/Train: Munich, Germany

On my “last” day in Munich, I decided to pull a budget equalization day, and do all the free stuff I’ve wanted to do. After breakfast, I went on a 3hr walking tour of the central city area with a guide. This guide took us to most of the “wow” structures in the city, such as Frauenkirche, Maximilian Strase, The devil’s footprint, Mary’s Square (which was amazing), the old town hall, and the church of St. Peter. Again I’d love to link pictures of these places, but I can’t find a place that allows (or has enough bandwidth) uploads. Once I do, I shall spam pictures.

After the tour was complete, I did a solo tour of some buildings, which I saw on the tour, but the guide didn’t stick around long enough to show us. The best of which was going up St. Peter’s Church tower, and after some 600 steps I found myself on a ledge. And not just any ledge, nono, that would be too easy. You know in those movies where the fugitive climbs out onto the side of a building, and has to kind of shimmy across the “ledge” to get away? Well that’s the kind of ledge we’re talking about. Thankfully there was a cage to keep me from falling to a horrible death, but it looked hundreds of years old, and I didn’t trust it. In any case, trust has nothing to do with getting a good photograph, so off I go onto this ledge to get a spectacular view of the city skyline at sundown, quite an excellent end to the day.

On Sunday, I jumped on a train to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein castle. Upon arrival, I was reminded of my old German class where we learned that on Sunday, almost everything in the country shuts down, minus most transport, and some coffee shops. So after finding the info center closed, I made my way down to a quaint little hostel just off the main road. The funny thing about this part is it was kind of a “make yourself at home” kind of place. There was a phone on a cord, and a number to call if you needed to book a room, but all the doors/rooms were open and not a staff member to be seen. I picked up the phone and called the contact number, I was told they were on break and would be back at 5:00 (it was 2:30 when I called, haha). They told me where I could stash my stuff, so I took my daypack and went around the city to explore.

The next morning, I did the “cheap-o” tour, so instead of paying 40EU, I decided to walk all the way from Fussen to the castle, which took just under two hours one way. I’m glad I got to do it that way however, as it gave me plenty of opportunity to take lots of pictures that I would have otherwise missed. This came at a price though, because I decided to bring a full daypack, which is not light by any means. Beautiful day too, not a cloud in the sky, absolutely no wind, and perfectly warm temperatures.

Now back to pictures! I was so glad to crawl my way up to Neuschwanstein castle, drag my near lifeless body up the winding road around the castle walls, and thrust my corpse down a ramp towards a bridge in the canyon. Once I came back to life, I walked across this bridge to take in the bounty of a perfect Neuschwanstein castle picture. Much to my shagrim, that ENTIRE face of the castle was under maintenance, and had scaffolding and sheets covering the whole works. Not only that, but you’re not allowed to take pictures IN the castle, so my overall castle:picture ratio sucks big time.

By the time I got back to Fussen, it was already starting to get late, so I took the next train to Augsburg. I read that Augsburg had some nice stuff to look at, but it was dark, and getting colder, so instead of taking a chance, I took the 30min ICE (high speed) train to Munich again, where I will now create a new, better, stronger, and faster itinerary.

Kyle, outzimilichenschen