Bern, Fussen, and Munich

After finishing our last blog update, we set off towards the house of Albert Einstein (well... his house for two years at least). His house was located just down the street from our hostel, sandwiched in between several upscale shops. This is where Al lived between 1903 and 1905 when he was working at the patent office in Bern (Nick enjoyed this fact). It is said that he developed his Special Theory of Relativity while living at this house, including the famous equation E=mc2. The house itself wasn't anything spectacular, but the displays were very informative and there was also a video about Einstein's life- that we had to watch nearly three times until it cycled through to the English version.

Once we concluded our tour of Bern, we returned to our hostel and caught up on internet time, reading, and relaxing. We made another delicious dinner of our favorite spaghetti and chicken cordon bleu, then went to bed early to rest up for our long day of traveling to Fussen, Germany.

Our day of train travel started off with a short ride from Bern to Zurich. After a short wait in Zurich, we boarded our next train to Munich. As soon as we stepped on board we recognized two girls from the University of Minnesota that we had talked to in our hostel the night before. This was one of our more interesting train rides. According to our Eurail train schedule book, reservations weren't required on this train so all we needed was our rail pass to get on board. However, anyone who had to buy a ticket for the train had an assigned seat. This resulted in a few rounds of musical chairs whenever the train stopped and new ticket-holding passengers got on board, looking offended that you were sitting in their seat. Luckily we only had to shift around a bit within a group of four seats and ended up sitting next to a nice older German woman who smiled at us a lot. Our unfortunate friends from MN were stuck next to a group of teenage boys who sat and drank and ran up and down the aisle yelling the entire time. We chatted with them a bit when we got off the train, and apparently they had a very unpleasant trip.

After eating lunch in the train station, and discovering that food prices are MUCH lower in Germany (yay!!), we got on our last train of the day to Fussen. Once we arrived, we decided to walk to our hostel and disregard the directions about how to take the bus there. Our bags are incredibly cumbersome on a bus, and really, how far could it be? The relatively short walking directions turned into quite the hike across town! Before too terribly long we found our hostel and checked in to what appeared to be a guy's house with a few rooms to rent on the second floor. The owner greeted us at the door and took us up to our room. It was really spacious and nice, and the large windows offered a great view of the mountains. Or what would have been a great view if it wasn't so cloudy and rainy. Before he left, the owner asked us what time we wanted breakfast delivered and what we wanted to drink. Free room service? AMAZING

Once we settled in and unpacked a bit, we walked back to a large grocery store that we had passed on the way to our hostel. We were really surprised to see how low the food prices are in Germany- some items cost only half as much as we have been paying. We went all out in shopping for dinner and left the store with a huge bag of food for less than 10 euro. We had a relaxing dinner in our room and spent the evening watching MTV and CNN in English and an episode of the Simpsons dubbed in German.

Yesterday morning we got up and waited anxiously to see what kind of breakfast was going to be delivered. Our guess was a few pieces of toast paired with the hot chocolate we had ordered the night before. We were more than surprised when the owner himself arrived with a tray full of warm rolls, juice, lunch meat, a hardboiled egg, hot chocolate, nutella, and a bowl filled with a large assortment of jams, cheeses, and honey. After munching down on our delicious breakfast, we stopped by the grocery store to put together a packed lunch then headed into the center of Fussen.

The main reason for traveling to Fussen was to see the famous castle Neuschwanstein, built high up on a mountain. The castle is located about three miles outside of Fussen. Our big decision of the day was what mode of transportation we should use to get there. After debating about whether or not to get on the bus packed full of tourists, we decided to make a quick visit to the tourism office to investigate our other options. Just outside of the train station we passed a bike shop with a 'bikes for rent' sign. We checked inside for a price and found out that we could rent a bike for the entire day for only 8 euro each. At this price we couldn't pass up the opportunity so we rented two bikes, picked up a map from the tourist office, and set off on the bike trail towards the castle.

There ended up being very nice bike trails all through Fussen and up to the castle ticket area a few kilometers from the train station. We had to lock up the bikes for the half-hour hike up to the castle from there because it would have been too steep to ride, but it was a nice walk up. When we reached the castle, it is how they describe it – kind of like being in a fairy tale. The foggy haze of the day made it look like the castle was sitting high in the clouds. It overlooked the valleys, lakes, and a waterfall below, but unfortunately the fog made it hard to see many of the mountains in the background. We also walked to Marianbrucke (sp?), a great bridge crossing the gorge of the waterfall that provided more picturesque views of Neuschwanstein.

After we were finished with our sightseeing in the castle area, we ate a packed lunch of Brez'n (soft pretzels) and ham, then took our bikes out on a ride around one of the nearby lakes. We then spent a couple hours riding along the river and several of the bike trails through the area. It was a lot of fun, and ended up being a great way to see some good views of the foothills of the Alps.

This morning we woke up and looked out our window, hoping to finally see what was surely a fantastic view outside of our window... unfortunately we had rain and clouds again. We were definitely dreading the long walk back to the train station with our heavy bags in the pouring rain. Promptly at 8:30 am the owner arrived with our breakfast and notified us that as soon as we were finished eating and packing up he would drive us to the train station- free of charge of course. He even ran us to a nearby bank so we could get the cash to pay for our room. He didn't ask for our room payment until he dropped us off and even charged us 10 euro under what we thought we would be paying him. What a deal.

After a 2 hour train ride (1 hour of which with several loud drunk Germans that had a keg... on the train) we arrived back in Munich. We figured out that the place we are staying was a ways out of town, so we decided to keep our bags in a locker in the train station and do some sightseeing. We ended up walking to the Deutsche Museum which is like the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum plus the Museum of Science and Industry. The museum was huge, interesting, and best of all- did not contain a single piece of art. We only had three hours before the museum closed, which was definitely not enough time. Since the entrance fee was very reasonable we are thinking about going back tomorrow if we can fit it in. We were able to see several exhibits including how ships developed, a huge aeronautical section, many old musical instruments, chemistry (our favorite- ha), and much much more.

Once the museum closed we headed back towards a Pizza Hut that had signs for an all you can eat pizza buffet. Sadly, the buffet was only on Monday nights but they still had a reasonably priced meal for two which ended up being as much as we could eat anyway. Stuffed full of true American pizza, we walked back to the train station, picked up our bags, and took the tram to 'The Tent'.

The Tent is just that... two huge white tents located in a backpacker's campground. One tent is filled with 100 bunk beds and the other is a wooden floor with mats and wool blankets. We splurged for the 10 euro a night beds. We weren't sure what to expect, but we think we are really going to enjoy staying here. It has quite the reputation for its atmosphere during Oktoberfest, but tonight is actually the first night that it is open for the season so there are only a handful of people staying here. Most of the party crowd here right now consists only of the staff- who appear to be celebrating their first night back together. Everyone has been incredibly nice here an the atmosphere is very relaxed. We are relaxing ourselves as we are enjoying a genuine German beer while updating our blog.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day of sightseeing in Munich. Sometime in the afternoon we are going to check out the Hofbrahaus beer hall in order to have the full Munich experience. We should be able to update again soon. Auf Wiedersehen!