Day 25- June 12

Happy birthday to my wonderful, beautiful mother!!  Can't wait to go to Paris for your 60th and my 30th!! ;)

            Today was our last day of traveling from city to city!  We left Munich this morning to move to Lucerne, Switzerland, the final stop on our study abroad trip.

            About mid-morning we stopped to see the castle of King Ludwig II, also known as the Neuschwanstein Castle.  Ludwig was king over Bavaria, a state in Germany, from 1846 until his mysterious death in 1886.  Ludwig is known for being slightly eccentric (some people say crazy), and was sometimes called the Mad King, the Fairy Tale King, and the Swan King (for his love of this type of bird).  The castle was designed by Ludwig himself and is one of the world’s most recognizable castles because many Disney fairy tale castles are modeled after this one.  In order to reach the castle we had to take a city bus halfway up the mountain, then take a short hike up to the base of the castle.  We then had a tour through all the finished rooms of the palace- only some rooms are finished because Ludwig died before all the rooms were completed and construction on the castle was halted immediately.  This castle was easily my favorite of all the castles and palaces we have seen in Europe.  Everything was so ornate and immaculate- from the murals on the walls and ceilings to the millions of tiles that made up the mosaic floors.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle so everyone will just have to take my word that it is beautiful. 

            After our castle detour, we continued on to Lucerne.  At about dinnertime, we drove through the small country of Lichtenstein, bringing the country total on this trip to eight.  We arrived at our last hotel of the trip at 7 pm, then had our last orientation meeting!  It’s strange that our trip is coming to an end- it has all been such a whirlwind and I can’t believe I’ll be back in Texas in just a few days.

            For dinner we went to a restaurant near our hotel, which was pretty expensive for a piece of pizza and a drink.  Supposedly this is the most expensive country we will visit (I’ve heard it could be around $15 for a meal at McDonalds), so I’m glad we won’t be spending very many nights here.

            Now I’m sitting on my bed, eating German gummy bears, looking forward to my hot shower, and about to go to bed.