Sightseeing

...Tuesday evening...

I have been writing word documents and posting them later when I have WiFi so there will be a few entries at a time.

Today We took a guided tour of the castle on the island of Herrenchimsee. It was built in the later part of the 19th century at the expense of King Ludwig II. Almost everything in it was an exact copy of Versailles. The king only lived for 14 days in the mansion he constructed, and all of the rooms were built only for his use. We even learned that Ludwig had a lift that was operated by his servants. From the king's personal dining room, the table could be lowered down to the lower level where the servants would load the table and hand crank it back up to the king when he didn't feel like seeing people.

He seems to have been a very private, mysterious man. He admitted to the public that he didn't want people to know much about him, and to this day no one is sure how the king and his doctor died at 40.

Other than the castle we walked around and took pictures in the garden. We took the ferry home and ended up getting on the wrong one and got stuck on the ferry for two hours when it was only supposed to be a 20 minute ride. But we eventually got back, Gina drove us to the station and we took the metro home.

It was fun talking to Gina about Germany, we got to learn a lot from her. The coolest was learning about their highway. The autobahn doesn't really have speed limits but there are certain places where a speed sign flashes. She said the speed signs that arch above the highway have cameras that measure the density of traffic. When the traffic is dense the speed signs will flash say 120 so that people slow down and don't create traffic jams further ahead. This seems to be a pretty advanced country, almost all appliances have built in energy saving technology. Even the escalators have a sensor so that they do not run and waste energy when people are not using them.

Once we got back we were desperately searching for WiFi because we hadn't been in touch with anyone all day. Finally I found a pay phone and was able to make two calls.

Tonight Shelby and I sat out on the balcony of our hostel and had our first German beer and listened to some country music to have a moment like home for a second. Monday we plan to hit up Starbucks for a long breakfast and WiFi session to get in touch with people and do some planning.

...Monday afternoon...

We got some planning done today and booked a hostel in Vienna. Thankfully we found one that seems sage and will only cost us 20€ a night. This afternoon we planned to go on a three hour walking tour of the city but we read the sign wrong and showed up at the wrong time, so we will plan to do that tomorrow.

I have been able to send a few post cards but it has been hard bto find post offices and stamps are expensive. So if you don't get one from me, Im sorry.

I can only post pictures from my phone which isn't working with the wifi lately. Will post some later.