake/ town centre amenities.