Hello from Germany...

still.... apparently we are having a hard time leaving the country. We are absolutely smitten! After we settled in Munich we jetted off to the Andechs Monestary. We are on a budget and so when there is the option to hike and forgo the € for a bus ride.... we hike, which has gotten us lost almost everytime, but we have seen some beautiful country! The Andech's brewery was amazing though I did not participate in the pork belly that was being offered.... instead I had a pretzel approximately the size of Rhode Island and potato salad. Justin had the pork belly and sour krout! We attacked some local Germans because they had these beautiful burmese mountain dogs (dogs are allowed everywhere in Europe!) and they gave us some great travel tips for us when we headed into the Bavarian country.

The next day in Munich and after 2 liters of beer.... I had a bit of a headache as did Justin and so we had a leisurely breakfast at our hotel. Our hotel owner, Sebastian was fantastic! He got us a transit pass for the day and we had about 3 cappacinno's (sp?), which I am slowly becoming addicted to as the trip continues. We went down to Marienplatz and saw the Rezidence Museum. The residenz is where the bavarian royalty stayed back in the day and so essentially it was a museum filled with furniture which was right up Justin's alley. Munich has this beautiful park called English Garden.... so we took a two hour stroll through that and then we hit up the Haufbrahaus.... a beer hall which is famous and gigantic and you are bound to run into a few Americans and a few Germans in traditional 'lederhosen' and singing songs at the top of their lungs. It was so crowded you had no choice but to share tables and we had lovely table mates and ended up closing down the haufbrahaus!

The next morning we were exhausted from all of our quick stays and so we opted to head down to Füssen.... our present location and stay for 3 days at the Hotel Luntz.... with Frau Luntz.... a delightful old German lady who has taken very good care of us. Our hotel has the Neauschwangstein Castle (the disneyland castle) in our view from our balcony and so it's perfect! And cheap! I literally sqealed when I saw the view. Saturday, we took a 5 mile hike to the castles and took both tours of Neauchwangstein and Hahenschwangau (King Ludwig II's parent's house). Our German locals from the monestary then recommended that we hike to Bleckenau.... King Ludwig's hunting cabin (now a pub).... which was straight up hill but void of American and Asian tourists. Just Austrians and Germans and so we felt very in the know :) They have great food in Füssen.... once you learn what your American tastebuds can handle. For example.... Bavarian Meatloaf sounds delicious.... but it's actually a steak that tastes and is the same color of a hot dog. Wienerschnitzel is delicious in any kind of meat and should be ordered at all times. Bavarian pasta is amazing and all Helles beers are a must with every dinner. The food is flavorful and delightful and my German has increased from 0 words to around 20. I'm learning that non verbal communication is key.... especially with Frau Luntz who talks to us A LOT, but doesn't seem to care that we can't understand her :)

Today we hiked down to Tegelburg and took a cable car up to the top of the Tegelburg peak.... Very high.... We sat on the deck of a lovely restaurant and had... you guessed it.... a Cappacuinno (still can't spell it) and then scrambled up another peak, but it wasn't too far. We ate the bread and cheese that Frau Luntz packed for us and watched the hang gliders take off of the peak. Very exciting.... though I almost peed my pants going up the cable car and so I couldn't even imagine. After we decended in the cable car, we rode the Luge (or Alpine Slide for you Durango peeps), which is always fun. After that there was a hang gliding festival going down at the base and they had a german oompah band and so I got a Pretzel and beer and Justin and I relaxed before heading out for the 3 mile hike back to town.

We are forgoing Prague and Vienna because we are findng that we enjoy the country life much more then the city and we're eager to get down to Italy. We are going to Salzburg tomorrow and then on to Venice and Rome for a short time and then we'll hopefully spend our last days in a nice smaller village in Italy, but no idea where that will be for now. More to come.... I hope this extremely long email\blog entry finds everyone doing well.

Love,

Paige and Justin