Day 6 – Travel to Austria 
By Alicia Nelson

Today we left the National Sports Training Center in Kienbaum, Germany at 7:30am; our next destination, Innsbruck, Austria. 

It was an extremely long bus ride, totaling 13 hours and 827 kilometers.  We stopped after about 4 hours of driving for a quick bathroom break and then it was back on the road.  A little later on we made another quick stop for lunch. Just before we arrived at the food court, the coaches said that everyone was allowed to eat McDonalds, but just this once.  The girls were so excited, talking about all of the “normal” food they were finally going to eat, but when we got there, no McDonalds…that made for an interesting lunch…  But soon, we were back on the bus and headed towards Innsbruck.    

Our final detour of the drive was a stop at the Linderhof Schloss (castle).  Cory estimated that we would arrive there at about 5:10pm, and the last tour of the day was at 5:15.  It ended up that we got there at 5:13.  That was the fastest unloading of the bus we have ever had!  With only 2 minutes until the tour and we still had to hike up this hill to get there!  But we made it just in time, and it was well worth the sprint. 

The Linderhof Castle was amazing!  It is one of three of King Ludwig’s castles, and this one he actually finished building all the way.  He spent almost all of his time here.  This castle was small, but very intricate. Ludwig admired the lifestyles of the old French kings, so this castle was built a lot like that, with the interior having gold platting over all of the carvings on the walls.  It also had paintings of many of the old French kings and queens in almost every room, but none of himself, or his family.  This was because he really wanted his castle to be as French as it could be, and putting pictures of himself or of his family (them not being French) would make his living quarters less like the ones of the French royalties.  Our tour guide said that King Ludwig was born in the wrong century and the wrong country. 

The exterior of the castle was just as astounding as the inside.  There was a Garden overlooking the castle, what an amazing view!  There was also this man-made cave called the Grotto.  Inside the cave, there was this little pond with a boat that Ludwig would float around on.  All in all, the castle was beautiful and very different than the other one that we saw of King Ludwig’s.

Once we were done looking around the castle, we went on a quick, 2 hour bus ride to where we were spending the night.  We stayed at a private girl’s school down in between the mountains in Austria.  It was such a beautiful location!  Plus, the rooms we stayed in were by far the nicest so far this trip! 

We quickly dropped our bags off there and then headed to dinner.  The girls got a real taste of Europe with a dinner of wiener schnitzel.  Some girls loved it, and others went hungry.  As for me, being a vegetarian, I ate a big plate of French fries with grilled vegetables and a cooked egg on top.  One of the most interesting combinations I have ever had, but my dinner was surprisingly good! 

We then went back to our rooms and went to bed.  It was a very long day, but Austria is well worth the drive!