We stayed in Wiesbaden a week waiting for the results of the tests done on Julie's leg, in the end it was all clear, thankfully. It was a wonderful week spent with great friends and seeing more of a lovely area, unfortunately we had to move on, we were heading down to Stuttgart and staying with more friends in Rottenburg. Rottenburg was a lovely quite little German village with nice old buildings and streets. Our friends looked after us very well and took us to see a nineteenth century castle, Hohenzollern. Being so comparatively new it is in wonderful condition and has never been lived in. It is perched high on top of a small mountain offering wonderful views across the German landscape. From Hohenzollern they took us to Stuttgart where we were shown a city full of hustle and bustle, people everywhere, but with an alive vibe to it. There were lovely parks and squares full of people and buskers, one group treated us to some amazing breakdancing. There were also some lovely buildings to see. After the city they took us to a bike shop where they have 600 new and used bikes in the one shop, there is also a cafe for bikers, all inside. There were some great bikes for sale.
The next day we headed towards Munich where we stayed with yet more friends in a sleepy little village called Ottobeuren, it is a fair way out of Munich and has Germany's largest Catholic cathedral in the middle of town, while all around are green fields and mountains. Our friends took us for a walk one day up one of the mountains where we were treated to wonderful views and Bavarian hospitality, 800 metres up this mountain there is a 6th generation farm where you can buy food and drinks while sitting on a deck overlooking the mountains and valleys, stunning, but while we were there we were treated to a view of a thunderstorm rolling in over the mountains, so we didn't stay too long and only had a little light rain. The next day we caught the train into Munich. It wasn't as busy as Stuttgart and there were no buskers, but we did see some lovely buildings and parks, their main park called the English Garden is nearly 400 hectares in size, it has mainly grassed areas where we saw people sun bathing, some nude, others swimming in the very cold river, some playing games, others practicing tightrope walking, while others just socialised. There were even people surfing in the river, you will have to see the photos to understand. We also visited BMW World, an amazing building with all BMW products on display and showcasing their latest developments, an amazing place. From Munich we set off in the rain towards the Austrian border and Neuschwanstein Castle, a very famous and beautiful castle in the mountains. We had been told it wasn't worth going into by our German friends, so we only viewed it from the outside, which unfortunately was undergoing repairs. We then ducked down into Austria where it continued to rain and in the morning there was snow on the mountain top, the first for the season! Then it was back into Germany to visit Linderhof Palace, a beautiful palace and grounds and the only castle/palace King Ludwig II finished, we spent over four hours looking around the palace and grounds, all the time trying to keep warm and dry. Looks like the weather is finally changing here in Europe and we are now complaining about being wet and cold!