NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE - Friday Stacey and I took a day trip to the town of Fussen in Germany to visit the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland. Unfortunately we spent more time on the train than visiting the castle. We left on the first train to Munich at 8:30am and what should have taken us 4 hours took us 7. So we only had 2 hours in Fussen to get to the castle and be back for the last train to Munich. We tried to buy tickets to the castle at 4pm but the next tour wasn't until 5:50 and since our train left at 6pm we were not able to see the castle up close. We did see the castle from below and I posted a few pictures of it and the train and train station we spent more time at. So we made it back to Innsbruck Friday night (4 hour train ride back) and spent a total of 12 hours on the train!

Saturday Stacey and I spent the day with Anna and her friend Kelly driving around to the small towns around Innsbruck. We went to Hall, Mutters and Natters. We visited a cathedral in Hall that had a wall of saints skulls even a preserved body of bones. I posted pictures. It was kind of creapy. After that we went to Mutters and stopped and had a bear overlooking Natters. They are all so quiet and peaceful. From Mutters we went to a restaurant that was recommended by a local in Natters. The food was really good and their was a wedding going on their too. The location had a beautiful hill for the wedding, play area for kids and in the back even had farm animals. There was something for everyone. After that we called it a night. We needed our rest for the next day.

Sunday we went hiking in the Alps. Innsbruck offers free hiking every day at 9am with a guide, hiking boots and transportation to the village where the trail is located. I couldn't believe it was free! I'm glad we did it but I have to say it was A LOT harder than I thought it was going to be. It was a 2 hour hike up the mountain through various trails. I'm so glad I had hiking boots because it was rough terrain! I really wanted to give up half ways up but I made it. We had lunch at a hut on the top where the local villagers made us lunch. It was very good. I had a soup that was a fried cheese patty in a broth and a dish that tasted like pancakes and had raisins but looks like huevos con chorizo. Look at the pictures so you know what I mean. After the long lunch we hiked down and came back to Innsbruck. I was EXHAUSTED as you can tell from the pictures. I know I'm going to be sore but I'm glad I did it.

Tomorrow I am going river rafting so check back for pictures! This is my last week of classes and Alex gets here Thursday!

This was our last weekend in Innsbruck so Stacey and I decided to stay in Innsbruck and visit the surrounding towns. Even though we have been here a month between school and our rainy days we still hadn't seen all of Innsbruck.

Anna was going to meet us on Saturday and since she drove from Prague we had a car to see the towns around Innsbruck. We

Innsbruck & surrounding towns: Saturday Anna was visiting us from Prague