A weekend in München

*This is our group in front of the valley from the road down from Neuschwanstein.

Last night we arrived back in Eisenach after a 3 day weekend in Munich.
*I don't have pictures uploaded on my computer yet, but I will put them up soon!

We left on Friday morning, met PT at the train station and hopped aboard our train. The train was packed and we were thankful that we had reserved seats in advance. The train ride to our first stop Fulda was only about 50 minutes then we got on another train headed straight for München (this is what Germans refer to Munich as). München is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. The name comes from root of mönch "monk". The monks used to reside in this area of Bavaria which is where this city of over 1.35 million inhabitabts residing inside of city limits. (When including the urban areas of Munich the population is around 5 million)

We arrived to Munich around noon and headed to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Mark which was a nice cheap place close to the train station. After we checked in and brought our bags to our rooms we walked around to the inner city where we finally got lunch! (After fixing a mishap with the tickets for our trip to Neuschwanstein Castle and Linderhof Palace.) We ate lunch at a little beer garden outside, although it was a bit windy, we managed to survive. After lunch, Ike and I got a pickle and the rest of the group got a pretzel.

After lunch we had some free time to roam the city until Frau Losch's group got to Munich (around dinner time). Ike, Justin and I walked around the city and watched the Bavarian knock the Austrian off his horse at the main clock tower. (This is a tradition in Bavaria that every hour *during tourist season* the little marry-go-round thing at the top of the city hall (Rathaus) knocks the Austrian off his horse and a little victory song is played.) After wandering around downtown Munich we met up with the couple students in Frau's class. We had dinner at the Augustinerkeller (a very well known place in Bavaria). The rest of the night was ours to roam around.
On Saturday we went on a bus tour. I wasn't really sure what to think of this at first, because I didn't know how good of pictures I would be able to get from the bus of the castles. However, I was happily surprised when I found out that we would get out and actually tour each of the castles (Linderhof and Neuschwanstein). This castle and palace are two of the most photographed castles in all of Germany (Neuschwanstein is one of the most photographed in the world). You may know Neuschwanstein castle from pictures closer to home (the Walt Disney castle was designed after this model of "fantasy" castle building). According to Wikipedia:

"The conception of the castle was outlined by Ludwig II in a letter to Richard Wagner, dated May 13, 1868;

"It is my intention to rebuild the old castle ruin at Hohenschwangau near the Pollat Gorge in the authentic style of the old German knights' castles...the location is the most beautiful one could find, holy and unapproachable, a worthy temple for the divine friend who has brought salvation and true blessing to the world."
My grandpa had been telling me about this castle before I left, so I was so excited to actually get to see it in person! (...Talk about a once in a lifetime opportunity!)

After getting traveling about 3 hours each way to the castles, and having a tour of both castles we got back on the bus and headed for Munich. The tour guide on the bus was so funny! She was German and spoke very good English. She was very witty with her comments, which is something that I don't think I could ever master in another language.

When we got back we headed downtown to the Hofbräuhaus for dinner. We had the buffet it was a lot of food, but it was really good! While eating dinner, we only got dubbed as "the American's" once!! (haha) We also got to watch an old school Bavarian dance take place.
Later that night we went to a little pub to sit down for a while and when we were there the Bayern-München soccer team won the German National Soccer League Championships.
Sunday during the day there was a celebration at 3:00 pm at the Rathaus (city hall). All the television stations had trucks set up and there were Polize everywhere! We sat down for a little while in an outside restaurant after church and the streets were soon getting packed with people setting up for the (rally).
After this we went to the art museum for a little while to look around. We saw Albrecht Dürer's self portrait. (yes, the original!) *After taking art history this past semester I was more excited to see it than I would have been in the past.


After this long weekend full of site seeing, walking, and celebrating we are heading back to Eisenach. This week we will be working at the Castle Monday-Wednesday. Thursday (May 13th) we will head to BERLIN!!! I can not wait for this weekend... other than the fact that we get to see Blue Man Group on my birthday, there should be many other opportunities that lie ahead!

Until tomorrow... or the next day.
:) Bis Später