The End

Germany Day Six: Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria

We drove to Garmisch from Neuschwanstein and stayed the night in a cute Bavarian hotel. Our room suspiciously looked like a janitors closet, but appeared to be a normal room when we went inside. Bavaria had the best spatzle and cream puffs! Yum!


This is the view from the top... this one is looking out over the glacier. From the top you can see 4 countries.

Neuschwanstein

Germany Day Five: Neuschwanstein

So king Ludwig II lived in the not yet completed castle for 164 days before he was declared mentally incompetent to serve. He and his psychiatrist mysteriously drowned the next day. The castle is incredibly luxurious! It had running water because of the river that flowed near it. The rooms inside are filled with huge wall murals and hand carved bed frames. He had a room made into a cave, complete with stalagtites! Unfortunately, we (unlike the Taiwanese princess who was also touring the castle) were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle. This castle was the one that Walt Disney based his castle on.












This is the view of the area from the castle.

Germany Day Five: Castle Neuschwanstein

This portion of the trip is brought to you by McDonalds. So on day five, we went to Neuschwanstein castle which is in Bavaria. It is the castle of Ludwig II. He built the castle after he lost a war which effectively removed all of his power as king of Bavaria. The castle is on the top of a huge hill so we took a horse and carriage to the top. The whole area was mountainous and quite pretty.




This is us at the castle gate.

Germany Day Four: The Black Forest

Mike and I traveled to Bad Herrenalb to hike through some of the Black Forest. The trees were think and there was a pretty river running through it. We bird watched a little and walked around. They have hikes of all different lengths ranging from hours to weeks. We chose a 2 hour walk, but we would like to go back some day and do a couple of days.

Germany Day Three: Castle Rhinefels

I thought that these pictures from inside the castle looked cooler in black and white. Enjoy!

Germany Day Three: Rhine Cruise

On Tuesday, we took a train to Blingen and then were planning to cruise down the Rhine. We were supposed to head for the KD dock. When we got to the water, we looked for the KD dock, but didn't immediately see it. We walked a little ways and eventually saw the sign for it. Unfortunately, between us and the dock was a huge fence and a sign that said "Entrance Forbidden" in German. We walk down the dock a little further, but there's nowhere else to go. We called Meg and Daniel and they confirmed with the company that this was where we were supposed to be. So we walked nervously around the sign and walked to the dock just as our cruise ship came in. The cruise was very nice. There were a bunch of Japanese tourists and a group of Italian high school students. There were a million castles along the Rhine. Some are shown below. They are really a lot like plantations. They were owned by lords to collect money from the land. Most of them were destroyed by the French in 1692. The one on the bottom was in St. Goar and we wandered through it. It was the only one not destroyed by the French in 1692. Instead they handed it over to the French in 1743 whereupon the French destroyed it. Some of it remained and the rest was rebuilt. You could wander through all of the different passage ways and even into the mines. We really wished that we'd brought a flashlight. Still fun though.

Germany Day 2: Trier Continued

While in Trier we ate some traditional German... Gellato... Eh. It was good.



This was the marketplace in Trier! Very cute.

This amused us... not that there was a McDonalds... but rather what was next to it. Look just through the drive thru sign... Can't see it... Well look below. Of course! It's the McFit Gym. Now you can't sue McDonalds for making you fat! :)

Germany Day 2: Trier

On our second day in Germany, we traveled to Trier which claims to be the oldest town in Germany. By the time of Constantine (314 A.D), there were 70,000 inhabitants and Constantine himself lived in the city... by the 5th century there were less than 5,000 mostly due to wars. The picture to the left is from the Porta Nigra (Black Gate) which was the entry way into the city. Below is a Dom (Cathedral) that was built over several centuries. The initial structure of which very little remains was from 100's AD, but the current structure is from 1035 with further additions made in later years.



















We also visited the Roman baths and Gladitorial Colliseum. Pictured below.














Some gladiators in the Colliseum:

Germany Day 1: The Arrival

We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on March 11th. We flew all night in an airbus which had tvs on each individual seats that allowed you to pick what movie you wanted to watch. After we got in, Daniel met us and drove us to his house in Rodenbach. Following a two hour nap, we went to the top of the hill (pictured to the left with Daniel and I) and then took a tour of Ramstein airforce base. Below are Daniel in the pilot seat of a C21 and Daniel and Mike standing outside the same plane.

Mikezilla