Bike, Hike, Slide, and Cinderella's Castle!

So I'm blogging this a little late because my internet access has been limited since my computer battery ran out of power.  I was aprehensive about using the european converter to charge it because I was mildly concerned my computer would blow up.  I finally got the guts up to plug it in.  If I ignore the strange buzzing sound coming from the converter, it works just fine!

So on Monday Sarah and I had signed up for a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle.  We decided to make a full day of it, and rather than getting our tickets and waiting hours with swarms of Japanese tourist buses to tour the castle, we did things a little differently!

We started off the morning with a pastry from a local bakery (typical).  Then we set off on a 2 hour bus ride outside of Munich toward Neuschwanstein.  When we got there the weather was a little misty, but that didn't stop us from getting our bikes!  As a group we took a 1.5 hour bike ride around the beautiful countryside surrounding the castle.  We learned we could still ride a bike, though hills and and knowing which gear is proper to use (Sarah!) is somewhat tricky!

After the bike ride, and walking out bikes up the long hill we were too weak for, it was time for lunch.  After lunch we opted to do the Alpine Slide.  If you don't know what an Alpine Slide is, don't worry, I didn't know until I was in the middle of it.  It's basically like a luge, but your just leaning back and there is no ice.  You get pulled up the tall hill like when you go up in a roller coaster, then you wind down the hill on a track while sitting on this little cart/sled thing.  Weird, but kinda cool.

So our tour guide was this pretty cool South African dude.  He tells us he attended the German School of Magic for 2 years and he is like the "Magic Circle" or whatever that is.  Sounds kinda like Harry Potter to me....  So anyway, he did a little magic after lunch, and I thought it was going to be pretty lame.  Because let's face it, unless you are a warewold, vampire, or wizard in a bestselling novel, I'm not really interested in your magic.  But of course, I get pulled to be the female assistant.  This dudes tricks totally messed with my mind!!!  I still don't know how he changed that card in my hand, I swear, I had a death grip on it!  Haha!

Finally we get to the good part!  A 45 minute hike uphill to the castle.  Emphasis on the UPHILL!  Germans are pretty active people who enjoy hiking.  Their version of a mild hike is like a death march to me!  The brochure said "not the least bit strenuous"...LIES!  Anyway, we hiked past some beautiful scenery including some waterfalls, and finally made it to the top.

The interior castle tour was pretty short, since Ludwig did not get to finish it before his mysterious death, but it was very cool on the inside.  When we finally made it back to the bus to return to Munich we were sore, hungry, and tired.   But all in all it was very cool day (and all that exercise helped us rationalize that 1L of beer we had the night before)!!!!