Today was a very, very interesting day. Just like I was told before our trip, not everything goes to plan when traveling abroad. On today’s scheduled itinerary, we were supposed to visit King Ludwig II’s castle in the Alps, visit the nearby village of Füssen, and then visit this pilgrimage church. But, our schedule did not go completely to plan.

Waking up bright and early once again, our day started with hotel breakfast and then an hour bus ride south to the Neuschwanstein Castle in the Alps, which is King Ludwig II’s castle. Once again, we all took a nap on the bus ride. When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was all the fog and the clouds covering the Alps because of how high up we were. It was amazing seeing how beautiful nature can be. 

We first started our morning exploring the gift shops and cafes at the bottom of the mountains. There were a bunch of little shops all around and when we continued to walk down the road we eventually reached the lake that runs at the bottom of the Alps. Our morning had barely just started and I was already feeling relaxed, admiring the pretty scene.

After everyone was done shopping and getting a snack, we started our journey up to the Alps. Right when we started walking, it started down pouring. For the rest of our time there, it rained and rained and rained. But we were determined to see the castle. The walk up was around 15 minutes, all of us getting drenched and sharing umbrellas. Other tourists were riding horse-drawn carriages to get to the top, and I was jealous. On the bright side, once we made it to the top, there were many beautiful views.

From the top, we could finally see the castle after it was blocked by all the fog. They castle is huge and Medieval- styled. I’ve been waiting a long time to see the castle as we talked about it a lot during our pre-departure meetings, and I was not let down. Since it was not yet time for our tour, we walked around the castle and saw the beautiful waterfall right next to it, admiring the view from above. We walked all the way around the castle and it was nice taking everything in, even though we were getting wet the whole time.

When it was finally our time for the tour of King Ludwig’s castle, we were very happy because we were able to warm up inside and dry off. But, the tour was a little underwhelming because we couldn’t take any pictures and it was only 30 minutes, as a lot of rooms were being restored. We did, though, learn a lot about the history of the castle. Using the familie’s money, Ludwig escaped to the Alps and built this castle to hide. He was gay in a Roman Catholic family, so with the familie’s money he built beautiful rooms filled with statues, swan sculptures, chandeliers, gold, etc. The reason why there are so few rooms finished because he died at age 40 from a mysterious death, being found dead in a lake (he did not drown).

After our tour, we explored the castle’s gift shop and then headed to lunch. Halfway down the mountain there is this nice little restaurant that we ate at. I ordered spaghetti and ice tea, and the spaghetti was actually pretty good. Nothing compares to grandma’s homemade spaghetti sauce, though. At the restaurant there was also a pop-up stand outside selling cheese donuts, which Professor Feick said were popular in Germany. They were really fluffy and very delicious.

Once lunch was over, it was time to head back to the bus. Because of how wet and tired we all were, we all agreed to not go to the village of Füssen and to just quickly visit the pilgrimage church nearby. The church is right next to a farm and feels out of place for how big it is. Inside, the church is gilded and there are many beautiful paintings. After a quick in and out visit, we headed back to Augsburg.

Because of the rain, today was a shorter day, giving us plenty of time this afternoon to work on our final presentations which will be presented tomorrow. With only the presentation left complete, our time here in Germany is coming to an end 🙁

For dinner, a couple of the guys and I just went to the grocery store and got packaged meals. I got a chicken wrap, chocolate milk, and yogurt with chocolate chips. It was enough food to fuel me for the evening full of hard work. Tomorrow is a big day, so a full 8 hours of sleep is ideal.

Nicholas Monetti