By the time we found/checked into our hostel, it was getting late so we decided to wander around and find somewhere to eat dinner. We decided to go to the Haufbräuhaus, which is a touristy restaurant where all the waiters/waitresses wear traditional German clothes and serve traditional German food. It was definitely an experience! We also got to listen to a traditional German band while eating.
While wandering around, we also discovered Marianplatz. From my little knowledge of Munich, it seemed to be the shopping center. I wasn't about to make the guys wait for me while I shopped, so it was probably a good thing for my wallet that they were there! There were also some awesome old, historical buildings that we stumbled across. We weren't sure what they all were, but apparently this is the town hall.
On Saturday, Kelsey and I took the train to Neuschwanstein. It's a castle built around the 1860s fro King Leopold, who died under mysterious circumstances before it was finished. Even though it was built relatively recently, it was designed to look like it was built in the 10th century. The inside decorations, especially all the colors used on the walls, were inspired by the works of German composer Richard Wagner. Neuschwanstein is the inspiration for Cinderella's Castle in Orlando's Disney World, which was really one of the main reasons I was excited to see it. The tour was very cool; unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside of the castle. The castle was about a 20 minute walk up the mountain from the little town, but we saw some amazing views on our way up!
We got up early on Sunday to walk around and get good pictures of all the cool buildings we had seen while wandering around the previous two nights. We happened to come across some street performers who looked like they were straight out of Carnivale in Brazil. There were tons of drums and 2 dancers. I couldn't get close enough to get a great picture since there was such a crowd around them, but I did manage to get a few decent ones. My brother, Stephen, would have loved it.
We then walked to the Residences, which is where the kings and queens of Bavaria would have lived. The buildings are huge and very impressive, even from the outside! Close to the Residences was the English Garden, a 910 acre park-larger than Central Park in NYC and Hyde Park in London. I stumbled across a lock bridge and had to take a picture with it.
Since it was such a nice day, tons of people were out running, playing soccer, bike riding, or just taking a walk through the park like we were.
At 12:15, we experienced the highlight of my day: a tour of FC Bayern Munich's stadium! I was literally in seventh heaven the entire time. We got to go in the player's locker room, see the pressroom, and even go (kinda) onto the field! Before going onto the field, the tour guide lined us up in two lines, just like the teams do, and played the official music for when Bayern Munich walks out to begin their matches. I can't even begin to put into words how incredibly cool it was.
We then went to the Olympic Park, where the 1972 Summer Olympics were held. We were all so tired that we didn't walk around too much, but we did see the natatorium and the venue where the Opening/Closing Ceremonies occurred. BMW World, basically a BMW museum, was there too so we walked through that briefly. It reminded me of the Dream Cruise back home in Detroit, but I still got a few pictures of the cars on display.
After a whirl wind weekend, I was very excited to come back to my own bed in Switzerland and get some rest. But I could not have asked for a better weekend and first trip out of Switzerland!
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