To sum things up, Germany was amazing!!! The food, the people, the sights, the good times spent together as a family. On Friday, we got up around 3:30AM so we could make it to the airport by 6AM. It was only an hour and 20 minute flight to Munich and we flew AirBerlin so it was interesting having all the announcements in German then in English. We took the S-Bahn train to our hotel, The Exquisit, which was located just 10 minutes walk from Marianplatz, the big central square in Munich. We started out our day by hopping on the U-Bahn train up to Olympic Park where the 1972 Olympic games were held.
The grounds were awesome and it was a beautiful day. We walked to the top of this huge hill so we could get a scenic view of the park and overlooking the city of Munich. We checked out the Aquatic center, the stadium, Olympic Hall, the Olympia Beirgarten (beer garden) and had a beer and bratwurst at another beer garden. The BMW factory is right next to the park so we walked through their "show room" and Kevin said he could have spent hours in there marveling over the cars and the engineering displays they had set up.
I thought the coolest part was the cars they were bringing up in elevators for people to either test drive or they were new cars that just came off the factory floor that people had purchased and were picking up. Next we headed to the English Garden where in part of the river the are huge waves created by an underground tunnel so people can actual surf in the river. I believe its the only the place in the world you can river surf.
Saturday morning we woke up to rain which was kind of a downer but it set the mood for our visit to the Dachau Concentration camp. Dachau was definitely an eye opening experience and one I'm glad we did so that someday when Addison sees the pictures we can share what we learned with her. We had a tour guide that walked us through the camp and explained a lot of background on how the camps came about and some of the unknown stories not told in the history books. We walked all over the grounds and through the main work building, the prison baracks, the roll call yard, and the crematorium where they actually used gas chambers to execute people. It was very sobering to be there, but what made it really real to me was the conversation I had with Jewish woman on our bus ride back whose grandparents were sent to Auschwitz.
The rest of the day we spent tracking around Munich and checking out Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), Viktualienmarkt (city market), Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), Neues Rathaus, (New Town Hall), Neuhauserstrasse (main pedestrian street that leads to Marianplatz). We also got to see the Glockenspiel at work that evening where figurines dance around at the top of the Altes Rathus under the clock.
Sunday we took a 2 hour train ride to Fussen, Germany to visit the Schloss Neuschwanstein castle. It's sometimes nicknamed the Cinderella castle because Walt Disney modeled the castle at Disney World around this place. King Ludwig II built many of these stately homes all around Germany and spent the family billions and put them in millions in debt when he died at the age of 40. It was an amazingly beautiful day and we could see the foothills of Germany lead into the Alps in Austria. To get to the castle you could take a bus of the fiercely steep hill or you could walk it...well of course we decided to walk...yes we were crazy, but we love a challenge.
We walked 1 1/2 miles uphill pushing a stroller with a 25 pound baby in it while either carrying a 20 pound backpack (Kev) or me being 5 1/2 months pregnant. It was all worth it because the view was amazing. The castle has 80 rooms but only 20 of them are finished because construction stopped after Ludwig died and after going through what was finished you could see why they ran out of money...the rooms where very elaborate. This is a definite must see for everyone, but I would recommend taking the bus.
Monday we headed to Salzburg, Austria for the day. It definitely isn't enough time by any means, but we got a sneak peak. I'm a huge Sound of Music fan so we did get to see some sights from the famous movie - the park you see here is where they sang the "Do, Re, Mi" song. We saw the fountain where Maria splashed the horse when singing "I Have Confidence in Me," and we saw the cemetery where it was depicted that the family hid from the Nazi's at the end (but really those scenes where shot in Hollywood). Salzburg is also the home of Mozart so we saw his birth place and boyhood home. We rode a tram up to the Salzburg Fortress (Hohensalzburg) and got to see some amazing views down on the city and the mountains even though it was a pretty hazy day.
One fun thing on this day was that on the train, Addison befriended a group of Greek highschool students. We ran into them again at the fortress so we had to get a picture of them while they sang, "If You're Happy and You Know It" in Greek. Since we only had a few hours in the city we didn't get to see all the Sound of Music sites, nor did we get to spend much quality time at any one place so we will have to go back for sure. We took some time to pick up some souvenirs...Kevin picked out a beer stein, we got a set of porcelain dolls in traditional dress for Addie, and I picked out a charm and Christmas ornament...all things we are going to be collecting from each country we visit.
By accident we came across a game store which we popped in to see if they had a cribbage board (we've been searching everywhere for one), but I remembered that our friends the Westphalen's had picked up a fun German card game called Bohnanza (we affectionally call it the "Bean Game")...we asked about it and sure enough they had it. I was elated to find it and now while we are away from our friends Mark and Amity we can still practice our mad trading skills for when we move back to the States and drum up the fierce competition once again.
On our final day we finished up seeing some sites in Munich that we hadn't gotten to. We started out at Odenplatz Square which is famous for the Feldherrnhalle - Field Marshal's Hall where Bavarian police fought off Nazi protesters lead by Hitler. After Hitler took rule, he made people salute him as they passed in front of this hall. To avoid doing this people would walk on the street behind the hall and is nicknamed "Dodger's Alley". Next door is the Residenz Palace was the official home of Bavaria’s monarchs. Out front are bronze lions with bright shiney noses. People who supported the monarchy during the take over of Hilter would walk by these lion's and rub their noses...this practice is still done today as we saw many passers-by do the same.
We ate lunch at the world famous HofBräuhaus (Royal Brewery) and Kevin drank a 1 liter beer. Afterwards he wanted to pull an old college trick of taking the mug with you but I wouldn't let him. We headed out to get some more souvenirs and almost ended up with an unwanted one. We were looking through a very small shop and as we were leaving the stroller caught a small table and things went tumbling...including a glass vase that didn't break, but also a very ugly painted tin tree thing. The shop people claimed that we damaged it and it was looking like we were going to be buying a 128 Euro ($200US) ugly painted tree. To our luck they didn't want to deal with calling the "Chief" and they let us leave...it's totally one of those moments that just make you sick to your stomach. We found another doll for Addie, a Germany/Munich beer stein for Kevin, and I found a Bavarian cookbook to take home.
Munich is a wonderful place. The city is clean and people are very friendly. I was very nervous for our trip at first beacuse I haven't been to a country where English wasn't the main language. Funny thing is that pretty much everyone we met spoke English...they start out in German but then after we apologize for only knowing English they switch tongues and speak perfect English. I feel so ignorant only knowing one language...but I feel it just isn't emphasized in our US education system to be more worldly. I'm sure Addison enjoyed the morning cartoons in German...familiar ones like Mickey's Playhouse and Cailou. Kevin and I would watch poker or snooker in the evenings...it was all in German but you didn't need to understand what they were saying. Overall Germany has to be one of the top trips I've been on...I think what made it most special was experiencing it with my family.
To sum things up, Germany was amazing!!! The food, the people, the sights, the good times spent together as a family. On Friday, we got up around 3:30AM so we could make it to the airport by 6AM. It was only an hour and 20 minute flight to Munich and we flew AirBerlin so it was interesting having all the announcements in German then in English. We took the S-Bahn train to our hotel, The Exquisit, which was located just 10 minutes walk from Marianplatz, the big central square in Munich. We started out our day by hopping on the U-Bahn train up to Olympic Park where the 1972 Olympic games were held. 
The grounds were awesome and it was a beautiful day. We walked to the top of this huge hill so we could get a scenic view of the park and overlooking the city of Munich. We checked out the Aquatic center, the stadium, Olympic Hall, the Olympia Beirgarten (beer garden) and had a beer and bratwurst at another beer garden. The BMW factory is right next to the park so we walked through their "show room" and Kevin said he could have spent hours in there marveling over the cars and the engineering displays they had set up. 
I thought the coolest part was the cars they were bringing up in elevators for people to either test drive or they were new cars that just came off the factory floor that people had purchased and were picking up. Next we headed to the English Garden where in part of the river the are huge waves created by an underground tunnel so people can actual surf in the river. I believe its the only the place in the world you can river surf.
Saturday morning we woke up to rain which was kind of a downer but it set the mood for our visit to the Dachau Concentration camp. Dachau was definitely an eye opening experience and one I'm glad we did so that someday when Addison sees the pictures we can share what we learned with her. We had a tour guide that walked us through the camp and explained a lot of background on how the camps came about and some of the unknown stories not told in the history books. We walked all over the grounds and through the main work building, the prison baracks, the roll call yard, and the crematorium where they actually used gas chambers to execute people. It was very sobering to be there, but what made it really real to me was the conversation I had with Jewish woman on our bus ride back whose grandparents were sent to Auschwitz. 
The rest of the day we spent tracking around Munich and checking out Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), Viktualienmarkt (city market), Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), Neues Rathaus, (New Town Hall), Neuhauserstrasse (main pedestrian street that leads to Marianplatz). We also got to see the Glockenspiel at work that evening where figurines dance around at the top of the Altes Rathus under the clock.
Sunday we took a 2 hour train ride to Fussen, Germany to visit the Schloss Neuschwanstein castle. It's sometimes nicknamed the Cinderella castle because Walt Disney modeled the castle at Disney World around this place. King Ludwig II built many of these stately homes all around Germany and spent the family billions and put them in millions in debt when he died at the age of 40. It was an amazingly beautiful day and we could see the foothills of Germany lead into the Alps in Austria. To get to the castle you could take a bus of the fiercely steep hill or you could walk it...well of course we decided to walk...yes we were crazy, but we love a challenge. 
We walked 1 1/2 miles uphill pushing a stroller with a 25 pound baby in it while either carrying a 20 pound backpack (Kev) or me being 5 1/2 months pregnant. It was all worth it because the view was amazing. The castle has 80 rooms but only 20 of them are finished because construction stopped after Ludwig died and after going through what was finished you could see why they ran out of money...the rooms where very elaborate. This is a definite must see for everyone, but I would recommend taking the bus.
Monday we headed to Salzburg, Austria for the day. It definitely isn't enough time by any means, but we got a sneak peak. I'm a huge Sound of Music fan so we did get to see some sights from the famous movie - the park you see here is where they sang the "Do, Re, Mi" song. We saw the fountain where Maria splashed the horse when singing "I Have Confidence in Me," and we saw the cemetery where it was depicted that the family hid from the Nazi's at the end (but really those scenes where shot in Hollywood). Salzburg is also the home of Mozart so we saw his birth place and boyhood home. We rode a tram up to the Salzburg Fortress (Hohensalzburg) and got to see some amazing views down on the city and the mountains even though it was a pretty hazy day. 
One fun thing on this day was that on the train, Addison befriended a group of Greek highschool students. We ran into them again at the fortress so we had to get a picture of them while they sang, "If You're Happy and You Know It" in Greek. Since we only had a few hours in the city we didn't get to see all the Sound of Music sites, nor did we get to spend much quality time at any one place so we will have to go back for sure. We took some time to pick up some souvenirs...Kevin picked out a beer stein, we got a set of porcelain dolls in traditional dress for Addie, and I picked out a charm and Christmas ornament...all things we are going to be collecting from each country we visit. 
By accident we came across a game store which we popped in to see if they had a cribbage board (we've been searching everywhere for one), but I remembered that our friends the Westphalen's had picked up a fun German card game called Bohnanza (we affectionally call it the "Bean Game")...we asked about it and sure enough they had it. I was elated to find it and now while we are away from our friends Mark and Amity we can still practice our mad trading skills for when we move back to the States and drum up the fierce competition once again.
On our final day we finished up seeing some sites in Munich that we hadn't gotten to. We started out at Odenplatz Square which is famous for the Feldherrnhalle - Field Marshal's Hall where Bavarian police fought off Nazi protesters lead by Hitler. After Hitler took rule, he made people salute him as they passed in front of this hall. To avoid doing this people would walk on the street behind the hall and is nicknamed "Dodger's Alley". Next door is the Residenz Palace was the official home of Bavaria’s monarchs. Out front are bronze lions with bright shiney noses. People who supported the monarchy during the take over of Hilter would walk by these lion's and rub their noses...this practice is still done today as we saw many passers-by do the same. 
We ate lunch at the world famous HofBräuhaus (Royal Brewery) and Kevin drank a 1 liter beer. Afterwards he wanted to pull an old college trick of taking the mug with you but I wouldn't let him. We headed out to get some more souvenirs and almost ended up with an unwanted one. We were looking through a very small shop and as we were leaving the stroller caught a small table and things went tumbling...including a glass vase that didn't break, but also a very ugly painted tin tree thing. The shop people claimed that we damaged it and it was looking like we were going to be buying a 128 Euro ($200US) ugly painted tree. To our luck they didn't want to deal with calling the "Chief" and they let us leave...it's totally one of those moments that just make you sick to your stomach. We found another doll for Addie, a Germany/Munich beer stein for Kevin, and I found a Bavarian cookbook to take home.
Munich is a wonderful place. The city is clean and people are very friendly. I was very nervous for our trip at first beacuse I haven't been to a country where English wasn't the main language. Funny thing is that pretty much everyone we met spoke English...they start out in German but then after we apologize for only knowing English they switch tongues and speak perfect English. I feel so ignorant only knowing one language...but I feel it just isn't emphasized in our US education system to be more worldly. I'm sure Addison enjoyed the morning cartoons in German...familiar ones like Mickey's Playhouse and Cailou. Kevin and I would watch poker or snooker in the evenings...it was all in German but you didn't need to understand what they were saying. Overall Germany has to be one of the top trips I've been on...I think what made it most special was experiencing it with my family.
2 comments:
What a fun trip. And its a good thing that you didn't have to buy anything you didn't want or that was broken!:)! See you wed.
It looks like you had a wonderful time! I always love reading your blog because it is so informative of the places you visit. (I'm going to take some tips from your trip and use them while I am planning out our trip to Germany at the end of May.) ;o)
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