Munich

First day didn't get out of the house till midday but we went on the tube to a part in the city we could take a tour bus from. So we went on grand tour of Munich. We saw the BMW Factory & the Munich Olympic Grounds. That evening went into the city & saw the Rathaus (beautiful old building thats so detailed & it has the big moving clock). Afterwards we went for a drink & dinner at Hofbraeuhaus a famous beer drinking hall where even Hitler used to frequent. We had delicious schnitzel & beer out of a large stein. x

On SundayMareike took me out to Neuschwanstein (the Disney Fairytale castle of King Ludwig the second) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle. I got to travel out on the Autobahn (as passenger), which is fun going at any speed you like. Rather different to just put your foot down and go the speed you feel like doing. We drove in an Audi at 160k per hour.It was drive a lovely seeing all the small villages along the way. You don't realise how relaxing it is to get out in the country side & be looking at fresh green grass everywhere & hills until your there. Living surrounded by concrete really takes its toll on you. I didn't even realise I was tight or slightly stressed, until I came out to the country side & I felt like I could take a take deep breath for the first time in months. So it was rather blissful.

The castle was really amazing to see up close. After so many years of seeing it in picutres on the net and in my sisters photos it was my turn to go.

Photo I took before my camera died

 It was truly lovely to spend this trip to the Castle with Mareike. She was telling me that she had planned to take me out here for like 5years and finally got to show me. Cool :0) Bit of a sad story how he died mysteriously before it was finished. But the guy had an actual cave in his castle. He had a real man cave lol!

This is one of very few pictures you will find of the cave inside. Photos are forbidden

That evening Mareike, her partner Udo and I just popped to a restaurant up the road from their place and had another very delicious meal of schnitzel for dinner. YUMMY! Couldn't get enough of it while I was there - almost as good as my mum makes.As we were leaving we bumped into Mareike's work mates so went back in for drinks and desert. Came home and poor Mareike mapped out how to get to the Bavarian Film Studios while trying her best to stay awake.

Monday morning the plan was to take the directions I had been given & go & get my photo with Falcor - see he is just so adorable and loveable and loyal. 

But as I was getting ready I noticed how wonderfully sunny it was, so when I got outside all plans of heading to my furry flying buddy for a photo went out the window. I instead walked round town for the day. Yeah sure I was in and out of shops, but I took photos, sat on park benches, and random sun seats placed near fountains and statues or flowers. I had ice cream and really got to know a couple of the main streets in the centre of Munich. It was really nice to be out in the sun when there pretty much hasn't been any in London. Cool country and sun in a matter of 2 days :O) Happy Rianna. 


 When Mareike got back from work that evening she took me over to See Haus which is Lake House, and we walked around a lake for a dinner by it in the beer garden there. Delicious. Lots of chatting and catching up. It was really nice enjoying the afternoon sun by water and with good company.

That evening I was shown through photos of Mareikes travels. Really neat as its not often you get a printed photo to look at these days. I know I am terrible for that. She takes some lovely photos

Tuesday my last day there was spent again, had a rather lazy day. Went back to the lake, read my book, wandered around, spent time in a cafe sorting out flights & so on. Purchased some new earrings, came home afternoon snooze & then later on that night made Marieke & Udo dinner.

At the airport they had a smoking box for people to go into & have a ciggy, problem was the surrounding area smelt of smoke, nice of them to do that for smokers but it's so weird seeing people smoke inside these days, let alone inside a glass box inside an airport. They also had sleep boxes called Nap Zones placed in waiting lounges, cleaver Germans/em>