As tourists/Americans, we had to see Schloss Neuschwanstein AKA the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland - and that's exactly what we did on our first day. I underestimated the journey; one has to take the train from München Hbf to Füssen, then take a bus to the village below the castle and climb up the hill to the castle itself. No matter... it was worth it, and even better I undertook the trip with two friends I haven't seen in quite a while, so there was no shortage of conversation.
We had some time to kill between when we finally reached the castle and our tour, so we did some off-path hiking. Tip: Wear better shoes than old Converse, Vans, or boat shoes because those aren't conducive to climbing or descending an "unofficial" trail of sorts. But that is also how this magical photo was captured:
...yeah, I take this over a Fantasyland copycat anyday.
To be honest, the inside of the castle wasn't memorable. We only went inside because we figured YOLO (cringe) as it will be a very long time before we come back. We missed our bus back to the village after an unsuccessful footrace down the hill and ended up walking the 3 or 4 km back to Füssen, but the sun was shining, the birds chirping, and the flowers along the path abloom, so the walk was beautiful.
We returned to München and treated ourselves to a Maß each at the Hofbräuhaus. A Maß is a liter of beer that dwarfs this already-small Chinese girl. It was the perfect pairing with my meal, which I don't know the name of and downed without asking too many questions as to what I was eating.
Speaking of not knowing what I was eating, Bavarians have different names and specialties for food. For example, I had no idea what Semmel was until I asked a man from Heidelberg at my table at Viktualienmarkt during lunch; turns out it's just a particular kind of Brötchen. And I never dared to try that Weißwurst, although my friend tried it and liked it.
We spent the next day seeing the sights, beginning with the BMW Museum. The museum is more or less a huge advertisement for BMW & subsidiaries, but it was a nice stop for my friend who loves cars. All the shiny vehicles!
We also ascended the tower of St. Peter's Church, which provided a wonderful view of the city and in particular the Neues Rathaus, or City Hall.
The climb to the top of the tower was actually one of the tougher ones I've done since the steps are quite high; furthermore, take note that there is no one at the top directing people to walk in a certain direction so you end up stuck in these narrow walkways, unable to move around freely unless you start shoving people around. (Yes, I'm still a little bitter.)
In addition, we visited
- Olympic Village: this is the first I've ever seen, and it was surprisingly small. Have they gotten bigger over the years, or are my expectations just that far off?
- several churches but most notably Asamkirche, an insanely awesome but also extremely creepy Gothic church on Sendlinger Str., a big shopping street
- Westpark, where sun was soaked up and cheap beer from an awesome Getränkemarkt was consumed
