Munich and Neuschwanstein

I woke up last Friday and got a bit of a late start. I have to say that it was a good thing I checked my train ticket sooner rather than later, because my train was set to leave a lot sooner than I had originally thought. I finished packing, and Hannah came over briefly to say goodbye. Then it was off to the train station to catch my train through Stuttgart to Munich, where I would meet the Levin Family!

Once I got into Munich, I only had a faint idea of how to get to their hotel. I found the right tram eventually, but had to transfer once. I don't think I bought the right kind of ticket for the tram, but I wasn't caught... so I guess it worked out alright. I got to the hotel and asked the lady at the desk if she could call up to the room. She let me call up, and before long I found myself up in the room! I was welcomed by lots of hugs! After settling in for a bit we set out for dinner. With a map entrusted to me, I lead the way through the big gardens next to the hotel to try and find a place for dinner. The gardens were sort of like a labyrinth. Luckily, there was no evil monster that ate children!

Sorry, I just had to!

 We found dinner and it wasn't long before we were walking back to the hotel. We found our way back through the gardens a lot quicker than we did when we were heading out for dinner, despite the darkness. After that, we called it a night. Everyone was jet-lagged, and I was pretty tired as well. It was a pretty sleepless night all around. Emily woke up Lori, who screamed out of fear and then Emily started crying all in the next room. After that, I think it's safe to say that no one slept much. 

On Saturday, we woke up around 6am for breakfast. And sweet Lord-Almighty, they had pancakes!

Yes Matthew, there is hope for humanity yet... I have found pancakes in Germany.

We met in the lobby by 7:45 for the tour of the castles that we were going to take that day. We got on the bus, which took us to another bus. When we got on that bus, it was a long trip to Linderhof Palace. Our tour guide was not the sharpest tool in the shed, and spent most of her time practicing her Spanish for the group of Spanish speaking people in the front of the bus instead of guiding the tour. She would first say something in English, then Spanish, then German. Sometimes mixing the first two in order. She was not a very good tour guide though. During the ride, Emily was my bus buddy. She worked on crossword puzzles and played games on my iPod.

When we got to Linderhof Palace, it was raining. We waited for our tour in the rain for a while before being let inside in groups depending on what language we spoke. 

Linderhof Palace.

Behind the palace.

The mountains were so pretty!

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I managed to take one before the guide told us this. 

The only picture I got to take! This was for the French "Sun King" and the caption basically says, "I'm better than everyone else". Lovely.

My favorite part of the tour was that King Ludwig had a table built into his dining room that would be lifted up from the room below. So the servants would place food on the table and then raise the table up to the dining room for him. Also, not only was this table special, but the King entertained some of his favorite people there: Marie Antoinette and several others. But these were not real human beings, he would dine with his imaginary friends. What a cool guy.

More views of the mountains!

Emily all set for the rain! Also I think this was right after she started singing "Singin' in the Rain"!

What a lovely parrot! Not at all gaudy.

After the tour we got back on the bus and headed to Oberammergau. (Say that five times fast! Emily can now!) We stopped in a few tourist-type shops before heading back to the bus to head to Neuschwanstein.

What is a German tourist shop without a chance to scare me half to death?

Up on the cliff there is a cross.

Here, Doug: I'm trying to find an alternative to the hoof boot for you!

Kaitlyn sporting a very German hat!

Emily may be moving to the mountains!

 We arrived in the little village beneath the castle and got off the bus only to be greeted by sleet. We stopped for lunch before we had to make our way up to the castle for our tour time. 

This is the castle built by Ludwig's father.

Horse-drawn carriage!

We were going to take the carriage up, but we were running out of time. So walking was the way. We started the 45 minute walk up hill, and it soon became the battle of Emily Michelle Stillman versus her lungs. The death walk, the continuous slope in the sleet, was tough on me, and I had to take my trusty ole' puffer twice.

 But we made it up in good time. When we made it up to the top, it started to sleet/snow even more. The view was incredible, but it wasn't very clear with the weather. 

Neuschwanstein!

Emily in the rain/sleet/snow.

She was a-fightin' with her Momma!

The "fight" was turned on to me when I took a picture.

We then took our tour.
I had learned about this castle in my German classes back at Valpo, but I was not expecting some of what I saw. Everything was so extravagant, which I was expecting. I was not, however, expecting a cave room inside the castle, or just how much detail went into every little aspect of the rooms. It was quite impressive. Also, I stand by the decision that if I'm ever rich, which will never happen as a teacher, I will have secret doorways in my home. A girl can dream!

During the tour we encountered rude people from our bus tour. These people had freaked out on Lori and Kaitlyn for sitting in their seats on the bus and had the tour guide go and "solve the problem". The tour guide's solution, however, was just to announce over the speaker (in English first to make a point that it was for the Americans) while we were driving to the castle that in Europe it is customary to choose a seat on a bus tour and then stick to that seat. It was not handled well, and just frustrated all except for the rude couple. Well, anyway, back to the rude couple on the tour. On the first tour, they talked throughout the entire tour. On the second tour in Neuschwanstein, they pushed Kaitlyn on more than one occasion... with no apology or even sign showing that they were sorry. That's it people, push the children. Classy. 

After the tour, we stopped in the gift shop briefly before hurrying back down to catch our bus. 

We got on and waited for everyone else. The long ride back to Munich was filled with head jerking sleep, crosswords, and more Tiny Wings for one little Emily. 

When we got back to Munich, we were dropped off at the main train station and the tour guide was once again very unhelpful. When they picked us up, they picked us up from the hotel. But, apparently, that was too much work, because they just dropped us off at the station. When we asked the tour guide for information about getting back to the hotel, she just blew us off to go and count her tips. Needless to say, she got no tip from us. We took a taxi back to the hotel, and the taxi driver was a bit of a character. He made jokes about his brother, Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he found out that the Levin's were from California. We ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. Afterwards, we all got ready for bed and went to bed with hopes of a better nights sleep. 

Well... sleep didn't happen so much. During the course of that night I was woken about four times by Emily, who got to sleep in the same room as me that night, as Kaitlyn got the night before. My favorite time I was woken up was when Emily woke me up at about 2:50am to tell me that I was sleeping. Good to know!

That Sunday was Easter Sunday, and we all woke up with a surprise. Looking outside the windows, we could see that it had snowed during the night. And I mean that all the trees, cars, etc. all had a good amount of snow covering them. Kaitlyn and Emily were very excited about that. Living in Illinois/Indiana, I guess snow has sort of lost its allure for me. But I can understand why snow would be exciting. 

The snowfall was quite pretty to look at during breakfast!

Fortunately, or unfortunately, (however you want to look at it) it did not snow during the day. We spent most of Sunday either in the hotel or traveling, as everything was closed for Easter Sunday. Before long, though, we were headed to Tübingen. Once there, I led them to their hotel and they got all checked in before we went to dinner at the Neckar-Müller. After dinner, I think everyone was still really tired, because we called it a day. I headed back to my room to unload my stuff (only to find that my heat was off), and was visited by Jake and Hannah to hear all about their Easter Sunday, before getting ready for bed. 

On Monday, everything was still closed for Easter here. We met up at the hotel before setting out to take Emily's marvelous tour (shortened by the closed stores and businesses) of Tübingen! We first walked down the Neckar Insel (the island between the sections of the Neckar river). Then we set off for my room really fast, so that I could drop some stuff off, before heading to the castle through the market place. I would like to say that I never misrepresented Tübingen to my guests here. At one point Bruce asked me if, at the bridge over the Neckar, we were above sea level. My answer was, "If we're not now, we will be". 

Also, apparently Tübingen is harder to pronounce than I thought it was. I was asked quite often how to say "Tübingen". It became perfectly normal for me, that when I was sitting on the train or on the bus, to hear softly in the background, "Tübingen...? Tübingen...?". Mostly Lori and Bruce actually. Kaitlyn and Emily seemed to get it after a few times. But my favorite pronunciation of Tübingen was the one that sounded like "Sheboygan, WI". Just imagine hearing:

"Tu-boy-gen"

"To-begin"

... and every other way you could possibly think to say it. 

 It amused me to say the least.

 Anyway, once up at the castle, we went into the museum inside the courtyard.

It's an Emily sized hole!

Emily took this picture of the Stiftskirche!

Kaitlyn and Emily!

Emily surrendering!

And again!

This time, she's surrendering to Kaitlyn!

Emily took most of the pictures for me in the museum, which Bruce then photobombed!

And again!

Stretch it out!

Emily and a horse head.

DISCUS!

Kaitlyn versus the lion in a staring contest. Who will win?

Kaitlyn found a mummy up there!

Working on her form!

Down the tunnel in the castle!

That was the first time I had ever been inside. Emily volunteered herself to be my little photographer while at the museum. 

After the museum, we headed back down to the city, where the only shop that was open was a gummy bear shop. We stopped in and made a few purchases. After that, I felt a bit bad, as there wasn't really much to do with everything closed for the holiday. We spent the rest of the time in Tübingen at their hotel before we headed to Stuttgart so that they could catch their train to Paris.

Coloring on the train.

I think everyone was real tired by this point! It was a busy weekend!

I went along to help with the luggage. Getting the luggage on and off the trains proved to be no easy task, but we managed! I said goodbye to everyone once they were safely on their train to Paris, and then I hopped on the train back to Tübingen. 

It was a pretty good weekend! A great way to spend Easter!