What a Weekend!

Hey everyone! So this weekend I was very busy traveling to southern Germany on Saturday to see the castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenshwangau in Fussen and then spending the day at Versailles on Sunday! It was such an incredible weekend! So here's the details...

Transportation

The craziest part of this trip by far was the trnsportation. I decided to go to Germany in one weekend despite the fact that 1) It required over 30 hours of travel. 2) I would be in Fussen for about 5 hours before turning right around and heading home. And 3) Everything was timed to the minute, so any late bus or train or metro would shorten this time in Fussen. Yet, here I am to testify that it was totally worth it!! But since travelling was the majority of my trip, let me give you the layout...

Friday = 1. Go directly from teaching to train station, 30 minutes to get to the station, and catch the train from Rennes to Paris. Got there, got on, no problems.
2. Arrive in Paris at 830PM and have two hours to take the metro to the outskirts of Paris where I have to find the bus station and take a bus overnight to Stuttgart, Germay. The metro took longer than I thought, but still no problems UNTIL I get off the metro in this shady part of town with lots of barred up motels on the outskirts of Paris and realize that my google map has no more idea than i where the bus station is. After thirty minutes of trying to figure out the map to the bus station, I look at my watch and realize I have five minutes 'til the bus leaves for the night. This is made more terrifying by the fact that I don't know where I am, I'm obviously not in the best part of town, the metro has stopped running for the night - so I cant get back into Paris if I wanted, and my whole trip is down the drain before I even start. In this panicked state, something inside me snaps and I pitch the google map and just start running aimlessly through the shady streets of Paris. I'm all out sprinting and praying when suddenly this sign appears out of nowhere for the bus station, I sprint faster and more and more signs keep leading me around the town for a good quarter of a mile and suddenly I'm in the parking garage for the bus station. I sprint like mad looking for my bus. I finally find it, 30 seconds before its departure and the driver says I have to check in downstairs. I sprint downstairs and there's long lines to check in for every bus except mine. No line for me, so I throw my confirmation at the cashier, he throws me my boarding pass and goes, "You better run" , and I just think, "What do you think I've been doing??" and I make it to the bus and take my seat one minute after it was supposed to have left. I was shaking so bad, I didnt know whether to laugh or cry. In the end I decided to fall asleep and woke up the next morning in Stuttgart.
SATURDAY = We arrived an hour late to Stuttagart, so I missed my direct train to Fussen. Just glad to have made the bus, I walk around the S-bahn station at 700am eating my oranges and soaking up the morning sun. When the S-bahn arrives, I hop on and go right to the Stuttgart train station where the desk worker tells me that the next train to Fussen will arrive only an hour later than the one I missed. Not bad. EXCEPT - I have to take 3 trains now, instead of one. Each has a ten minute layover in a very small German town. The train I'm departing from is roughly 10 minutes late. 1st train of the day - Stuttgart to Ausburg. I am three minutes late for my connecting train (Ausburg to Buchloe) but at this point I know the benefits of sprinting and praying. So I do just that and find that my connecting train is by some miracle still there and I fly onto it one minute before it departs. Same thing happens in Buchloe, sprint to my train, make it by seconds. Is God good or what???
So there I am, able to breathe at last, on my way to Fussen. I spend a fabulous day in Fussen, take the evening train to Munich, take the night train from Munich to Paris and Saturday is suddenly over.
SUNDAY Get in to Paris at 930 after a good nights sleep on the train. Take the RER to Versailles with my friend, take it back at the end of the day, and catch the TGV back to Rennes. What a weekend for traveling!

NOW THE CASTLES!!

In Bavaria, I met up with my friend who's studying in Bonn, Germany. it was so great to see her!! So first we saw Hohenschwangau, which is the yellow-ish one in the photos, unfortunately at Neuscwhanstein and Hohen. we couldn't take pictures of the inside of the castles, so the outside is all you get...but the insides were very cool. We had a great, funny tour guide for the first castle, even if it was rather short, and then we had a bit of a break before the Neusch. tour, so we had lunch at a little cafe where I had my first Bavarian sausages! They were really good! Then we hiked up to Neusch. and admired the cliffs for a bit before joining our tour. The inside of Neusch. was sooo amazing, even better than I remembered!! I'm so glad I got to see it again (I went when I was 11 with my Nana and Baba) because everything had gotten all muddled on my mind. Every window had a view of the mountains or the countryside way below and it was so magical! Just like a fairy tale! Ludwig even built his own manmade cave right in the castle! Incredible! After that, we hiked back down and I was definitely sad to leave the mountains.


Ok well I have way more to tell you but its very late here and Im exhausted, so you'll just have to wait til tomorrow to hear about Versailles and the most perfect day ever!

Enjoy the pictures while you wait!