München, Deutschland

To start off my European adventure, I began everything in Munich (München), Germany...also known as Deutschland, the Motherland, etc. My Mom, sister and I got here on a rainy evening, and after recovering from our jet lag we've had a pretty great time!

Our first full day, we headed to the main square in town known as the Marienplatz. We walked around, shopped, and noticed that a huge gay pride parade was going on. That made for some interesting photos. Rachel tried on a traditional dirndl dress, and we had fun exploring the "heart of Bavaria" and the main sights and churches of the city. For dinner (and beer) we went to the Hofbraühaus, and yes it was way better than the one in Newport, KY! It's a lot bigger than the one I'm used to, but people still run around in liederhosen selling pretzels and there are live bands blaring polka music. We also ate some schnitzel and strudel, and Rachel was happy to enjoy the legal drinking age of 16.

Hofbraühaus Munich!

Our second day here, we decided to book a guided tour and head 2 hours outside of Munich to the land of a fairy-tale castle known as Neuschwanstein. Much to our dismay, our tour was unexpectedly canceled because someone had "thrown themselves" on the train tracks that morning and they had to "clean up". After some frustrating conversations, buying tickets on our own, and sprinting to our platform, we made it on the train to the town of Füssen. Two hours later, we emerged from the station ready to see the amazing castle. I was so pumped about seeing this so I was thrilled when we finally arrived. The castle was built in the mid 19th century for the "insane" King Ludwig. It's undergoing some renovations right now but the views were still spectacular! It was so gorgeous it almost didn't seem real. It was definitely worth all of the frustration and confusion us ladies had in the train station that morning.

After taking in the sights from the Marienbrücke bridge and walking around the grounds and nearby town, we headed back onto the dreaded train, and back into the city. For dinner we went to the Lowenbraü Beer Garden (Bier Garten in German, ha!) and had another German meal. I'm not the biggest fan of their food, I will admit. We practiced our two words of German (guttentag and danke), and are off to bed soon. Headed off to Austria in the morning!