Beerfest!

The first thing everyone from the US asks us is did we go to Oktoberfest in Munich since it was October.  In Munich, Oktoberfest takes place the last two weeks of September and the first weekend of October.  So no, we did not go.

After arriving in the afternoon, we decided to go for a quick walking tour of the city since the forecast for the next two days was rain and it wasn't raining when we arrived.  First stop, Neue Pinakothek, a museum housing 19th and 20th century artists.  On Sunday's admission is 1 euro per person, and it was worth the price.  We only spent an hour or so at the museum before heading downtown.

Yay for Picasso and for being allowed to take pictures at a museum

Both the Opera house and Residenz were under construction  The main shopping street was neat, although we couldn't afford anything in the shops.  The most impressive building on this street was a huge church with a glockenspiel (but we didn't wait around to see it go off after our disappointment in Graz).  For dinner we ate at a good german beer hall that we later figured out was not the one we were looking for.

The next day was our day off which was good because it rained all day long.  For dinner we found Augustina Braustuben, the beer hall we tried to find the night before.  It was amazing.  There were a couple of barrels of beer leftover from Oktoberfest and it was some of the best beer we've had.  The couple sitting across from us (communal tables) was from Utah and we had a blast chatting with them and eating excellent food (I had kasespaetzle, Andy had roasted pork, pork ravioli, pork meatball and pretzel dumpling).  Dessert was apple beignets that were tasty.  Did I mention it was also our two year wedding anniversary?

On our last day in this area of Germany we took a train down to Fussen where the inspiration for Cinderella's castle came from.  We walked five kilometers from town center to Hohenshangwau, the tourist town set up as base camp for the two castles in the area; Hohenshangwau (now referred to as Hohne) and Neushwanstein (now referred to as Neush).

Hohen was the castle Ludwig II was raised in.  Ludwig II was the ruler of Germany sometime in the 1800s.  When he was king he decided he needed a new castle but loved the area of Fussen so he had Neush built higher up in the same valley as his birth castle.  The best view of this latter castle is from a bridge further up the mountain.

After we got our fill of the amazing castles and scenery, we walked the five kilometers back to the train station and once back in Munich went out for Mexican, which we had been craving for a couple days.  It was really good considering where we were and met the owner who was from San Francisco.  The owner was nice enough to give us a small sample of their guacamole and it was fresh and tasty.

In the morning we took a train and a bus to get to Prague since there was no direct train from Munich.