Bavaria!

Last weekend we enjoyed our third trip to a different European country - Germany!  Tyson had a fellowship interview in Munich and I decided to tag along so we could explore a little bit of Germany.  For at least the last 20 years, if someone had offered me a plane ticket anywhere in the world, I would have asked to go to Germany.  Not for Oktoberfest or the strudel (which is very tasty), but for the Neuschwanstein Castle.  I have always wanted to see Neuschwanstein, not because of any connection to fairy tales or princess-y things, but I love the architecture of it: the grandness of this castle perched high above a quaint little Bavarian village, surrounded in part by the foothills of the Alps and on the other side, a beautiful lake.  It just always seemed idyllic to me, and thanks to Tyson's awesome research, we were able to explore it last weekend!

Friday afternoon we explored downtown Munich.  Munich is located in the German region of Bavaria, as the architecture clearly showed.  The city has a population of just over 1 million and is very easy to navigate.  We're becoming quite comfortable with different subway systems, which makes traveling much less stressful in foreign places.  We enjoyed an amazing Bavarian dinner at the Augustine restaurant - homemade sausages for Ty and duck for myself.  Both were incredible! 

Saturday was Neuschwanstein day.  We decided to take a tour from Munich to Neuschwanstein because it was not only cheaper than what I could find tickets for, but also because the tour companies have set times reserved for the castle tours so we did not have to wait in line.  Tours at the castle run ever 5 minutes for about 40 people at a time.  The train ride was a little over 2 hours, and we ate at a little diner once we got to the base of Neuschwanstein.  We explored the town of Hohenschwangau a bit before we started our ascent to the castle.  Our tour guide took us on a gravel path that was quite strenuous at times, but gave amazing views of the countryside that aren't visable from the paved road that most people take.

We first saw the castle up close from the Marienbrücke bridge, which I did not particularly enjoy.  The bridge is over a gorge with a beautiful waterfall far beneath, but the somewhat wobbly wooden beams did not seem as secure as I would have appreciated.  Fortunately, it didn't bother Tyson, so he got some great pictures from the bridge.  After another short walk, we were finally at the castle.  Despite the great size of the castle, the tour was only about 25 minutes long and very structured in terms of how long we got to stay in each room.  We were quite amazed that so little of the castle is open to be toured.  Even so, it was incredible to see and experience in that beautiful setting!

We took a different route back down to Hohenschwangau by walking to the bottom of the waterfall under the Marienbrücke bridge.  The trail runs right at the base of the Neuschwanstein hill, and then turns into a suspended platform over the rushing river.  It was a bit tricky to navigate because it was raining on us at the point, so the platform was pretty slippery.  But it was beautiful scenery and we were very pleased with the tour company, Radius Tours.  We enjoyed another Bavarian meal when we returned to Munich that night, and explored a bit more of the city Sunday morning before flying back to Sweden.  We even got to see some surfing in central Munich!

Overall, we found Germany a wonderful place to visit.  People were very friendly, very welcoming of tourists, and the food was amazing!  We would love to return here someday to explore even more  =)

More pictures here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/101852905683847445633/Germany12?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCM2T59GjpIXKLA&feat=directlink