A crazy 24 hours!

After the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial tour i went to put my other bag in my locker at the main train station in Berlin, Berlin hauptbahnhoff. And the plan was to just stroll around the city eat some dinner before my train deparure at 9pm. But  my plans aren't always the  best to go from, there is always something that's waiting to screw it up. And in the last 24 hours I've had a couple of things go a bit screwy.. So i go to put my second bag in the locker with my other bag. But yiu can only open it once then that's it. I'm glad i didn't forget anything the first time i closed it. I didn't want to pay another €5 to hold my bags for 5 hours, ill just sit with it. Hmm is it me or do i seem to attract the drunks and people who smell like pee?! Yeah no the same person, different people and different cities! So there i sat, waiting, always changing seats around the station so as to not be seen in the same location by unwanted piss pant drunks. Just like Surfers Paradise! It was a long wait, should've paid the €5 and be done with it, but it had been an expensive day so i thought best to save the pennies. I know I'll grab my iPad and tap away my thoughts after Sachsenhausen, why is my screen on a slideshow, but it's been locked, how, why? Ahh 11% battery left! So i people watched. The women are pretty, no obesity epidemic here. Still in a city so a lack of smiles, and no Trina i wasn't creeping them out and making them run, i can do that at home! Haha! The men had plan, and walk like they have somewhere extremely important to go. A lot of people have little LED lights and they were checking the bins, it was quite frequent too!? Maybe recycling fanatics? Or people trying to make money from collecting stuff? Meh i dunno! I did pop into maccas, my first time on the trip, there wasn't much else unless i wanted baked goods. And i craved a cheeseburger. Had a lovely elderly German man sit at my table and show me photos of his wife.........she looked about 20, he was easily in his mid late 60's and walked with a cane and had a very bad limp. Really nice guy. The overnight train from berlin to munich was the second i have taken in Europe and on my schedule it will be the last. I think it's a great idea to travel and sleep at night, you can take pictures from a moving train or bus but they are poor quality, then you have reflection of cabin lights and foreground is moving. The good thing is you get your sleep and get to your next destination. Only downsize is no shower, as a kid I dodged showering, but now i have to have one at least before bed. There is a sink and a power point in the cabin, genuinely they have a few face washers soap and some bottled water. I give myself a  good scrub of the smelly parts, especially the feet! Then i hit the  pillow, i can just fit in the bed, and a good night sleep is always on the cards. 

So Munich. I had to wait about two hours for my neuschwanstein castle tour. It's a 10 hour tour with a lot of walking up hills and 4 hours of traveling to get to the nearest town Füssen. I was a bit hesitant when our guide turned up, no not because he was South African but he looked like Joachim Phoenix, the new scraggy haired crazy bearded one. He would win a look a like contest even with Joachim Phoenix present. The other thing that made me unsure is he was on his mobile asking questions like, is the bus going to be there like before, can we do this translation. Apparently i found out later that he hadn't done the tours in a while. He went through the outside story of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his castle. I'll do it briefly so you don't have to read as much aaa yesterday! He was thrown into the position of King when he was 18, he wasn't really fit for it and didn't seem to like the stress of it all, so he decided to create a fairytale series of castles. Now Neuschwanstein wasn't actually finished, only about 1/3 of it had been completed. The building itself was nearly completed but the rooms on the inside weren't. Building was put to a halt when the king died mysteriously at the age of 40. The other members of the royal family had his throne taken off him, because he was spending the royal fortune building four castles, and he was a bit of a looney. He basically built a fair tale castle so that he could escape the real burden of being King. He created this fantasy land, his bed was extravagant, made of wood and on the roof of it was steeples of famous churches. He had an artificial cave (grotto) a throne room, his own little chapel. It was ridiculous, everything had painting depicting different operas from his favourite writer Richard Wagner. He even dedicated the castle to the works of Wagner. I can understand why they thought he was a nutter. But the building had electricity, running warm water and central heating system and this was in 1869 when the work began. He loved swans and had five life size swans in the building, and they were used as dehumidifiers! It was opened for the paying public six months after King Ludwig II's death. It's believed that the castle has had well over 60 million visitors. Unfortunately you can't take photos inside, apparently it would hurt poster sales, ya damn right i would! It was impressive inside and with only a third of the building complete the tour didn't last long. Not wanting food at the expensive cafe or dodgy souvenirs I can get around the place and take some photos. So up to Mary's bridge to grab some shots, trying all different angles. The diminishing light on the foreground made them a little bit dark and it wasn't as impressive in photos as it was in person. I tried, but if you expose your photo more trying to get detail of things in the shade you then leave the rest of your photo over exposed, and the white castle just glows and no detail is recognizable. Luckily as well the castle wasn't going under any real refurbishments as i have seen with other photos scaffolding all the way up one side kinda ruins it's grandeur. Underneath the bridge there was a beautiful gorge and waterfalls all the way back down, i took some shots from the bridge thinking i may not get time. But since i blew past the cafe and gifts i had time only hands, and it turned out i needed it! I know some tours walk down there, and by the looks of my group I wasn't sure they'd be up for it. I also kinda skipped past good photo points after the tour to get to the bridge with plenty of time to snap away there. As i had pretty much every angle covered, i decided to re-visit those skipped points. The sun was lower making them even better so i was happy with my choice. Other members of my group were telling me to slow down so they didn't have to rush, bloody slow ass kiwis! The guide saw me coming down and said that the gorge is actually open, go down and get some shots down there. So again like an excited kid with another chance at doing some photography that wasn't planned, bit like the luge photos in Hunderfossen! He said he'd take the group down there when they are done with the bridge, so if i get lost they'll be down there eventually. I ran down those steps nearly coming a cropper once or twice, got down to the gorge and the water looked amazing (there's that word again). The only problem i had was no tripod, if you want good running water shots you need a photo with about half a second shutter speed, and i can't hold a camera dead still for half a second! So i have tri-gloves and tri-beanie. I would rest my camera on a nearby rock and place my beanie or gloves  underneath to keep it stable. I have the camera on a 2 second timer so my hand c owing off the camera wouldn't create shake. Climbs some rocks, got my feet in the water (thanks waterproof boots) a great little work out, i felt like Bear Gryls except i didn't eat any insects! I slipped at one point, foot went in, and camera started to slide in to, pffft forget the foot, grabbed it just in time! 

After the cattle tour, time to get to my hotel. Walked in, mmm nope since you didn't show by 6:00pm we have sold your room to someone else. WHAT! Quick phone call to Stephan to see if he can find accom in Munich. Just for one night before heading to Innsbruck in the morning. They had internet too in the hotel so i looked online, €300 for one night! Apparently there was a fair/convention thing going on in Munich. Ok, think. Why not go to Innsbruck, there is a train in an hour and accom is much cheaper and available. It'll save me money, didn't need to book a seat on the train and i won't have to get up early to get the early train to Innsbruck! Stephan had found some cheap backpackers but i had made my mind up and backpackers aren't on my agenda with some expensive camera gear! So off to Innsbruck, got underground train luck, one turned up just as i got to the platform. It's 9:04 and I'm heading to Austria, the birth country of Arnold Schwarzenegger (I learnt to spell that at a very young age). I rang a few places that Stephan (my tourist info line 24/7) had looked up for me in Innsbruck. The first two were fully booked so i went for the only number i grabbed while i was on the internet at my failed hotel in Munich. Grand Hotel Europa! I knew it was going to be pricey since it was 5 stars ;-) but i am well under budget, and after the screw around in Munich, the waiting around in Berlin for 6 hours, sleeping in a train and not showering since Berlin, it was time for a bit of extravagance. I called them, yup they have spare rooms. I turn up, looking like a backpacker. Can i grab a room? No sir, we are completely booked. What? Huh? I just spoke to someone 30mins ago and you had heaps of rooms. One single room one night. Oh yes ahhhh we do have a room available. Ooooh i was gunna jump that table if he didn't like the looks of me and turned me away, bit of a pretty woman moment. So got into my room, dumped everything and went in search of some food, it's probably about 11:30 by this time. Concierge pointed me to a restaurant that is open until 4am. Good food, well priced too! Got back to the hotel, pampered up, shaved, trimmed the beard, had a nice long hot shower. They had moisturiser which i had been meaning to get, this cold dry weather isn't a nice feel! So before going to bed a felt like a king, not as flash as King Ludwig II, but a travelling king! 

Innsbruck is another beautiful town, loves it's extreme sports. Innsbruck is like a little hidden place that is just surrounded by massive mountains. Not far from the Italian border, not far from the German border. I went there to see the Bergisel ski jump and have some lunch in the ski jump cafe. As I traipsed my way up there and go tot the front gate........ Closed! Your kidding! It was a bloody big hike up there too. Oh well i had more time to discover Innsbruck. As the day wore on the clouds over the mountains start to dissipate. When i first looked at them, i was like oh yeah, they aren't as big as i thought, they don't even have any snow on them........holy shit! You know when you look up at something and you think that's it, i did that, then i saw a small gap in the cloud, whoa! Massive, i had to look up about another 40 degrees to get it all in. That cloud was hiding a lot of big mountains. So i'm glad i got to see how big the Austrian alps were in Innsbruck. I would definitely go back again and explore the snow fields and bobsled activities in winter! 

Now i'm in the train from Innsbruck to Zurich, the scenery once again is simply beautiful. There have been many times where i have been tempted to pull the emergency hand brake to get a photo, the countryside of Austria is really romantic, snow one side, green hills on the other. Very cool little cottages with their fireplaces going and smoke coming out their chimneys. And of course cows! From Zurich i go straight to Luzern or Lucern depends on where you read. Not to be confused with Lausanne also in Switzerland. 

I'm here now and my hotel in really close to the lake and main railway. Again my PLAN is to go up the steepest mountain cogwheel railway up to Mt Pilatus. Might stick the Go Pro on it to get a cool aspect as I go up! Time for some in house clothes washing. 

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