Guten tag! Tuesday morning, Jen and I both woke up feeling AWFUL. Turns out Jen had a little too much beer, and I had waay too much beer the night before. That paired with a hot room and waking up at 6 am did not make for an excellent morning. We got to the train station around 7:30 and found our train we were supposed to take at 7:50. Jen went to grab some fruit/bread, and I just sat there trying not to throw up since the bathroom was a euro to use! We made it on to our train, and it tooke a total of 3 connections to get to Sontholfen 2 hours away. By the time we got there, Jen felt fine, but I was still feeling nasty. Our guide, Robby, met us at the train station to take us to the canyon. His English was good enough to communicate with, but there were times you could tell he had no clue what we were saying. It only took about 10 minutes of him driving us to get to the start of the tour. We changed into 3 layers of neoprene and started walking up hill/river. It was an amazingly beautiful city, canyon, and just day in general. That being said, I was sweating bullets in all this neoprene, walking uphill, hungover like a college freshman. We finally made it around a corner and saw this ~70ft waterfall-waterslide feature. We had been joking with the guide on the way up about how this course was supposed to be easier and all of the big jumps were only in canyons in places like switzerland. So this being right after that conversation, I joked that at least we wouldnt have to be jumping off of that, and he responded "of course not, we slide that!" That made Jen and I a lot more excited than we had been, since we were nervous it would be an easy kiddie course. At the same time, it made us a little more nervous in general!. We probably walked another 1/4 to 1/2 a mile up canyon before he picked the spot to repel down. Jen and I both had no problem belaying our selves down, though nowhere near as fast the the guide who seemed to just jump straight down. We finally slid into the water, and SCHEISSE it was cold! The water this time of year in the canyon just consists of snow melt, so it was quiet literally freezing. Thanks to the neoprene we got over it after a few, but our hands were pretty frozen the whole time. We had a great time navigating the canyon, sliding down smaller sections, jumping in times we couldnt slide or walk, and repeling areas that were too rough for jumping or sliding! We finally got to the end around 2 hours later, controlled our slide with a rope down about a quarter of the giant slide, and then just let go for the final 50 feet. He said if we just slid from the top, we would be going so fast we would more than likely hit ground when we reached the bottom! All said and done, canyoning was an AMAZING experience, and we would both love to do it again if we ever have the chance! Robby brought us back to the train station, and Jen snapped a picture of how beautiful Sontholfen was (but on her camera, not phone, so we cant upload it yet). We hopped on a train to Fussen to see the Neuschwaunstien (sp, I'm too tired to look it up) Castle. Supposedly this is the castle the infamous Disney World castle is modelled after. We arrived at around 5 o clock, and realized all the castle activities were done for the day so we had a decision: is it worth staying the night and seeing it in the morning, or should we get back on the train and head to Rothenburg. We checked how long it would take to get to Rothenburg from Fussen, saw it was 6 hours, and our decision was made for us! We walked right across the street and stayed at the hostel right next to the station. The guy was really cool, married to an American woman and about to take a trip to the keys! We threw our stuff in the room, and went to get some food (really the first thing I had eaten that day, and the first thing for Jen other than fruit!). We found some chinese-thai restaurant, which Jen has been craving lately, and had some curry. I thought it was good, Jen loved it! We walked farther down into the little town of Fussen and admired all the mountains, quaint buildings and churches, and the amazingly light blue water. We found this man made waterfall a little up the road, and there was a bridge that crossed about 100ft above it. There were people who would hook up their ropes to the bridge, and then jump off the side and swing under it! I'll be sure to upload the video, it was pretty crazy! At this point we were kind of tired from our day, so we went back to the hostel and hung out with a couple of Americans we met in the lounge area. They were all 3 guys who had also just graduated and were doing pretty much the same thing as us so it was nice getting to talk to them. But we still ended up passing out around 10:30. This morning we "slept in" until 9:30, and got up to go see the castle. We caught a bus for the trip to the base of the mountain it was on, but then we walked up the trail to the top (after a quick currywurst for brunch). We were huffing and puffing by the time we reached the top, but we always like to hike/climb when we have the option, it is just more satisfying. We didnt actually pay to go INSIDE the castle, so I cant tell you anything about that, but the views of it from the outside, and the views of the surrounding area, were quite unreal. We made our way around the castle to a bridge that overlooked it from a distance and got some really great pictures. We were getting kind of hungry though so we finally took off back down the mountain, which took a lot less time! We had jagerschnitzel and spaghetti (guess who had which lol) at the bottom, and went to the bus stop to wait for our ride back to Fussen. I happened to look up, and said to Jen "Is that Grace?!" Sure enough we ran into Grace Chong and her mother in this tiny little town of Fussen! WQe walked back to their bed and breakfast and caught up with each other on how our trips were going! Their B&B was amazing, and they drove us back to our hostel so we wouldnt have to take the bus. We grabbed our bags, checked out, and went to the train station across the street to see if a train was coming soon, or if we could walk around with them some more. Turns out, one was leaving in 15 minutes, and we got it WAY cheaper than we thought we would because we asked the ticket lady what our best option was. So we said goodbye to Grace and her mom, and got on the now-5-hour train ride to Rothenburg. Trainride = uneventful, cool scenery, read kindles. When we finally got to Rothenburg, we walked towards the city center. The best way to describe it is to say it is like a real lifeHarry Potter world from universal, but bigger, with no snow, and in German. It seriously looked like it was put together like an amusement park attraction! We walked around for a while trying to find somewhere MODERATELY affordable (and barely did). We went to get something small to eat since all the shops and most restaurants were closing, and truned in for the night. We will explore more of it tomorrow, then head on to Frankfurt! Goodnight! Prost!
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