Jiaying's Blah-Blah...

In Munich Germany again, this time for the JEDEC conference. Germany is one of those few countries that truly impresses me, one can sense the great planning and careful designs in everywhere, everyway.

Last time I came to Munich, I had the luxury of time to check out the Munich old downtown; gawking at the centuries old cathedral and countless old intricately decorated buildings… so much culture, so much history, in perspective, the ~200 years of US history is, rather, young...

The best part of visiting Germany gotta be the Autobahn driving experience! This time my colleague Tomdio and I arrived a day early, and had the luxury to take a day trip to explore the surrounding places around Munich. Both Tomdio and I have frequent Munich, but hardly ever had such chance to have the entire day to ourselves to sightseeing.

I had a rental car, diesel powered, which is a popular option here in Europe, I love the sound of the low-purring diesel engine, great torque, great pick-up, raw diesel power! For a day trip, we had two choices: head east to Strattsburg, the home of Mozart, or alternatively head south to the Germany-Austria border to visit Neuschwanstein castle in the Bavarian Alps in Southern Germany, built for Louis II of Bavarian, a.k.a. the Mad King Ludwig. We picked the southern route.

The country side of Germany is breath taking, The white colored Autobahn cuts thru the clean canvas of the crop farms thats filled with bright and high contrast colored flowers and crops, the majestic Alps casts a vague outline in the distant, you can't even paint a prettier picture than this. Tomdio and I were so impressed, we made frequent stops along the way to satisfy our shutter-snapping urges. It took us roughly three hours to make to Germany-Austria border as there were a lot of traffic on the road, the locals were heading out to the country side with the same purpose as us.

After some nice leisure walks along the vast hilly, meticulously cared farmlands, we headed for the Neuschwanstein Castle, we were told that Disney's Cinderella castle was modeled after it, I had to see it for myself to believe it, since the Cinderella castle seemed to be something that came out of the fantasies. Well, seeing is believing, Neuschwanstein Castle truly is a fantasy, built on top of a steep mountain, half way in the cloud, and can be seen by from miles away. The sight of it is as impressive miles away as seen right in front of it. Too bad the Mad King Ludwig never saw the full completion of the castle, he died a mysterious death at a rather young age.

Cinderella Castle vs. Neuschwanstein Castle: