Day 42 & 43

I made it! After 13 hours of flying and 2 hours of driving, I made it home to my nice warm bed. The flight wasn't too bad. We arrived at the airport a few hours early and got all checked in. We dropped our bags off and went through several security measures (they're very good) and finally had a chance to sit down and have something to eat. Our plane was ready to board at 3:05 and I knew this was going to be the start of a very long journey. The plane ride wasn't too bad actually. There were no crying babies, thankfully, and we actually managed to get a few hours of uncomfortable sleep. The food was pretty good. I had a nice piece of chicken with vegetables and some kind of potatoes, a salad and some bread. For dinner I had beef in coconut and orange sauce with rice and veggies and then some yummy rice pudding. We watched a movie and even managed to play some card games. We finally landed at 7:10pm (which felt like 4:10 am for me) and had to go through more security measures, including customs. Thankfully we didn't smuggle anything illegal in. We said good bye at the airport and then found our respective rides. After 2 hours of driving and a Del Taco burrito to remind me how much I missed Mexican food. I really missed it! I made it home safe and sound, started some laundry and then finally made it to bed at 11. I thought it was going to be a restful night, but after 5 hours of sleep, I was up. And there was no hope of falling back asleep. Hopefully the jet lag wears off soon enough and I can sleep tonight! I had so much fun on this trip and I'm in need of some relaxation time. Thanks for following along and I'll let you know when I decide to go on my next trip!!! Good bye until then :)

Day 42

Last day!!! And we still had things to do. We woke up to find the sun shining and the skies clear. Where was that yesterday!? Well, that meant an early trip into the city for some last minute sightseeing. We grabbed some McD’s and took our favorite U-bahn to Marienplatz. The town hall was beautiful! There was bright blue sky behind it and the sun was shining. We took plenty of pictures of it. We made a quick run to Odeonplatz to see the Theatinerkirche and Field Marshall’s building one last time. This time, it was with the sun. After Odeonplatz, Adam decided that he would climb up St. Peter’s tower again to get some better pictures of the city. While he did that I waited at the base of the church in the freezing cold. Even with the sun out, it was still glove and scarf weather. After 20 minutes or so, he was back and we were on our way again. We stopped at the Asamkirche which was pretty small on the inside, but it was incredible. Everything was shining and there was so much going on in this little space. We snapped some quick pictures and then took off again. While we jogged to our tram stop, we saw the Sendlinger Tor (gate) on our way. It is one of three remaining gates left in the city. It used to mark the boundaries of Munich, but now the city extends much further past it. We made our tram just in time and were off to Nymphenburg Palace. This was one of the residences of the Bavarian Kings in Munich. It was also the birthplace of King Ludwig II. Before we entered, we walked around the grounds in the front. There was a huge pond with a bunch of swans in it as well. The swan was one of the symbols of the Bavarian kings which is why they are so prevalent in Munich and surrounding Bavaria. They must have been really friendly swans because they were coming right up next to us. A little too close for comfort. So we decided to head in. It was really nice inside. We weren’t able to see as many rooms as the Munich Residence, but the rooms we did see were wonderful. I don’t think that this palace was damaged much during the wars because it didn’t look like it had been reconstructed at all. The murals on the ceilings were incredible and very detailed. We were able to go into one of the bedrooms which still had the original bed. We also saw the Throne room which is where Ludwig II was born. It was such a nice palace. We walked around back to see the gardens which were well groomed. But I think the flowers were just about out of season, because most of them were dying, if not already dead. We took some quick pictures and then walked to our stop. We took the tram back to the hostel which is where we are right now. I just finished repacking my bag and making sure that I have everything I need. We’re about to leave to the train station, and from there, to the airport. My plane leaves at 3:45 pm (6:45 am your time) and I will be homeward bound. See you all soon!!!

Day 41

Last full day!!! And I'm exhausted. We started the morning off with some nice warm showers and then blog and picture time on our computers. After assessing the weather, we braved the outside and stopped for a nice egg and bacon mcmuffin. We took them to go and headed over to Marienplatz. Our first stop was some souvenir shops. Adam desperately wanted a coo coo clock so we needed to find one that looked good, but was also in his budget. After searching for a while, we decided to come back later in the day to make the purchase. Our next stop was St. Peter's church. The inside was small, but it was the tower we were looking for. We climbed the 305 steps to the top and got an incredible view of Munich. The town hall was below us, and even though it was cloudy outside, it was still really nice. We spent some time at the top before finally making the climb back down to the bottom. We left St. Peter’s Church and made our way over to St. Michael’s Church. It was really nice inside and was filled with artwork and stained glass windows. The interesting thing about this church is that it is the final resting place of King Ludwig II. We’re actually going to his birth place tomorrow, so I feel like I know the guy pretty well. We left St. Michael’s and stopped by the souvenir shops again, just to check some things. The people there must have thought we were a bit odd for coming back a second time. It was nearly time for our Third Reich tour, so we headed over to the train station, stopping for a quick lunch along the way. I managed to get a nice salad before our tour left. The Third Reich tour would take us all around Munich and show us places that were important to Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party. Our first stop was the Hofbrauhaus. This was where Hitler held his first Nazi Rally, and where he came back every year to celebrate and remember the party. After taking some pictures and getting a look at the hall where he gave so many speeches, we left the Hofbrauhaus and traveled to several war memorials. These memorials were built after the first world war, destroyed during the second, and then rebuilt after the second and dedicated to victims of both wars. We learned a lot about Hitler and his rise to power, as well as his desires for art and order. This tour was meant to complement the Dachau tour, and it did so nicely. We left the war memorials and stopped by another memorial. This one was for the White Rose group. It was a student run group who was openly going against the Nazi party by printing pamphlet and distributing them throughout Munich and other large cities. They were eventually caught, put on “trial” and then executed. Their goal was to let the world know that not everyone in Germany was following Hitler, but that there was still active resistance against him. We continued walking until we came to the Field Marshall’s Building. We were here the other day, but now we knew some of the importance behind this building. It was used for many speeches by Hitler. It also is the place of a very famous photo of Hitler standing in a crowd. Just google Hitler and Odeonplatz and you should recognize it. During one of Hitler’s failed attempts to gain control of Germany, he lost 13 of his men. The Field Marshall’s Building was the place of their memorial, which has since been removed. It was guarded 24 hours and if anyone passed it, they had to do the Nazi salute or risk being arrested. We left Odeonplatz and headed over to Konigsplatz. Once we were there we were able to see Hitler’s office building and the balcony that he would come out on to oversee the people below. You could even see the shape of an eagle on the wall where an eagle statue once hung with a wreath and the Nazi symbol in its mouth. Even though Konigsplatz was built during the time of King Ludwig I, Hitler completely redesigned it to fit his ideals. It has been put back to it’s original state, but we were able to see pictures of what it looked like. We also saw the foundations of memorials that Hitler had put up for his fallen men. They were bombed during the war. Our tour concluded here, but we still had a lot to do. We hopped on the S-bahn and headed to the south part of town. We were near the Isar River. We started walking along the river and came to St. Lukas Church which was really nice on the outside, and similar to other churches on the inside. We left the church and crossed a bridge over the river and came to the Maxamllion Building. I don’t know the importance of it, but it was pretty nice. We continued walking along the river and decided that our destination was too far. We walked back to our stop and went into the center of the city. It was souvenir time. We each got a bunch of things and filled our backpacks up. After our walk through the city center, we hopped on another subway to go to the English Gardens. English Gardens are unique because they are filled with a bunch of different trees and plants with no order to them. It had many open spaces, a river running through the middle of it, and was nicely manicured. The park was really nice, and a lot different from Wheatfield. It is also the largest park in Munich. We left the park almost finished with our day. It was 5 pm, which meant dinner time. But because it was our last night, we decided to go all out. And what would be a good place in Munich? Why, the most famous beer hall in the world. Hofbrauhaus!! We went inside and found an empty table and tried to decipher the menu. It was completely in German and I could read about 1 word in each dish. So instead of being risky, I played it safe and got a huge salad with giant grilled turkey breasts. It was really good. It wasn’t until after we ordered that we found the English menus. But after reading it, I think I would have still chosen the salad. Adam ordered what he though was meatloaf. But what turned out to be Leberkase, which means Liver Cheese. Thankfully it didn’t include either of those ingredients. Instead it was like a giant hot dog. It was actually pretty good. I ended the meal with apple struedel which was covered in sugar, warm vanilla pudding, and whipped cream. It was amazing. I am definitely making something like that when I get back. After we chowed down it was time to go back. We stopped at the store to pick up snacks for the plane ride and then walked back to our hostel where we finished up blogs and pictures, and then called it a night. I’m coming home tomorrow!!!

Day 40

Only 2 more days!! I can't believe it. Today was a very nice day. It was cloudy outside and even a little drizzly. So we knew we wouldn't be doing too much sightseeing. We started the morning off a little later the usual. We left the hostel Around 9 am and headed over to our U-bahn stop. We took the subway to the other side of the city and started heading towards the Olympic Stadium. Munich hosted the Olympic games in 1972 and built this entire stadium, lake and park surrounding it. The lake was wonderful to walk around. There weren't too many people around so it was pretty peaceful. We walked along the lake for a while and finally game to the gates of the park. Even though we didn't go in, we took a little peek and saw the field and the track. It was pretty cool because I don't think I've even been to an Olympic Stadium. We left the arena and started walking towards the BMW museum. Munich is headquarters for BMW so the factory is there as well as the museum. We paid our 6 euros and went inside. Upstairs there was an art exhibit. And an art exhibit basically means a bunch of BMW cars painted all fancy. It was pretty neat and the cars looked really cool. I wish I could have driven off in one of them. We went downstairs to the actual museum and learned about the history of BMW. They started off in the plane engine business and then branched into motorcycles. After several years and some risky business moves, they started manufacturing cars. We saw cars from the very beginning and all the way to current time. There were some oldies there. I took plenty of pictures so all of my car buffs can look at them. BMW started building race cars and racing motorcycles as well. They were the winners of many races and at one time held the record for fastest car. The museum was really cool but I think the icing on top of the cake was standing next to 2 different James Bond cars that were driven by Pierce Brosnan. That was so cool! After the museum, we headed back to the U-bahn and took it to the Marienplatz, the main square. We were getting pretty hungry so we stopped at our favorite lunch spot, McD's and each got a 1955 burger. From there we walked to the Munich Residenz. The interesting thing about this building is that even though a good portion of it was destroyed during the second world war, there were 90 rooms available for the public! And we visited all of them. We probably walked a mile just inside the palace. There were so many different rooms for different purposes that it all started blending together after a while. The antiquity hall, built in the 1500s to house one of the kings antiques. It was later turned into a dining hall. It was huge! There were sculptures everywhere and paintings filled every empty space. It was very impressive and I felt like I could dine in this hall. We walked through the palace for a good hour before finally finishing and heading into the treasury. There were so many things glittering and glowing in there that I just had to take pictures and leave. It was very impressive as well. You could tell that the Bavarian kings were very wealthy. After spending so much time in the palace we were ready to call it an early day. The weather wasn't improving and we didn't have too much else planned for the day, we headed back to the hostel for some picture uploading, TV catching up, blog writing, and relaxation time. Tomorrow will be busier, but it's the LAST FULL DAY! I can't believe it's here already!

Day 39

I can't believe I'm in the city that will be the final destination of this trip. It's been a long and crazy journey. But we still have 3 more long and crazy days left. Today started bright and early at 7 am. After showers and a quick stop at McDonald's, we were on our way into the city. Our first stop was Marienplatz, which is the main square of the city. We saw the new town hall, which is enormous! We even saw the glockenspiel. Well, it didn't go off, but we saw it way up in the clock tower. Maybe we'll catch it tomorrow. The weather wasn't super great, so we decided to skip going up any towers today and hold out for better weather tomorrow. We did go see the old town hall and St. Peter's church while we were in the square. We walked to the Viktaalienmart which was filled with little tents selling everything imaginable. We continued walking until we came to the Frauenkirche. It was slightly under construction, so the outside wasn't very nice. The inside was pretty average as well. Maybe if the weather's better we'll get a chance to climb up it's tower and it will all be worth it. After the Frauenkirche, we made our way to the Theatinerkirche. Now this one was impressive. The outside is a bright yellow and it's huge. And the inside is magnificent. You'll agree when you see the pictures. We spent some time inside before making our way to the Hofgarten, or Royal Gardens. They were pretty nice, but nothing comparable to Schonnbrunn. I have yet to find ones that are. We left the gardens and headed towards the Bavarian State Opera House, also under construction. The square that it was in was nice though. We started making our way back towards Marienplatz to catch the S-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof. We had about 30 minutes before the start of our tour and we needed to grab some food. We searched for a grocery store, but no luck. We had to settle of Burger King. Don't worry, I didn't order chili cheese burgers again. I played it safe with a crispy chicken burger. After we got our lunch, we walked to our platform and waited for our tour group. Today we were going to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp. Our guide was very prompt and we left right away. One train and one bus ride later and we were there. We spent the next 4 hours learning about the history of Dachau, concentration camps and WWII. It was very interesting. The reason that Dachau is so important to the history of the Nazi Party is because it was the first camp. All other camps were modeled after this one. Originally these concentration camps were opened to house people who Hitler thought might get in the way during his rise to power, politicians, people in power etc. There was really nothing to do with race. After he rose to power, they started shutting down all of the camps because there was no need for them anymore. However, one of Hitler's right hand men, Himmel, wanted a piece of the power and convinced Hitler to let him run the remaining camps. Hitler agreed and Himmel began throwing many different kinds of people into the camps. If someone was different from the "pure blood" then they would be thrown into the camps. It wasn't until much later in the war that Jews were persecuted more heavily and executed. We went inside several buildings at Dachau including the SS headquarters. It was in this building that the prisoners were dressed, showered, registered, and then decided if they were fit enough to work or if they would be sent to an extermination camp. It was so real and right in front of my face that it was almost scary. I couldn't believe that I was standing in such a horrible place. But one of the quotes from the camp continues to resonate in my head. "Those who are alive remember who have died here" Something like that. It's so important to remember our past so that we can never let it happen again. It wasn't like Hitler forcefully took over Germany. He was voted into the position of Chancellor by the public. After the SS headquarters, we walked to the back part of the grounds and found the gas chamber. This was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. This was the place where people were taken to be "showered" but instead were poisoned, killed, and then burned. Their ashes were then thrown out back. It was such a brutal and terrible thing to do. There are now graves where the ashes were put remembering the deaths of all of the prisoners. It was a hard site to see, but necessary. I think it's something that everyone needs to see once in their life to remember the horror that our world was put through and to make sure that it never happens again. After the gas chambers and memorial, we walked towards the barracks. All of them were destroyed after the war, but some were reconstructed from pictures. They were only made to fit 200 people at any one time, but towards the end of the war, they were cramming up to 1000 people inside. After the barracks, it was nearly time to go. We waited for our bus, and then took a train back to Munich. We now had 2 hours of free time before our next tour started. Because lunch was so long ago, we decided it was time for a snack. We stopped by a grocery store and I picked up my favorite salad and some chips. We walked back to the train station and waited for our next tour to start, playing some card games in between. Around 6 pm our Bavarian Food and Beer tour started. We were greeted with a tall glass of Augustiner Beer. The interesting thing about this beer is that it is only brewed in Munich and isn't exported. Also, 51% of it's profits are donated to charity. Even for beer, that's pretty cool. We took the S-bahn into the city and walked to the Octoberfest Museum. We learned about how the festival was started and how it became such a big thing. King Ludwig I started the Octoberfest after his marriage to the princess Therese in the early 1800s. There were 5 days of festivity after their wedding and they invited people from all over the country to celebrate and meet one another. This tradition was carried on for several years and eventually extended to the 17 day festival it is today. I learned just how rich Munich is as well. Just from this festival alone, they make 900,000,000 dollars. CRAZY! They really don't need tourism at all!! We sat down and watched a little video about how beer was invented and made back in the day and how Germany took that and created their own brews. We also learned about the "Big 6" or the 6 founding breweries of Munich. After our visit to the museum we left to go to the Hogbraukeller, a famous restaurant/brewery in Munich. There we were given HUGE platter of traditional Bavarian food. There was ham and sausages, cheese and cream cheese, pickles and my favorite, pretzels. Now, if you've never had a Munich pretzel, then you can't even imagine how amazing it tastes. It was definitely the best thing I ate while in Munich. After stuffing my face and getting to know the people at our table, we left the Hofbraukeller to go to the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer hall in all of Munich, possibly in the entire world. It was crazy! It was filled with people sharing these long tables, eating large amounts of food and beer. There was even a traditional Bavarian band playing some fun music for the guests. We left the Hofbrauhaus and our tour and headed back to the hostel for the night. It was after 10! It was a busy day.

Day 38

We woke up in Heidelberg this morning very early, 5:45 am. SO needless to say, we were both very tired. We managed to get ourselves dressed and to the train station on time to catch our ride to Tubingen. After a transfer and nearly 2 hours of train time, we arrived in the city. And I just have to say that I was thoroughly surprised. First, I wasn’t expecting it to be that cold, but everything was covered in frost and ice, even the flowers. And second, I wasn’t expecting it to be that beautiful. The sky was clear and the morning was crisp. And by crisp, I mean cold. We walked to the Munsterplatz and saw that there was a nice little market going on. We had already had our egg McMuffins and coffee, so we were set, but it was still cool to see. I need to find some markets to go to in California. We walked around the Munsterplatz for a bit and then started heading up towards the castle. We kept seeing more and more frost while we headed up, but no snow. I guess it was a one time deal. We made it to the castle and were happy to find that it was open, at least the grounds were. SO we walked around for a bit looking for the best vantage point to take some photos of the city. We walked all of the way around and found a good area. The grass looked frozen. We spent some time up there before heading down back to the city to the Neckar River. From there we continued taking pictures. Apparently it was feeding time for the ducks and pigeons because there was about 500 of them swarming. It wouldn't have been such a bad thing, but pigeons get startled very easily. And while one might not scare you, 500 scared pigeons flying towards you might. I made sure I was out of the line of fire when they came hurling towards us. After the near brush with death, we walked along the river to enjoy the city for a little bit longer before our train ride. Our next stop was Hechingen where we would catch a bus to the Hohenzollern Castle. We nearly missed our bus, but we caught it just in time. We were on our way to the castle! We arrived at the base and decided that taking the shuttle up was the best option. So we hopped on the shuttle and headed up to the castle. Once we arrived we had 45 minutes before our tour started, so we walked around the grounds looking for something to eat. We found a little food stand near the entrance and each got some french fries to hold us over until lunch time. They were very good. After walking around some more, our tour was finally ready to leave. But we should have realized that it was not going to be the most interesting guide when we received our English tour books. The tour was entirely in German, which wouldn't be terrible if it moved fast. But it didn't After an hour and a half of sitting and not understanding anything, we were finally able to escape. Even though the inside was nice, it tour almost ruined it. We continued to walk around the grounds to find some good views of the city, but our stomachs were grumbling. We stopped inside the castle restaurant for some nice bowls of potato and leek soup. It was very warm and tasty. We left the restaurant after warming up for a bit only to realize that we had close to 2 hours before our bus would arrive. What were we going to do for 2 hours!? Plus it was really cold outside. SO we walked around some more and tried to stay warm. We took our shuttle bus down after a bit and waited inside a souvenir shop to stay warm. After our 2 hour wait, the bus finally arrived and we were on our way to Stuttgart. Once we arrived, we were able to make a quick pit stop for food before our next train was scheduled to leave. I got a banana and toffee nut muffin. It hit the spot. We boarded our next train which would take us back to Munich for the rest of our trip. But about 30 minutes into the train ride, my stomach started hurting. I tried to ignore it and even sleep it off, but it didn't work. I spent the next hour sitting in my seat trying deal with the pain. But nothing worked. After another 30 minutes and a trip to the bathroom, all was better. Thankfully. I don't know what I would have done if I got the stomach flu or a bug. We arrive in Munich 20 minutes late but it was ok because we were there!! We walked to our hostel, typed up some blogs, uploaded some pictures, and got ready for bed. It was a busy day!

Day 37

Heidelberg!!! That’s where we are today. We got to sleep in a little, but not much. We woke up around 7:15 to take showers and have a nice breakfast at our hostel. I had a nice big cup of coffee, 2 bowls of cereal, some toast with jelly on it and an apple. It was delicious. After we were finished, we headed out into the city. The sky looked blue and the sun was shining, kind of. We didn’t realize how far away we were from the center of the city until 30 minutes had passed since we left, and we still weren’t there! We were definitely taking the bus back. On our way to the center, we passed a restaurant that said “Gino’s Mexican Food.” Now, I’ve been crazing Mexican food for the longest time. In fact, when I get home that’s the first thing I’m going to eat. A nice big burrito. So once we saw this, we knew we were set for lunch. But that was a ways away. We continued walking and finally made it to the town hall. We went inside and bought our Heidelberg Card which would give us free transportation and entrance to the castle. But our first stop was the Karl’s Gate. It was your standard entry gate to a city. There was even a little man hole for the latecomers. After the gate we stopped by a little sandwich shop so Adam could grab some food. Plus it was cold outside so I used that time to warm up. After our mini break and some time to figure out our next move, we left the sandwich place and started walking towards the castle. Luckily our Heidelberg Card came with a round trip ride on the funicular railway car, because my feet did not want to climb all of the way up to the castle. We toured the grounds for a bit first. The view was pretty good, even though it was very very cold outside. We could see the whole city! It was really nice. We continued walking along the grounds to try and get some good pictures of the castle. After 20 minutes or so, our tour guide was ready to take us inside. We learned that the castle had been attacked several times over the course of it’s history, once by the French, once during the 30 years war and the last time by nature. Lightning struck one of the towers and burned down most of the castle. After that, it fell into ruins and only one part has ever been renovated. The inside of the renovated part was really nice. Because there was no record of what it looked like, the designers based it off of other castles built during that time. The furniture was all from the 1600s as well. It was pretty nice. After our tour we went downstairs to a very special room. This room contains the largest wine barrel in the world!! It can hold almost 22,000 liters! It’s been filled 3 times in it’s history. Sadly, there’s no wine in it now. After the wine barrel, we walked back upstairs to the Apothecary Museum. It was an entire area dedicated to the practice of medicine from the 1600s. There were so many different spices and herbs used as well as different medical instruments. There was so much information and so many different rooms that it was a little overwhelming. But it was interesting, nevertheless. We left the castle and headed back into the city. Our next stop was the Holy Ghost Church. And as luck would have it, they had a tower that we could climb. So we paid our 70 cents to ascend the tower. After 201 steps we were at the top looking out into the city. It was really nice. The weather had started to turn though and it was getting colder. We spent some time up there before decided that it was lunch time. And now we were on a search for our Mexican restaurant. After 20 minutes of walking up and down the main street, we finally found it. But when we got inside, we were very disappointed. I don’t think “Gino” has ever been to Mexico because the food that was being served was most definitely not Mexican. I’m not even sure if it was food. After spending a few minutes trying to convince ourselves that we could eat it, we left very upset. We stopped at a grocery store to grab some snacks to hold us over until we made it back to the hostel. We left the store and walked over to the University. Heidelberg University is one of the best in all of Europe. With over 33,000 students, living in the city, it kind of feels like a college town. We went inside the library which was really nice. But it was just a library. We left the University area and started walking towards the Jesuit Church. The inside of it was beautiful. It was all white, which is a difference from so many of the other churches we’ve seen. It was also pretty big. We left the church for the last leg of our journey. We walked across the Alte Brucke (Old Bridge) and the Neckar River to walk up Philosopher’s Way. We didn’t make it all of the way to the top, but we did get a pretty good view of the city. It was really nice. And really cold still. But we took a bunch of pictures and spent a good bit of time there. After we were done, we walked back down to the city and caught a bus to our hostel. We arrived back at the hostel, which is on the 3rd floor of a building, but stopped at the 1st floor first to take a look inside the grocery store. While I was trying to find something to eat, I noticed a familiar brand out of the corner of my eye. My salad from the other day was there!! And that’s what I got. I’ll have to keep my eye out for more of them in Munich. We went upstairs to eat and go on our computers for a bit. After some relaxation time, we went into the kitchen for the remainder of the night. We met a group of really cool people and spent a good portion of the night talking hanging out. One of the staff members was even celebrating her birthday so there was some cake involved. One of the guys we met upstairs turned out to be from Irvine. How crazy! We even met someone from Finland. It was a lot of fun, but we ended up calling it an early night so we would be ready for our 5:45 wake up call. Overall, it was a really good day. I can’t believe we’re going back to Munich tomorrow. Less than 5 days left!