By: Nicholas Erni May 16th

Well it was a long day once again to say the least. I woke up at 6:45 am to start the day. I was craving some Dunkin Donuts, but they were closed for no apparent reason. I then went to Starbucks where I got a mediocre breakfast bagel. 

The group then made its way over to Baindlkirch for a typical Bavarian breakfast. The idea behind this place is they make unbelievable veal, yet they only serve it on Thursdays. Its taste according to the locals and Dr. Feick is so good, that people travel from everywhere to get it. The restaurant was in the middle of farm land. There were cows everywhere, it really reminded me of Lancaster, PA. The restaurant was not the nicest looking to be honest. It felt kind of dirty to me, the atmosphere was also very German. There was a bunch of older men scattered throughout the restaurant with beers in hand and pretzels and veal everywhere. I didn’t really want any of this heavy food this early in the morning, so that is why I got my bagel at Starbucks. 

From there we traveled to Wieskirche. This was literally a town with nothing but farms and a large church. This church was stunning and really surprised the group due to how far away it was from the cities. Other than looking at the church there wasn’t much to do here so we left in like 20 minutes. 

After going to Wieskirche we departed on an hour bus ride to Neuschwanstein. This was definitely the highlight of the day. When you drive up to the little town all it is is mountains and lakes. It is truly beautiful. The water in the lakes is crystal clear unlike the water in the United States. But out of nowhere appears a castle upon the side of a mounain, it literally looks like something from a movie. The castle belonged to king Ludwig, who arew up in a castle a bit lower on the hill, but he loved the area so much he felt as if he should build another. We walked around the crystal clear lakes and played with the ducks for about 20 minutes, but after it was time to hike up to the castle. 

This was like the majority of the other days, an absurd amount of walking. This hill we had to go up was completely uphill and about a mile and half hike. The group was pretty gassed when we got up there, but the view off the ledge was unbelievable. We stood at the ledge for about 20 minutes just taking pictures before our tour. 

We got our tickets and were off into the castle. I thought it would be much more medieval, but it was built in the later half of the 1800’s. The castle was beautiful, it was for sure fit for a king. Sadly we didn’t get a full tour of the castle due to the fact Ludwig passed away before it could be fully finished. The tour went through a total of 8 rooms, my favorite being the cave room. I have no clue what Ludwig was thinking when he had this placed in the castle but it was awesome. It felt as if bats could literally be living directly above your head. 

From the castle we went to my favorite part of the trip today, and that was the bridge across the mountains. This bridge was extremely high up, most likely between 250-300 feet and gave you a view of the valley between the mountains and all of the land that lay beyond it. There was a waterfall and river running under the bridge which really added to the scenery. The water once again was crystal clear. I took so many pictures here so i’ll drop a few below. 

From the bridge we had to hike back down to the bottom of the mountain. It was much easier than hiking up, but still a pain. 

We then boarded the bus again and went to the small town of Fussen, we were only there for about 30 minutes, but Eamonn, Reid and I stopped in an Italian restaurant and got some pasta and pizza which hit the spot after a long day. 

We all then hopped on the bus and headed back to Augsburg for the night, as I am writing my blog right now on the bus!

Car of the day went to an Audi RS4 near the castle of Neuschwanstein.