Final days in Munich

neuschwanstein castle

Here is a short recap of our final days in Munich...
Saturday:
We drove an hour and a half to the Neuschwanstein castle. It was a gorgeous day! We hiked to the top and took a tour of the castle. Then hiked down a different way and took a short bike ride to a lake.

  

              

Touching the castle

 It was such an amazing day. When we got back to Munich we grabbed some dinner at the grocery store and headed home so we could get some sleep.

The next day (Sunday) a group of us traveled three hours outsinde of Munich to the German-Austrian border to hike at Kehlsteinhaus, or Hitler's Mountain Retreat, which is more commonly known in the States as the Eagle's Nest. After a brutal bus ride up the mountain, we enjoyed some lunch at the restaurant. The eight of us hiked up Hoher Göll, the highest peak of the Göll massif in the Bavarian Alps between Germany and Austria.  Unfortunately the day we went was pretty cloudy, and we couldn't see much of the spectacular views for most of the hike. However, right as we were about to turn around, the clouds cleared and we were able to look down at the valleys and towns below. We made it on a ridge to the border of Austria at 8,200 ft elevation, 6,000 ft above the closest ground by climbing over boulders, down "steps" that were more like ladders, found snow in 60 degree weather in July, and took a few wrong turns here and there. It truly was an amazing experience and definitely worth the long trip

Early morning train ride

              

Trying to figure out our U-rail passes

Hanging out in the luggage compartment

The tunnel to the elevator that takes you to the retreat

Minor wound

Austria?

The view at the end made getting up at 5:30 so worth it. When we finally got back we grabbed some dinner and headed straight to bed. 

Monday:

Ryan's Birthday!!! Monday we spent the morning at the archives which was very interesting. We had a guided tour and were able to see a lot of the actual archives. After a few hours we headed back to our hotel to get ready for birthday celebrations. Since it was also Kim's birthday, we all decided to go out and celebrate. We ate at a small little restaurant, had some drinks and then headed back to Kennedy's. Turned out Monday was karaoke night and everyone took advantage of that. 

 Overall a very fun day!