Tag Zwei.

Hello everyone!

Sorry about how long these entries are taking me!! But here is the journal from day two in Germany (Saturday).

Britt and I woke up at 7:30 am and went to eat the GLORIOUS free continental breakfast that our hotel served. It was probably gross in reality, but to us it was the most delicious feast EVER! haha

After breakfast we headed out to the train station (called Hofbahnhof, Munich's central station). Since I have done a lot of research about Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein near the little town of Fussen in my 4 years of studying German, I absolutely had to go since we were so close! We hopped on the first train out of Munich to go explore the Bavarian Alps! On the train, we met two girls that are stationed in Germany in the air force. They were doing some traveling while in Europe and were also going to see Neuschwanstein so we decided to tag along with them. I got their e-mails and phone numbers and we are hopefully meeting up with them when we go back to Germany in a month!

Once we arrived to Fussen, we had to catch a bus to the foothills. From there, we walked 15 minutes just to catch another bus that took us up into the Alps. When that bus could no longer drive up the treacherous, windy dirt road, it stopped and we had to hike for another 20 minutes to reach the castle. I can't even explain to you the beauty of the castle. After years of seeing it in pictures, I almost couldn't believe that I was really there! Incredible!

The castle is nestled in the trees on a peak in the Bavarian alps over looking gorgeous, uninhabited mountainous lakes. A waterfall is directly behind the castle with an enormously long, skinny bridge over it. We bought tickets to tour the castle around 1:30pm and had 4 hours to kill until it was our turn for the tour. During the time that we waited, it started hailing golf ball sized ice chunks and then a torrential rainstorm started. I guess my travel luck had to run out somewhere on this trip because I happened to be wearing a tank top, jeans, a light sweater and silk peep toe flats. First of all, the average, practical person would not wear such an outfit while hiking up the Bavarian Alps... I am definitely not practical and of course I was caught in a thunderstorm, hail storm and wind storm during this outing. I even resorted to spending 2 euro on a plastic poncho. When we were partially protected by our ponchos we "set up camp" in a tunnel and just sat in there with our heads down, rocking back and forth for warmth until 5:25 rolled around and our ticket numbers were called. I have never been so cold, wet and miserable in my life, but the unlucky weather was worth waiting in just to see the castle of the crazy king, Ludwig II of Bayern (Bavaria)

The walking/bus/bus/train journey home was a miserable one. I cuddled up in my plastic poncho and dozed in my chair. We were very happy to finally arrive back in Munich. We were absolutely exhausted!!! It was about 9pm and since we were so tired, there was no way we were going out and celebrating at springfest again so we caught a taxi that almost killed 4 people along the drive, and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was so nice to have a veggie burger!!! YUMMMM
We bought a few t-shirts in the restaurant and then caught a taxi back to the hotel. Needless to say, we pretty much passed out immediately.

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful trip and if any of you ever have the chance, YOU MUST SEE THE CASTLE!

Tschuss!
xoxo
Kel

---

---