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Apart from Oktoberfest, there is actually more to Bavaria than you'd realise. Munich itself isn't a bad place to start, but once you get out of the city you realise how beautiful a place it is, full of variety. To illustrate this I'll tell you about 2 of our day trips.
The first one was down to Fussen to visit the castle of Schloss Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone palace). This castle was built by King Ludwig II, although not completed. He was an interesting case by the sounds of it, who had a hell of an imagination and loved the surreal....he was later declared clinically insane and was stripped of his right to rule Bavaria. Not long after he was found dead in a lake along with his psychiatrist, the reason why remains a mystery to this day.
Before his death he managed to build a couple of other beautiful castles/palaces, but Neuschwanstein was in many people's opinion the most beautiful. Having seen it we think it is definitely the most beautiful castle we have seen. You might recognise it a little....this castle is actually the one Walt Disney copied to build the Cinderella castle at Disneyland.
After touring the castle we managed to squeeze in a trip to Oberammagau. This quaint little town which is famous for its woodwork was beautiful. Parts were reminiscent of Goslar, although the town is much smaller. We went on the hunt for Cuckoo clocks and found one we liked without too much trouble....the main problem was choosing one from the multitude available, all of which were beautifully hand made.
So trip 1 was like being in another world most of the time, one of fairytales and of beautiful things. Trip 2 on the other hand, although as if not more captivating was definitely about the real world and things that no-one is proud of.
It included a trip to Dachau concentration camp. Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany, upon which the other camps were modelled. Following Hitler's election as Chancellor, it was originally set-up for the 're-education of political prisoners', capable of housing ~4000 people in barracks, and was situated outside the law. Of course from the outset it wasn't really used for the stated purpose, though the propaganda surrounding it led everyone to believe it was....consider that independent organisations such as the Red Cross commended the SS on the running of the camp and how well everyone was looked after. Of course this was all a facade, a staged event put on for such organistations.
Later, with several other events occuring in the meantime, the capacity of the camp was increased to around 40 000, although they were still fitting into the same barracks. The atrocities that occurred in the camp was so great that the on-site crematorium couldn't keep up, and a new crematorium considerably larger was constructed, complete with in-house 'showers'....which was actually a mass gas chamber. The new crematorium building was in effect a very efficient killing factory - prisoners entered one end as living people and exited as ashes.
The stories that we heard went on and on, each more dreadful than the last. One of the most disturbing for me that made me realise the scale of this was that the dentistry that was set-up for the camp - which was paraded to outsiders as a service to prisoners - was actually only used to remove the gold from the dead's mouths (fillings etc). In a single letter, they were asking what should be done with the 50kg they had already extracted. This letter was before the camp was in full swing.
You couldn't leave without being disgusted. A couple of other facts that I found particularly outrageous. There were serveral HUNDRED camps throughout Germany and occupied territories.
Also, after hearing everything that went on here, consider that Dachau was a concentration camp, NOT an extermination camp like Auschwitz was. Also, only Auschwitz prisoners were given a tattoo, the reason being that people were killed in such numbers there that they had to use the tattoo to identify who was dead for their records.
Bavaria, was a fantastic place to visit. It certainly has an interesting history and it kept you on your toes....
When you think of Germany, there are a few things that instantly spring to mind: beer, big meat meals and lederhosen! And of course, all of those things combine in perfect harmony at the largest drinking festival in the world - Oktoberfest.
Armed with some tips from our friend and host Dana, we headed off to the festival early, stomachs lined with a solid greasy breakfast, beer hands at the ready. The festival grounds are huge - there's apparently 32 beer halls (8 main ones), all decorated inside and out, and (by the end of the day) filled with thousands of Germans and tourists decked in lederhosen and dirndls, with giant 1L steins of beer in every hand.
The festival gets absolutely chockers, but we were lucky enough to see the full spectrum - relatively empty on a weekday where you could get into the beer halls easily, through to shoulder-to-shoulder maddness on the weekend when you couldn't even get within cooee of the beer hall entrance.
To satisfy your beer-induced hunger you could get 1/2 a roast chicken or a roast pork knuckle from the massive roasting stands in the kitchen, or 1 metre of bratwurst sausage and giant pretzels from stands outside.
And if you weren't content to drink beer, stand on the bench seats and tables and sing along with the oom-pah-pah German band, you could always jump on one of the hundreds of sideshow rides on the other side of the grounds. Someone must have had a really sick sense of humour when they added the rides to the festival - beer and rides that twist, spin and go up and down is obviously not a good combination!
We managed to squeeze in about 4 days of Oktoberfest-ing, as well as some Munich and surrounds sightseeing, which we'll write more about in our next blog.
After leaving Hamburg we jumped a train to a small town an hour south of Hanover called Goslar. We were a little unsure about this place as 2 German guys in our dorm responded with "Why Goslar?" when we told them! We were glad we did though as it turned out to be one of the highlights of this trip so far. Basically Goslar is a fairytale town, cobbled streets, almost all traditional houses, located at the base of the Harz mountains (they provide a dark green backdrop to the town), churches with stained glass windows and tall towers, a Glockenspiel that put on a show at 6pm and the best Schnitzel either of us have ever eaten in our lives!
I also think the Harz mountains are the home of some fairytale witches, so there was plenty of witch brews and stews going on too. I can 
confirm that goulash from
the witches cauldron was sensational. Our accommodation was the Schmidt Guesthouse, where we ended up with a little self-contained apartment about 40 meters from the main market square. Here we set up for a few days complete with bacon and eggs for breakfast (for the first time since January), and the cheapest beer I think we will have this trip. A 6-pack cost 1.79 Euros...not bad considering there is a recycling machine at the store and by recycling all 6 bottles you get 1.50 Euros back!!! That's right....0.19 cents for 6 German beers! Admittedly they probably weren't the best beer money could buy, but they were easily as good, if not better than most Aussie beers, after all they are German (although I should add, Astra is easily the worst beer I've ever had in my life)!
We were sad to leave Goslar, and contemplated staying forever. Maybe at a later date...I dont think that will be our last trip there. We spent most of a day travelling on 4 different trains through Göttingen and Frankfurt until we reached Mainz. We were both glad we only spent one night there as we found it disappointing.maybe we both missed Goslar. Despite our plan to catch a cruise up the Rhein to Koblenz, we had to settle for a train as the boat wasnt yet operating for the season. This has been a very common theme in Europe so far...it mostly shuts down through Winter so if you want to sightsee here, best brave the crowds during summer! Anyway, we trained along the Rhein to Koblenz, and then again up through the vineyards of the Mosel valley (on the Mosel river) to the town of Trier, which is Germanys oldest town.
There are a few remaining ruins from Roman occupation with the most celebrated
being the Porta Nigra (the black gates), which is a huge entry gate into what would have been the old town surrounded by walls. Trier is also the birthplace of Karl Marx. Trier is bustling right now, partly because the sun has finally come out to play, topping out at a very welcome 24 degrees today. The old town alleyways are packed with people sipping beers and coffees in sidewalk cafes and restaurants, and theres plenty of people-watching to be done sitting on the steps of the many monuments and fountains. Our hostel (also home to the fattest cat in Germany) is about a 5-10 minute amble to the old town, so its been perfect for us to wander around the city and then duck back for a quick siesta in the arvo. We depart in the morning for Luxembourg City. We hope to spend the night, leave the majority of our gear somewhere and then undertake a 5 day hike around the country (literally!). Weve even gone all out and booked our hostels ahead of time for a change, so were both looking forward to just walking, seeing the sights, and organising lunch and dinner. Hopefully the weather holds!
Well, we've said goodbye to the horses and hosts of Meldgaarde Heste, and are currently doing a bit of exploring through Germany. After about two weeks on the horse farm, it was somewhat of a sensation overload arriving in Hamburg central station - it's huge, with about a trillion people wandering around, lots of bright lights and shiny things and just about everything you would expect from a city hub.
With only two nights here, we didn't try to do too much. Checked out the art gallery, which included possibly the biggest free-standing painting in the entire world - it must have been at least 10m by 20m!! We also climbed the St Michaelis church and got a great view over the city. Here we climbed 451 steps each way, up and down, because somebody thought it would be a good idea to skip the lift!! 
Also spent some time wandering the main shopping district, which supposedly has the biggest shoe stores in Europe (or the world?) I'm not sure if we actually went in it, but we did find a store that had at least two huge levels, mainly with shoes for women of course. During this time Lecky sat outside the store and wondered why he wasn't drunk yet. Another major tourist drawcard in Hamburg is the Reeperbahn area - they call it the 'mile of sin', and it's basically a red light district with a lot of normal bars and clubs thrown in for good measure. The area is pretty much left alone by the police, which means at night it turns into an underage clubbing zone in the streets - you can drink alcohol anywhere you want here anyway.
We're just about to head off south to Hanover, and then probably the small town of Goslar at the base of the Harz mountains.
PS. Happy birthday to Lecky for Sunday! He will officially be considered a 'senior' in many European hostels - the cutoff is under 27 for 'juniors'.
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