[the name of the town near neuschwanstein was fussen by the way; autocorrect changes things and wont let me go back and edit them].
Two days ago I decided to have a rest day (sort of). I woke up a little later than normal, ate breakfast, and then went to the laundry mat to do some washing. You have to understand, this was quite a novel experience for me as I have never done laundry in a laundry mat before. Up to this point I have been able to rotate through my clothes and do some periodic washing with some detergent in the hostels' sinks. This might sound gross, but I promise it is not. It hasn't been very hot until recently and so my clothes were not that dirty. However, even I could realize that I finally needed to do an actual load of laundry.
After lunch and some catching up on emails, I walked to the town center and wandered through the Englischer Garten. This was a really nice park right in the middle of the city, but it also had a secluded feel. There was a small canal running through the middle, and at one end a dozen or so surfers were riding an artificial wave that had been built in the middle of the canal. It was a nice place to relax and I felt a little bit like a local.
I felt even more like a local when I wet the next day to Heidelberg. It is about a three hour train ride to the northeast, and was a great example of a typical German town. There was a city castle overlooking the village; it was a steep walk to get there but the views were really nice. Apparently the villagers used to bring tribute to the king and a colossal wine barrel ( holding over a quarter of a million liters) stood as a testament to this.
From the castle I made my way down to the bismarkplatz area, where there was a mile long, pedestrian-only shopping street. Contrary to what you might think, it wasn't that commercialized, and though there were some international stores there were also a good number of local shops and restaurants. I browsed through several and bought pastries from two separate bakeries. I tried an apple strudel as well as a plum cake, and both were pretty tasty. I efeeling how I was able to escape a little bit from the hyper-touristy areas and just experience life in a German town.
Today I woke up around 6:30am and made my way through a heavy rainstorm to the train station. It is too early to evaluate Vienna - I literally just got to the hostel and am waiting for them to finish cleaning my room - but hopefully I will be able to give a good report soon.
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