We need some castles in the US

I took a train to the town of Fussen today, which is a town mostly built up around some castles that are in the area. I went to one castle, Neuschwanstein, which was designed to be like something out of a fairy tale. It definitely looks like a fairy tale castle, or like the Small World castle. See Pictures of Fussen and Castle Neuschwanstein.

On the train towards Fussen, I was sitting across from a schoolteacher from Augsberg. She teaches Economics and Computer Informatics (basically Computer Science) to high school age kids. She told me that Germany has a dual educational system... when you're 10 you branch and either go to University Preparation, or you go to this other system which is more preparation for an apprenticeship. The kids she teaches will go into a trade of some kind.

The most interesting thing she told me was that a couple of years ago their teaching plans changed and they're no longer allowed to teach any programming languages. The faculty (she disagrees) feel that with cheap labor available in India and China, there is no need to know how to program. So all they do is design programs, and write some pseudocode. This is a totally interesting take on it, basically designing a set of kids who think at a higher level and don't get their hands dirty with details. Which is fine by me, because that means that the next generation of German Computer Scientists will be really bad at their job, and people will need to consult American Programmers more.

So, I got to Fussen around 11am, and went to a German restaurant there in town. I had Venison Goulash with homemade noodles and salad. The Venison was very very good... super tender and flavorful. Then I hiked up the mountain to the castle courtyard, which is where the tours start. While I was waiting for the tour I met a couple from Vancouver, BC who are also doing the work/holiday thing. He is the dean of a business school in Vancouver and is out here trying to setup an exchange program with a Viennese university. Sounds like a hard life.

The castle was super cool. They don't let you take pictures inside, but I did get some pictures of the outside, as well as pictures of the views from various castle windows. There is a beautiful waterfall and bridge, as well as cool views of Fussen down below. At the top of the mountain was a group of hang-gliders (about 12 of them) who just seemed to stay up forever.

On the train ride back I met a woman from Vacaville who works at the Vacaville prison. She is on a big WWII tour of Europe, some sort of organized thing where you start at Omaha beach and then come down all the way to Munich so you can visit Dachau. She was so excited and showing me pictures of Dachau, which I really didn't want to see. If I wanted to see that I'd take the 20 minute train ride out there. But anyway, she is going to come back again for her vacation next year and tour Auschwitz and others. Blech.

Tonight I'm going to attempt to get symphony tickets. Hopefully it isn't entirely sold out. Undoubtedly sausage and beer will be my main dinner ingredients.