Thoughts on our Trip

As the pictures Ken posted a few days ago show, we ventured to Bavaria last week. We met Ron and Julie Kruse in Berlin and took the train down to southeastern Germany. If we haven't said it previously, I'll say it now. We love the European train system. If you decide to travel Europe, we'd highly recommend a Eurail Pass. If you travel with more than 2 people, you can travel for 5-10 days within 2 months in 3 continuous countries for only 45-60 euro ($64-$85) per day. A Germany-only pass for 3 people for 4 days within one month (the pass we got with Ron and Julie) only is 31.50 euro ($44). You'll never find plane tickets or rent a car for that price. The trains also run between major cities multiple times per day. You can also take an overnight train and save on a hotel room. It costs a bit more than your rail pass to reserve a slot, but not as much as a hotel and you save daytime travel. If you do this, we highly recommend paying the extra and getting a sleeper car. The "seats" are okay if you can sleep sitting up, but that doesn't get you a very good night sleep if you are planning to tour the next day. We tried the 6-person "couchette". I was fine with this because I'm a sound sleeper with my Dramamine, am small and can handle the claustrophobia of being on a bunk with only 2 feet between beds. For someone of Ken's size, it was too tight. One more tip... pay a few dollars more per trip and get a reservation. There were some legs of our trip where there was standing room only.

Okay... on to the trip. We arrived in Munich in the early afternoon and went in the rain to Oktoberfest. Since it was mid-week and rainy, we had no trouble going into two tents. Never try to go there on a weekend or an evening without a reservation. You will not be able to get in as we learned on Friday. What was really interesting was that each of the tents had a different clientele and personality. The Hofbrau tent was a college frat party. Too much for us old geezers! The Paulaner Tent was much more our style. We went their twice.

We then took the train to Garmisch (no additional cost since you can travel the whole day on the rail pass) where our hotel was. Garmisch is a picturesque valley town. Our hotel rooms had balconies with views of the mountains.

On Wednesday, we visited the castles of the Bavarian kings, Hohenschwangau Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle, the one created by crazy King Ludwig II which was the model for Cinderella's castle at Disney World. Once again it rained, so we didn't get to enjoy the views as much as we could have. There is a bridge, the Marienbrücke, between two cliffs where you can see Neuschwanstein. The castle was completely covered in clouds and then they lifted. It was pretty cool and mysterious. We toured both castles. Hohenschwangau was kinda boring, so if you visit them with limited time, skip it.

Thursday started out as a resting day. I went for a 5 mile jog that ended in 5.7. I ran along the mountains. The leaves were changing and I found a path uphill to a little lake. The lake-lover in me couldn't resist it. When I got back, Ken told me that that day was the best day to take the train up to the highest point in Germany, the Zugspitze. The two of us took train and cable car up to the top. Unfortunately, there were clouds up there and we couldn't see the . We had fun feeding the birds at the top and had cake at the lodge on the edge of the glacier. You could also cross over into Austria up at the top.

On Friday we all went back to Oktoberfest. The rain cleared and we could go on some rides. Ron and Julie took the overnight train to Berlin to head home. Ken and I stayed one more night and woke up to the mountains. For the first time, it was completely clear in Garmisch. INCREDIBLE!!!