All fairy tale castles ...

... especially this one, Neuschwanstein ...

... need a princess or two.

Eating and Drinking (Bavarian Christmas Style)

Breakfast!?

The day in Munich at Rho and Brett's started with a typical Bavarian breakfast - white sausages (peeled after cooking, like the locals do), a sweet pickle/mustard sauce, fresh pretzls with butter ... and a wheat beer.

Lardberg ahoy!

Heading into the Christmas markets, it was only right to sample the local produce on offer: even more sausage, deep-fried potato patties, deep-fried apple, deep-fried plum jam sandwiches ... all washed down with gluhwein and some other sort of hot liquor with an unpronounceable name.

You could request the message of your choice on your gingerbread: eg "Diabetes?" or "A present for your dentist!"

In between times, there was chocolate in a variety of shapes and sizes and gingerbread and marzipan biscuits. Just in case we got peckish.

And of course, there was the lights and colour of the markets and city centre itself - filled with people shopping, eating and drinking and just hanging out in the cool evening, enjoying the spectacle like us.

Ice-climbing bunny - and coming up the other side, an ice-climbing monkey!

Of course, we needed all this food and drink to sustain a very competitve round of Carcassonne and several days of hanging out and catching up with the family R. Voegele.

Merry Christmas, guys - and thank you again for your hospitality and all the good times. We'll see you in the new year!