Blogs from Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, Germany, Europe - page 3

We stopped at a Bäckerei (bakery) and a Metzgerei (butcher) for lunch fixins before we left town. The 2-hour drive into the Alps was beautiful, of course. One interesting thing about Bavaria is the farms all seem to be small family operations, and it's common to see actual farmers actually farming as we drive by. Neuschwanstein is Neuschwanstein. What more need be said? We had to wait three hours for our guided tour, which afforded us time to eat and nap and plenty else if there had been anything else to do on the side of the mountain, which there wasn't, so pretty much just nap. While we waited, Ramona & Horst sneaked away to a local Käserei (cheese shop) and stocked up on highly aromatic items for our 2-hour drive home. ;) After Neuschwanstein, we ... read more

In true Karen/Angel fashion, we waited around Platform 27 for the train taking us to Neuschwanstein Castle, only to discover we were supposed to be at Platform 32. But we eventually made it to the idyllic town of Fussen, and then to the Castle. The Castle is the model for the Cinderella castle at Disney world. It was built by this crazy King Ludwig II and is the inspiration for most of Wagner's opera's (Wagner was rumored to be Ludwig's lover). After the Castle, we ran into a small stand run by a couple guys grilling wursts and rocking out to Godsmack-like songs. That was definitely one of the highlights of the day...at least for one of us. We went back to Munich that night and enjoyed an authentic hearty Bavarian meal.... read more

The majority of the group took our first independent trip on Friday, September 7. We caught our train at 9:20 am and road the train to Munich, which took an hour, and then transferred to the train to Fussen, which was 3 hours. Luckily, we got the whole train to ourselves, all 14 of us! The train ride went by quickly, at least for me. I played Phase ten for the whole ride...and we didn't even finish the game. Once we got closer to Fussen, we all took pictures from the open train windows to get great shots of the Black Forrest and the mountains. It was much colder there than it was when we left Ingolstadt. Once we reached Fussen, we left the train station to ride a bus that took us directly to the ... read more

Untitled Proost all! Much has happened in the last week or so, only have time for a breif summary!!. Kim and I met on the 21st of March at Schipol Airport (Amsterdam) and were picked up by Frans. Traffic was a nightmare so we stopped at a local pub which was interesting, noone knows English!!!! We visited many places with Frans and Tina over the next week such as the Delta Works, Brugge, Arnhem, Palm Brewery (best beer ever), and last but not least Amsterdam and it's famous red light district. After picking up our car we slowly drank our way south. The cities here are very beautiful, Heildelburg, KÖln, Rothenburg (walled city which we spent a night in), Rhine river, Koblenz, and now finally at Schwangau, just near Fussen which is on the Austrian/Switzerland border ... read more

Overview: 1. Thanks to Harlan for his funny, although not completely PC comments. We knew we could count on you for some humor Harlan. 2. Is it a holiday in Japan right now? Seriously, they were EVERYWHERE along the Romantic road. They flood Neuschwanstein like they were invading it, and in Rothenburg it was the same. Apparently Japanese people LOVE the romantic medieval knights and castles thing more than Americans. It honestly became comical how many there were. 3. Speaking of Romantic Road...although it is beautiful and lends itself to oogling, there are some places where you should just not make out. Topping the list is the Nazi Museum in Nurenburg. Seriously, the NAZI museum is not the place for that. Apparently genocide is an aphrodisiac in Germany for this particular couple--not cool man. 4. Signs ... read more