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We stopped in Munich to visit my good friend Martina who studied abroad in America during high school.  Munich is an unbelievably beautiful and clean city, full of spectacular architecture and interesting places to visit.  The surrounding area is made up of rolling hills dappled with stupendous castles.  Martina and her man Christian were the best hosts ever, taking us all over and dealing with us in their space for almost three weeks!


The first main tourist site we visited was Hohenschwangau, home of two castles.  The first we saw was Schloss Neuschwanstein, built by Ludwig II.  It was never really completed, especially inside, as the King went bankrupt during the process.  He was removed from the throne and thrown in prison, where he managed to talk his way out for a solitary walk where he drowned himself.  It's a tale befitting such a sight and such a life.  The castle itself, shown below from an onlooking bridge, is an impressive white vision that towers over the surrounding valleys.  Fun bit of trivia: this is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle is modeled on (and the Walt Disney castle logo).


The second castle was Schloss Hohenschwangau, a summer home for the royal family.  It was a beautiful yellow, set down in the valley from the white giant.  We decided to tour the inside of this castle because it was actually finished.  It was exquisitely decorated of course, but another and more impressive feature had to be the location of the windows.  As seen below, there were several turrets.  The placement of the windows in the rooms of the turrets created panoramic views of the surrounding mountains.

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