Our 4-day trip to Füssen was interesting to say the least. It began with a nice lengthy bus ride from our hometown of Zweibrücken in Rheinland-Pfalz, to Füssen in Bavaria. It took us about 6 hours, and we went through 3 different provinces, as well as a little sidetrip in to Austria. If we were in Canada, we might have made it to Ottawa or Sudbury, or in to the United States, but we probably would not have made it to either of our 2 closest provinces, Manitoba and Quebec.

After our bus ride we took a tour of Schloss Hohenschwangau. We had another rather animated tour guide whom I enjoyed very much. Although he gave a lot of information, he also made many little jokes throughout the tour which made it more interesting. We then went to our Youth Hostel for the night. I won’t dwell on the Hostel, but I will say that I know feel confident in calling things ‘Youth Hostel Style’, such as my grandmother’s meatloaf and sleeping on hay.

The next day I awoke to the sound of the church bells, sleeping under the window will do that to you. Again, I will not mention anything about the youth hostel breakfast. We took a short bus ride back to the location where Schloss Hohenschwangau is, but this time we had a treacherous trek up a hill covered in horse dung. When we got to the top of the hill the castle was covered in scaffolding, it made for a very nice picture. After seeing various castles with scaffolding up, I’m now rather certain that they do that so you will have to buy a post card. They are bery bery sneaky. We had a guided tour of the Schloss Neuschwanstein, which was built by King Ludwig II, though he lived in it for only 6 months. This tour guide was my least favourite, she had a tendency to yell, though once again, I rather liked her accent. Our next stop was Schloss Linderhof, which was also covered in scaffolding. We did not get a tour of the interior, though the exterior grounds were beautiful. Interestingly, the front of the castle, although covered in scaffolding, had a lifesize picture of the castle, so that you could still see what it was supposed to look like. I found this interesting and took a picture, but with some of the things that I have taken a picture of, I’m not sure if that is a good guide. Next we went to the Ettal Monastery, and were greeted by a rather jolly monk who gave us a little introduction to the monastery. At this monastery they have a brewery in order to make some money for basic costs of upkeep. We’ll just say that the clinking of bottles could be heard for the rest of the bus ride. Before going back to the youth hostel we stopped at a famour church in Oberammergau. This was rather uneventful as I did not understand the significance of the church. I was rather uncomfortable in the church because I was not sure whether or not I could take pictures and I was worried about my church etiquette. All was not lost though, the goats on the path to the church were very playful, and liked to eat grass and hands.

Our night was spent at the musical ‘Ludwig II – Longing for Paradise’. The theatre was at a wonderful setting on the lake, and the building was very nice. I felt a little out of place, as I don’t think of myself as ‘cultured’. This thought was quickly erased when the kids behind us, dressed in jeans, hats, and shirts with skateboard logos, entered the building. They wreaked havoc on my enjoyment of the play and after the intermission I found myself a new seat. I have never been to a play before, so I have nothing to compare this to, but I thought it was fairly good. I think Mr Curry summed it up when he said something to the effect of, “I thought the play was good, but if I wanted all of the special effects I would’ve gone to a movie”.

The next day was our trip to München (Munich), the capital of Bayern (Bavaria). We started the day at the Deutsches Museum. It was very large and leaned towards science and technology. I would have enjoyed it more if I could’ve navigated the map properly, but even though I sometimes did not know what I was looking at, the exhibits were very interesting. Our next stop in Munich was the Hofbräuhaus, where the lethal mix of our youthful looks and a certain waiter made for a nice picture of us drinking an equally lethal coke mix. Althouth they would not serve us beer at the Hofbräuhaus, the Hard Rock Café had no bones about serving legal seventeen year olds. A short stop at the Englischer Gardens to see the naked people and we were back on the road.

When we got back to the youth hostel, some of us thought it might be fun to go and play minigolf by the lake. We walked down to the lake but the minigolf was closed, we then dediced that we wanted to swim. We heeded the ‘Schwimmen verboten’ signs and sat down at a restaurant for a drink. Under Mr Curry’s advice that it would ‘blow over’ we moved the group inside when it started to rain. Well, a meteorologist Mr Curry is not. After a very expensive banana split, we walked home in the rain. On the way to the youth hostel I saw a fountain and was actually drier when I walked through it, than if I had walked in the rain.

After prior experience with the hostel breakfast, we slept until 8:00 on the last day. A mad scramble of showering, room cleaning, garbage ‘separatetting’, and linen dropoff left us at the meeting point outside with 3 seconds to spare. On the way home to Zweibrücken we stopped at Ulm to see the Münster. It may have been called the ‘Münster’ but it was more like a monster with the 768 steps to the top of the worlds largest cathedral spire. Our tour of Ulm was delayed when it started to rain, so we went to eat. Speaking of eating, apparently the were making the world’s largest sandwich in the square in front of the cathedral. I’m not sure if they got that title, but it not, it was surely the world’s wettest sandwich. Our tour of Ulm consisted of walking along the Danube and then to the bus, with a short stop at the supermarket.

The bus ride home was an interesting one, going from the mountain peaks of the Alps to the farmers’ fields outside Zweibrücken. Germany may be able to fit inside Ontario but it is just as diverse as Canada. I can now officially say that I have been to the Newfoundland of Germany, where they speak their own language, act their own way and have their own customs. Come to think of it, I’ve never been to the Newfoundland of Canada; this trip really is covering a lot of ground.