Auf Wiedersehen Munchen

We spent our last day in Germany wondering around Munich, but I am not going to tell you all about it, Jason is!  But first, Tuesday was Jason's B-Day, he turned the big 29! So, Happy Birthday to the guest blogger.


And now... Jason...


Greetings Internet People,  I come from a far away land known as Germany where people drink beer all day, and not much else best I can tell.  On our last day in Munich we decided to just roam the town on foot, which was fun and tiring.  We started the morning off going to the center of Munich to an area known as Marienplatz.  Here there is a huge clock tower that makes noises, dances, and attracts hundreds of Asians...

Next we headed to a huge park that people on foot and on bikes roam the trails and relax.  There are also a lot of dogs that actually know how to behave in public which was pretty unusual to see.  It was a really cool and relaxing place that we actually ended up back at later in the day to rest.  A place like this would never exist back home because it was probably on about 10 million dollars worth of land that could be used for oil or something more profitable than walking...

After the park and breaking for lunch, we roamed the local streets and just took in the scene.  Best I can tell no one in Munich has a job or goes to school.  There were hundreds of people all over the streets drinking beer and sitting around doing absolutely nothing.  There was a big soccer game going on (not even in Germany) but it was worthy of a pep rally starting about 5 hours before the game started.  Lots of singing and celebrating.  It was fun to watch so I'm sure it was fun to participate.  Here are some pictures from the afternoon around town...

We ended the day with dinner at a steakhouse which was pretty good and then a night train to Venice in a room about twice the size of my suitcase.  It was good enough though, and our time in Germany was fun.  Now it's on to Italy...

Dreams Do Come True...in Bavaria!

As many of you know, I took German as my foreign language and have always wanted to visit the NeuSchwanstein Castle in Germany.  Today, I got to see it and it was amazing!  But, before we get started on the castle, lets talk about a few things Jason and I have learned in Europe so far.


1. The fastest way to lose weight is to leave the US.  Jason and I are having trouble eating over here and in fact, just had our first full meal for dinner tonight.  We said, screw trying to eat like Germans and we found some good ol Italian food.  Jason is doing better than I am, believe it or not!


2. The bathrooms over here are disgusting.  They make 7/11 bathrooms look like 5 Star Hotel bathrooms, so gross I can't even tell you.  On the train today, I went to use the bathroom and when I flushed, I saw train tracks rushing by below me.  Yes, the train flushes on the tracks.


3. Everyone walks around with Beer over here.  On the street, on the train, there is no bad place for beer!  We like this rule!


Ok, lets get back to the castle.  Today we hopped on another train and took a 2 hour ride into the Alps to Fussen and then took a bus to Hohenschwangau. Here are a few from the train ride.

 

The Alps are so huge!  These pictures do not do them justice.

After finally arriving in Hohenschwangau, Jason and I tried to find some food to eat.  We stumbled upon fries and Coke!  We felt like we were home again.  A Coke has never tasted so good.

Then, I finally saw it. Way up on the hill.  Neuschwanstein.

We picked up our tickets and started the 45 minute hike up the mountain.  You could take a horse carriage up...

...but we decided to walk.

 

This picture over looks the castle King Ludwig II grew-up in.

So, we walked for 45 minutes and came upon the castle.

We then walked to Mary's Bridge where we got these amazing pictures!

   

 

Then as we were walking back down to the Castle, we saw some people walking out of a closed off area and wanted to see what was down there.  So, we ignored this sign...

...and this one...

...walked down these steps...

...and got to see this amazing view.  It is a waterfall that goes under Mary's Bridge(where the previous photos were taken)

After this adventure, we headed back up to the Castle and took some photos.  I couldn't take any except out the windows once we got into the Castle.  Only 15 rooms were ever completed out of the 150 that were planned, so the tour was pretty short, but there was an amazing floor made out of 2 million mosaic pieces and the wood work in the kings bedroom took 14 people, 4 years to complete.

This is a picture from another look out point.

After several hours of walking and finally feeling hungry I scarfed down this pretzel.  Well, until Jason realized how yummy it was and starting sneaking bites!

Overall, we had a great day today and seeing the countryside was amazing.  Tomorrow we are going to wonder around Munich and celebrate Jason's B-Day!  We might not be able to post again until Wednesday night because we have a night train tomorrow night to Venice.  Love and miss you all!

 

  

Danke Schon - Munchen

Well, we made it to Munich!  I am not going to lie, it was a loooong trip.  Both of our flights were delayed and the 8.5 hour flight was pretty miserable.  We got straight off that and hopped on a train for 3.5 hours to Munich.  The German country side was amazing and we discovered that Germany had Pine Trees, Jason was not very excited.  But, we arrived safely, checked into our hotel and took a look around.


Below are pictures of our hotel and hotel room, not too bad.

Here are a few shots from outside our hotel.

Jason and I really like the train station.  It was much nicer and busier than I expected.

As you can see by the pictures there are people and food everywhere, including this giant pretzel!

We didn't buy this pretzel, but did buy 2 mini pretzels!

Oh, and we were confused to see that Germans are extremely excited to have a KFC coming near them soon.  Now they too can enjoy the artery clogging Fried Chicken that we all enjoy in the US.

Jason and I are off to see the Neuschwanstein Castle tomorrow, we should have some amazing pictures to post.  For those of you who don't know what this castle is, see the picture below.  Disney based their castles off it.

Love and miss all of you, I will try to post a new blog tomorrow.  I am off to bed, its 8:50pm here in Germany and I am already tired from our long day of traveling.