Left munich early..much to the disliking of dans hangover which demanded he drag his feet all the way to the station looking severely ill..it also demanded amy go a little green on the train..
we decided to visit the neauschwanstein castle..and although i had never heard of the castle before, everyone knows it very well. its the disney castle!the inspiration for the castle for sleeping beauty. We picked a freeying day to walk in the rain up the huge hill to the castle..it was freeying, but it made the advertised 40 minute walk only 20 minutes for us! we really do have buns of steel..and calves and thighs of steel...kinda..icecream and chocolate take alot of exercise to burn off!
The castle is built onto the side of the hills, which are the beginning of the alps. The town is only 5 km from the border of austria, so it made it very chilly. Its a beautiful castle and was built by king ludwig around 1869. ludwig was a little crazy though and was so obsessed by swans that nearly all the rooms have swans in the paintings, carpets and cushions or on the chandeliers and door handles and vases..litle crazy. Its beautiful on the inside, with paintings on all the walls, wood carvings covering everything and a beautiful view out of every window looking out to the alps..that we couldnt see cz of the rainclouds. damn.
Left the castle and caught the train to stuttgart, where dans great oma lives. We were picked up by dans great uncle, who greeted us with hugs and kisses and was so excited to see us. Were driven to dans omas house in echterdingen, near the stuttgart airport. If dans uncles was excited to see us, dans oma was triple triple excited to see us. She still gets excited when we see her in the morning. shes a gorgeous little 85yr old oma, who is a little deaf, but her hug smiles and laughs are amazing. amy has adopted her as her oma. Her cooking is amazing too..good german food..sausage, potato salad, last night was sauerkraut (stewed cabbage) and spetzler-excuse my spelling tina!, and leberwurst (liver stuff)..it was awesome and good winter food.
We been around the main stuttgart town with dans other great uncle bernie, and tomorrow the same uncle who picked us up is driving us to the black forest. today was a public holiday, and nearly everything is shut..except the mercedes benz museum!
dad, you would love it!!stuttgart is the home of mercedes benz..every second car is a mercedes, and the museum is massive!!huge. its 8 levels, and begins with the first car, and goes through everything. It was only opened in 2004, so its very new and modern and entertaining. covers buses, trucks, cars, luxury cars, racecars, race trucks..everything!dad, one day i will take u there. also goes through all the manufacturing stuff. Dan and i picked out the car we are going to buy..a maclaren f1...when we win lottery.
On saturday were catching the train to bonn to stay a couple of nights with my friend dom. We met when i was at the uni in osaka, and it will be awesome to see him again. lauren ill say hi for u!
love to all
love jess xoxo
p.s. amy and dan are disgusting.
p.p.s. they had a wax off
p.p.p.s. they both cleaned out their ears with cotton buds and pulled out the most disgusting chunks i have ever seen...my ears dont make anything that big or sticky...eeew.
p.p.p.p.s. dan won with a chunck that could have been taken for vegemite.
