Saturday April 18, 2009

Today Lindsay and I got up early for an optional day trip with our tour group to the Neuschwanstein castle, a world famous castle built by Ludwig II in the seclusion of the Alps about an hour outside of Munich. It’s the castle the Walt Disney based the Disneyland Castle off of! Lindsay is from California and works as a celebrity tour guide at Disneyland so she was especially excited to see it.

The bus dropped us off in the little town at the base of the mountains. It’s set next to the crystal clear Alpee Lake and surrounded by incredible alpine scenery. GORGEOUS. Neuschwanstein is the most famous of three castles built by Ludwig in the area and the Hohenschwangau castle is right above the little town so Lindsay and I hiked up to it to explore since we had some time before our scheduled tour.

We wandered around the quaint town for a little longer and then started the 30 minute scenic hike up the mountain to the castle. The weather was perfect, neither hot nor cold. At the top we met up with the rest of our group in the castle’s courtyard overlooking a deep gorge with picturesque waterfall. Our tour started at 1:30pm and lasted for about an hour. The fairytale interior is impressive but the views looking out the open windows were even more impressive.

On our hike back down the mountain we ate sandwiches that we snagged from the hostel breakfast buffet. As we were finishing, we noticed some other people from our group drooling over the fried donuts they were eating. They were being sold at a cart outside a café/gift shop and we couldn’t help but indulge as well. These small fried balls were absolutely HEAVENLY…light, crispy, sweet, and dusted with powdered sugar. Easily the most amazing fried treat I’ve ever had.

By now it was almost three o’clock so we boarded the bus for one stop before returning to Munich. About 10 minutes down the road is a small park with a few amusement rides, one of which being an Alpine Slide. One ride was included in the price of our trip so we all hopped off the bus for a quick ride down the mountain. Since I wasn’t sure how intense this slide was going to be I left my camera on the bus so sadly I don’t have any documentation.

The ride started with us sitting on a small louge-like seat that was then slowly towed up the mountain on a track. At the top our luge was released from the cord and we sped down an aluminum slide controlling the speed with a lever in front of us. A little bit odd but really fun! After the quick stop we boarded back on the bus and napped the whole trip back to Munich.

It was six o’clock by the time we got back to our hostel so we met up with Rachael and went to a restaurant nearby to grab cheap Chinese food. We wanted to meet up with Mel and her friends as well but our cell phones weren’t working for some reason so we didn’t end up running into them til later that night.

Instead we headed to the Theresienwiese, fairgrounds for the Oktoberfest, where the Frühlingsfest (spring festival) was going on. The place was packed with carnival rides, games, and food stands! We took a lap of the entire fairgrounds to make sure we didn’t miss out on anything and then headed into one of the busy beer tents for a cultural experience in itself.
At seven o’clock in the evening the entire tent was filled with Germans clad in lederhosen and tourists. The crowd was covered in a haze of smoke. We attempted to walk around for awhile looking for Mel but kept running into swarms of people and couples dancing in the aisles. At the front of the hall everyone was standing on their tables dancing to the oompah band…we were overwhelmed and excited at the same time! Finally we found a table that had just opened up so we quickly sat down not wanting to lose the opportunity. Rachael had a couple friends in town, as well, that came to meet up with us and hang out at the festival until it closed at 10:30pm. I’d have to say a German beer tent is probably one of the most impressive social gatherings in the entire world.