Germany- Oktoberfest and the Neuschwanstein Castle

The view from the top of the mountain where the castle is looking down on the village.
The beautiful castle!

The castle again.

One liter of beer!

My friend Yvonne and I, aka the blondies.

A view of Oktoberfest from the top of the Ferris wheel.

   I had a wonderful time in Germany.  It is a beautiful country! I love being able to travel to a different country for a weekend.  We left on Thursday night and spent all night driving the 8 hours to Munich.  We got to the hostel in the morning, changed and went into the city.  Friday was rainy which made getting into the beer tents impossible.  How Oktoberfest works is that different beer companies sponsor tents where only their beer is sold.  Once the tents are full, which happens at about 10am, they only let people into the tents as others leave.  So since it was raining no one was leaving the warm dry tents.  So instead we went to one of the restaurant tents which only took about 10 minutes of waiting to get in.  I had the most amazing roast chicken (German food is amazing!)  and a Shandy which is a mixture of beer and lemonade.  It sounds like a weird combination but it was delicious.  The drinks only come in one size, a liter.  After eating we hung out in the tent for a while and then walked around the festival.  Despite being known for the beer it is actually very family friendly.  There are a lot of people that bring their children and it is like a fair almost with all the food stands, rides and games.  Robin and I went on the ferris wheel and we were able to see the whole festival which was cool.

 

 Saturday was going to be crazy at Oktoberfest because it was the last weekend and the weekend before had over 1 million visitors.  So instead of braving the crowds we went to the Neuschwanstein castle which is about two hours from Munich.  This is the castle that Walt Disney used for the basis of the Cinderella castle in Orlando. Public transportation is amazing in Europe and it was an easy train ride.  The countryside was beautiful and the town Fussen where the castle is is at the foot of the Alps.  It was a perfect fall day and all the leaves were changing.  I really can't describe how amazing the castle was.  We stopped for lunch in the little village at the bottom of the hill where I enjoyed roast pork and potatoes.  Then we walked 30 minutes uphill to the castle.  In order to get inside the castle you have to take a guided tour which turned out to be great.  The guide was very informative but also short and sweet.  One whole floor of the castle isn't finished because King Ludwig II who ordered the castle to be build died before it was finished.  We of course toured the finished part which was very ornate.  I loved the whole day and would definitely recommend the castle to anyone going to Germany.

Sunday I went back to Oktoberfest.  This time we got into a tent and fortunately found a table that fit my seven friends and I.  On one side was a group of Italians and the other side was some guys from Scotland on a bachlor party trip.  We got some attention being young American girls and had a lot of people either taking pictures of us or asking to be in pictures with us.  Generally everybody was really cool and I had a lot of fun talking to the guys from Scotland.  The atmosphere of the tent is crazy.  There is a lot of singing and standing on benches and tables.  Of course with a tent full of people drinking there are some negatives like one guy who felt the need to relieve himself one table over.  Before leaving I had some bratwurst and chocolate covered strawberries.  We left at 4pm and spent the long bus ride watching movies which made it go by pretty fast.

 Basically it was an amazing weekend and I'm so excited for my next trips.