by Gina Scarpa

The fifth leg of The Amazing Race starts off in Italy, but first place racers Art and JJ quickly take off for a train headed for Austria. From there, they'll drive across the border to Bavaria and go to the Gasthof Zum Rassen restaurant. Dave and Rachel and Joey and Danny board the second train, with Vanessa and Ralph, Nary and Jamie, and Brendon and Rachel make it onto the third. Kerri and Stacy are on their own on the fourth train, and then there's Bopper and Mark, who are not only far behind, but have a Speed Bump to complete as well.

The front of the pack catch up with one another at the restaurant in Bavaria while the back of the pack run into one another back at the train station in Innsbruck, Austria. In Bavaria, it's time for a Detour - Fairy Tale or Championship Male. In Fairy Tale, teams follow a trail of gingerbread to a village and then use the pieces they found along the way to complete a gingerbread house. In Champsionship Male, teams must style a man's beard into a winning look. The beard seems a little weird, but getting lost in the woods could put you right out of the race.

While everyone goes for the beards, Bopper and Mark stop to complete a little yodeling challenge. First of all, yodeling is hard and second, it may just be the most annoying music EVER. Those two boys from Kentucky made it entertaining though and, despite doing a pretty terrible job, they're able to move on and get back in the race.

Art and JJ finish styling the beard first and, with the roaming gnome in hand, leave for Neuschwanstein Castle (and yes, I had to pause my DVR to write that one down). Meanwhile, Brendon and Rachel and Kerri and Stacy get lost heading for the gingerbread challenge, which opens the door for Bopper and Mark to pass them since they arrived at it without a problem.

On their way to the castle, Vanessa and Ralph completely melt down - or at least, Vanessa does. She apparently doesn't like walking in the cold so she goes off on Ralph, throwing things at him and calling him a jackass. Speaking of couples that are falling apart, Rachel holds back her crocodile tears as Brendon works on the gingerbread house - they are going to be fighting to stay in it. And Dave and Rachel, who fought the entire way to the castle, ended up going to the wrong one. At least on that one, many other teams made the same mistake.

Teams find another clue inside the castle that sends them to an ice rink for a Road Block. One team member has to slide a roaming gnome across the ice and have it stop inside a bullseye. Art and JJ finish first (again) and head to the pit stop at Landhannes Farm, a 200-year-old dairy farm. That's a threepeat!

Joey and Danny arrive second, followed by Vanessa and Ralph.  From there, Dave and Rachel check in, and then Brendon and Rachel arrive (in style, with Brendon falling over after jumping excitedly on the mat).  Mark and Bopper, who fell to the bottom of the pack again at one point, come back to check in in 6th place, and Nary and Jamie, despite over 180 unsuccessful attempts on the ice, check in 7th.  Kerri and Stacy are the last team to arrive and are eliminated from the race.  It's too bad their poor navigation skills ended up being their undoing in the race.  

The Amazing Race airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

(Image courtesy of CBS)

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