// Germany //

It's been a while since I've been able to find an internet cafe, this one is at my former girlfriends house in Milano (Italy) and has a new keyboard to learn, so pardon the typos.

Took a night train from Paris to Munich Germany and met this guy on the train, he was cool and I had fun talking to him for awhile.

Herr Goofball

A view of the train corrider as we were coming into Munich

The German guy was really cool and recommended that we go the the Chinese Tower Biergarten, as usual we were the dumb americans who only spoke English but as usual the Europeans spoke passable English as well.

It was quite embarassing to hear a lady answer the German guy in English when he asked what language she preferred and she said "English, French, German, whatever", I just sat in the corner and wished I could make just one coherent sentence in one of those languages. Another way to look at it (convenient for us) is that English is the universal language and were lucky that it is our native tongue, I guess that works but the Europeans still make me feel stupid.

It was fun conversing with him for awhile and we learned a few things about getting around in Munich. The countryside was beautiful and it was a beautiful day as well so I was up when the sun came up and looking out the window as you can see from this pic (I can't find the pic! maybe I never took it?)

Day 1: Raj, and the city of Munich, biergartens, plus the Nudist Colony

In Germany we were again saved by a cool guy named Raj from Boston who was selling bike tours, he showed us to the youth hostel where we got a room for 23 euros a night (about $30) we then went walking through a huge park and went to the SeeHaus, which is one of Munichàs famous biergartens. We actually ran into him 4 times during our stay which was a bit weird, twice by the youth hostel, once in Marionplatz Square, and again at the Hofbrauhaus.

At the SeeHaus it was very expensive (3 biers and two plates of food would have cost us like 55 euros (about $65), we couldn't afford the bier, so we got some chicken but the guy at the counter asked where we were from, when we replied "America" he decided to give us 3 beers for the price of one and only charged us for half the food, I guess somebody still likes us after all! It was beautiful sitting by the lake with our rotisserie chicken and huge steins of beer and made the 5 mile walk to the biergarten worth it.

We then walked back and saw a nudist colony in the park, tried to keep our distance but the footpath went right by it. It was really weird, a bunch of eccentric old men walking around naked, according to our guidebook there is an infamous individual codename "Tripod" who is quite the local attraction there but we (thankfully) did not see him. Dave and I walked by the nudist colony with our heads turned the other way but Kirsten, being the curious type, went for a look and reported that all their was to see was "wrinkles".

The park, home of the nudist colony, Is that "Tripod" hiding behind the tree?

Our next day in Munich was a brewery tour of the breweries there, we learned how beer (bier in German) was invented, about the famous german purity law, and lots of other stuff. Went to several breweries, tried the beer, ate some malt (what the brew the beer from) and learned even more from our Australian guide Will, who was a riot.

Met some interesting people from New York and Colorado here as well, forgot their names but we had some interesting conversations about the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and what it was like in New York, about one kidàs experience at Anne Arbor, etc. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't want to be a dork so sorry no pictures. Finished off the tour at the Hofbrahaus which is the most famous bier garten in Germany, and actually where Hitler gave his first speech about Nazism and where that awful movement was spawned.

Day 2: Fussen and Schloss Neutschwanstein

We took a train to Fussen and saw the Bavarian Countryside by train which is quite beautiful.

on the way to Fussen...
Arrived in Fussen and stumbled our way onto the bus stop (right around the corner) which took us up the the castle.

It was supposed to be a 45 minute walk up the the castle but they must have timed it with an old lady with a walker because we made the trip in 20 minutes and were thus way early for our tour time. It was alright though as we got to wander around the grounds and see the georgeous scenery of the gorge, first met Nolan here (more about him later) as we asked him to take our picture.

The tour was short but sweet, apparently "Mad King Ludwig" wanted the best castle in Europe so he spared no expense (with the German Peopleàs money, how nice of him). The castle is not that big but very ornate, it took 14 woodcarvers 4 years to carve his bedroom if that gives you an idea. If your interested in what it looks like on the inside you can view this website www.neutchswanstein.com we weren't allowed to take pictures in the castle so I have none to show you, here are some from the grounds though.

that's one tall castle...

looks just like the postcard, I should try to sell this!

somebody apparently died here, it's right next to a big cliff, either the fell or they jumped...sad

After the tour we climbed the hill behind the castle and took some more pictures from there, did a little mountaineering off the trail and saw this cross (tba) where someone either jumped or fell off from what I can gather) We had a really nice lunch on top of the hill overlooking Neutschwanstein. We saw Nolan on top of this hill again (again, more on him later)

After we were done with Neutschwanstein we walked down the trail (easier to do going down) and it started to rain. Met Nolan at the bus stop and started to talk to him, ended up taking a train back to Munich with him as he was traveling alone and needed someone to talk to.

Embarassing Moment

On the way back to Munich I sat with Nolan and we talked about everything for about an hour, his job, his college, his ex-girlfriend, etc. He was an interesting character, but when we ran out of things to say I suddenly felt very tired and promptly fell asleep. Apparently, I fell asleep with my head down and started to drool on myself! the worst part...DAVE TAPED IT so now it is going to go down in infamy as the drooling scene on the DVD we are going to make when we get home.

I played it back and it's pretty embarassing, just me with my head nodding and then a closeup shot of me drooling on myself, oh well, I told Dave that I probably would have done the same thing to him so we all laughed about it and moved on.

We then got back to Munich in time for me to do my laundry in time to catch the night train to Venice, Italy

random pics...

on the way to the castle...

the gang

the streets of Fussen...
- posted by mark @ 9:57 AM