It is 2 in the morning, and I am blogging. Seriously I need to work on falling asleep. Well since I am awake, looks like I am going to be productive and write about my latest adventure.
I waited and waited all week for Friday. That was to be the start of the fun! First off, I started talking to this girl in Frankfurt about what there was to do in Kelkheim, and was informed of a rockclimbing gym right by me. Who knew?! So we went, and I had a blast! Vikky was a blast to hang out with! We took turns climbing and then when we were taking a little break I saw something that mad me almost die with joy! There were slacklines set up inside!! If you don't know what that is, check the picture below. It is kind of like a tight rope concept?
It is something I started doing back home with some of my favorite people in the world! I love those guys! We had so much fun slacklining the summer I lived in Provo... ANYWAYS back to the story.
We played on the slacklines for a while (I think I got Vikky hooked!) And I actually finally got it! All of these years Neil has been telling me to 'Think manatee". What kind of advise was that?! I finally get it now. It is more of a clear your head and relax, float along like a manatee. It all clicked when I was trying to clear my head and the song from the Lion King popped in my head. Before I was only able to take a few steps. Then all the sudden all I can think about is "I have a lovely bunch of coconuts de-de-le-de..." and then I realize I am on the other side of the rope. Holy crap Batman! I did it! I did it a few more times and loved it! I tried the bigger ones and soon realized I needed a longer song. When I got to the "... big ones small ones, some as big as your head." I starting think "well, when Mufassa.." And I got distracted and would fall :) Good times.
After that Vikky drove me into Frankfurt. We did really well getting me to Anna's house considering I had only been there once and I only knew how to get there by train. Thank heaven for people with patience :) Finally we found it and we said our goodbyes. Before I left though Vikky invited me to go to... This one place that is just across the French border. We are going shoe shopping there on Friday. I can hardly wait!
I get to Anna's, and since she loves me, she gave me a key so that I could just come whenever and crash so I didn't have to wake her up. I go to my room there (yup I have a room. The cat isn't too happy about me stealing his bed, but I know that I am bigger than him), and I try to sleep. It wasn't even 11. So it didn't happen. I just laid there for a bit and then remembered I had a letter from Lisa! Can I just tell you how amazing that girl is and how much I love her?!
At about midnight Anna wakes up. Turns out we didn't have to leave till 1:30 am but her alarm was fast so she was up. She let me make a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon on it! Oh it was heavenly! Wonder bread. Real cheese. Real bacon. Normal milk. Best. Thing. EVER! All of you back home, don't take those sandwiches for granted. They deserve better than that.
After a lot of good conversation we got in the car and headed for Wiesbaden. That is where our tour bus was to pick us up and take us to Bavaria, and to the amazing castle of Neuschwanstein. I could hardly wait! I had dreamed of going there for as long as I could remember. I always loved this castle for two reasons. 1-it is the castle of 'Mad King Ludwig' (focus on the Ludwig part if you would...) and so I have always imagined that we are related and that I am just some lost little Princess :) With my imagination how could I not?? 2-In my Grandpa and Grandma Beazers house they always had this puzzle (huge puzzle, I think 5000 pieces?) of this castle. It was covered in snow and looked magical.
The bus ride was... rather long. It was I think, 5 hours all together? We had to take an hour bathroom break/food break, because that is one of the mandatory rules so the driver doesn't get sleepy and what not. Seemed longer I guess cause I was too excited to sleep, and those seats are not designed for a whole lot of sleep. I think I got a few hours that night. Maybe.
For the record, I would like to point out how touristy this trip was. I went on a big yellow tour bus, and took tours with a tour guide. So odd! All in all I had fun though. We got our tickets and had fun buying random crap :) I love my stuff! I got a necklace with a crown on it (lame sounding I know, but I LOVE IT!), and I bought me a jewelry box that sings edelweiss. We had about... what almost two hours to kill before our tour? Nothing was really open so I took a lot of pictures of the first castle we went to. This one is called Hohenschwangau Castle. This is where King Ludwig II grew up. Since we had a lot of time to kill, here are the pictures :)
This is me and Anna in front of neuschwanstein castle.
We really had too much fun taking pictures....
It was nice to be in the mountains again! The 'Alpine foothills' were beautiful!
Ok this one... It is here just cause it made me laugh. Anna was taking a picture of the.. May pole? Whatever. The funny part is 'blondie' and 'pretty boy'. They are the two guys walking there... They are important to the story later.
This is the first castle. Yellow... They chose yellow. Whatever. Your castle.
Having too much time works out well sometimes :)
"don't forget God whilst drinking and eating" 
The tour inside the Hohenschwangau Castle was pretty fun. The tour guide was hilarious, and there were some amazing things. Sadly pictures were not allowed inside. LAME! but just go google them. There were some amazing paintings on those walls. I mean ON them. Not hanging on them, they were painted there, and are still there in fantastic condition. There was also a piano there that Richard Wagner played. I really wanted to touch it, just to say that I had... I didn't though. I followed the rules. For the moment.
Wanna know something? Castles are freezing! It was warmer outside than it was inside! (for once it was a beautiful sunny day. I was shocked.) I have no idea how they did it back then... ugh! There were a lot of cool little quirks to this place. There were I think 80 things with swans on them (Hohenschwangau, Swan is in the name and a big part of this place). There was also a hidden door in the wall that lead to a set of stairs down to the queens room. Also the kings room had the night sky painted on the ceiling, and the servants would... How to explain this... They would put light behind some of the stars and also change the phases of the moon with the lights. Amazing to say the least.
After killing some more time walking around and buying more random things, we decided to take the horse ride up to Neauschwanstein castle. I was perfectly ok with this. I was tired, and I love horses :) There were a lot of us crammed in that carriage though... that was my only complaint. But I liked thinking that we were going up the same way they use to back in the day. Good times.
(I took this picture while waiting in line for the bathroom... Yeah, this is just a bathroom view! Imagine the real views!!)
This castle, was always something that was magical to me, and in real life it didn't let me down. It was huge and gorgeous! I took so many pictures! Inside we were not suppose to take pictures, but everyone was, and I finally caved and took one. It was at the top of the stairs. I am in a spiral staircase taking this picture, looking up.
Should have taken one of King Ludwigs room. There were so many amazing things! There was a lot of detailed carvings and stuff, all together just in his room it took the artisans 4 years to complete it. I think he only lived there for 108 days before dying (nobody knows what happened still. Murder? Suicide? Accident? My money is on murder. My theory is that they made the eccentric king look insane to get the throne, and then killed him off for good measure. Did I mention that the Doctor was also found in the lake with him? They both drown in shallow water even though King Ludwig was an excellent swimmer. Eh eh?) There was also a throne room (no throne, King Ludwig ordered it, but once he died his family canceled the order) that was beautiful beyond belief! He also had a fake cave built in one of the corridors. Pretty much everything followed a Wagner theme. The tour guide, who made us feel like cattle and rushed us through, was always saying things like "This room is based off the play 'such and such' by Wagner. This place made me happy cause it was somewhere that imagination had been brought to life. We must be related. This guy got it. Little over the top, but he got it.
At the end of the tour we were looking at the window and there was a bridge (I think it was a gift to king ludwigs mom?) and there were people on it. Someone asked about it, and the tour guide, looking down her nose informed us that "the bridge was closed and there was a gate to keep people out, but that some people just didn't listen and wanted to get those pictures of the castle". The bridge is where everyone gets a great view of the castle... The next thought in my mind, how can I convince Anna to let me go?? Before I even formed a way to bring it up, Anna says let's go find the way to get to the bridge! SWEET!!!
Turns out the 'gate' that is suppose to keep people out, it is just a pitiful little thing you can slip around. And slip I did! Behind me slipped Blondie-real name Daniel, everything about him screamed army from his walk to his clothes, Pretty Boy-Obviously cute, in the pharmacy division of the army, and Chick who liked to flirt with pretty boy-was there with her mom, and no I didn't laugh when she slipped in the snow.. the first time. Second time I just had to :)
After a nice little walk in a little snow, we made it to the bridge. I will let the pictures talk do the explaining how amazing it was...
Now I want you to focus on something right now. After we got to the bridge, the path kept going. We wanted to see where it went, so we did. Half way up Chick started slipping and saying she was kinda done. The guys were like "Oh I guess we could stop... blah blah blah" and then I informed them I was almost there and I was not stopping so close. I wanted a picture from there. Needless to say the guys kept going. Chick waited for us. It didn't take long, so stop feeling bad for her. It isn't her fault she is a whiny wimp :) Or maybe it is. Pretty Boy got to the top first, so I yelled up to see how different it was. He said there wasn't one. So please, tell me. The picture above is from the bridge, below is from the climb. Do you see a difference and think my hike was worth it?
(these are both from the hike not the bridge. I am meaning the one above the story and below it.)
After the hike down we went and got something to eat. Anna was nowhere to be found, she wanted me to socialize with pretty boy and blondie :) Anyways, they get their beers (Pretty Boy not so hot with a beer in his hands) and I get my non alcoholic drink and chocolate cake :) We had some interesting conversations. At one point in time they were making fun of country music and other things, and I was like "yeah sure pick on the hick from Utah", and they started talking about how they think of Mormons not hicks. Joking around I said "Oh are you just going to start making fun of everything about me then??" and they kinda were joking around with me "oh does that drink have caffeine in it??". That is when our lovely tour guide Patrick at the other table pipes up, "You know, there was once this time when a bunch of Mormons came in to help out with some stuff. They were the best people I have ever worked with. They were hard working, got things done, and were honest." I just sat there grinning at that point :)
After that, we all headed back to the bus... Blondie was in the seat in front of me, and Pretty Boy was in the seat back one and across the aisle. We all were joking about how we were going to sleep on the way home as long as the small children let us (there were a few kids from like 8 months to 3 years old. Actually one of the couples with kids were from SLC, small world). Well we sit on the bus and are starting to get comfy..... 8 month old, right behind Pretty Boy starts screaming. I look at Pretty Boy and we both just started laughing. After all the joking, it was going to be a reality. Or so I thought. I decided to try and sleep because I was going on about 30 hours with only the tiny bit of sleep I got on the bus ride down. I crashed good. I think I might have been out for two hours. Dunno. nothing really eventful happened on the bus ride back. We slept, ate, slept, and then we were home. We all parted ways, I still don't know Pretty Boys name, and that is ok. He can forever be Pretty Boy in my mind. Anna and I got home, and just crashed. We were home at about midnight and had church at 9:30. I was dead, but I loved it so much! The trip was a blast and I really loved talking to Anna about things and spending time with her. The castle was all I wanted and more. My imagination didn't do this place justice, which is saying a lot.
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