Oh Munich!!

Munich was fun and provided us with a couple of fun adventures for those of you following our traveler's tales. The day we arrived in Munich, we really didn't do much- pretty much found internet, had dinner and drinks and went to bed. Our second day in Munich however was quite the time! We left for Fussen by train to tour the Bavarian Castles (which are ten-ish minutes away from Fussen). In the area, there were two castles: one built by a Bavarian King and the other built by his son Ludwig (who was nuts--we would call him eccentric today). The first castle was nice- it was yellow and brown and the interior, of course, was amazing...but what I appreciated most about this first castle was the amazing views it gave from every window!! When looking out the windows of the castle you would initially see hills covered with trees surrounding a peaceful lake and towering up behind the hills were the Alps! Absolutely A-Mazing!! And it was a castle...so that was amazing in itself. Another fun piece to this tour of the castle was our dry-humored tour guide who we found absolutely hilarious. He would make subtle jokes and wait for our group to laugh and he got nothing- not a smile, a nod, a blink. It was very much the sketch "anyone? anyone? Is this mic on?"- FUNNY STUFF
The second castle was a bus ride up the mountain for which the second castle was perched at the top. As we were piling into the bus, we were all pushed to shove as many people into the bus as possible- when we thought there was no more room, they would cram 15 more people inside. Jen and Ashley ended up more toward the back of the bus where I was pushed up against the doors as I was holding on to the handle bar above my head. Around me, 5-ish small Japanese woman were holding on to me for stability because they were not able to reach any sort of handles themselves. Facing me (about 1 foot from my face) was a chubbier Japanese man who was also hanging on to a handle bar above his head. As the bus rapidly wound around the sharp curves, the bus would sway left to right, left to right and thus, those of us inside would lean/sway from the right of the bus to the left, and vise versa. As we were swaying, the ladies holding on to me would giggle at every turn as if we were on a rollercoaster and as the bus would sway in my direction, the crowd inside the bus would force the chubby little man toward me and he would let out a long and loud "Santa laugh" ("ho oh oh ho oh ho ohoh") and his face would stop at about 6 inches away from mine and then with the motion of the bus, he would sway in the other direction. My new group of friends and I were quite the spectacle and as I would look around I could see many bus passengers looking at us and giggling as well. It was quite the ride up.
When we reached castle #2, it was well worth the ride! It was like a fairytale castle (in fact, this castle was what Walt Disney modeled his "Cinderella Castle" in Disneyland after and once you see our pictures, you will understand why). King Ludwig died before the castle was finished so it never was completed, but the parts of the castle that were done were imaginative such as the fake cave inside the castle which acted as a hallway from one room to the other and outside the King's bedroom you could look out to the green mountains and see a waterfall right in front of you. Pieces of this castle felt very much as if you were walking through the wonderful decorations of Disneyland- it was crazy!