October 26-November 1, 2013
26th- Today we got up early to begin our
adventure. We started by driving to Munchen (Munich) stopping at McDonalds
along the way for lunch. We arrived in the crazy city…very crazy drivers. We
parked the car and began walking to the main center. It was huge!! They have
tons of shops! We walked to Marienplatz (town hall) and stopped at the TI
station to get a map. Then we went to two different churches which were really
beautiful and then to the Market place. We did a bit of shopping and then
decided to go up the Tower- many, many stairs!! Very exhausting but a beautiful
view from the top. Once finished we went to Hofenbraus, one of the biggest beer
houses and had 2 giant beers (1 each) and a pretzel. Then we went to an Italian
Pizzeria for dinner and shared a pizza and salad. Then got the car and drove
into the middle of nowhere to find out hotel, which was very nice and off to
bed.
27th- Today was Daylight Savings so we got an
extra hour of sleep and then checked out of our hotel and almost got stuck in
the parking area because Vera (our lovely little car) couldn’t make it up the
giant hill to get out lol and I had to back all the way down and rev up and try
again. Then we began the very long drive to Fussen. We got lots a few times
because of all the road blocks but it was an amazing view of the mountains- the
Alps, so pretty we decided to stop off and take a picture. We eventually made
it to Fussen running on fumes and found our hostel- beautiful view of the
mountains. Then we took a walk into town. We stopped at some shops then ate
lunch- scrambled egg and bacon with coffee. Then we walked back to the square
and began our walking tour with Rick Steves as our guide. We began in
Kaiser-Maximilian-Platz- with the Seven stones fountain which wasn’t working
this time of year but still cool to see. It was built to celebrate Fussen’s 700th
birthday and the stones symbolize the community as people gathered together and
when the water runs the ‘heads’ of the stones nod. Next we headed to Hotel
Hirsch and the Medieval Wall- one of the first hotels in town and the wall is
one of the two surviving towers. Then through the gate to the Historic Cemetery
of St. Sebastian- which is completely full and only members of great importance
who already own a plot will be buried there. There was also a World War I
memorial and a statue of God holding a fetus to remember the unborn babies.
Next the town view from the Franciscan Monastery which was really pretty,
especially the view of the river- beautifully blue. Next down to the Lech
Riverbank where people used to build rafts to travel downstream to Augsburg and
sell their goods and travel back to do it again. Then off to the Church of the
Holy Spirit- which was very pretty and the view of Benedictine Monastery, as
well as seeing the outside of the Heritage Museum and off to another church-
St. Magnus Baslicia which houses a glass cross containing the relics of St.
Magnus. Finally we saw High Castle or Hohes Schloss- which was beautiful but it
began raining really hard so we started to head back and had to stop under a
shop because it then thundered and hailed!! So we decided to get ice cream
instead. We got a HUGE ice cream and milkshake to share in a nice little
Italian coffee shop and then went back to the hostel to relax before dinner.
Later that night we attempted to get Chinese but they didn’t accept card so we went
to another Chinese place that said they would and in the end we still had to
pay with cash because their machine didn’t work. Go figure. But it was good
food, then back to the hostel for bed.
28th- Today we were up early for breakfast that
we paid 3 euros each for, which wasn’t that great and then began our trek to
the two beautiful castles in the mountains. We drove to the Castles and as soon
as we saw Neuschwanstein our breath was taken away. We bought out tickets and
headed up to the first Castle- Hohenschwanstein built by Maximillian II. We got
a tour of the Castle and saw the telescope that his son Ludwig II used to keep
an eye on his project Neuschwanstein. There was also an amazing ceiling with
stars which was beautiful. There was also a beautiful garden with a swan
fountain and also a lion fountain. We also saw a swan chandelier in the dining
room. After the castle tour we took a nice walk by the lake with a beautiful
background of the mountains. Then we took the bus up to the scariest bridge of
my life. Absolutely scary, freaky bridge, that I barely went onto but boy was
it worth it because it had the most beautiful view of Neuschwanstein that you
could never get anywhere else. It was absolutely beautiful. Then we walked up
the Castle and waited for our turn to go in. It was beautiful. The reason the
Castle was never finished was because Ludwig II spent too much money on all the
rest of the Castle and you can definitely see that by how gorgeous it was.
There was an Amazing room where there should have been a throne but because
lack of money there is no throne. He also was one of the first places to have a
telephone but it could only call the post office. There were beautiful
paintings all from Wagner’s pieces and a theatre room dedicated to the Opera
and mostly Wagner’s pieces. The 2nd floor was never finished and is
now a museum and Ludwig II only lived here for 4 months before he was declared
insane for spending so much money, dethroned and mysteriously drowned with his
psychiatrist. Therefore because his brother Otto was already declared insane
and could not become King, and because neither boy had a wife or kids the
throne went to his Uncle and now belongs to the government, however the other
castle still belongs to the family and they lived in it up until the 1970’s.
This castle was made a tourist attraction only 6 weeks after Ludwig II’s death
and this is even without lots of it being built! It looks amazing and is breath
takingly beautiful! We began to walk back down and decided to have lunch at a
restaurant overlooking the Castle. Then we took a horse and carriage ride back
down to the car. Because it was getting so late we immediately made our way to
the gondola which you could see from the Castle and looked pretty scary. We
bought our tickets and had enough time to go up the 5,500 feet to the top of
the mountain and see the panoramic view of the beautiful landscape. We walked
around the top of the mountain before catching the last lift down which was
crammed to the brim with people- so much scarier. Then we bought tickets for
the luge ride right next door. It is a heated luge so can be used all year
round and even though it was freezing and we had to ride in separate cars we
took a ride. Heavens went first (big mistake! As she got stuck right at the get
go!!) but it was really fun zipping along down this big hill! Although I tried
to video the whole thing and accidently didn’t push the right button and didn’t
record any of it!!! Luckily Heavens did. We finished the ride and had a hot
chocolate because it was so cold and we didn’t want to leave yet. Then we sat
and looked at the Castle and Heavens said a nice goodbye…crying a little and
then we went to the shop to pick up dinner and watched tv in bed before sleep.
29th- Yesterday was my 3 year anniversary living
abroad, which we forgot about, so we decided to celebrate it today. We woke up
late which was nice and then went to the Castles to see them again before going
into town for lunch. We looked at all the shops and went into Woolworths for cheap
Christmas shopping!! We got souvenirs, coffee, and a nice slice of cake. Then took a nap and went out for dinner. We
got huge burgers and a radler- beer with lemonade in it. Then we came home and
ate snacks and played cards before bed.
30th- Today we got up early and checked out of
our hostel and saw snow on the Alps so we decided to drive to see the castle
one last time. We took some pictures, said our goodbyes and headed to Triberg.
It was very far away but we finally made it there and went into the TI office
to get a map. Then we looked in some shops for souvenirs and decided to have a
quick lunch. Then we began the walk up to the tallest waterfall in Germany. We
didn’t walk to the top because it would take too long so instead we walked up
the trail to the bridge and began feeding the birds the peanuts we bought. They
were everywhere!! They flew down and were surrounding us. So we bought 2 more
bags of peanuts and began feeding the birds everywhere, they decided to follow
us wherever we went. It was really cool and fun. Then we went to see some more
shops and then drove to the worlds biggest cuckoo clock and saw it ring. Then
we drove to our hotel which was really cool, it was our favourite for the trip.
We even had a balcony looking into the mountains. For checking in we got a
booklet with free stuff in it so we decided to use one and went to a luge…which
was so much bigger than the one we already went on. This looked like a mini
roller coaster and you had to be buckled in! We got a free ride and this time
got to go together, which was good because it was scary!!! But so much fun that
we did it again! This time we felt we did pretty good at going fast but when we
finished a woman pointed out that we were only going 34 km/h where a dad and
son were going 45 km/h lol. Then we went back to our hotel, showered and had
dinner at the hotel. We played cards and went to bed.
31st- Happy Halloween!!!! Today we got up early
for breakfast and then made our way to zip lining. We almost didn’t make it
because we got lost but luckily we made it just in time! We got all geared up,
a harness and helmet. We listened to all the instructions and then began our
huge trek up the mountain. It took forever but we finally made it and went on
two practice courses, they were the scariest! Then we went on the 3rd
which was the first real one and it was amazing! High above the trees it was so
beautiful. We were so high and went so fast, it was really awesome! We had so
much fun! There were 5 zip lines to go on and it took 3 hours and the last zip
line was 80km high and we went 65 km/h and last 1 whole minute! It was an
amazing experience and we really enjoyed the people we were with! Then we went
into the town for a quick lunch and then drove to the 5 sense walk and found
out it was closed!!! I was really gutted because I was really looking forward
to this park but instead we decided to go to mini golf…which was closed!!! Go
figure! So we drove back to the town we did zip lining in and went to the glass
museum…which was open! We walked around and watched the people blow glass and
make cool ornaments and vases. You could blow your own vase and take it home
but it was too big so we decided to buy small ornaments in the gift shop. Then
we went back to the hotel to get ready for our Halloween Party!! We drove to
Europa Theme Park and entered the big dome where there were 5 rooms you could
go in to party. There was also food and drink although you didn’t pay the
people you bought the food from you paid a cashier who gave you a card and it
was crossed off once you used that amount of money…strange. So we ate dinner
and rode on the indoor carousel before the party began. The party was from
8-1am and we moved around between a few of the rooms- the clubbing room, the
acoustic room, and the 80’s and 90’s room. We mostly stayed in the 80’s and
90’s room and listened to the dj’s play music and dance on stage. There was a
couple there who looked completely bored but were standing right at the edge of
the stage. We couldn’t figure out why until all of a sudden the band Camouflage
came on (a german band who sings in English) and this couple went mental!!
Jumping up and down, taking pictures, singing along. They were so happy! It was
nice to see. And they left the minute the band stopped playing lol. Also the
lead singer looked identical to Heaven’s brother Tim lol. We stayed in this
room because next up was Lou Bega who sings Mambo Number 5 and yes he did sing
it, TWICE!! He was so cool lol! We listened to all his songs and were just
about to go when a boy band called The Exchange came on. They sing acapella and
were really good but it was getting late so we decided to leave and got back to
our hotel at 2:30 and went to bed. We decided not to dress up at the party
because when we got there, there we not many people dressed up but by the end
there were loads of people who went all out and it was cool to see.
1st- Today we got up early for breakfast and then
drove to Nuremberg which took forever! We got there and needed to pee so ran
around town trying to find a place to pee and found a pub/bar which was cool
because we decided to eat lunch there as well. Then we walked around town a bit
looking at all the churches and pretty buildings…I also got gingerbread which I
was very happy about as Nuremberg is where gingerbread is made. Heavens bought
me a cookie heart that says I love you in German on it to say thank you. Then
we searched and searched for an open starbucks to try and get a pumpkin latte,
we finally found one but no pumpkin latte L.
However we did get coffee and then went to two churches and drove home. It was
a very long day and we went to bed early.
Overall it was an amazing holiday and a great way to
celebrate Heaven’s birthday!!!
Until next time,
¬D¬
No comments:
Post a Comment