München

Its been awhile and for that I apologize. Choir tour sped by very quickly. John Witte our tour guide kept us very busy running from place to place. And before long...it was all over! Yesterday Kristen Brands, Kristina De Graaf, Melodie Vanden Born, Mark Sjoerdsma and I left the big group of choir kids behind at the Amsterdam Schiphol airport. We rode the inner city train to the Central Station and from there we walked through downtown to Amsterdamś equivalent of Central Park. A hour and 20 minute hike. No big deal. lol. We felt like huge tourists, lugging our backpacks around; but it felt better walking through Amsterdam with 5 people instead of a monstrous 50.
After spending Sunday (May 24) afternoon in the park, people watching of course, we walked back to the train station. We caught the night train at 8:30, to Munich Germany. Our night train cabin consisted of 6 small bunks; three on each side. We managed to pull all kinds of awkward positions before settling down to eat a supper of bread and Nutella; and then playing a couple rounds of Rook.
I fell asleep right away. And slept sooo soundly that when I woke up I was surprised to find a 6th person in our cabin. A huge strange man sleeping on the bottom bunk opposite me. Scary? A little! Especially since he spoke no English. We all woke up around 6: 45am and got out at Munich at 7:15. 11 hours on a train. Whew.
The Munich train station was a little difficult to maneuver at first. But we figured it out and were able to find a locker to fit all five of our backpacks for 5 Euros. We caught a two-hour train to Füssen and then hopped a bus to the bottom of a mountain. After hiking for 30 minutes (without our heavy packs!) we found ourselves at the doorway to the Neuschwanstein Castle. Pretty much looks like the Disneyland castle, all nice and white with pointy turrets. BUT set in the most beautiful German countryside.
I think the train ride there and back was beautiful. But I cant say too much...because I slept for the huge majority of the time. Ooops!
Right now Im sitting on a computer in the lobby of our first hostel. Its absolutely filled with dozens of German teenagers. But its pretty clean. The internet is cheap (although this German keyboard is way messed up) AND there is a shower! We walked to the grocery store around back and managed to buy ourselves 3 meals of food for about 4 Euros each. Pretty excited about that, especially after spending 7-10 a meal in the tourist traps we had to eat at while on tour.
Tomorrow we go to the concentration camp Dauchau and then catch another train. This time to Salzburg, Austria.
My time on the computer is almost up. So. I will update the highlights of choir tour later...because there are quite a few :)