Munich, Germany

Munich, Germany

Mike and I left for the train station to meet Brad. When we arrived there was an unexpected fourth person added to the group. His name is Ernie. We played hearts on the way. It was my first time playing, but Ernie was mad that I was so close to winning. If he hadn’t cheated and added our scores wrong then I probably would have beat him. We arrived in the hostel at 10pm, about six hours after we left Metz.

We spent the day touring. After an hour of trying to figure out the subway system, we made it to the central part of town. (We learned later that our subway trip would have taken less time if we walked.) On the tour we saw where Mozart lived as a child. We joined a free walking tour. Since the tour guide was very fast and did not allow us to have any time for pictures, we left the tour. We finally arrived at the famous cathedral. It was similar to other cathedrals I had seen, but it had some unique artwork and sculptures. After the cathedral we walked around the central area of town and then headed to the English Gardens via subway. The English Gardens is the place where hundreds of local Munich people enjoy bathing naked in the sun. After taking a short break to rest in the park we headed back towards a museum. Unfortunately the history museum was closed. But we ended up going to the Hafbrahaus brewing gardens. It was a huge restaurant and pub that served beer by the liter. We had some German sausages and each of us ordered a liter. It was a very filling and good tasting meal.

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Beer Gardens (left to right: me, Mike, Ernie, Brad)

Me, Brad, and Mike took a two hour train ride to see some castles. We saw Neuschwanstein, a famous castle, where King Ludwig II lived. I had seen the castle in Sleeping Beauty, but never really thought it existed. The landscape around the castle was more awesome than the castle itself. Mountains, waterfalls, and lakes surround the castle to make an amazing view. The King was very unfortunate because he died unexpectedly at a young age shortly after the castle was built. He was only able to spend a little more than half a year living in the castle before he was found dead in a lake from an unknown reason.