Munich
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2008
1
3
19
Trip End
Jul 04, 2008
Munich,
Bavaria,
Germany
Friday, June 13, 2008
After leaving my baggage at the tent, I left Munich for Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein castle. It was a model of Disney's Cinderella Castle. On the train to Fussen, a diligent German girl, who was studying all the way, told me where I should change trains.
Neuschwanstein Castle
Fussen station was small, but the city had a lot of shops. Just after I arrived, I headed for a cafe to buy a soft drink, but it was a mistake. When I got out of the cafe, I saw the bus to the castle leave the bus stop.... So I checked out the location of the castle and found out that the castle was only 4 km away from the station. The next bus was supposed to leave there one hour later. As a matter of course, I decide to take a 4 km walk. In 10 minutes, I knew I was right. The lane to the castle was greenery and really cozy to walk. I even saw some hikers around there. Actually, there were two castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, in the area. It cost double to visit both castles and so I chose only Neuschwanstein, which looked more popular. From the ticket office, I walked along a long and steep road for 30 mins up to the castle gate. And there, I saw a British couple take 3 small children and a big backpack. I imagined how awful to carry them up to the gate. After coming through the castle gate, there were a few automatic ticket gates and a screen showing the number of visiters to enter. I guessed they cost much and wondered if they could have cut down on the entrance fee, instead of building the facilities which disturbs the castle whole appearance.
Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside the castle. I understood that that's why I had never seen the inside pictures. But visiters come to make a good memory there. If we are forbidden to take pictures, how can we do? Do we have to memorize everything in there? In addition Guided tours must be taken.
Neuschwanstein
The guide was available in some languages, but, without hesitation, I took an English guide, although Japanese tours were also available. I make it a habit to take English tours to study English. The castle was gorgeously decorated like Versailles Palace, but I don't remember so much without pictures... Anyways, after the tour finished, I remembered that there were a suspension bridge from which you could get the whole view of the castle which were always shown in guidebooks. On my way back to Munich, it was difficult to transfer, because the trains departing from Fussen were suspended for some reason. A bus driver came to the passengers waiting for the train on the platform and told them to get on his bus. He spoke only German which few passengers spoke, because they were tourists from foreign countries. Generally speaking, Germans speak good English, but not all of them. We barely understood what he said from his gesture. At that time, I assumed that the bus took us to Munich, but we were dropped off at another train station where I didn't know which train I should have taken. I was heavily tired, when I got back to the tent.
Next day, the last day in Germany, I visited Dachau. It must be too difficult to pronounce correctly, if you have never learned German. In "DA-HAU", there was the first-built concentration camp of Nazis. It was a free museum, but I rented an audioguide for 5 euros, because I was really interested. The pictures showing the prisoners' lives shocked me and they were impossible to imagine. In fact, I didn't have time enough to see all the museum, and so I made up my mind to visit Auschwizs, Poland, which was also difficult to pronounce. By the way, on the bus back to Dachau station, I saw a Korean girl, who seemed an international student and she looked like the Korean friend who I met in the Philippines.
