Day SEVEN: Lichtenstein and Munich

  Awakened at 5:00 am, we got ready and went to breakfast at 6:00. It was a continental breakfast, meat, cheese, yogurt, cereal, and coffee. Our bus brought us from Switzerland to Liechtenstein where we were surprised by the decrease in temperature. We used the bathroom, shopped, and went to a nice cafe that we wished we had in Ashland. Some of us bought souvenirs at a gift shop and we all loaded back on the bus. We were headed to Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. 

On the bus, though many of us fell asleep, we traveled through Austria. This was our fourth country of this trip, and we saw many cows. We continued through to Germany where we took the Autobahn, a highway which has no speed limit. Unfortunately, since we were on a bus, our top speed was capped at 100 miles a hour (McGann note: at no time were we traveling anywhere close to 100 miles an hour... it was actually 100 KILOMETERS per hour, which is about 62mph). Elise continued to be asleep and she is now just learning that we were going that fast as we are writing this (McGann note: we weren't).

Once we arrived the scenery was a mix of the beautiful German Alps and a countryside filled with flowers and farms. At the base of the mountain, we were given time to get some food before our journey began. Our wonderful tour guide, Gwen, told us to look up for the castle which was “half way up the hill”, when in reality, it was a more than a mile up a cliff. Some of the students found the trek challenging as they decided to sprint up the entirety of the mountain, with Marisa losing her shoe on the way, it will be missed*. We made it to the top while dodging manure from the horse drawn carriages that we unfortunately were not allowed to take up. Some students also had trouble avoided the bikes on the path, though they were making quite a ruckus, some we are not sure how that happened. 

We made it to the top after our pleasant 20 minute trek through the Bavarian forest when we saw the castle. It was quoted as a “fairytale castle” which makes sense considering the fact that it inspired Walt Disney’s design of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Gwen then handed out our tickets and we entered the castle. We waited a couple minutes to scan our tickets then headed in and told two rules: backpacks must be worn in front to avoid knocking things over and no photography was to be permitted at any time, a rule which Mr. McGann learned the hard way. We then were given a short tour around the inside of the colorful interior. The castle was never finished due to the mysterious death of King Ludwig II midway through its construction. It was claimed to be a suicide by drowning (in two inches of water). We doubt that. In the castle, there was running water, heating, and electricity as it was built in 1896. The design was a Neo-Gothic style because Ludwig was a large fan of the romantic era and wanted to recreate it. Neuschwanstein means “new swan stone” and this characterization was present in much of the decor in the tapestries, paintings, wood carvings, door handles, etc.. Ludwig II built it with the intent of it being a private estate where he could pretend to be in the European legends which he adored. There were many other rooms we were unable to explore, but there was a balcony overlooking the Bavarian landscape where we could take pictures for the first time on this tour. 

We exited the castle, made our way down, and some people used the time to get some last minute souvenirs while others went to use the toilet, which we had to pay for. We got back on the bus and were quizzed on our knowledge on Mama Mia and The Sound of Music. We continued driving for two hours until we reached Munich, where we stopped for a buffet style dinner in Marienplatz, the main square of the city. There, Mr. McGann almost lost an arm wrestle to Mrs. Reap, (we were told not to include many details). We then got back on the bus and headed to the hotel for the night. 

*We did indeed recover Marisa’s shoe in the end. 

- Camille, Elise, Marisa, Tommy, Dan Z.