4. Next Ausfahrt, Germany!

A full day of trains later, we finally crossed over into Deutschland, where we realized that neither one of us understood anything being said....so glad that we would be meeting Luis Henrique later on! Though our hotel was quite a distance from anything remotely close to downtown Frankfurt, we enjoyed the city before heading on the road (in a fun Audi). Luckily for us our 4th member was a nice lady on the GPS who told us where to go along the many Autobahns.

Heidelberg was a our first destination, where we had our first german sausage. Great old town, full of students, architecture and some funky sculptures (monkeys & mice?). We decided to head on to Nuremberg from there, and though finding a hotel was a challenge, we got to see Luis Henrique put his german to the test as he attempted to negotiate a room with a fun old lady who ran a local inn (we didn't stay there).

After walking all over and enduring Kris' tireless need to take pictures of every possible Starbucks, we moved on to Munich. A long, beautiful drive later (where Dave learned how to distinguish between a real speed limit and 'go as fast you can' sign), we arrived finally in Munich. We made our way to the English Gardens, and happily found a biergarten in the middle! The sausages, pretzels and liter beers became our friends, there and later at the famous Munich biergarten house, Houfhas.

A final trip included to Fussen and then the crazy King Ludwig II's castles. We were amazed by the Bavarian alps, immensly enjoyed a horse carriage taking us up to see the larger castle, as well as the tours of the castles themselves. Somehow we joined a group of japanese tourists as we walked through Neuschwanstein, and saw how the german tour guide wasn't happy when the japanese translator decided to give her own personal tour...who knows what she said!

Check list:

- Castles, castles, castles (Neuschwanstein was the biggest and best)
- All the rivers: Main (Frankfurt), Neckar (Heidelberg), Rhine, Isartor (Munich)
- Heidelberg, home of a really old university & cool town!
- Nuremberg, not much to see at trials building, but Altstadt was fun!
- Englischer Garten, Munich & riding on very old bikes!
- Marienplatz, city center of Munich
- Fussen, they dress like the Sound of Music there
- Driving 200+ km on Autobahn, oh my
- Fantastic scenery: Bavarian alps, green fields, thick forests
- Biergartens & liter biers
- Sausages: remember, one is always enough...