"The Amazing Race": Fairy tale or hairy male?

(CBS NEWS) "The Amazing Race" this week sent the eight remaining teams to Germany, where they had to find the castle that inspired the Sleeping Beauty tale, play a form of shuffleboard on ice with travel gnomes, and choose between styling a man's extremely long beard or following a trail of gingerbread pieces to a gingerbread cottage.

Kentucky friends Bopper and Mark, who finished last in last week's non-elimination leg, also had to learn how to yodel to stay in the game. (SPOILER ALERT)

Pictures: "The Amazing Race" 20

For the third week in a row, border guards Art and J.J. were first at the pit stop. This week, they won a beach resort vacation in Thailand.

Bopper and Mark managed to place sixth, even after taking time out for yodeling. Cousins Kerri and Stacy, who had trouble finding the pit stop, arrived last and were eliminated.

The weather in Bavaria was cold and snowy and merited a lot of comment from the racers. Military wife Rachel continued to argue with her spouse, Iraqi vet Dave, and dating divorcees Vanessa and Ralph also did some verbal sparring.

The other Rachel, who has been picking fights with fiance and fellow "Big Brother" cast mate Brendon all season, reined in her aggression this episode, although she continued a non-stop string of complaints. Once considered "Amazing Race" villains, this couple now has become merely annoying (although, Brendon is coming up in my estimation because of the way he calmly fields Rachel's non-stop whining).

Surely, one of the highlights of this episode was seeing how comfortable some teams (Joey "Fitness"/Danny and Vanessa/Ralph) were with styling men's beards, a challenge that rarely comes up in real life.

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