So it's getting harder and harder to figure out where we left off. I am guessing it was sometime on the train yesterday. Well today is Thursday, the 13th and we are about to leave Germany and head on to Italy. This has been one crazy whirlwind of a week and a ½ of 3 or more different countries! Yesterday we walked to our hotel from the train station, passing it once, not realizing it was right under our nose. It was a pretty nice hotel, bigger room than Amsterdam, free internet, free huge breakfast, etc. We checked our luggage at the train station because we knew today would come, we would check out of our hotel, go straight to the tour site and have to lug our stuff everywhere. So instead we just packed a daypack with our important stuff and went on our way. We knew we wanted to try some real German grub while we were here for the 2 days. Not knowing what we would be doing for lunch today, we tried one of the traditional restaurants for dinner that looked packed with tourists and locals. There was no room to eat outside, however plenty of long tables inside. I guess the thing to do is join others at the long tables. We were there late enough to where we had our own table. First thing on our agenda: order 2 German beers. Our waitress, or waiter, was this huge German lady, oh my goodness. What an attitude she had as well, kind of funny actually. Well Billy ordered a wurst and sausage platter with sauerkraut and potatoes, while I ordered a plate of potato pancakes with applesauce. Before the meal she brought out a basket of bread and PRETZELS, the best pretzels EVER. They were so great, the meal was great. We ate pretty much all of our huge meals. Last night we ended up just going straight back to the hotel after dinner, knowing we had to wake up early this morning for the tour. We woke up this morning around 7:00 AM, had the yummy breakfast and started walking to the bike shop. We had signed up for a bike tour to the Newshwanstein castle in Bavaria. We were so excited to see some fellow Americans. The shop is owned by Americans and most of the tour guides are from the U.S as well. A man named by the name of Tex was there to greet us (he was from Texas of course). He was super friendly and made us all feel completely welcome. He brought us to our coach bus that would take us into Bavaria (about an hour and ½ away.) He said a few dorky jokes and sent us on our way with Mike, the assistant tour guide. While on the bus, we first watched a video with Brad, the castle tour main honcho. He lives in Bavaria, not Munich, and was meeting us down by the castle. His video was brief and just greeted us, gave us an explanation of what we were going to be doing today and gave us his own history of the castle and Mad Ludwig. On the bus Mike took our lunch orders because while we are biking, they put the order in and have it ready for when we get back. Well we got into Bavaria safe and sound, the Alps were amazing, the scenary was breathtaking once again. It was such a cute little town full of German heritage. Brad boarded the bus when we arrived, introduced himself, he is from South Africa, a really nice guy! He then said since it was such a nice day out we had the option of choosing to go Paragliding across the mountains and castle instead of the bike ride. We wanted to go so bad but couldn't justify spending that much money to do that when that could be 3 weeks worth of food. It just gives us a reason to come back! The area is too beautiful not to come back and visit again. Well since about 8 out of 22 people went paragliding the rest of us hopped on our bikes for the bike tour through the fields and down to Swan Lake. It was a really easy ride and the fresh air felt great. The weather could not have been better. We stopped a couple times for some photo op's but then ended up down by Swan Lake for a swim! The water was crystal clear, a bit chilly, but refreshing after the bike ride. We hopped back on our bikes and headed back to meet the rest of the group! We had a tasty lunch at a little café, the struedle was the best part! To be continued, we are boarding the train......