The beauty that is Bavaria - Neuschwanstein!

In some cases, saving the best for last needn't always apply, but when we're talking about Germany, it definitely did.

On our last full day, we woke up far too early so we could head to the little village of Hohenschwangau, which is in the southern part of Germany, close to the Alps and the neighboring countries of Austria and Switzerland.

Of all the drives, this one was by far the most beautiful from beginning to end, although I was so tired I slept through most of it. In fact, I think we all slept through most of it. Still, we woke up about 20 minutes before arriving so I was able to snap a few shots.

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We picked up our tickets when we arrived, and then wandered through the various shops until it was time to head up to the castle.

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To get to the top, visitors have three options: walking up the hill, taking a horse-drawn carriage, or going by bus. Jesse decided to run, Anita decided to walk, and the rest of us took the carriage, although I had my own little moral dilemma about the whole thing. I did, however, make friends with the horses, utilizing horse-befriending techniques I learned from a classmate of mine.

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The castle we were at is Neuschwanstein, which was built by "CRAZY OLD KING LUDWIG" who I really don't think is all that crazy. I think he just had sweet taste in homes (the castles) and in music (Wagner). So I don't know what the big fuss was all about. I'd totally want him to be my king. And the digs aren't so bad, either.

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I, unfortunately, have no pictures of the inside of the castle, since photos aren't allowed, but suffice to say, it was gorgeous. The throne room/ballroom, his bedroom, the Fraggle Rock cave, and the music room are definitely among my favourites though.

After our tour was over, some folks hiked to the bridge to get more photos, but since my camera was dead, I decided not to. Instead, Elia and I ate at a restaurant just down the hill, where we had the best pretzel of the entire trip, and I also had the most delicious and authentic spätzle of all three of the meals of it I'd had on the trip. Afterward, we got ice cream and then went down by Lake Alpsee to sit and write and enjoy the weather.

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In the afternoon, we made a stop in Oberammergau, which is most famous for its woodwork and its passion play. We had a quiz on the way, and I won, so I got free ice cream, which may or may not have been my fourth ice cream that day.

That evening, we headed back to München for dinner at Augustiner Bräu, and then sat down in our hotel bar for drinks and goodbyes, as seven of us were flying home, three were going onto more traveling, three were staying in Germany with family, and our tour guide was heading off for another tour.

Most everyone went to bed after that, but I wasn't tired and felt I should do SOMETHING my last night in Germany, so I headed down toward downtown Puchheim, in search of Die Kleine Kneipe Gastätte, which I eventually found, but it was nearly deserted. Instead, I went to Fabi's Treffpunkt, which may just be the diviest bar in all of Bavaria. There were people smoking, play slot machines, drinking beer, hanging out, and listening to all kinds of music. But it suit me just fine. So I grabbed a Jever and a chair and sat down and wrote for a good hour or so.

Finally, I headed back to the hotel, and went to sleep around 2am, which gave me about 3.5 hours of sleep in total.

Visiting Dachau.

On the afternoon of our first full day in Bavaria, we headed out to Dachau, which is not only the first concentration camp, but also a city that has existed for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Just like it is depicted in movies, the camp is surrounded by trees and rich foliage, making it completely hidden to people passing by. I can see how it would be easy for people to go on with their daily lives in spite of what was happening in Dachau in the 1930s and 1940s, either because they had no clue, or because it was so well-hidden that they didn't need to think about it: out of sight, out of mind.

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At the camp, we watched a 20 minute movie on the history of the camp, and then set off to explore. I felt it was important to see the various buildings and walk the same ground that the prisoners had walked, and it was an ominous and incredibly sad feeling. So much so, that after about 15 minutes of it, I decided I had seen enough. It's sickening really, what happened during the war, and I've seen enough movies and read enough history to know how awful it got, and I didn't really feel like delving too deep into that kind of emotional space, so after walking the barracks and seeing the main buildings, I decided to leave the camp and go wait on the outskirts.

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Visiting Dachau (or any other concentration camp) is something I'd highly recommend to any and everyone, as an awful yet essential reminder of exactly what humans are capable of doing.

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Touring Munich.

On our first full day in Munich, we headed into downtown to pick up our tour guide, John Mountain, a British ex-pat who settled in Germany with his wife more than 30 years ago. Unfortunately, the traffic was awful, so we were a little late getting him, which cut into our time with him. He was one of the best guides, and pointed out all the awesome and obscure places in the city, while giving us a fantastic and comprehensive look at history.

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While Munich is a place I don't have much of a desire to live in, it is undeniably absolutely gorgeous. I felt like I was home in Sonoma/Marin counties with the surroundings of clean and beautiful architecture, classy and hip places and lots of lots of green (although that's kind of a signature of the whole country).

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One of our first stops was Nymphenburg Palace, which is a Baroque style palace and was the summer home of the Bavarian royalty. It's a place I wouldn't have minded growing up in...

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After the stop-off at the palace, we continued on seeing more historic sites, before we made our way to the city center to see the town hall glockenspiel, which goes off at 11 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. daily. While it wasn't the most impressive thing ever, it was far better (and less anti-climactic) than the clock in Prague (in my mind).

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When the show ended, we parted ways with Mr. Mountain and Elia, Jesse and I went to a nearby side street cafe for lunch and some beers, before meeting up again to head out to Dachau.

Prague to Nürnberg to München.

Early Monday morning, we set out toward Munich, but first, we bade farewell to our old bus driver and said hello to our new one. We all assumed we'd downsize, but instead, our new bus was just as large (if not larger) than our prior one. It was a Mercedes-Benz, so we were cruising in style, and there was enough room for each of us to have a row all our own, so we spread out and took up the whole of the bus.

We rode for a few hours with a 30-minute break at a rest stop and then continued on until we made it to Nürnberg, which was the center of the Nazi party before and during the war. We saw the former stadium and Congress Hall, as well as the Zeppelin Field - all places where Hitler would film propaganda, hold parades, and address audiences of his supporters.

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It was interesting to see these massive buildings and realize how egotistical and self-absorbed Hitler really was - in addition to being entirely misguided and sick. And it's kind of weird to think about how there is a city of 500,000 people living their lives where all of this took place. It would be difficult for me to not be reminded daily of it.

But then again, the city itself is beautiful and Hitler chose it specifically because of how much he himself loved it. It's difficult to deny how lovely and picturesque the place is, history of it aside.

When we'd finished checking out the grounds, we headed to the downtown area to eat lunch and explore a bit. Elia and I had a delicious lunch (so good to be eating "real" food after our Czech experience) and there was a Farmer's Market going on in the main square, so people were at that, or setting up for soccer game screenings.

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There is also a statue which has the Nuremberg Ring welded to its fence, and it's supposed to bring good luck and make your wish come true if you touch it all the way around. There is also a distracting gold ring welded to it, which is misleading, as es ist nicht alles Gold was glänz. Luckily, we found the non-gold ring, so I made a wish of my own.

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When we finished spending time there, we headed out for Munich, which was another couple hours away, and immediately went to our restaurant, where we (the vegetarians anyway) were served pretzels, dumplings, käsespätzle and a custard-ish dessert, complete with delicious local beer. The scene there was very much representative of the "traditional" picture of Germany that most people unfamiliar with the country get, particularly as it pertains to Oktoberfest.

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Once done with dinner, we made our way to our final place of lodging, Hotel Domicil, in Puchheim, which was not quite as nice as our first hotel, but better than the one in Prague (excepting all the mosquitos from the nearby lake). We settled in for the evening, and ordered drinks in the adjoining restaurant while watching the game on TV. I couldn't sleep, so I ended up staying awake until 1 a.m. or so, before finally falling asleep.

Last night in Prague.

Our last night in Prague was a good one, although I feel as though I didn't get the Prague experience I'd been hoping for.

Once back at the hotel, our group met downstairs to make plans for the evening. The Texans were going to a special folk dance/dinner thing with Czech dancing and music, but none of us were too stoked on the idea of paying 50 euros for the meal (particularly the vegetarians) so eight of us decided to do our own thing.

I had wanted to visit the Jewish quarter and cemetery but the Germany versus England match was on in less than an hour, so I opted to go see that. Jesse decided to accompany, while Sara, Lynn and Elia went out shopping and visited the church of Infant Jesus of Prague.

We had been given confusing directions to Wenceslas Square and ended up going entirely the wrong way (all the while looking for a horse statue). I asked a local who refused to help and finally a nice Irish (I think?) fellow gave us perfect directions.

There weren't any street cafes with the game showing, so we decided to go to the first place where we could hear the game playing, Beer Factory. Despite its kind of silly name, the place was awesome, and we definitely picked the right one. We parked ourselves at a table in front of one of the many screens in the place, I poured myself a beer, and scoped out the scene. The majority of the room was filled with Germany fans, but there was a fair amount of England love going on too. We had missed the first 15 minutes of the game, but luckily we hadn't missed any action, as all the scoring went down after we arrived. And what a game! Germany has definitely stepped up in the past week and totally embarrassed the UK and shut down England's game with ease.

After the game was won and the celebrating had begun (although much less crazy than in Berlin), we met up with the ladies and stopped for mojitos and snacks at a classy little joint, Como Restaurant. We enjoyed the sunshine and drinks and conversation until Renate, Jim and Florian found us. So we paid our bill and then began walking the streets, looking for a place to eat dinner.

The restaurant we decided upon looked good but ended up being pretty eh, as was the majority of my experience with food in the Czech Republic. After dinner ended, we decided to go for some American comforts, and made a beeline for Ben and Jerry's, which tasted like home...

We enjoyed our ice cream on a leisurely walk home, and then ended up going to bed relatively early. In the end, I feel as though I was gypped of the Prague experience, but I guess now I know better for if/when I do return to the city.