May 14

We were all excited to go to the Neuschwanstein Castle on Day 12 especially now that we no longer had to worry about our projects. We began our trip by leaving the hotel at about 9 and we arrived at about 10:30. We checked out the gift shop real quick before we began a long uphill walk. After a good bit we had finally made it to our first stopping point (slightly out of breath). There was a deck which had a pretty good view of the castle and we decided it was a good place to take a group picture. There was also a “bridge” on the other side where there was a beautiful view of the area. After getting a good look at the views we began our walk to our next stop. It was a bridge with the popular, recognizable view of the back of the castle. It was incredible to see how the castle looks over the cliffs. The only problem was that the bridge was very crowded and it kind of sketched me out (although it was definitely worth it). The nest thing on our agenda was the tour of the inside of the Neuschwanstein Castle. The journey there was rather long as well, but it was not without some pretty amazing views. The tour itself was rather interesting because of the stories about the king who had the castle built. He was definitely an intriguing man although rather crazy and his interest in swans was rather strange. The tour was actually surprisingly short and unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures. I was not too disappointed though because the inside was unimpressive compared to the outside of the castle. After the tour we were done at Neuschwanstein and the next thing was to go to the small town of Füssen for lunch. A few of us could not wait to eat so we grabbed some bratwurst sandwiches quickly. They were delicious and really hit the spot. Still hungry, we were ready to eat in Füssen. It was a cool, little city and we were excited to find a kebab place where we could get döner again. After Füssen we went to this cool church in the middle of nowhere. It was super nice and some great paintings and architecture. I just couldn’t believe it was so nice considering the surrounding area. After a long day we had planned a group dinner as our last planned activity. We went to the fancy Ratskeller and everyone was there, all the Germans and Americans together for the last time. It was really a bittersweet dinner. I had the schnitzel again and I thought it was better this time. Many of us didn’t want it to end, so we headed to the brewery to just hang out together. It was really a memorable day.