Die letzten Tage in Deutschland

The following day, Brigid took off and I continued one more day of sight-seeing around Munich. I decided to go the the Neuschwanstein castle which suposedly is the inspiration for the Disney Castle. It was actually only built in the middle 1800's by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

Loading up on some mountain water before going to castle

This bridge was built so a king's daughter who liked climbing. There was no way to get across to the next mountain to climb, so it was built. Now it serves for tourists to get a nice look at castle.


Here is a smaller castle where Ludwig II and his predecessors actually stayed most of the time. (Ludwig died before the castle was even finished.... he was probably did not just die, but was killed, since he was or did spend all of the royal money of Bavaria on building not just this castle, but many others.)
The following are just some pictures of Munich where I was walking around near the central station.

Netted dragon

Looks a lot like a Spartan

This sign means no throwing bottles out the window. Darn, and I wanted to do that too.

Ok so after Munich, I went to the north to Nuremburg, which is still in Bavaria but part of the Franconian region. It was a rather important city in the past as the imperial diets and courts would meet here in the castle, even though it was not officially the Holy Roman Empire capital.

St. Sebaldus church.




This person was holding up the structure in the picture just above in the church

Here was where water was distributed. You can see the pipe in the fence which is connected to a ladel where water would fall. It is not in operation now though. My bride's sister is wishing for luck as she turns the gold metal ring in the fencing.
The door to the castle
The castle of course

Typical meal. This was a huge piece of pork with a friend ground potato, which was very similar to the Lithuanian cepelinis.
I believe this was the opera/theater house.
I thought it was very interesting how the old structures of the past were incorporated into present needs.
Would you beleive that people can access the subway by going into the archway in the tower?

After that small day tour, I went to the 2nd largest beer festival, which was in Erlangen. Because of rainy weather and a poor economy and being that it was Wed., there were not as many, but there were still lots.
Ich liebe dich... I love you.
Interesting alligator.
It is hard to see, but there are actually outdoor concerts going on for free for the public. There were "cellars" which were carved away into the hilside which sold beer.




Friends of the sister's bride. I was so lucky to meet all of them as they are the ones who showed me all around and hosted me for the night.

Finally, the last stop was even further North out of Bavaria to Hessen to the town of Fulda where my German friend lives whom I met in Guatemala. We did a little sight-seeing including going to Schweinfurt, where she is from and where there is a US base, and to a monastery where they brew good beer. Unfortunately though my camera on it's last minutes so I have few pictures.
On the way to the monastery... we are bringing back the bottles to have them refilled with the Kreuzberg beer.Our frightful faces tell you that the beer was just a little bit strong. If I remember correctly, it may be as high as 12%
With the beer was served pickles and a famous cheese mixed with spices and garlic I think.This was my last breakfast, white sausages with beer. They said I had to have the beer to make it a traditional German breakfast. It was noon anyway, so I guess it was not that big a deal.