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.

Hochzeit in Deutschland

Well, I wanted to briefly let everyone know that I got to Germany without a problem Thursday night. As some of you may know, I am in Germany because of a wedding that I was going to on Sat. with an old friend from high school. I at least wanted to write a little about it while I could remember.

Actually, even just getting to where I needed to be is a bit of a story. I flew into Frankfurt, took a bus into the town (which was 120 km away) and then took a train to the town of my friend whom I met in Guatemala. I stayed there for the night thankfully and then we went to the Int'l African Festival, which was on the way to where I would spend the next night. The festival included many things to buy from Africa, foods, and of course music. In the evening, my friend found a ride for me online. We travelled on the autobahn (which really is just like a regular highway, with parts that only have 2 lanes except that there are parts too that do not have a speed limit) for a 2.5 hours and got dropped off to where I would meet my old friend from high school and then get picked up by the families of those who were getting married. Obviously I could not have done that all without the help of all my friends here.... thanks so much for taking care of me.

Sat, the day of the wedding, was the first sunny day in a few weeks. It was absolutely beautiful. The lilacs were still out. Peonies were blooming. There was a warm breeze and the night was cool but not cold. The day began by going to the bride's grandma where we ate some goulash soup before mass. It was delicious. We then drove to the wedding, which was in the countryside. On the way, the fields were full of among some other things, wheat, rapeseed plants to make oil (which were blooming yellow and were very fragrant), and hopps to make beer famous for this area (Bavaria). The church was large and beautiful for being in such a small town. The wedding service was similar to that of one you would find in America except they had instruments you might normally find in an orchestra. After the wedding, kids held ropes up to prevent cars from leaving the small town until each car paid something to them. It sounds like something I would have done.

We drove to the small palace... I learned that it was not called a castle but a palace as I just wrote. The events started with all kinds of wine and champagne. Then the cakes were served. There was the traditional Bavarian chocolate cake and then the other 25 cakes that all the family members brought. Needless to say, we ate a lot of cake, or at least I did. I wanted to try them all since when else would I have such an opportunity to try so many varieties of cakes. After the cakes was the balloon event. Everyone wrote on a card something they wanted to do with the bride and groom and then tied the card to a helium balloon. Then all the balloons were let go together. The cards have the address of the bride and groom so that if they are found by someone they can be mailed back. By tradition, all cards found must be fulfilled. After that event, it was more wine or Bavarian beer and then dancing, but only for the wedding couple and their parents. It is not always formal, but this was a bit formal since they used the same musicians as they had in church. Dinner followed with dancing for all, more cake with cheeses, including really stinky cheeses (I tried all the cheeses. Some people say that some cheese stink but taste good. I agree. The stinky cheese that was at this wedding though, I hope to never have it again.) After the last round of desserts, digestives were served, which are liquors to help digest everything. Mine tasted a lot like moonshine. With all the drinking though, no one was drunk. That is because of all the food and activities and even time in between activities, it would be pretty hard to be. The night ended at 2am and I spent the night at the same house I had goulash soup.

And just to keep you up to date, Sunday was a rest day mostly for rest, going to Church, and getting to Munich. Monday I went to Salzburg, Austria, and Tuesday I went to a castle is the inspiration for Disney World's castle. No pictures yet. Sorry for the errors... I figured you would not mind as long as you found out quickly what was going on.