Munich Street Performers – Amazing
I woke up really early (at 4am), and took a long bath in our generously sized tub. The bath towels were large and soft, and having a long soak was great on my sore & achy joints.
When Dennis got up, we wandered downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. The german fare included a spread of meats (hot & cold) with a variety of mustards, cheeses (feta, swiss, and brie), cucumbers, tomato, and friuts with yoghurts. They also had a cereal stand with granola, musli, bran flakes, and some sugary concoction. The coffee was fantastic!
On our first day in Germany, we decided to take a train out to Fussen (a charming village at the foot of the German Alps). From Fussen, we took a short busride to the base of the castles. We met George at the Haupfanhauf (train station) at around 8am. During the long trainride, we ran into two friendly girls from New Jersey.
We purchased a Two Castle Pass, which let us see both castles, and included a tour in English.
The Hohenschwangau is a yellow colored castle, and was home to Ludwig III and his crazy brother, Otto. It was a neat castle-Ludwig 1st lived to be into his 90s, so there are various gifts to him from the local townships. Every ten years, it seems they had to out-do their last gift! We saw Ivory, precious metals, and many ornamental things. The room were generally small, and not as impressive as say Windsor. My favorite was the queen’s quarters, her sitting room had beautiful views, and furnishings were lovely.
Neuschwanstein castle was pretty from the outside, but rather unimpressive from the inside. We did enjoy the nice walk up to the Fairy tale castle from Hohneschwangau, but the castle innerds were not much to see. Nobody ever really lived in it, and so it was never finished all the way. And, it didn’t have the history of the yellow castle as a result. Our tourguide could have been a double as Truman Capote, so our whole tour, we were trying to not bust up laughing.
There is a bridge not far from the Fairytale castle (called so because Walt Disney designed his castle at Disneyland after Neuschwanstein), which gives unparalled views of the castle. We all walked to the bridge, and then we had fun scaring each other by giving a gentle shove when one of us ventured close to the edge.
All the walking around worked up an appetite, so we stopped in the village for cake, ice cream, and coffee. I had a mandarin orange cheescake-YUMMY!!! Never to sick to eat cake!
Back in Munich, we went out to eat at a Brewery called Pirrhof. Dennis had sausage and sauercraupt. I had a beets & leeks & sweet potato meal with bread. George had a salad with soup? The guys had beers (of course!) and I had a Riedler (half lemonade half beer). The food was delicious, check out the picture!