Good King Wencelas wen to town

Good King Wencelas wen to town... Aaron has been singing that song evey since we arrived in Prague yesterday and now it is in my head. Let's back track a bit.

Last Friday we visited Castle Neuschwanstein, mad King Ludvig II's castle in the Bavarian Alps. I have wanted to visit this place since I was a teenager and bought puzzles of it. I didn't make it there on my last trip to Europe so I was definitely determined to go there this time. What did I think of it? It was fabulous, very impressive. You weren't allowed to take photos of the inside so I made up for it by taking lots of photos of the outside as I could. Plus the location is spectacular. High on a hill. I knew I wouldn't be able to walk up the hill to the castle so we took the easy option of the bus, us and 100 others all crammed in like sardines chugging away up the hill. We did walk back down again, as well as the 4kms or so back into Fussen which was nice and flat (I checked the terrain on the taxi on the way before I committed to the walk back).

Fussen itself is a nice town. Very pretty. And the river is an amzing green colour. I am not sure what makes it that colour (but I would like to know so if anybody already knows please tell me and save me the trouble of googling it later). On the Friday night before dinner Aaron and I found a nice park to walk around and we had fun trying to take photos of the squirrels climbing in the trees. Gosh they are quick little buggers. Cute but quick.

On Saturday morning we packed up and made our way to Munich on the busiest train we had encountered so far. Lots of people, tourists and locals in national costume were heading to Oktoberfest which was just starting. As I cannot think of anything worse than being in a packed city with a bunch of drunks we quickly made our way to Nurmberg on a lovely ICE train. Nuremberg train stations is one of the biggest we have encountered so far, mainly I guess due to the attached shopping centre. We eventually found our hotel, after walking through a carpark called Nelson Mandela Square (not what we pictured in would be in our heads). It was a nice charming little place called Hotel Mozart. The owners had a little cute dog called Una ( I think) who was always quick to come and greet you as you came or went.

Nuremberg is a lovely place. It has so many museums you could easily spend a week there and not see them all. Some a bit strange though, like the wheat beer glass museum (I think that is what it was called). We did go to the German National Museum, the Toy Museum and Albert Durer House. There was also some nice looking chuches but we didn't go into to any of them, Aaron is a bit churched out.

On Monday we left Nuremberg for our longest train journey so far to Prague. We had about an hour on one train before we had to change to another at Marketredwitz (or some name like that) where Police on the train were more interested in our passports than our rail ticket. We did get another stamp in our passports though which I am happy about. I get disapointed if I get let into a country without a passport stamp. Anway, we then had to change trains at Cheb and we could definietly tell we were no longer in Western Europe. The station was very drab, but the amount of denim the locals were wearing was at least something to look at. Our train was due to leave at 12.12pm and it normally left from platform 2. They waited until 5 minutes before the departure time to announce the platform so we (plus the hords of people travelling 2nd class) and to bolt down stairs and up again to get to the platform. Then it was another mad dash to the end of the train to our 1st class cabin, where for part of the journey it was just Aaron and I. It was definitely no ICE or TGV. But we made it to Prague and the long walk up the hill to our hotel which is lovely and comfortable and inlcudes free breakfast and internet, yeah.

Today we explored Nove Mestre, the new town but as I have been hogging the Internet for nearly an hour I will leave it there for now. I have to check the weather forecast for tomorrow before going up to bed. It rained here today and I want to know if it will be continuing.