Munich and Neuschwanstein

Hello, everyone!

I went on my first trip this weekend to Munich and Neuschwanstein castle with 5 of my new friends from the University of Illinois.  The journey began at 6:30am on Friday morning after not having slept a wink on Thursday night.  We took a quick bus ride from Vallendar to Koblenz, and then a not so quick bus ride (i.e. 8 hours) from Koblenz to Munich, most of which I slept through.  Luckily the bus to Munich was extremely nice, and the cost was only 44 Euros round trip!

When we arrived to Munich, we checked into our hostel. The 4 You, if you want to check it out!  It only cost 17 Euros per night and was actually extremely nice!  The six of us got our own room with 3 bunk beds and a reading light on each bed.

There was also free WiFi on the main floors, a yummy free breakfast every morning, and a bar with pizza.  Speaking of which... I ate pizza.  Not only did I eat pizza, I enjoyed pizza. And ate 2 slices.  Who am I!?  The only explanation I can offer is the the pizza here is like real Italian pizza, meaning very thin and minimal sauce.

After we got settled in, we went out to dinner at Augustiner-Keller, which was delicious.  I had dumplings with sauerkraut, onions, and bacon.  YUM. 

Once we left the restaurant, we decided to explore Munich for a bit.  We saw a very cute winter market selling things like bratwurst, soup, currywurst (more to come on that another day), Glühwein (hot spiced wine), pretzels, crepes and more.  The stands were beneath a walkway overlooking an ice rink for children, and there was music and sparkling lights everywhere.  

A cool thing about Munich is that it combines a lot of old with new.  There are extremely old buildings, fountains, and statues everywhere with every modern shop and restaurant you could think of in between.  For example, there was a four story Forever21.  No, I did not go in.  Yes, it was painful to walk away.  This is the entrance to the beginning of the main shopping plaza:

      

I've posted several pictures to Facebook and will continue to do so, but there are just too many to put them all in here.  The last thing I'm going to put on here about that night was the church we went into.  I'm sure it is a beautiful church under normal circumstances, but there was a special exhibit going on called Les Colombes that made it truly amazing.

 There were hundreds, if not thousands, of paper birds hanging from the ceiling of the church.  There were pink, blue, and purple lights, heavy fog, and incense burning.  Candles were lit around the perimeter, and people were singing.  It was surreal, to say the least.

The next morning we got up fairly early once again and met up with our tour guide through Radius Tours.  We had a 2 hour train ride south to Füssen, then a short bus ride to Schwangau, which is a cute little town nestled near the very beginning of the Alps.  The first notable stop on our tour was Hohenschwangau Castle.  The original castle was destroyed in previous warring until King Maximilian of Bavaria discovered the ruins and rebuilt it in 1833.

As we began to ascend toward Neuschwanstein, we were rewarded with incredible views.

Our last stop before actually entering the castle was what I like to call the Bridge of Doom.

See that tiny, rickety little strip to which I've pointed with a poorly drawn arrow? I stood on that. I. STOOD. ON. THAT.  It was made of wood planks with thin metal sides, and every time someone moved it would bounce.  As someone who is terrified of heights, I was pretty much convinced I wasn't coming off of there alive.  However, there was one tiny factor that made the anxiety attack worthwhile: The view.

Yeah, it was gorgeous.  I wish the pictures could do it justice.  This is Neuschwanstein (literally translated as New Swan Stone), the castle that served as the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's in Disneyland.  It was built by King Ludwig II as a personal retreat and tribute to Richard Wagner, with whom he was obsessed.  However, the King spent only 172 days in the palace before dying under mysterious circumstances in Munich.  At the time of his death, all construction on his castles ceased, leaving only one-third of Neuschwanstein finished.  I was able to tour the completed third, and it was incredibly beautiful.  Unfortunately no photography was allowed, but I, being the rebel that I am, snapped a couple covert ones anyway.

After the tour we took the train back and then went to dinner at Weisses Bräuhaus in Munich at the recommendation of our tour guide.  It was delicious. A few people in my group started the meal with pretzel soup and were kind enough to share a bite.  Next came my meal, which was beer-braised pork with sauerkraut and potato pancakes (sorry about the picture; I was halfway through it before I realized I forgot to snap a picture).  Finally came dessert.  Not just any dessert, but the mother of all desserts.  Deep fried bread stuffed with plum jam and covered in vanilla sauce.  I'm telling you, German food is going to be the death of me.  It's a good thing I usually cook for myself here.

    

For the final event of the evening, we went to Hofbräuhaus.  I forgot how cool that place is.  I still haven't worked my way up to full on beer yet, but I drank about a liter and a half of Radler, which is basically beer mixed with lemonade.  It's a start.  We ate giant, soft pretzels, and Eric managed to drink 4 full liters of beer in the short time we were there.

Our last stop of the trip was at the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, one of Munich's most famous attractions.  It is a two level display on the clock tower of the town hall and features dancing animatronic-type figures depicting first the wedding of Duke Wilhelm V (founder of Hofbräuhaus) and then a celebratory dance to mark the end of the plague around 1517.

After another 8 hour bus ride, I am back in my apartment and ready to start another week.  Thanks for reading!