Mark's Spring Break - Part V: Bamberg

Late that night Mark, Mark and I arrived in Bamberg. The original plan was when the three of us got back to Bamberg, we would meet up with Ashley and her two visiting sorority sisters and all grab dinner at Habineros, the Tex-Mex restaurant in Bamberg however, the three of us arrived too late. So we simply stopped by the gemeinschaft Küche where they had been playing cards and said Hi. The girls were leaving the next afternoon for Schweinfurt, so we agreed to meet in the morning and have a tour of all the sights Bamberg had to offer. Since Corinne was still in France, she agreed to let Mark stay in her room for his last two nights in Bamberg, so he and I both got the first good nights sleep we had since he arrived.

The Bamberg veterans; Andy, Ashley, Mark and I, took our respective visitors on a sights tour starting with the Alte Rathaus conveniently located in the middle of the river. The plan was then to walk to the castle Altenburg, but we made a mistake: We followed Andy. For someone who runs to Altenburg as much as he does, one would think that he probably knows the most direct route to get there. We finally got there, but it took a while. After Altenburg the group dispersed. Since Mark was leaving the next morning, I wanted to make sure that he experienced something distinctly Bambergian. Even though it was the middle of the day we stopped by the Schlenkerla Brewery for some good meaty Rauchbier (which translates "smoked beer"). A Clemson friend of mine, Emilie, was to arrive the same day, so I told her to meet us and join us for a beer. That evening I introduced Mark to another favorite past time of mine here in Bamberg, the Chili Abend. After eating we sat around and talked for a bit, and then Andy remembered that he was supposed to invite someone else to join us. So he ran down the hall to get her. It was then that I met Romina.

The next morning Mark left with a few souvenirs, no pictures (because he left his camera in my room the entire Paris/Munich/Neuschwanstein trip), and hopefully a desire to study abroad. I'm really glad that he got the chance to visit me, I hadn't seen him in 6 Months and it gave us a good opportunity to just talk. As I bring the saga that was Mark's Spring Break to an end, I hope the reader sees how excellently I treat my visitors. So all of you who have been writing and saying that you're going to come visit me, get off your lazy butts and get a plane ticket. I'll take care of the rest.

Mark's Spring Break - Part IV: Neuschwanstein

When we arrived in Füssen we dropped our luggage off in a locker at the train station. Since we would be hiking around all day, we thought it would be a little more comfortable without our junk. We caught a bus up to the castles and bought our tickets for an English language tour of Neuschwanstein. I don't know if the Bayerischen Schlösserverwaltung is used to selling tickets to amazingly disabled people who require two hours to climb from the ticket counter to the castle, but the Marks and I didn't. So while waiting for our tour start time, we saw a bit of the castle Hohenschwangau. The last time that I went to Neuschwanstein I was able to get an amazing view of the fairy tale castle from Marienbrücke. Unfortunately due to excessive snowfall (and a few fatalities attributed to the snowfall), the foot path was closed by a rather large fence and signs telling us in three languages that we were not allowed to pass. Never one to take "Don't climb this fence, you'll die" for an answer the Marks and I climbed around the fence... and four others exactly like it to get to Marienbrücke. The view was spectacular, but we only had enough time for a couple pictures before we had to hurry back to the entrance of the castle so we could catch the start of our tour.

This time we took the tour in English, which seemed like it was an exact translation of the one that they give in German. After the tour the three of us grabbed some food and instead of taking the bus back, we took a nice walk through the woods and enjoyed the view of the alps. The train ride back to Bamberg was rather uneventful, but that night it felt good to sleep in my own bed.