The breakfast at our hotel is really good. Everything I could think to want for breakfast is there and I’ve been stacking my plate with fruit in order to get something into me that didn’t once have eyes! It’s hard not to overdo the bread as Germany has yummy bread. They even had pancakes with Canadian real maple syrup (though I skipped that)!

Off to meet our bike tour group. The first guy we spoke to there is a mechanic for the company. He’s from Baltimore and a nice guy, but said that though he loves Germany, he likes France, but hates the French, and dislikes Italy even more. I would say that our expeience of Germany has been the encounter of much, much more rudeness–one could call it gruff, but I call it rude–than he did in France. Perhaps language ability made the difference as I can barely speak güten mörgen (good morning) and danke (thanks) properly, but I was comfortable with my rusty language skills in France (though oddly Japanese words often came to mind first).

The next two we met were Canadians, from London Ontario, Angie and Rick. The tour was all in English, making it all quite easy for us. A 90 minute bus ride with a video intro to the history of the castle went by relatively quickly. The guide Brad (from Johannesburg) was on the video and he later was our guide in person.

Castle Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig the 2nd. He and his brother Otto were raised by odd parents who wouldn’t let them socialize with any other kids, who didn’t feed them enough (their maid would sneak them food), and who didn’t teach them anything about money or ruling a country. Ludwig II was called “Mad King Ludwig”, but really he was just eccentric. How could you not be with such parents?! His brother, Otto, on the other hand, did end up being justifiably placed in a mental asylum. He would do things like not remove his shoes for a year. Poor lonely Ludwig II ended up being king at theist 18 years old when his father died. He had no idea what to do and didn’t seem to want to rule. He was engaged three times to his cousin as he felt it was his duty to bear an heir, but each time he got cold feet and cancelled the marriage. He was much more interested in composer Richard Wagner. This is not the official German tour story, but there is evidence of its truth through Ludwig II’s own diary. And the fact that Ludwig II built Neuschwanstein Castle in honour of Wagner, having murals throughout representing his operas and inviting Wagner to stay with him in the same room.

Ludwig II spared no expense in building his dream castle close to his home castle where he grew up–Hohenschwangau Castle. I forget how many gilding he paid, but it would be equivalent to billions of €! And it wasn’t paid off as he died still owing approximately €250,000. The castle was not completed before his death with only 15 of the 200 rooms finished. But those rooms are unbelievable! Every surface is covered by something ornate.

Ludwig II’s death was also mysterious. The official story is that he killed himself by drowning after having murdered his psychiatrist. But to make a long story short, a more plausible story is that he was shot in the back while trying to escape an asylum. He was taken away to the asylum having been deemed insane by his ministers who word was he would soon dismiss. His psychiatrist likely found out that he was, in fact, not insane. The end result is that both of them died on the same day. And the state now owns his castle and opened it for public viewing just 6 weeks after King Ludwig II’s death.

The countryside on the way was beautiful! Windmills, green fields, cows, sheep, yellow flowers, and even views of the Alps! We also were on the Autobahn for part of the trip, though the bus max speed allowed is 80 km.

Once there we were given bikes for the first part of our tour. The bikes were nothing exciting and I had to keep reminding myself that my brakes were reverse pedals, but they served their purpose. The ride was an easy one, along a path past fields, quaint German houses, and to Swan Lake. Swan Lake is not the same as from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, but it is beautiful. King Ludwig II loved swans, so he named the lake after them. In fact, Neuschwanstein means New Swan Stone and swans adorn the castle in carvings, paintings, and pottery.

Though the 2 castles were far away from the location of our cycle, they are still impressive! Unfortunately, the north side of the castle is under wraps for maintenance and regular restoration that takes over a year and is done about every 10 years.

Lunch was, of course, more sausages. I did have the option of a sandwich, but somehow that just didn’t seem right. While some of the group took the opportunity to tandem hand glide, Sean was definitely not okay with me joining in. Shortly before we had left Vancouver, I had almost purchased a Groupon deal for tandem hand gliding. Glad I didn’t buy it as a woman died at that very same company’s hands. It was with the owner of the company who had had a long, safe record. But, perhaps the pressure of so many deals to fill made him careless. Anyway, with that being in such recent memory, Sean was not going to be alright with me hand gliding in Germany! So, instead we did something much safer (and cheaper). We were pulled up a slide and using just a handbrake and body weight to control speed and turning, we had fun sliding down the hill. After lunch we were also treated to some amazing card tricks by Brad, our tour guide. I’m still trying to figure them out…but never will.

An amazing hike up to the castle entrance and we were able to enter the inspiration to Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s castle. We were not allowed to take any pictures, but a few were sneaky with iPhones and appropriately timed coughs to cover the click sound of digital cameras. Really though, any covertly-taken pictures were not good anyway as the guide following our crew had eagle eyes. Instead I took a close up picture of a postcard I bought that shows King Ludwig II’s incredibly ornately carved bed that apparently took fourteen men four years to create. Every surface of every completed room is covered in paintings, carvings, or gilded with gold!

After rushing through the gift shop, we started the climb to Mary’s bridge (King Ludwig II’s mom) to get the best view of the castle. It did not disappoint! Wow! Fairytale castle for sure! the surrounding landscape provides the perfect backdrop too.

It was such a great day trip and we were both in our happy-to-be-traveling mode again. Back in Munich we discovered that we had picked a great day to get out of Munich as it had been raining all day. Maybe our weather misfortune reversed as being shortly after our return, it stopped raining and so we went into Virtualienmarkt to have Bratwurst with sauerkraut and share a beer. Oh, and a giant, steering wheel-sized pretzel! This time the singing drinkers around us didn’t bother us. It was even a bit amusing to see the guys stumbling at just 8:00 p.m. and to wonder if they keep their beers upright.