+ We could have left on the train early, but we decided to wait for the hotel’s really good breakfast. + Amy is sleepy. + Took train from Fussen to Munich. + High speed train from Munich to Mannheim. + Semi-highspeed past Mainz to Bingen along the Rhine River. + A Local train from Bingen to St. Goar. + Checked into the St. Goar Hostel. Lady at front desk was uber energetic and friendly. She had a goofy laugh. + Ate a cheap dinner in the hostel. + Walked down to the town. It was along the Rhine. The town seemed deserted except for the yelling kids in the playground. + Before going to bed, Amy tried to go to the restroom down the hall. She claimed it was locked, but didn’t think anyone was in there. Brian went after her, and the bathroom door was open and unoccupied. We figured out Amy was shaking on someone’s bedroom door. Oh Amy… so silly. Good thing she didn’t knock. + Planned the touristing for the next day, and organized photos. We’re already up to around 4 gigs of photos! Amy is winning by a little. +

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Elaborated Bathroom Story with Mimi
me: I went out once to go push the door and then looked under and I didn’t see a light and I was really confused so i went back into the room and then I said “the bathroom is being used” and then I waited for like five minutes and went back out and I tried again, this time, more forcefully (I’ve had an experience when I just didn’t push the door hard enough and I was waiting outside, thinking it was a one stall bathroom… but it was really a multiple stall… and I just couldn’t open the door. I must have looked really ridiculous just standing out there waiting) but anyway, it didn’t open and I went back to the room and Brian was like “is the light on?”
“I dunno… I couldn’t’ see anything…”
“did you try knocking?”
“No… I didn’t want to rush them…”
and then he goes and tries
and he comes back and he says “I don’t know what you’re talking about Amy… the door was wide open”
“oh……. OH NO!! I think I was pushing on the wrong door!!!”
“oh man, some little kid in there must be so scared…”

there you have it, the full details

+ Ate a glorious free breakfast in our hotel. Lots of good food, a nice friendly yellow room, and a view of the alps! + “Borrowed” some nutella for a hike this afternoon. + Set out on a hike on a trail from our hotel in Austria to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles in Germany. Supposed to be a one hour hike. + Got distracted and video taped a dance with the alps in the background. Video coming soon! + Got distracted some taking pictures + Met two elderly Austrian men hiking on the trail (see related story in other post) + Crossed the Austrian-German border. + Took a detour to get closer to a lake. Avoided somewhat successfully the mud, made lots of frogs jump into the sanctuary of the lake, and took even more photos. + Saw a lumberjack on the trail. + The Neuschwanstein castle emerged out of the trees! It took us about 2-2.5 hours to do the 1 hour hike. + Bumped into a couple from our munich bike tour at the castle ticket booth. + Brian dragged Amy up the hill to Neuschwanstein. It was another 40 minute hike up a mountain. Brian acted as Amy’s walking stick. + Amy was very tempted to buy a walking stick at a gift shop at the top. It had a compass. She resisted. + We ate cookies and nutella while waiting for our tour. + Toured the castle. No photos were allowed so Brian operated in stealth mode. The castle was not finished before Mad King Ludwig died, but what was finished was elaborately decorated. Ludwig built the castle for his “friend” Wagner, and there were frescos illustrating the stories from Wagner’s operas. Either everything was painted or carved in the finished rooms. Mad King Ludwig sure knew how to build a castle! + Amy wanted to watch an informational video but it was in German and we didn’t have time to wait for the English one. + Brian dragged Amy even higher up the mountain to Mary’s Bridge, which overlooked the Neuschwanstein Castle on its mountain top perch. There were two beautiful waterfalls below it as well. + Headed down the mountain and ate some meat sandwiches on the way. + We were near exhaustion when we reached Hohenschwangau Castle for our afternoon tour. This castle was where the Ludwigs lived. Its down the mountain from Newschwanstein and 10 minutes up another hill. This caslte had hidden hallways in between the walls that a servant could walk in so that the family never had to see them, a hanky-panky door leading from the kings bedroom to the queen’s, and lots of other really fancy stuff like some ancient bread sent over from Russia… + Around 5 we began our hike back to the hotel. Amy wanted to take a bus. She says “I didn’t say that. I just suggested that we could possibly do that.” haha “suggested” + We were both about to collapse, and we could still see the castles. Brian was still acting as Amy’s walking stick. Amy was lamenting not buying that walking stick. Brian picked a stick off the ground. Amy found new energy with her new trusty walking stick. Brian soon followed suit and found a more slender and curvy stick to use. Note: walking sticks are awesome! They actually do help! We made it back in record time. Under an hour!!! by five minutes. Before we stopped we released our new friend sticks into the wilderness, next to a friendly tree. + Collapsed on the floor of our room. So tired. + Ate dinner and kept getting up to do laundry. There was a huge German Shepherd by the laundry room, but he was friendly. + After 2 hours in the dryer our clothes still were a little moist. + Figured out how to use our Eurail passes and how to get up to the Rhine Valley, our destination for the next day. +

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+ Sausage breakfast in a bun with sauerkraut = Genuine Hot Dog! + Danishes and croissants at a bakery before running out to watch the Glockenspiel at Noon + Desperate glove shopping before bike tour and failing (unless we wanted to pay 49.90 Euro for a pair) + Bike tour around Munich, zipped by a lot of places and saw a pagoda, a surfer, and lots of doggies + Tried to go up to the towers of churches and the Glockenspiel to get a good view, but all were closed (5PM, so late! Really.) + Saw a service at the two onion dome church, also saw the Devil’s footprint! The music was very nice. Amy got emotional and we left + Some more glove and scarf shopping. Success! Brian bought a tourist Deutschland scarf and Amy found a discount corner store with gloves for 2euro! (right next to the gaudy glasses and bling jewelry) + Went on a hunt for Munchen Kartoffelhaus (recommended as a must try restaurant by WikiTravel), asked a couple who ran a fruit stand, who sent us off somewhere along a big street, we couldn’t find it, so we asked someone at Burger King, who sent us up two subway stations away, then we asked someone at a hotel who had no idea what we were talking about. As a final attempt, on our way back to the train station, we checked the phone book. No luck. We gave up and went back to the main square for Mcdonald’s. + Went back and checked email and measured heads. (see blog below).

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Here’s a funny story for you!

It’s around 11:30PM on clear night in Munich. Brian and I are sitting in the lobby of Hotel Jedderman next to windows with a clear view from the street, using the free internet station. We received an email from Stanford saying that we could order our cap and gowns, but we needed to measure our head to get our cap size. Luckily, I had remembered to bring a tape measurer, exactly for this occasion. So Brian is helping me measure my head (an inch above the ears!) when two ladies walk into the lobby from the street. After Brian finished his measurement and I looked up, I saw the two ladies, standing over Brian’s shoulder, staring at us and the computer, looking confused and amused at the same time. I stared at them and they stared at me, Brian was somewhere in the middle. Then the ladies started laughing and I started laughing. I knew that they had thought what we were doing was the most bizarre thing they had seen all night, and I knew I had to explain it to them or I would never be able to live it down, so I said, “Sprechen sie Englisch?” (Do you speak English?) to which she nodded, and I explained “I’m trying to order a hat, so I have to measure my head!” and she said “Ohhhhh” and then babbled a lot about what she thought we might have been doing, which included, “Maybe you were measuring your brain?”

+ Arrived in Munich . The airport had multicolor lights like a German light show(conan o’brien reference) + Used German for the first time to find hotel + Went to main square Marienplatz + old lady said something to us in German about a fountain. We just nodded and pretended to understand. Hope it was funny because we laughed. + Everything is closed on Sunday in Munich. + Had a our first German meal with Pretzel, sausage, and 2.50 euro/bottle mineral water. + Went to Royal Residenz Museum and treasury. Big palace. Lots of jewels. + Something to drink for our dehydrated bodies in San Francisco Coffee Company. The only open store we could find. + Hofbrauhaus for dinner. A famous beer hall with a live oompa band, waiters in traditional lederhosen, big steins of beer, and drunk people.We ordered two beers. Brian finished his. Amy gave hers to two German lads sitting across from us. + Amy shakes Brian on tram ride home asking, “Are you dizzy? Are you dizzy? Are you dizzy?” + Updated blog about London +

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