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Final set of pictures from Hallstatt: And the hike is over. You can hear the waterfall from town. ??? Fires were a problem. The salt mine used a lot of fire because they'd pump the salt down to down to town as brine in pipes. They'd then boil the water off to yield salt. Note: Working in a salt mine was not a good job. Waterfall at the bottom of the trail. Two paths diverged. OK, it's really one path. Mr. Slug. Liz used for scale again. This was an entrance that was added to the salt mine in the 19th Century for the Kaiser. That water. So, we didn't actually know how to get back down into town, but we'll figure it out. And this. When we got to the top, it looked like this. Crossing over. Going way up the mountain. Getting the funicular credit.

I bet you'd win at BS bingo in like 30 seconds if you were in a meeting with that guy in the room.

^Something tells me it won't be *that* expensive. We're talkin' EPCOT, not 3 Michelin stars here.

^I can almost understand how idiot parents would try to brow beat their way into getting their too short child on a kiddie coaster. But Xcelerator??? How can you not associate that ride with danger? That's just !@#!@# stupid.

Considering your location is listed as Dayton, you should be quite comfortable with the word "ghetto".

It's attention to detail that makes great food. Though, having been to Naples, the idea of "Naples water" isn't appealing to me as that city is dirty. The pizza they sell in Naples is pretty good though. Very simple and unique.

^The only thing that surprises me about this is that it took the family so long to file suit.

What's the problem? There's a music festival in Columbus, Ohio that is held every summer called "Comfest". Many women go topless there as it's legal in Columbus. It sounds cooler than it is because 95% of the time you just don't want to see boobs on filthy hippie chicks with underarm hair. But that other 5% of the time, it is magical. I've seen the South American tour groups a few times at WDW. While they are annoying, I doubt they're as bad as the ghetto American HS groups that like to start fights at the All-Star Sports at 4 AM and then threaten to sue Disney after Disney correctly boots them out for being a liability to the other guests.

More from our second day in Austria. In case you forgot where we are. Enjoying the excellent fish that was caught the same day. Another view of town from the lake. Again, it's a bit bigger than it appears, but not by much. Happy diners on the lake. These people took a little tour around the lake. I preferred to do it myself. Steering, poorly. These slow boats are a challenge to control. The far end of town as viewed from a boat we rented. This swan patrolled the lake like he owned it. The mean alpha swan. He spent his day kicking the asses of the other swans. The lake sucks me in, again. A square in town. Wandering the streets of town. From here, it looks very much like Germany.

The weather got much nicer on our second day in Austria. Never hiked up high enough to reach the snow, but it was up there the whole time. They rent these awesome slow boats. Note the lack of fast boats and jet skis. They're not allowed here. Back in our room staring out at the ugly lake again. A typical house in Hallstatt, bullied onto the side of the hill. Funicular porn. The funicular at work. Do I hear Julie Andrews somewhere out there? The base of the funicular, which takes you up to the salt mine. From there, you can either tour the salt mine, hike down the mountain, or do both. Even Toto likes it here. It's very quiet here. Jeff Johnson's generator. Ooh, funicular credit. Just point your camera anywhere here and shoot. You can understand why this place was a favorite vacation spot of the Kaiser und his lovely wife and strange wife Sissi. The town is a little bit bigger than it looks here. Still small. Guess I got my money's worth from this room after all. Guy, I am coming to wreck your home. Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why you had to hide away for so long...

After we left Munich, we took a train through Salzburg, Austria and then transferred down to Hallstatt, a small, very peaceful town in the Salzkammergut lake district in Austria. This is fairly obscure to American tourists, but it is one of the nicer places I've been to. This very beautiful lake town has excellent food and great hiking if you want it. Here are a few notes for Americans traveling in Austria: 1) Even though this is in "Sound of Music country", most Austrians have never actually seen the film. It's about a time in their history they'd rather forget. 2) "Edelweiss" is not the Austrian national song. That's again from the film that few people there have seen. 3) Halstatt is apparently a mess of big bus tourism in August. That's probably a bad time to visit if you're looking for peace and quiet, which is what this town is all about. Really got my money's worth today with this room with a view of the lake. Lovely weather we're having. This is what it looked like when we got off the train. You have to take that ferry to get to the actual town from the "train station". Note that the train station isn't really a train station at all, but a sign and a couple of benches in the gravel.

^Unfortunately, I'm done with Germany for now. Two more German-speaking countries to go though. I think you'll like what's coming up. Yeah, the English Gardens were really nice and huge. Unfortunately for us, I don't think any of the beer gardens were open when we went. Bummer about not seeing both castles. The other one is really worthwhile because it's more of a place that people have actually lived in.

^No, we didn't make it to the stadium, BMW Welt, or BMW factory tour. We only had one full day in Munich and spent about half of it at the Alte Pinakothek (old painting gallery), which was good. A surprise about Munich is that we were able to get really nice food there. Hofbräuhaus had the mediocre fare you'd expect, but other places were really friggen' good.

^ABBA lover! I think the panthers just made you an honorary member. Yeah, they just paddle in from in front of the wave. There's actually a bridge right there. I think the standing wave is rigged from some kind of net contraption attached to the bridge with ropes under the water. I got the sneaky suspicion that the wave isn't natural. Some of the surfers were actually really good. One guy went on forever and I think he only wiped out to give other people a chance to surf.

^Yes, in fact that's how I knew to look for the surfers.

^Ha, that would definitely be a brand of shame.

After we left Füssen, we drove up to Munich and dropped off the rental car. We did a lot in Munich, but I failed to take many pictures. Here are some of the few that I did take. Fail. Can't even tell this isn't in the ocean when you zoom in like this. Doin' it wrong. Mad skills. Surfin' in downtown Munich. Yes, seriously. Huh, seriously? Pretty nice for being right in the middle of Munich, eh. More English Gardens. The English Gardens, a park right in the middle of Munich. Glockenspiel. Marienplatz, the heart of the old town in Munich. Scaffolding on the Frauenkirche. The Viktualienmarkt, a nice European market that is worth a quick stop. View of the city from St. Peter's Church tower.

Wow, I missed that whole "world's largest Legoland" bit and went right into counting bricks like an idiot. With improved roads and big scale, this should do rather well. As Shane mentioned earlier, there are many lads who have zero interest in Disney but a huge interest in Legos.

^^The figure I found for Legoland California is that they started with 30 million Lego bricks. So, it sounds like they're not doing this scaled down, at least as far as Miniland is concerned.

After we left Hohenschwangau castle, we took a quick tram ride up a mountain to Mary's Bridge, which is supposed to have the best view of Neuschwanstein. Bye for now. Just to give you another idea of the local scene: Alps and Japanese tour buses. This lame woman ruined this run down the slide by running her brake the whole way down. No worries though. I had 9 other good runs, including one with a wipe out from not braking enough. This nice alpine slide is just up the street from the castles. Note to Big Mike and Jeff Johnson: This is not a credit. Apparently, this cat pissed all over Neuschwanstein because they bought the wrong kind of kitty litter. Another one of the views. The view! No, you're not allowed to photograph inside this castle either. The very nice gate. For those of you who don't know, this place was built in the late 19th Century and has plumbing and central heat. It's not a medieval castle built for defensive reasons. Almost at the castle now. Notice how it looks pre-fab. It looks really nice from a distance though. Due to cost cutting measures, all human guides have been replaced with wiener dogs. From Mary's Bridge, it's a bit of a hike to Neuschwanstein. I'll avoid the "through the trees" joke as well. The view in the other direction from Mary's Bridge. A Japanese tour group on Mary's Bridge. It's actually kind of frightening out there when the wind picks up. If you fall off Mary's Bridge, this is where you end up. Note: This castle is much larger than anything Disney has ever constructed. Unless the entire rear face of the castle is covered with ugly scaffolding!

So, I've been a lazy bastard about updating this. Sorry! After we left Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the plan was to take the Romantic Road down to Füssen. For those of you who don't know, this is a famous medieval trade route that has a bunch of picturesque German towns, castles, etc. Well, that lasted for about an hour. I got stuck behind several slow-driving senior citizen sightseeing buses and just took the nearest Autobahn instead. Much better! Just let those speed demons in the Audis blow by you and you'll be fine. Anyway, here is Füssen, the Bavarian town primarily known for the castles of Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria. A last view of the very underrated Hohenschwangau castle. I wish I could have showed you the inside. It's homey because it was actually lived in, unlike Neuschwanstein. Pipi station. Double barfing swan statue credit. Liz on the castle terrace. Another outside view of Hohenschwangau castle. Tip: If you visit the famous Neuschwanstein because it's the famous castle that inspired Disney, do NOT skip the lesser-known Hohenschwangau castle. You just might think, as I did, that it's the nicer of the two. Now the lions are getting in on the bulimia. Just some ostentation on the outside of Hohenschwangau. Poor bastard. Another one of the views that Mad King Ludwig had to suffer through when he lived here. What a rough life. So, as per usual, we didn't have enough bribe money to have the guide let us photograph the inside of Hohenschwangau castle. Apparently, it's all under copyright protection. No *%#. But they were kind enough to let us take photos of the views out of the castle windows. My assailant and unwilling omnipresent photographic subject. But first we're going to visit Hohenschwangau. And who wouldn't want to visit a castle in honor of a bulimic swan? Neuschwanstein off in the distance. We'll get there soon. More Alpine foothill goodness. The scenic valley floor between the two castles. The foothills of the Alps surround us. Anyway, there are actually two castles in Füssen: the very famous Neuschwanstein and this castle, the less visited Hohenschwangau. The lifeless exoskeleton that was formerly my body was hurled into this same river that Mad King Ludwig found as his own watery grave. The bodies were never recovered. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Attack of the Killer Lizi? Wait, what's this? Yep, still half-timbered boringland. Füssen looks like any other boring town in Germany to me. Here Liz is relaxing at our hotel in Füssen. In Europe, she always orders the water without gas. But it's actually the minerals that make her gag, not the carbonation. The moral of the story is that if you don't want to hurl, it's not just the carbonation that will get you.

I'll definitely be giving it a visit. Hope it works out for them!

^Holiday World, now featuring the clean-shaven sounds of Hurray for Everything.

Renewing your existing card is a huge improvement over having to process each and every year!

I've flown with Airtran probably 10 to 15 times. I've had a lot better luck with them than with Delta, United, etc. As far as discount airlines go, I prefer them over Southwest because you get an actual seat assignment.