Hallo, Neuschwanstein!

Now were on to the second half of my time in Munich. So far the city of beer gardens and lederhosen has not been disappointing. Only two more days to see as many beer gardens (Ahem, I mean top tourist attractions) as we can.

Wednesday (8/12/2015) Kyle and I decided to do a day trip to the Alps outside of Munich. I was feeling slightly worse than the day before, but I was ready to go anyways! We decided to go to the Town of Fussen and the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is known as the Mad King’s Castle and is supposed to be one of the most scenic castles in all of Europe. A fairy-tale castle in a fairy-tale setting, according to the guide book. It was very pretty, but it seemed like every other tourist in Germany decided to see it on that day as well.

The train ride from Munich to Fussen was a little over two hours, and was so crowded that there were no seats at all to be found. Kyle and I stood in the entry area with about a dozen other people. After about an hour people got off and we were able to sit down on the floor. I have had better train journeys than that one, but ah well. When we got to Fussen we tried to rent bikes, but were unsuccessful. One bike rental place was sold out and the other one was closed. We walked around the town anyways and grabbed some sandwiches.

Pedestrian area in the town of Fussen. We have a change of scenery compared with all of the other European town centers, as now there are mountains in the background!

Another view of Fussen

We then got on a shuttle bus from the town to the base of the castle. The base of the castle has a visitor center and seemingly endless restaurants and gift shops catering to the tourists. It was a lot. As I mentioned earlier, there were so many tourists. At 1:30 we looked into buying tickets to get inside the castle, but the next available time was at 7:00! And the line to buy the tickets for 7:00 seemed to be about 75 people deep. We decided the best idea would be to walk around instead. We then waited 30 minutes for another bus that took us up the mountain above the castle and then we walked down. I will agree that it was very pretty and I can see why it’s so popular. It is a beautiful castle.

View of the neighboring Hohenschwangau Castle. This was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II, who built his own castle next door. In my opinion the view would be better without the RVs and cars parked at the base.

So many tour buses!

Beautiful view of a lake and the Alps at the base of the castle. If I turned around I would be looking down towards all of the restaurants, gift shops, and parking lots. I prefer this view.

A restaurant at the base of the castle.

Here I am! In the Alps!

After taking the shuttle bus up above the castle, we started walking down the hill. This is a view on the way down to the castle. I thought it was amazing how flat the land was just adjacent to the tall mountains of the Alps.

A higher view of Hohenschwangau Castle and the Alps. I made this photo my lock screen on my phone!

Now were right at the entrance to Neuschwanstein Castle. It's very impressive, but also very difficult to get into one single photo.

The main entrance of Neuschwanstein Castle.

Look at those Alps!

Another view of the entrance.

Me at the exterior courtyard of the castle.

Castle roof and mountains behind.

Neuschwanstein Castle! (I'm running out of captions)

Proof that I was actually there!

Once at the base, we decided to walk about 30 minutes away to Tegelburg, which is a nearby ski mountain that had a cable car service in the summer. It was a beautiful walk though woods and meadows at the base of the mountains.

Our path to Tegelburg

The area was a lot more open than I was expecting. It's much more open than the base of a typical mountain in New England.

Let's follow the path!

I'm so much smaller than the mountains!

View across the fields to more mountains.

The base of the cable car system.

The cable car was well worth the journey. It was my favorite part of the day. I am really glad that we saw the castle, but I kind of wish we had done this instead and hiked more on top of the mountain. But live and learn! We took the cable car up to the top of Tegelburg Mountain (I think that was the name of the actual mountain) and were rewarded with a beautiful view! We could see for miles and miles into the fields below. A really cool part was that people were hang gliding from the top of the mountain. We watched as people tied up to their equipment and just sort of walked off the mountain. It looked terrifying, but was really cool to watch.

View from the top of the mountain

Farmland and lakes!

Here's a hang glider coming off the mountain

That looks so terrifying.

And they're off!

More mountains and trees

What a contrast of light and dark.

Kyle and I at the top.

And one last view of Neuschwanstein Castle on our way back down.

After coming down the mountain we grabbed a quick snack/dinner of bratwurst and currywust at the café and grabbed the next bus back to the train station. The train back to Munich was still crowded, but at least we got seats! At this point my cold was catching up to me and I attempted somewhat successfully to sleep on the ride back.

Once back in Munich we met up with Kurt and Annie and went to another beer garden (when in Munich, right?). This time we went to Lowenbraukeller down the street from our apartment. This was a nice garden, but was a little smaller and less active compared to the one we went to the previous night. We met up with Chase and Christine at Lowenbraukeller. They had just arrived in Munich via Prague and were ready for some 1 liter beers! We didn’t stay out too late.

Lowenbraukeller beer garden

Thursday (8/13/2015) was my final full day in Munich. Kyle, Kurt, and Annie were all leaving that evening/night for Edinbugh and Venice, so we had to check out of the apartment. My flight to Glasgow wasn’t until the next morning, so I got a single hotel room near the train station. The room wasn’t bad for one person and the hotel was clean. A little warm with no AC, but I wasn’t expecting anything less at this point.

Room for one!

This day was the hottest day so far (about 95 degrees) and also the day I was feeling the worst. After moving from the apartment to the hotel, I walked around Munich a little more and then met everyone for lunch. I got a cheeseburger and during lunch continued to feel worse and worse. I think it was finally time to take a break from the sightseeing. It pained me, but after lunch I went back to the hotel and rested for a few hours. I fell asleep while watching How I Met Your Mother in German. I missed going to a museum or climbing up the clock tower, but my body was in need of a rest.

Center of Munich

A place in Munich that sells beer! Crazy!

After resting, I met up with everyone at Hofbrauhaus again for another 1 liter beer. Chase and Christine hadn’t been there yet, and it was a cool place to go. This time we sat inside and listened to the live Bavarian band. They were wearing lederhosen and one guy was playing the accordion. I was happy. After the Hofbrauhaus, we went back to the Augustiner-Keller garden that we had gone to on Tuesday. This was my favorite beer garden, and we wanted to show it to Chase and Christine. I was happy to go back. It was still just as nice as the previous day, and sitting and socializing was about all I had energy to do. We got dinner there and I got a giant pork knuckle. My body probably also wasn’t happy with me for all of the heavy German food I had been eating, but I wasn’t going to stop at this point.

The ceiling at Hofbrauhaus. Apparently the painting in the middle of the ceiling used to be a swastika during Nazi time and afterwards they had to paint over it with the flags that are there today.

There's so much in this glass!

At Augustiner-Keller beer garden again. Just as crowded as before!

My final dinner in Munich. Just what my body needs?

Kyle left around 7 for his flight while we were still at Hofbrauhaus, and Kurt and Annie left at 10:30 to catch their overnight train to Venice. At that point I said goodbye to everyone and went to my hotel for the night. I had to be up at 6:30 the next day for my flight. Saying goodbye meant that I had finished another portion of my adventures. Now I was leaving my friends and was about to head out to meet my family in Glasgow. Time to switch things up again! I was excited to go to Glasgow though to see my family. I knew they had an entire itinerary set for my two weeks of traveling with them, so I can just sit back and let them lead. I also was excited to leave the 90 degree weather of Germany and go to the 60’s that Scotland is known for.

Overall though, I loved Munich! I wish I had seen more, but I think I would have been very physically drained if I had done anymore. It just means I have an excuse to go back to Munich! Maybe for Octoberfest next time??