Train from Venice, Italy to Füssen, Germany and Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

After a fairly long train day we arrived in Füssen. The train journey was really scenic, the real Bavaria. On the next morning we walked the 5.8 km to the castles. We climbed up to Hohenschwangau Castle where Ludwig II was born. He had the Neuschwanstein Castle built in 1880s and the castle reflects his obsession with Wagner operas and swans. It was unfortunately never finished as the King died in suspicious circumstances. He only lived in the castle for less than a year. We had a guided tour of the castle which allowed us to see the extend of King Ludwig II's passion. The scenery was very beautiful in and around Füssen. We enjoyed the small stress free village.

 

 

Floodings

As we were mentioning in the previous posts, and for the few of you that noticed all the streets on the pictures have been wet a lot in the past few cities, we saw quite a few places with way too much water. There are lots of cities in Europe that suffered from floods this spring. One of our train journey was 5 hours late and on another one we had to take the bus between two stations as the train wasn't getting through.

Braunschweig, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Train to Ilmenau, Germany

Train to Ilmenau, Germany

Army to the rescue

Army

Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, Hungary

Restaurant entrance, Budapest, Hungary

Tram tracks, Budapest, Hungary

By the Chain Bridge, Budapest, Hungary

Dresden, Germany

Dresden is a small city in south-eastern Germany. It is officially in the east so the mentality is a little different already. We took a morning train from Berlin and saw lots of water in the fields and everywhere. We talked for an hour with a couple from Toronto that are going to Prague. They also said the subway in Prague was flooded. We didn't expect so much water but the flooding seems worst than the bad one in 2002. The city still had quite a few nice spots that we liked. The hostel, Lollis Homestay, also had a really relaxed atmosphere, so we felt like home again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sachsenhausen, Germany

The Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp from 1933 to March 1950. We took the really interesting audio tour loaded with extra information. It is not the funniest place to visit, but you learn a lot. The history going with that is terrible. Most of the prisoners going in would never make it out. This place has been designed all along to be a concentration camp by architects. They built the whole site to be what it became.

 

Berlin, Germany

Berlin is a big German city. It is a must see as it is full of history and everybody heard of it. We wanted to learn more about World War II and this stop helped, along with the next stop and the visit of Dover Underground tunnels in United Kingdom a few weeks ago. We walked a lot in Berlin, just like anywhere else so far, even if Berlin has a well developed public transit system. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial, the East Side Gallery and of course the Wall. The East Side Gallery is a big part of the wall which is covered with paintings from different artists. We were only one day in Berlin visiting all the sights but we could have easily spent more time there.

Fernsehturm

Brandenburger Tor

Reichstag 

Holocaust Memorial

The line

Painting from East Side Gallery

Nice restaurant