It was a beautiful to behold, but less than thrilling leg of The Amazing Race this week as teams traveled from Turin, Italy to Bavaria, Germany (and once again, all of the driving was left to the teams after the initial train ride). Unfortunately, in spite of the best efforts of the producers, the teams we spread so far apart that every attempt at an equalizer failed, resulting in teams staying in nearly the same order at the Pit Stop as when they started the leg … nearly.
Art & JJ started the leg at 8:57 AM, hopped on the train to Germany, stopped in Innsbruck to transfer, and got to Bavaria hours ahead of everyone else. Rachel & Dave started the leg at 11:33 AM, with Mark & Bopper starting at 5:54 PM. Rachel & Dave and Joey “Fitness” & Danny managed to catch up at the Detour (which should have been the equalizer), but the other teams were still on the train at that point.
As everyone began arriving at the Detour, they had a choice to make: Fairy Tale or Champion Male. I have to say that I was a bit surprised that most of the teams chose Champion Male, which required them to style a man’s beard into an award winning design. Seriously, would that have been your choice when the other one consisted of putting pieces of gingerbread onto the roof of a gingerbread house? I have a hard enough time with my own hair if I let it get too long, so I think constructing the roof of a gingerbread house would have been my choice. Surprisingly enough, Joey “Fitness” and Danny, avid users of hair products, seemed to have the hardest time styling the beard. (Three teams, including Mark & Bopper and Brendon & Rachel chose the gingerbread house.)
The rest of the race was marred for some teams by short tempers — hello Ralph & Vanessa (but at least that kept them from taunting Brendon & Rachel for one leg) and Kerri & Stacy — bad navigational skills, and the inability to read a sign with the name of a castle on it. Teams were supposed to go to Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty’s castle, and four of them went to the castle “next door.” Teams then had to go curling with the Travelocity gnome (hello, product placement!), and it came down to Nary & Jamie and Kerri & Stacy and their gnomes that just did not want to hit that bullseye. Nary & Jamie were the last team to complete the task, but Kerri & Stacy had some problems driving to the Pit Stop (including another emotional meltdown) which gave Nary & Jamie the edge to pass them. Unfortunately, this fairy tale location did not have a happy ending for Kerri & Stacy who were eliminated (Mark & Bopper came from behind to finish sixth).
While it wasn’t a particularly thrilling episode, there was one hilarious moment as Brendon fell flat on his ass when he jumped on the Pit Stop mat, and there were a few humorous quotes. So, if you had the choice to style a man’s beard or make a gingerbread house, which would you have chosen? Take the poll below and explain your reason in the comments section below.
“Are you able to style a beard?” — Brendon
“No, I don’t even know what a beard is.” — Rachel
“We can’t hike that. Are you guys high?” — Vanessa’s reaction to Ralph and another team wanting to walk to the top of a mountain when there was a horse and carriage right next to them
“Holy Christmas, there’s 77 consonants in that.” — Art when seeing the clue telling them to search for the Bundesleistungszentrum für Eishockey und Curling
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Mar 18, 2012 @ 23:53 EST5EDT
The walk up to Neuschwanstein Castle is a daunting one. My hubby and I rode the wagon up, but hiked down. Lots of little waterfalls and such you don’t see on the wagon. Beautiful countryside.
Mark and Bopper were supposed to have a Speed Bump, right? Did I completely miss it?
I would have gone with the beards, just because the gingerbread thing was outside. And all the gingerbread teams were freeeeeezing. I think Art & JJ were the only ones that took the carriage up to the castle.