The past few days I took a time out of sorts from my crazy travel schedule. Instead of rushing off to see another huge city, I visited a friend in Kaufbeuren, Germany instead.
Last year in high school I did an exchange with a Gymnasium (like a high school) in Kaufbeuren. Each person was assigned a pen pal. We wrote the pen pal in German and they wrote back in English. In October 2005 the group from Germany came to Indiana for 10 days and stayed with the American pen pals. In March 2006 the group from America went to Germany for 10 days and stayed with the German pen pals.
It was kind of a neat exchange except I wish that I could have stayed longer. After the program I kept in contact with my friend, and came to visit her the last couple days.
Unfortunately my visit was again very short. It was bitter sweet because I got to see her and her family again, but then I had to leave after only about 48 hours with them.
Yesterday I went with my friend again to Schloss Neuschwanstein in southern Germany near the Austrian border. Instead of taking a tour of the castle again (I took one last year), we decided to instead visit nearby Schloss Hohenschwangau. This castle belonged to the father of the king who built Neuschwanstein. Although the outside is not as fancy as Neuschwanstein, it was very nice inside.
After our tour we hiked over to the Maria’s bridge so I could get a good photo of Neuschwanstein.
It was nice to be able to get away from the big cities a bit and to visit my friend.
My friend had school today so I spent the morning walking around the Kaufbeuren with her mom. After school she met me in front of the Rathaus and we went to the train station with her mom.
I really did not want to get on the train because I wanted to stay a bit longer, but in the end I did. My first train was 14 minutes late so I had to wait an hour in Nuremberg for a train to Leipzig.
The train to Leipzig was a high-speed Inter City Express train that traveled at 140 miles-per-hour. It was really neat. The trip took about three hours, but I spent most of the time watching “Das Leben der Anderen” (also known in English as “The Lives of Others”) to set the mood for Leipzig. The movie is about the Stasi, the infamous East German secret police.
I had been waiting to see the movie for months,and it was well worth it because it is a great movie. I was surprised how much of the Northern German I was able to understand.
I arrived to my hostel in Leipzig around 9:30 p.m. Tomorrow I will do some sightseeing in the city before taking my last train to Berlin around 5 p.m.