Neuschwanstein + Hohenschwangau

After a poor nights sleep, my sister and I got an early start to head to the magical castle that is Neuschwanstein. Annie was beginning to feel poorly so that was a bummer to our travel day. We grabbed more pastries for the train ride and grabbed a seat as more and more passengers came aboard the train. It was so packed at one point that there were about 10 people standing for 20 min until our next train stop.
Everyone was heading to the castle so they were just as brilliant as we were with travel plans.

My sister and I were looking for the bus we had to catch in order to get to the castle, the first and second bus looked extremely overcrowded but my sister noticed the bus driver in bus number 2 waving us over to join his bus crew, we awkwardly ran to the bus. As you do with a backpack.

WOW! WHAT A CUTE DRIVER HE WAS! Piercing blue eyes, and a nice angular face, blonde hair hubba-hubba :D I have never seen a more attractive driver. He looked like Ryan Gosling, if Ryan Gosling were German and drove buses for a living. Yeah he was pretty.

After we picked our jaws off the floor and said goodbye to the bus driver we along with the rest of the tourists hiked up a small hill to the ticket gate. Got our tickets. Now to find bratwurst because Katie was hungry. It wasn't my favorite brat, but it wasn't the wurst I have had...bah hah hah!

Hohenschwangau.

The lake where King Ludwig was found mysteriously dead

As we were able to see the two castles that rest upon the mountains, we walked up to Hohenschwangau first aka the yellow castle. It was the home of Ludwig when he was a child. We were able to have a tour of the castle which was interesting, containing a piano that had been played on by Wagner, and a lovely view out to Neuschwanstein.

The tour was short, around 30 min, and it was back outside we went. As it was abnormally warm and sunny I tried my hardest to catch a bit of color while my sister ran to the shade.

At one point Annie went to the opposite end of this fountain and I decided this was my opportunity to trick her into thinking I had left. I am quite good at these disappearing acts as I find them hilarious. I circled the fountain as she circled the fountain with a confused look on her face. HAHAHA! And then she laughed because she honestly had no idea where I had gone.

Those lions hid me well.

Yippee skippy! Time to take a bus up to Neuschwanstein. And that thing was CRRRROOOWWWDED. And somehow we ended up in the back. And then there were really tight turns and curves and basically I am really lucky I didn't lose my cookies. But we made it to the top and phew, I was glad to get off that bus all intact.

We decided to go to Marien Brük e (Mary's Bridge) first. The view from this point was spectacular. I am deeply afraid of heights and I seemed to manage just fine. Another woman did not though, as she was going at a snails pace and was very cautiously putting her hand on the railing. Oh well.

My sister thought we could get to the castle from the other side of the bridge so we began walking up this dirt path which kept inclining more and more, and I turned to her and said, "I'm pretty sure this isn't how we get to the castle." She was insistent that it was, but i explained to her I saw the sign pointing down to the castle...she didn't believe me so I told her to follow me, and wooohoo I was right....again.

We had our tour for a specific time which meant I was able to people watch for a solid 30 min before joining the line up of americans. It's really entertaining and then you realize how poorly americans dress and you kind of look at what you are wearing and note that you are no different. Fun times.

Front side of the castle

Our tour guide was the really quiet guy who spoke softly and had zero humor in his voice. I was doing fine until we reached the throne room where this german man goes "As you can see, the throne is not there, this is because it was never completed for Ludwig because....he died." That was it. That was all he said. I thought I was going to burst from laughter. I didn't though. I held it together.

I guess the tour wasn't that fabulous in my opinion because it was over before it even began and I have no idea what the tour guide said half the time. But still it was cool. Apparently Ludwig was found dead in the lake and it is still a mystery as to the cause of his death. He never saw the finished castle.

We left the castle grounds close to 5 o'clock in the evening. We made it down to the bus and LOOK AT THAT! Hottie man bus driver was taking us to the train station. I mean, this had to mean something. Right?? I kept telling my sister I had to say something when we got off the bus. She didn't believe I would, but who did? I did. When we were let off the bus, I told my sister we were taking the exit doors in the front as that would be the opportunity to say something (mind you were were only 2 rows infront of the mid-section doors, and 7 rows from the front...). I was first, as I was leaving I looked to him and said "Tschuss! Danke!" I know, smooth right? I am such a flirt. He replied with a gigantic dreamy german Gosling smile and goes "Tschuss! Have a good night!". Dead. I died. Right there.

After drooling over bus driver man, we caught the train back to munich. Annie was not feeling her best but she felt better than the day before which was good. We got back to the hostel to find my friend MEAGAN!! She was meeting us in Prague but decided she would take the train from Munich so yeeehawww we were reunited for the evening. After a mix up with the rooms she finally got placed into our massive 8 person mixed dorm. They said there was an empty bed she could have so that was no problem. I quickly showered and got ready and then the three of us gabbed our way to the Hofbrah Haus for beer and bratwurst. Ja!

Munich town square at night. This is pretty much the only site seeing I did whilst in Munich.

We had the best time, drinking massive stein's of beer, laughing, having another dreamy man wait on our table. At the beer house the servers bring out these massive steins of beer with 5 or 6 in one hand sometimes 7 or 8. IT IS BEYOND IMPRESSIVE! There was live dancing, including this old couple who began doing the polka and I almost cried because my hopeless romantic heart cannot handle that sort of thing. It was so wonderful. I loved it. We had a very fun evening! ...we also looked like we were on a date thanks to these photos taken by my sister. Oh the life.

our hands and wrists fit through the handle!

I drank all but a 1/4 of that beer. I hate beer.

Ever since I took german in high school I wanted to eat one of these pretzels. AND IT TASTED JUST AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS. Wooooooo!

When we returned to our hostel we discovered all the beds were taken except for 2. This meant Meagan and I had to share a bed. A bunk bed. I think I slept up against the wall. And kept my arms crossed. As did Meagan. We laughed until we fell asleep because we looked so uncomfortable. Mind you my bed squeaked like no other so that was extra fun when getting up the next morning. Oh the memories.