Well, today started a bit later, around 9am. Nic and I made our way downstairs to grab a quick breakfast at the hotel before we headed out to see the castle. Breakfast was fairly normal aside from the gargantuan amount of smack talk from the Canadians. It seems they think the luge is their countries sport and that I can’t possibly lose. Well I held my own and let those Canadians know that no one is going to beat me at a luge, ESPECIALLY Canadians! We all had a good laugh, it’s great that the group is loosened up enough that we can all tease one another and just generally have a good time.

Nicole here! Kevin wanted me to fill in the blanks between the intro and the luge. He really just wanted to write about the luge I guess! After breakfast we hopped on the bus and headed to Newschwanstein (I have to check the spelling later, too tired to do it now) Castle about 30 minutes from our hotel. As always, the drive was gorgeous.

It was a bit frigid out in the morning, but we warmed up pretty quickly walking around and exploring the castle. We took a bus (a crazy, scary, Mr. Toad’s wild ride bus!) to a spot above the castle called Mary’s Bridge. We walked a few minutes and were on the highest bridge I’ve ever been on! Not only was it high, it was ricketey. The floor was big wooden planks and when you walked on them they bowed beneath your feet. SCARY! But the view, wow, it was worth it. Unfortunately the castle had scaffolding up on our side, but the great weather we’ve had and the incredible views made it breathtaking none the less!

We took some photos on the bridge (of course) and then headed down for our castle tour. This place is Disneyland in real life! Mad King Ludwig had awesome taste! It took 17 years to build the castle, and it was actually never completed. Ludwig only lived there for 6 weeks before he was drug to jail and deemed insane. It is a long story, but you should look into the Mad King’s story…it is an interesting one if nothing else.

There were no photos allowed while in the castle (bummer) but we got some great shots of the outside (and I MAY have snuck one or two while inside, this one ceiling was amazing and I wanted to be able to remember it!). The castle was built with Ludwigs good friend Wagner in mind and so there are opera themes throughout. There is a singing room, a gigantic kitchen and even a cave! So very cool! Ludwigs bedroom itself took 60 men 1.5 years to complete, the woodwork is astonishing! Also, the castle itself was designed by a theater set designer instead of an architecht which gives it the amazing “fairy tale” look.

This is THE castle that Walt based Sleeping Beauty’s castle on in Disneyland! Walt did good!

I’ll let Kevin take it from here! (Oh, Sharon, the scary cave elevator totally made me think of Thunder too! It even smelled like it!!! There have been so many Disney moments on this trip!).

Colleen and Ben were nice enough to go to the store to get us food for a picnic lunch at the lake near the castle. She remembered that Nicole is a vegetarian and brought her a cheese sandwich which she set aside so no one would take. Last night someone jokingly asked if there would be wine at the picnic. A few days before that Colleen asked us “do you know what you call a meal without wine? Breakfast!!!!” So, they reminded her that if she was providing lunch she should provide wine. It was all done very nice and we all had a good laugh. Well, to our suprise, lunch shows up with wine. Colleen brought back 4 big bottles of wine for all of us to share along with chocolate bars, chips, veggies and fruit for everyone. We sat out by the lake, talked about the trip, the Canadians upcoming loss at the luge and other junk. One couple even took a row boat out on the lake, very cute!

So, I know you’re dying to know, what came next. Was it the luge? Please let it be the luge. Yep, it’s the luge. Let me start by saying the luge is friggin awesome. As Nic mentioned, I was warned about going tooooooo fast before we even got there. Let me describe this luge: It is a stainless steel track that winds down a hill. Nothing major, it doesn’t go down a mountain or anything crazy, just a small hill. Something you would ice block down. The ride takes just over a minute depending upon how fast you go. I did it in about 1:15, some people take 2:00 (they are slow and lame and ruin it for the people behind them). Okay, so the track, a half tube (kind of like a water slide) that holds your luge and gets wider on the turns. It has a couple dips to help speed you up. You get on the luge at the bottom of the hill and they connect you to a wire that drags you up. The luge is a simple plastic sled with an e-brake in the middle. You don’t want to use the brake too much, luge is a speed sport, not a slow scenic jaunt through the country side.

When we get there Colleen hops off the bus to buy tickets and meets us at the enterance. Those of us that want to haul ass go first, the slow pokes take up the rear. Being that I am one of the taller, larger guys here (not by that much, there are a couple bigger guys, but they are older and want to go slow) I get to go first, Colleen follows me and the Canadians follow her. I sit in my luge, the friendly gentlemen lets me through and up the hill I go. Colleen reminds me to not go too fast in the turns to which I reply “yeah yeah yeah.”

Well, the luge starts out fairly slow but by the middle, you’re hauling ass! Colleen, who is 5’2″ and may way 120 lb soaking wet CATCHES ME. She didn’t even TOUCH her brake. She laid back and let her luge loose. Well, I felt a bit silly so on my second run, I let that luge have it. I used the break only a couple times, leaned into the turns and had a blast. The luge may not be the most historical or pretty or magical thing we’ve seen in the past 2 weeks but it was damn well the funnest. We all felt like little kids. And, for your viewing pleasure, I videod the entire thing. It’s on Flickr under the set for Austria. I recommend you take a minute to watch it, it’s pretty cool and will really show you what the luge is like. If you can’t find it it’s because it’s not up yet and uploading here can be a pain, so, check back.

After the luge ended the entire group sat down in a beer garden for a .5 liter of beer and some quick conversation about the days events. A few people had ice cream which they purchased for only 1 Euro. The Canadians ran ahead of us to the bus where they broke out some small plastic cups and a huge bottle of Crown Royal. Yes, the Canadians wanted us to all take a shot together. They poured bout 24 of the 29 of us small shots (about half what a bar sells), we took a few photos together before the group (Colleen included) downed our shots. Even though I HATE brown liquor, it was a lot of to take a shot of it in the parking lot with our tour group.

Back on the bus and Colleen pops in some good old fun music. Brown Eye Girl, some Beatles, Jimmy Buffet and others to keep us alive and kickin. 30 fun, relaxing minutes later and we’re back to the hotel. Everyone splits up, heads back to their rooms for a little r & r before dinner.

Pics are on Flickr

Well, as sad as it was to leave Switzerland this morning. the tour must go on. We packed up last night so we could sleep in as late as possible this morning which was until 7am. If you recall, I wrapped up last nights blog around 3am. You’re welcome.

Our awesome driver Ben had the bus ready and waiting right on time. He rocks. We all loaded up, Kevin and I nearly last to get on and our same seats were availalble, so we each had 2 seats to ourselves across the isle from one another. Score.

The drive out of Switzerland is just breathtaking. I really do love it there and can not wait to go back! We have a lot of ground to cover on this tour, but the bus rides are really great. Along the way Colleen either tells us about our destination and it’s history, throws in a language lesson so we’re not so lost upon arrivl, or if we’re really lucky she’ll tell some jokes or play destination-appropriate music for us. She MUST be the best tour guide Rick Steves has…I can’t imagine any better! We stop at least 1 time every 2 hours for a 20 minute break which really helps break up the time. Or, on special days like today, we pop into another country for a liesurely 3 hour lunch! Yep. Today we had lunch on an island in Germany!!! We didn’t know we’d be going to Germany on this trip, but Colleen had a little surprise for us. On our way to Austria we headed to a little Bovarian island on Lake Constance. I’ve never just “popped into a country for lunch” before! Ben dropped us off on the outskirt of the island and Colleen lead us through the adorable town to the other side so we’d be able to find our way around by ourselves.

Kevin and I cruised the main part of the island one time before settling on a hotel cafe overlooking the marina for lunch. The weather today was perfect again! The sun was shining and it was at least 72* out, maybe warmer. We had delicious salads and I had pasta with tomato sauce and Kevin was brave and ordered the sausage. Probably not the best choice (it was grey and weird looking…weird because we’re American’s, not because it wasn’t’ cooked right) and it came with pretzels and mustard. An odd lunch, but it did the trick. Afterwards we headed to the lighthouse where we climbed the ricketey old wooden stairs to the top for an amazing view of the lake and the island. Who knew Germany would be so darn cute?!? For your reading pleasure I won’t leave out the fact that Kevin whacked his head HARD on the tiny door at the top of the lighthouse and that I totally lost my feet on the way down and slid down about 9 stairs before I thankfully stopped myself just in time to NOT wipeout the elderly couple in front of me! There. You’re welcome.

Our three hours flew by and we were back on the bus in a flash. Austria or bust! Again, the drive was beautiful. Everything is so green and gorgeous and the sun is shining so bright! Switzerland to Austria with a surprise in between!

Austria looks a lot like California actually, like the Sierra’s with much larger mountains and a bit more green grass, and waaaaaaaaaaaay cuter houses!

We checked into our room, it is really easy, Colleen tells us our room number when we are on the bus and then we simply walk in, get the right key from our friendly hotel staff which always greets us, and away we go to our room! Today we’re on the 4th floor overlooking the mountains. Life is good.

We took quick showers and headed down to dinner at 7. Dinner was in the hotel restaurant tonight and was delicious. The starter soup was a cream soup made out of the green part of the garlic that grows above ground! Who knew that you could cook with that? I’ve got to get my hands on some when I get home! Plus there was a salad bar (yay!) and a vegetarian dinner option. Happy day, happy day!

We sat with two of the six Canadians, Ben the bus dirver and Colleen tonight. It was great dinner company and after we were finished eating about 12 people from our tour headed over to the hotel bar to continue the night. Oh what a night! The Canadians are hilllllarious. There are six of them, three couples, all traveling together. Gloria is the loudest of them all, and I mean LOUD. And she has the accent, she kills me! Tonight I asked her husband Daryl how long they’d been married, 32 years! Then I asked him how he’d met her. He replied instantly with a totally straight face “She was a hooker.”. HAHA!  There were some local guys in the bar that bought Colleen, Cathy, Susan and I a round of Grappa. A horrible liquor that will put hair on your chest. Ick. I sipped it to be polite, but Cathy (who is 60!) put me to shame and downed it in one gulp. Crap! We went over and chatted with the guys to be nice, even took a group photo. They seemend nice enough, but I’m not sure if it just because I’m an American, but they may have been a bit too friendly! I tink Edward was disappointed that Kevin was my husband. Ha.

We had many beers at the bar, Kevin talked crap with the Canadians and I’m fairly certain that tomorrow is now a competiton between American and Canada, losers buy winners drinks all night tomorrow night. What are we competing at you ask? THE LUGE! Yep! That is right. Tomorrow we shall luge after we spend the day at a castle! But not just any castle. This is the castle that Walt Disney based Sleeping Beauty’s castle on! AWESOME! Back to the luge, Colleen was going over the plan at dinner with our entire gruop and when she got to the luge portion of her speech she mentioned that it is safe and fun and that you can break but that youd don’t want to break too much otherwise you go too slowly and there is no fun in that! Well, then she said that “bigger people” might have more momentum and may need to break more, and as she said this her eyes went right to Kevin. It was hillllllllllarious. I know it probably isn’t funny to read it, but if you were there, you’d be laughing too! We give her a lot of crap! He told her he didn’t appreciate being called fat and that he’d like to see a complaint form for Rick Steves!

Back to the bar. We had a great time. Colleen hung out with us all night and it was great to see her having a good time too. Some more locals roped us into conversation and I’m pretty sure I gave my e-mail address to a guy that is planning a trip to SF in December and wants me to help him out. Again, am I just too American or is that creepy? Hmm. Guess I’ll find out in December!

Today was a great day! Oh, a highlight, we’re finally in a country where a LARGE beer costs LESS THAN THREE EUROS! Europe, we have arrived! There was talk of hopping on a train up to Munich tomorrow night to catch the tail end of Octoberfest, but there aren’t trains that would be able to get us back to Reutte in time to catch the bus to Venice on Monday morning, bummer, eh?! I think had we worked on Ben just a bit more we could have talked him into driving us up there…but he didn’t want to have to drive the bus back AFTER drinking a crap load of beer! Can’t blame him I guess!

Not sure if I’ve mentioned it, but the cows here are totally adorable! They say happy cows come from California, well, they lie! These are happy cows! They roam around these huge pastures, eating their grass and hanging out with their cow friends looking totally content. I love it!

Okay, I’m exhausted (totally sore from yesterday’s miles of downhill hiking) and need to get some sleep so we can kick Canada’s ass at the luge tomorrow!

Goodnight from Austria!