It has been a while (again) since my last blog post!! Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles were amazing to visit. It was as if we were walking through a fairy tale. After we took a short ten minute bus to the castles we started off with a tour of Hohenschwangau castle then walked back down the hill through the forest back down to the main town. We ate our lunch by the lake (which took a bit longer than expected) so we had to practically run up the mountain to Neuschwanstein. We made it into the castle for our tour right as they were starting to walk in. Both castles were amazing to visit but Neuschwanstein was exceptionally stunning. The rooms are extravagant and unique. I think the enchantment of the castle was enhanced by the fact that it was never finished. King Ludwig II who commissioned the castle died before it was finished of mysterious circumstances and the castle was never completed. After the tour of the castle we walked to the bridge that Ludwig II built for his mother's birthday. There is a great view of the castle, forest and town in the background. After we hiked around the area some more then headed back down for dinner. I had bratwurst & Udara a pretzel. The only German food we ended up having throughout our week in Germany. Our budget is running thinner so we have been grocery shopping a lot ;)
The next day we left for Cologne, it was about a six hour train ride from Fussen. Our hostel in Cologne was nice, very close to the Cathedral and train station. Cologne was a beautiful city on the Rhine River, we enjoyed walking around the city and doing our usual wander-without-purpose-find-cool-stuff.
After Cologne we headed off to Amsterdam!!! Amsterdam is a great city. There is a lot to see and interesting people everywhere. On our only full day there we tried to go to the Anne Frank house, ended up going the wrong way and went to the Van Gogh Museum instead. I really love Van Gogh's art so the museum was really interesting to me...and surprisingly Udara liked it too. She's usually not too excited about the museums I drag her through. After we walked to the Anne Frank house but the line to get in was ridiculously long so we decided to attempt to come the next morning before we left. That night we walked through the Red Light District....damn. Next morning we went to the Anne Frank house again and the line wasn't too bad but we had to catch our train at 10:59 so we didn't have enough time to see it and make it to the train. I'm not too disappointed though....Amsterdam is definitely a city I would like to return to and finish exploring.
Now we are back in Paris and enjoying staying in one place for a while. It was an amazing month long journey with my Eurail pass and everything in my backpack. I'm excited for the next part of our trip, a few more days with Udara's cousins in Paris then back to Norway to go to Ina & Sondre's wedding :) Yesterday was Bastille Day - France's celebration of the storming of the Bastille on July 14th. We watched the parade on the TV and saw the fireworks under the Eiffel Tower at night! An amazing experience :)
Today we went to Oscar Wilde's tomb and after had lunch by the Seine. And everything in Paris is on summer sale, so of course we did some shopping too. When we were walking back from the Seine I heard someone call my name and turned to see my neighbors from home in Lake Forest!! Weird....haven't seen them in a while and then run into them in PARIS! So strange. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow.....we will see!
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