I've decided that I will just post the pictures to Facebook instead of to this blog since it's rather cumbersome to try to do both, and I don't really like any of the slideshow options that work with the blog. So if you are interested, you can find pictures on Facebook. Here are a few final thoughts about the trip:
1. I am so thankful that I was able to do such a crazy trip and for travelling companions with which to do such a trip, and I'm especially thankful that I got to see Liam for a bit in Poland. It made the separation go faster, and it's now almost half way over.
2. I'm also glad that the planned doctor's appointment in Poland worked out and that the unexpected doctor's appointment in Rothenburg was there when I needed it.
3. If you even plan to do a similar trip, look into the train options well before leaving. We knew that we should buy train tickets before leaving the United States, but what we didn't realize was that we would need to order them enough in advance for them to ship them to us in the U.S. since they don't have an option of printing them online. That was definitely our most expensive mistake of the trip.
4. If you don't like sausages or potatoes in Germany, you will have a hard time finding things to eat at beer gardens. But tomato soup was on almost every menu at every restaurant.
5. Churches are really beautiful and fun to see, but they do all start to run together when you see churches in every city that you visit.
6. Downloading audio walking tours of some of the towns we were in was a really fun way to walk around and to actually understand what we were seeing.
7. Space A is a really nice way to travel when it works, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people due to the absolute need for flexibility and go-with-the-flow-ed-ness.
8. Having to pay for bathrooms is a downside to travelling in Germany, especially when one is pregnant, but a great side of travelling in Germany is that it is really easy and inexpensive to stop at grocery stores to buy lunch for the day.
9. I really enjoyed staying at youth hostels and would definitely do that again. They were all unique in some ways (their locations, old buildings, and features such as lofts and breakfast rooms), but they were pretty standard in other ways in that they all provided bedding and breakfast.
10. Will Baby Trotter be able to count all these countries that he/she has been to before he/she was even born?
And on that note, I think that concludes my travel blog for this trip. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading.
Friday, July 7, 2017
Monday, July 3, 2017
Day 46-48 Stage 2 and the Last Hoorah
July 1 -- We were planning to try to get on a flight to Dover that had quite a few seats available when we checked out of the hotel, but when we got to the passenger terminal, the available seats had been reduced to zero. So that answered our question about whether or not we should return our rental car. Instead, we just checked back into the hotel and had the afternoon to while away. We went to Edeka, our favorite German grocery store, and later, I even got a nap.
July 2 and 3 -- We got up early to attempt another flight, this time to McGuire. There were 53 seats free for this flight, but when we checked in a couple hours before the flight, we were told that we were already competing with over 120 people, so by the time roll call happened, we knew we probably wouldn't be on it. We had no choice but to turn in our rental car though since we only had it reserved through the second of July. As it turned out, I was only one seat away from making that flight, but as it turned out, we were so glad that we didn't make the flight (more on that later).
So we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. For those of you that know the C. family, you know how much they are into biking. It just so happened that the Tour d' France had started the day before, and it just so happened that we weren't too terribly far away from where Stage 2 of the race was taking place. We got another rental car, made new reservations for the hotel, and jumped in the car for a two and a half hour drive to Liege, Belgium where we saw the last 25 seconds of the race and then drove back. It was rather a hairbrained thing to do, but it fulfilled the life-long dreams of those biking fans and hey, bumped up my country count to an even 20 (and an uneven 11 for Baby T). We didn't get back to Ramstein until around 11 pm. By that time, they had updated the flight information for the next day, and we learned that a flight was leaving for Andrews at three in the morning. We thought that no one would want to be up that early and that we would have a better chance to get on. So we cancelled our hotel reservation for the night and just plunked down to wait in the lobby of the hotel. Again, there were 53 seats available, but as we waited for roll call, we kept seeing people that we recognized that had gotten on the McGuire flight the day before. The people that had made that flight had gotten on the plane and sat there for 3 hours before being told that the flight was cancelled due to a fuel leak. When we heard that, we were glad that we hadn't been selected. Unfortunately, it meant that the competition for the 3:00 flight was much greater than we had expected it to be, and we despondently watched all those same people get selected again while we sat there. But enough people didn't show up for roll call that our names were called at the last minute (only one person was selected after us).
Traveling on C17s is really a great way to fly because we stretched out in our sleeping bags on the floor after we took off, and I actually got almost a full night of sleep. When we arrived in the US, S's mom pulled up with impeccable timing less than 5 minutes after we walked out of the terminal. They dropped me off at Reagan Airport, and we parted ways after 6 weeks of travel. Then, it was just two more flights, a shuttle ride, and a car ride left before the epic trip was officially over.
In case you're worried about what you will read now that you don't have my travel blog to read, don't worry: I'll still post at least once more with some pictures (though I promise not to post all of them since I currently have over 1000 on my camera) and maybe some final thoughts.
July 2 and 3 -- We got up early to attempt another flight, this time to McGuire. There were 53 seats free for this flight, but when we checked in a couple hours before the flight, we were told that we were already competing with over 120 people, so by the time roll call happened, we knew we probably wouldn't be on it. We had no choice but to turn in our rental car though since we only had it reserved through the second of July. As it turned out, I was only one seat away from making that flight, but as it turned out, we were so glad that we didn't make the flight (more on that later).
So we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. For those of you that know the C. family, you know how much they are into biking. It just so happened that the Tour d' France had started the day before, and it just so happened that we weren't too terribly far away from where Stage 2 of the race was taking place. We got another rental car, made new reservations for the hotel, and jumped in the car for a two and a half hour drive to Liege, Belgium where we saw the last 25 seconds of the race and then drove back. It was rather a hairbrained thing to do, but it fulfilled the life-long dreams of those biking fans and hey, bumped up my country count to an even 20 (and an uneven 11 for Baby T). We didn't get back to Ramstein until around 11 pm. By that time, they had updated the flight information for the next day, and we learned that a flight was leaving for Andrews at three in the morning. We thought that no one would want to be up that early and that we would have a better chance to get on. So we cancelled our hotel reservation for the night and just plunked down to wait in the lobby of the hotel. Again, there were 53 seats available, but as we waited for roll call, we kept seeing people that we recognized that had gotten on the McGuire flight the day before. The people that had made that flight had gotten on the plane and sat there for 3 hours before being told that the flight was cancelled due to a fuel leak. When we heard that, we were glad that we hadn't been selected. Unfortunately, it meant that the competition for the 3:00 flight was much greater than we had expected it to be, and we despondently watched all those same people get selected again while we sat there. But enough people didn't show up for roll call that our names were called at the last minute (only one person was selected after us).
Traveling on C17s is really a great way to fly because we stretched out in our sleeping bags on the floor after we took off, and I actually got almost a full night of sleep. When we arrived in the US, S's mom pulled up with impeccable timing less than 5 minutes after we walked out of the terminal. They dropped me off at Reagan Airport, and we parted ways after 6 weeks of travel. Then, it was just two more flights, a shuttle ride, and a car ride left before the epic trip was officially over.
In case you're worried about what you will read now that you don't have my travel blog to read, don't worry: I'll still post at least once more with some pictures (though I promise not to post all of them since I currently have over 1000 on my camera) and maybe some final thoughts.
Friday, June 30, 2017
Day 43-45 This is the last fun day
June 28 -- It was time to leave France and head back to Germany for our final stop of the trip and one of the ones that we were looking forward to the most because of the medieval castles that we were going to see. Although there were some things that would have been interesting to see along the way (namely the Black Forest), we knew that the 3 hour drive would take us longer than that no matter what, so we opted to just head straight to our destination of Bacharach. We were sad to leave France because of how friendly the people were that we met.
It did indeed take us most of the day to get to our castle home (Stahleck Castle) for the night. The youth hostel where we stayed in Bacharach is an old castle built in the 12th century complete with towers, thick walls, and plumbing that has thankfully been updated, since chamber pots really aren't my thing, especially when I'm sharing a room (the smallest room of our trip) with 4 other people. Views of the Rhine River in both directions were all important to the builders of the castle, who worried about seiges and enemies sneaking up on them, so of course, we had amazing views to enjoy in 2017, too. An interesting fact about the castle/youth hostel was that it was used as a prison during WW2 to hold youth who refused to join Hitler's Youth.
After checking in, we walked down to the town of Bacharach, which is a dying town other than the tourism, of which there doesn't even seem to be much of that compared to some places we've been. We ate dinner at a place with really good food and the first really good beer in Germany according to SC. The restaurant was under an old carousel pavilion, which was a little strange, but the waitress/cook (one person was running the whole show) was so nice that it made up for the strange setting. The main problem with castles is that you have to walk up a lot of steep hills to get to them, so we worked off our dinner by hiking back up to our room. The main problem with castles that have been turned into hostels is that it's a really cool destination to bring school groups to visit, so the place was crawling with young kids that were running and screaming in the courtyard late into the night.
July 29-- We rented bikes in the morning and rode them downriver to St. Goar. We saw many castles along the way, including one in the middle of the river and several that have been turned into hotels. We also saw the cliffs of Loreley above the deepest and narrowest section of the Rhine, where many boats sank in ages past because of underwater boulders.
We got to St. Goar around noon and ate at a delicious bakery restaurant. Then, we took our time walking through town shopping. We walked our bikes up to the Rheinfels Castle, which is mostly in ruins. We hadn't realized how short we were cutting out time if we were going to catch a boat back to Bacharach until we got up to the castle, so we basically raced through the castle and then flew downhill on our bikes and through town and basically rolled onto the boat right before it pulled away from port. The ride back to Bacharach took about an hour and was very peaceful, and the boat managed to out race the rain. We rode around town a little more after getting off the boat and then ate dinner at the oldest building in town. And finally, we tromped back up the hill for the night.
June 30 -- We wanted to visit one more castle before calling it quits, and we were glad we did even if it was a little out of our way. Rick Steve's claims that the Eltz Castle is the best castle in Europe. I would have to see more cattle in other parts of Europe before I would make that claim, but it was a really cool castle.The Eltz family has owned it for 33 generations, and although they don't still live there, they still visit once a week and arrange beautiful flower displays in the rooms that the tourists see. The paintings, tapestries, and furnishings range from the 12th century to the 19th century. After the tour and a quick picnic lunch, we completed our circle of Germany by driving back to Ramstein. We even got a room (remember the 4 bedroom apartment from 6 weeks ago?) on base again. We did some shopping at the commissary and BX, and then proceeded to repack our suitcases in hopes of getting on a flight tomorrow.
It did indeed take us most of the day to get to our castle home (Stahleck Castle) for the night. The youth hostel where we stayed in Bacharach is an old castle built in the 12th century complete with towers, thick walls, and plumbing that has thankfully been updated, since chamber pots really aren't my thing, especially when I'm sharing a room (the smallest room of our trip) with 4 other people. Views of the Rhine River in both directions were all important to the builders of the castle, who worried about seiges and enemies sneaking up on them, so of course, we had amazing views to enjoy in 2017, too. An interesting fact about the castle/youth hostel was that it was used as a prison during WW2 to hold youth who refused to join Hitler's Youth.
After checking in, we walked down to the town of Bacharach, which is a dying town other than the tourism, of which there doesn't even seem to be much of that compared to some places we've been. We ate dinner at a place with really good food and the first really good beer in Germany according to SC. The restaurant was under an old carousel pavilion, which was a little strange, but the waitress/cook (one person was running the whole show) was so nice that it made up for the strange setting. The main problem with castles is that you have to walk up a lot of steep hills to get to them, so we worked off our dinner by hiking back up to our room. The main problem with castles that have been turned into hostels is that it's a really cool destination to bring school groups to visit, so the place was crawling with young kids that were running and screaming in the courtyard late into the night.
July 29-- We rented bikes in the morning and rode them downriver to St. Goar. We saw many castles along the way, including one in the middle of the river and several that have been turned into hotels. We also saw the cliffs of Loreley above the deepest and narrowest section of the Rhine, where many boats sank in ages past because of underwater boulders.
We got to St. Goar around noon and ate at a delicious bakery restaurant. Then, we took our time walking through town shopping. We walked our bikes up to the Rheinfels Castle, which is mostly in ruins. We hadn't realized how short we were cutting out time if we were going to catch a boat back to Bacharach until we got up to the castle, so we basically raced through the castle and then flew downhill on our bikes and through town and basically rolled onto the boat right before it pulled away from port. The ride back to Bacharach took about an hour and was very peaceful, and the boat managed to out race the rain. We rode around town a little more after getting off the boat and then ate dinner at the oldest building in town. And finally, we tromped back up the hill for the night.
June 30 -- We wanted to visit one more castle before calling it quits, and we were glad we did even if it was a little out of our way. Rick Steve's claims that the Eltz Castle is the best castle in Europe. I would have to see more cattle in other parts of Europe before I would make that claim, but it was a really cool castle.The Eltz family has owned it for 33 generations, and although they don't still live there, they still visit once a week and arrange beautiful flower displays in the rooms that the tourists see. The paintings, tapestries, and furnishings range from the 12th century to the 19th century. After the tour and a quick picnic lunch, we completed our circle of Germany by driving back to Ramstein. We even got a room (remember the 4 bedroom apartment from 6 weeks ago?) on base again. We did some shopping at the commissary and BX, and then proceeded to repack our suitcases in hopes of getting on a flight tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Day 42 Wine
June 27 -- As I mentioned in the last post, we are in wine and vineyard country, and we decided to do a hike from one village to another through some vineyards. We parked in the town of Riquewihr. While we were looking for change for the parking meter, two French gardeners started talking to us, and they picked some bunches of lavender for us. I can't imagine a German gardener ever doing something like that, so it's again interesting to note that even though we are so close to Germany still, we are in a very different culture. We started our hike through town and made our way past souvenir shops, creperies, and wine cellars. Then, we exited town into a wooded area and then finally out into the vineyards. The grapes were still quite green, but the vines were loaded with grapes. We walked about an hour and a half until we reached the town of Ribeauvillé, where we ate a lunch of baguette sandwiches from a bakery. Then, we headed back the way we came. Not only did we see grapes on our walk, but we also found cherry trees, what I'm pretty sure were capulí trees, black berry bushes, and wild strawberries growing along the road. It was a lovely (though also hot and humid) walk. When we got back into town, we got some ice cream and we went into a wine cellar to sample a few wines (and by sample, I mean taste but not drink due to Baby Trotter's being currently underage for drinking). Then, we had dinner at another creperie. The forecasted hail and thunderstorm thankfully never manifested itself today.
Monday, June 26, 2017
Day 40 and 41 Finally a Romance Language
June 25 -- This day was the first time on this trip that we encountered hard enough rain that we had to reconsider our plans, which is really incredible considering that we have now been on the "road" for over a month. We waited out the rain by playing Carcassonne and Set at the hostel, and by lunch time, the rain was gone and the world was beginning to dry up. We considered going back up to the mountains via cable car since we had heard of a cool hike near where we had been the day before, but once we took into consideration our late start and the cost of the cable car, we decided to just do a walk by the river along the valley floor. It was a beautiful path next to a raging river.
For dinner, we went up to the top floor of the tallest building in town and were entertained throughout our meal by watching the paragliders land in the field below us. I ordered roesti, which is another typical local Swiss dish of hash browns covered by tomatoes and Swiss cheese. The waitress made me laugh when we told her that we had tried Raclette the night before and that it was almost too much cheese. She responded, "Of course, that's why we order it."
June 26 -- We decided that Switzerland, though beautiful, would put us in the poor house if we stayed any longer, so to France we went. Even though we only drove 2.5 hours, it is amazing how much it feels like we are in a different country (which we are, of course, but it's so unexpected how different it feels from either Germany or Switzerland even though we are so close to both). The first thing I noticed after we stopped for gas shortly after crossing the border was the beautiful change in language. Unlike in Germany, where everyone sounds as if they are yelling at you, even if they are not, in France, even if they are yelling at you, it doesn't sound like they are.
We drove to Colmar and explored the downtown area a little. We hadn't done much research before getting to this town, so we really didn't know where to start or what we were looking at, but it's a really cute, old town. We went to an area of town called Little Venice and decided to take a boat ride through the canal. It was a short but pretty ride. In this town in the olden days, if a house had a single lady living in it, the shutters would have a heart cut out of them. I'm not sure what happened to the shutters after the lady married. Also in the olden days, a house was painted red or blue depending on if Protestants or Catholics lived there.
We are staying at a quaint Airbnb while in this area, and it's in a tiny town out in the country right in the middle of vineyards on every side. We went to a creperie for dinner, since nothing feels more French than that, and made it "home" right before a huge thunderstorm broke.
For dinner, we went up to the top floor of the tallest building in town and were entertained throughout our meal by watching the paragliders land in the field below us. I ordered roesti, which is another typical local Swiss dish of hash browns covered by tomatoes and Swiss cheese. The waitress made me laugh when we told her that we had tried Raclette the night before and that it was almost too much cheese. She responded, "Of course, that's why we order it."
June 26 -- We decided that Switzerland, though beautiful, would put us in the poor house if we stayed any longer, so to France we went. Even though we only drove 2.5 hours, it is amazing how much it feels like we are in a different country (which we are, of course, but it's so unexpected how different it feels from either Germany or Switzerland even though we are so close to both). The first thing I noticed after we stopped for gas shortly after crossing the border was the beautiful change in language. Unlike in Germany, where everyone sounds as if they are yelling at you, even if they are not, in France, even if they are yelling at you, it doesn't sound like they are.
We drove to Colmar and explored the downtown area a little. We hadn't done much research before getting to this town, so we really didn't know where to start or what we were looking at, but it's a really cute, old town. We went to an area of town called Little Venice and decided to take a boat ride through the canal. It was a short but pretty ride. In this town in the olden days, if a house had a single lady living in it, the shutters would have a heart cut out of them. I'm not sure what happened to the shutters after the lady married. Also in the olden days, a house was painted red or blue depending on if Protestants or Catholics lived there.
We are staying at a quaint Airbnb while in this area, and it's in a tiny town out in the country right in the middle of vineyards on every side. We went to a creperie for dinner, since nothing feels more French than that, and made it "home" right before a huge thunderstorm broke.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Day 38 and 39 In which we go to Switzerland to ride a cable car and hike with cows
June 23 -- We left Liechtenstein to drive to our new destination in Switzerland: Interlaken. We soon discovered that Switzerland is the land of tunnels (I'm sure we drove through at least 20 in 2 hours) and very pristine mountain lakes (with the bluest water). The view just got better and better as we neared Interlaken, which is known as a vacation spot for adventure seekers, offering many opportunities for kite surfing, paragliding, skydiving, and mountain trekking. Paragliders are constantly landing in the field across from our hostel. We are too poor to do any of the high adventure activities, so we went to the lake to swim instead. It was really windy and the water was really cold, so by swim, I really mean get wet and then sit in the sun to warm up again.
June 24 -- The day started off rather cloudy, and we were unsure how good the views would be today as we headed up to a tiny mountain village called Gimmelwald via cable car. We drove about 25 from Interlaken, and then, it was only a 5 minute cable car ride straight up the mountain. This village is inaccessible by car, though there were a few cars and tractors in town that had to have been hauled up by cable or helicopter. The main industries of the town seem to be bed and breakfasts for tourists and farming. But it was unlike any farming I've ever seen before. We saw a tractor mowing hay pretty much up a vertical hill. Then, we saw the farmer and his wife raking the hay down the hill into piles. Later in the day (not sure if it was the same farm or not), we saw a helicopter picking up bundles of hay from a field and dropping them off at the barn.
We walked around the village for a little, and then we started hiking uphill, straight up a very steep hill. Part of the hike was through a cow pasture where the cows were hanging on the side of a hill, clanking their bells at us. It felt pretty iconically Swiss. I didn't make it to the waterfall we were hiking to, but the others said that it was cool. But I figured that the 6 waterfalls I was seeing on the other side of the mountain would suffice. The day never completely cleared up, but we did have some good views throughout the day of the snow peaked mountains around us.
To top off the Swiss experience, I ordered Raclette at the restaurant tonight. It was a lot of melted swiss cheese for this semi-lactose intolerant person, but it was tasty.
On a funny note: I wrote most of this blog post while sitting in the laundry room at the hostel waiting for my clothes to dry. At least 8 Asians were in the laundry room with me, vying for the next available washing machines and/or dryer and giving each other the stink eye whenever a washer was about to be done with its cycle. It made me laugh.
June 24 -- The day started off rather cloudy, and we were unsure how good the views would be today as we headed up to a tiny mountain village called Gimmelwald via cable car. We drove about 25 from Interlaken, and then, it was only a 5 minute cable car ride straight up the mountain. This village is inaccessible by car, though there were a few cars and tractors in town that had to have been hauled up by cable or helicopter. The main industries of the town seem to be bed and breakfasts for tourists and farming. But it was unlike any farming I've ever seen before. We saw a tractor mowing hay pretty much up a vertical hill. Then, we saw the farmer and his wife raking the hay down the hill into piles. Later in the day (not sure if it was the same farm or not), we saw a helicopter picking up bundles of hay from a field and dropping them off at the barn.
We walked around the village for a little, and then we started hiking uphill, straight up a very steep hill. Part of the hike was through a cow pasture where the cows were hanging on the side of a hill, clanking their bells at us. It felt pretty iconically Swiss. I didn't make it to the waterfall we were hiking to, but the others said that it was cool. But I figured that the 6 waterfalls I was seeing on the other side of the mountain would suffice. The day never completely cleared up, but we did have some good views throughout the day of the snow peaked mountains around us.
To top off the Swiss experience, I ordered Raclette at the restaurant tonight. It was a lot of melted swiss cheese for this semi-lactose intolerant person, but it was tasty.
On a funny note: I wrote most of this blog post while sitting in the laundry room at the hostel waiting for my clothes to dry. At least 8 Asians were in the laundry room with me, vying for the next available washing machines and/or dryer and giving each other the stink eye whenever a washer was about to be done with its cycle. It made me laugh.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Day 37 Who goes to Liechtenstein?
June 22 -- Left Germany. Entered Austria. Left Austria. Entered Switzerland. Left Switzerland. Entered Liechtenstein. Drove almost the whole length of Liechtenstein. All within 1 hour. That was our morning.
We ate some lunch in the shade since it was 89 degrees. Then, we drove up, up, and up some more. We got some fantastic views of the country (yes, the entire country). We went on two short hikes to some panoramic views.
On the way back down, we stopped at a cute little restaurant and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (a salad for over $12) and chatted with the owner of the restaurant for a bit before heading to check in to the hostel for the night (where the kids were excited to discover that the room we have had three of the beds up in a loft).
We ate some lunch in the shade since it was 89 degrees. Then, we drove up, up, and up some more. We got some fantastic views of the country (yes, the entire country). We went on two short hikes to some panoramic views.
On the way back down, we stopped at a cute little restaurant and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (a salad for over $12) and chatted with the owner of the restaurant for a bit before heading to check in to the hostel for the night (where the kids were excited to discover that the room we have had three of the beds up in a loft).
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Day 36 A Different Kind of Day
June 21 -- Have I mentioned how hot it has been the last few days? Really, the temperature hasn't been that hot (in the mid 80s), but when you're hiking and touring and staying at places with no air conditioning, it has felt warm enough.
Have I mentioned how gorgeous the mountain lakes are here? With the hot temperatures and having completed our tour itinerary for Fussen yesterday when we saw the castles, we decided that an afternoon at the lake was in order. We went to a mountain luge at a ski resort this morning, and the kids enjoyed the slide down the mountain on the metal track in toboggan type sleds. I didn't get to try it (a disadvantage to traveling while pregnant), but I had fun reading in the shade.
Then, we drove to Schwansee Lake right outside Fussen for the afternoon. The water was cold but not as cold as I was expecting. The water was very clear, clean, and refreshing. And sitting on the dock with the mountains around us was also a treat.
Have I mentioned how gorgeous the mountain lakes are here? With the hot temperatures and having completed our tour itinerary for Fussen yesterday when we saw the castles, we decided that an afternoon at the lake was in order. We went to a mountain luge at a ski resort this morning, and the kids enjoyed the slide down the mountain on the metal track in toboggan type sleds. I didn't get to try it (a disadvantage to traveling while pregnant), but I had fun reading in the shade.
Then, we drove to Schwansee Lake right outside Fussen for the afternoon. The water was cold but not as cold as I was expecting. The water was very clear, clean, and refreshing. And sitting on the dock with the mountains around us was also a treat.
Day 35 Fairy Tale Castles and Mad Kings
June 20 -- We had an understandably late start to our morning, involving going to the grocery store to get some breakfast. We headed to the only place in this relatively small town with hoards of people: the castles. We reserved a tour for 1:55 and went back to the grocery store to get lunch. We entered the Hohenschwangau Castle first, which was built by Maximilian the first. It was very ornate and filled with the original furniture and many gold, silver, and ivory birthday and wedding presents that were given to him, as well as hundreds of painting and statues of swans. All the walls were covered with enormous paintings, but they didn't compare to the view. Apparently his wife was quite the mountaineering woman (unusual for the day) and climbed many of the surrounding mountains.
Their son (Mad) Ludwig II also lived in this castle most of his life, but Ludwig was obsessed with castles and wanted to build his own. He started many castles but only one was completed by the time he died (either by suicide or murder...no one knows) at the bankrupt age of 40. The most famous of his uncompleted castles is right across the hill from his parents' castle and was our second tour of the day: Neuschwanstein. This castle is more well known and popular (read crowded) than the other one. Most people recognize this castle because not only is it picturesque, but also it was the muse for the Disney castle. Only 15 of 59 rooms were completed by the time he died even though they had been working on it for 17 years, and our tour consisted of seeing those 15 rooms. Just the wood work in his bedroom alone took 14 men 4 year to complete. This castle too is full of swans because apparently he liked swans a much as his dad did. The decor is over the top, and if I had a location like his with the incredible views in every direction, I would have incorporated the views into my design more so than the paintings that again covered every wall.
After our short tour, we walked up to Maria's Bridge for a good view of the castle and the surrounding countryside. It was very windy. By the time we walked back down to the car and found a place to eat, we had walked 11 miles (most of it on steep up and down hills), and this was supposed to have been our easier walking day.
Their son (Mad) Ludwig II also lived in this castle most of his life, but Ludwig was obsessed with castles and wanted to build his own. He started many castles but only one was completed by the time he died (either by suicide or murder...no one knows) at the bankrupt age of 40. The most famous of his uncompleted castles is right across the hill from his parents' castle and was our second tour of the day: Neuschwanstein. This castle is more well known and popular (read crowded) than the other one. Most people recognize this castle because not only is it picturesque, but also it was the muse for the Disney castle. Only 15 of 59 rooms were completed by the time he died even though they had been working on it for 17 years, and our tour consisted of seeing those 15 rooms. Just the wood work in his bedroom alone took 14 men 4 year to complete. This castle too is full of swans because apparently he liked swans a much as his dad did. The decor is over the top, and if I had a location like his with the incredible views in every direction, I would have incorporated the views into my design more so than the paintings that again covered every wall.
After our short tour, we walked up to Maria's Bridge for a good view of the castle and the surrounding countryside. It was very windy. By the time we walked back down to the car and found a place to eat, we had walked 11 miles (most of it on steep up and down hills), and this was supposed to have been our easier walking day.
Monday, June 19, 2017
Day 34: All I can say is wow
June 19 -- Today's quote: "Another word to describe this is beautiful." M2
We left Austria and drove just a short drive into the mountains of Germany again and ended up at Konigssee Lake in the Berchtesgaden National Park. We took a boat ride across the lake and then did a short hike up to another mountain lake. The water in both lakes is as clear and blue as you can imagine, despite being over 600 feet deep in parts. Words really cannot describe the beauty that we saw with the sheer mountain cliffs reflecting off the water. The Tetons in the United States have probably the most comparable scenery to what we saw today, and if the pictures do it even 50% justice, they should be some pretty amazing pictures. We also got to see a glimpse of Hitler's Eagle's Nest way up on the top of a mountain in the park.
Because our destination for the day was Fussen, we weren't able to spend as much time at the lake as we would have liked. We already knew we would be getting to our guest house for the night quite late, but getting stuck in traffic (we literally went 10 km in one hour) and then our navigation system sending us on what seemed an obscure route (which took us into Austria, back into Germany, into Austria, and finally back into Germany) through winding mountain roads in the middle of nowhere, it was quite late when we got to Fussen.
We left Austria and drove just a short drive into the mountains of Germany again and ended up at Konigssee Lake in the Berchtesgaden National Park. We took a boat ride across the lake and then did a short hike up to another mountain lake. The water in both lakes is as clear and blue as you can imagine, despite being over 600 feet deep in parts. Words really cannot describe the beauty that we saw with the sheer mountain cliffs reflecting off the water. The Tetons in the United States have probably the most comparable scenery to what we saw today, and if the pictures do it even 50% justice, they should be some pretty amazing pictures. We also got to see a glimpse of Hitler's Eagle's Nest way up on the top of a mountain in the park.
Because our destination for the day was Fussen, we weren't able to spend as much time at the lake as we would have liked. We already knew we would be getting to our guest house for the night quite late, but getting stuck in traffic (we literally went 10 km in one hour) and then our navigation system sending us on what seemed an obscure route (which took us into Austria, back into Germany, into Austria, and finally back into Germany) through winding mountain roads in the middle of nowhere, it was quite late when we got to Fussen.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Day 32-33 The Salt Castle
June 17-18 -- Today's quote: "Look at that view. I'm envious of myself right now. Is that even possible?" SC
The problem with traveling for over 6 weeks is that you have to take days to do some chores even if you are in really cool cities with way too many cool things to do, but when you're running out of clean laundry, you have to forego seeing some of the awesome things. So Saturday ended up being a down day. We had planned to do laundry in the morning, and then head to the lake country in the afternoon and take in a salt mine or a small mountain town, but after laundry, we were all running short on energy, steam, and decision-making skills, so I went back to the hotel for a nap, and the kids played in a really cool playground for several hours. The U.S. could learn a thing or two from European playgrounds.
For church on Sunday, we attended the Salzburg Cathedral. What a treat to listen to a choir, orchestra, and organ as party of the service. We didn't understand much of it, but the music was a great free concert. Only one of the four organs in the church was being played, but we didn't complain. We hiked up a mountain to eat at a cafe for lunch and had views that we thought couldn't be beat as we ate our lunch, but that was before we saw the views we would have at dinner from a different mountaintop restaurant. We did a walking tour of Salzburg in the afternoon, seeing Mozart's residence and the shopping district, the two horse washes (think car wash but for horses) in town, the other churches, and the oldest restaurant in the world where supposedly Charlemagne ate in the 800s. Salzburg does not lack in picturesque scenes around every corner. For dinner, we decided to hike up to the Salzburg Fortress. It was a very steep walk up the mountain, and since we are cheap and didn't want to pay the entrance fee, we had to wait at the top until after the museums closed and could enter the grounds for free. But the hike and the wait were worth it when we saw the view of the city and of the surrounding mountains. The food wasn't even that great but the view was worth paying for.
The problem with traveling for over 6 weeks is that you have to take days to do some chores even if you are in really cool cities with way too many cool things to do, but when you're running out of clean laundry, you have to forego seeing some of the awesome things. So Saturday ended up being a down day. We had planned to do laundry in the morning, and then head to the lake country in the afternoon and take in a salt mine or a small mountain town, but after laundry, we were all running short on energy, steam, and decision-making skills, so I went back to the hotel for a nap, and the kids played in a really cool playground for several hours. The U.S. could learn a thing or two from European playgrounds.
For church on Sunday, we attended the Salzburg Cathedral. What a treat to listen to a choir, orchestra, and organ as party of the service. We didn't understand much of it, but the music was a great free concert. Only one of the four organs in the church was being played, but we didn't complain. We hiked up a mountain to eat at a cafe for lunch and had views that we thought couldn't be beat as we ate our lunch, but that was before we saw the views we would have at dinner from a different mountaintop restaurant. We did a walking tour of Salzburg in the afternoon, seeing Mozart's residence and the shopping district, the two horse washes (think car wash but for horses) in town, the other churches, and the oldest restaurant in the world where supposedly Charlemagne ate in the 800s. Salzburg does not lack in picturesque scenes around every corner. For dinner, we decided to hike up to the Salzburg Fortress. It was a very steep walk up the mountain, and since we are cheap and didn't want to pay the entrance fee, we had to wait at the top until after the museums closed and could enter the grounds for free. But the hike and the wait were worth it when we saw the view of the city and of the surrounding mountains. The food wasn't even that great but the view was worth paying for.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Day 31 I'm tired of Germany. We should leave.
June 16 -- We leave Germany and drive an hour and forty minutes to Salzburg, and what seems like from one minute to the next, we are in the mountains again, and not just any mountains: the Alps.
What do tourists do in Salzburg? Take a Sound of Music bike tour. It really is only for tourists because very few locals have even seen the movie or recognize any of the songs. The bike tour lasted 3.5 hours and took us past the sights from the movie that were filmed in Salzburg and not in a Hollywood studio. As we rode our bikes through town, our tour guide played the music from the movie. I couldn't help but wonder what the locals think about the bike tours riding past while singing "Do Re Mi" and trying to yodel "Lonely Goatherd."
The only hotel with availability that we could find in Salzburg was the Holiday Inn with just one double bed, so five of us are pretty squished into the small room, but we can do anything for three nights, right?
What do tourists do in Salzburg? Take a Sound of Music bike tour. It really is only for tourists because very few locals have even seen the movie or recognize any of the songs. The bike tour lasted 3.5 hours and took us past the sights from the movie that were filmed in Salzburg and not in a Hollywood studio. As we rode our bikes through town, our tour guide played the music from the movie. I couldn't help but wonder what the locals think about the bike tours riding past while singing "Do Re Mi" and trying to yodel "Lonely Goatherd."
The only hotel with availability that we could find in Salzburg was the Holiday Inn with just one double bed, so five of us are pretty squished into the small room, but we can do anything for three nights, right?
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Day 29-30 It's a Small World of Yelling Germans
Quote 1: "Germans always sound angry." --M1
Quote 2: "I've never had this many angry Germans yelling at me in one day before." SC
June 14 -- When you have over 100 cousins, you never know when or where in the world you will run into one of them. We walked down to the Town Center and did a walking tour using an audio guide which we had downloaded. It took us past the old and new town halls and into several churches. We were also at the Glockenspiel at noon to listen to the chimes and watch the wedding re-enactment by the figurines on the clock. Just before the clocks started chiming the noon hour, I looked around at the crowds of people and saw my cousin and her husband standing there looking up at the clock. I had known that she was going to be in Munich the same time as I, but we hadn't made any arrangements to meet up. The odds of seeing each other in a city of 1.5 million people were pretty slim, so it was pretty exciting. We ate at the most famous beer hall in the world, the Hofbrau, for lunch. It was too touristy and over the top in my opinion.
June 15 -- We rented bikes today to ride through the English Gardens and to do whatever other sight seeing we opted to do. The bike rental place was the first time we had someone yelling at us as we tried to figure out what sizes the kids needed and took longer than they wanted us to. We took off on our Townies around 11. The gardens are beautiful and very big. We learned that it was a national holiday today for Corpus Cristi, which explained the empty roads this morning and the thousands (no exaggeration) of people at the park this afternoon. We rode in the nice shady trees, following a creek most of the way. We stopped for lunch at a self-serve beer garden. This was the 2nd place we had lots of Germans yelling at us as we tried to figure out how to order and paid lots of money for brats and potatoes. After lunch, we proceeded to ride through city streets to the BMW World, but before we got there, one of the kids' bikes got a flat tire. We went into the BMW center to see if we could find a phone to use. The lady at the counter was really nice and even looked up the number for us. But when we called, the rental company said we would have to take a subway back to the rental place and get a different bike. But they said they would only reimburse us for one person's subway ride. Well, we couldn't exactly send a kid by herself, so we were trying to figure out if I should go or what. Then, the lady at the counter told us that her husband had a slime kit and would run over from their house and let us use it. So we waited for him, and then he helped us get the tire back to working (which included him running back to his house to get a pump and riding his bike back to the center with the pump in his backpack).
He would have helped to give us a better perspective of German people, except he wasn't German; he was Canadian.
We walked around in the BMW center for a while, mostly just to make our husbands jealous. Then, we rode back to the gardens in order to see the surfers in the river and to spend a little time in the creek. The garden was full of people, most quite drunk, though thankfully mostly clothed, and we had to swerve around many people, where we got yelled at by many people for who knows what reason. We got back to the rental place right before closing time, and we explained that we didn't think it was right that they expected us to figure out how to take care of the flat ourselves in a city where we don't know the subway system. He had no sympathy and said he didn't understand why we would say that. We finally just had to leave.
Quote 2: "I've never had this many angry Germans yelling at me in one day before." SC
June 14 -- When you have over 100 cousins, you never know when or where in the world you will run into one of them. We walked down to the Town Center and did a walking tour using an audio guide which we had downloaded. It took us past the old and new town halls and into several churches. We were also at the Glockenspiel at noon to listen to the chimes and watch the wedding re-enactment by the figurines on the clock. Just before the clocks started chiming the noon hour, I looked around at the crowds of people and saw my cousin and her husband standing there looking up at the clock. I had known that she was going to be in Munich the same time as I, but we hadn't made any arrangements to meet up. The odds of seeing each other in a city of 1.5 million people were pretty slim, so it was pretty exciting. We ate at the most famous beer hall in the world, the Hofbrau, for lunch. It was too touristy and over the top in my opinion.
June 15 -- We rented bikes today to ride through the English Gardens and to do whatever other sight seeing we opted to do. The bike rental place was the first time we had someone yelling at us as we tried to figure out what sizes the kids needed and took longer than they wanted us to. We took off on our Townies around 11. The gardens are beautiful and very big. We learned that it was a national holiday today for Corpus Cristi, which explained the empty roads this morning and the thousands (no exaggeration) of people at the park this afternoon. We rode in the nice shady trees, following a creek most of the way. We stopped for lunch at a self-serve beer garden. This was the 2nd place we had lots of Germans yelling at us as we tried to figure out how to order and paid lots of money for brats and potatoes. After lunch, we proceeded to ride through city streets to the BMW World, but before we got there, one of the kids' bikes got a flat tire. We went into the BMW center to see if we could find a phone to use. The lady at the counter was really nice and even looked up the number for us. But when we called, the rental company said we would have to take a subway back to the rental place and get a different bike. But they said they would only reimburse us for one person's subway ride. Well, we couldn't exactly send a kid by herself, so we were trying to figure out if I should go or what. Then, the lady at the counter told us that her husband had a slime kit and would run over from their house and let us use it. So we waited for him, and then he helped us get the tire back to working (which included him running back to his house to get a pump and riding his bike back to the center with the pump in his backpack).
He would have helped to give us a better perspective of German people, except he wasn't German; he was Canadian.
We walked around in the BMW center for a while, mostly just to make our husbands jealous. Then, we rode back to the gardens in order to see the surfers in the river and to spend a little time in the creek. The garden was full of people, most quite drunk, though thankfully mostly clothed, and we had to swerve around many people, where we got yelled at by many people for who knows what reason. We got back to the rental place right before closing time, and we explained that we didn't think it was right that they expected us to figure out how to take care of the flat ourselves in a city where we don't know the subway system. He had no sympathy and said he didn't understand why we would say that. We finally just had to leave.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Day 24-28 ERs, Churches Galore, and Other Fun Times
June 9 -- We woke up and walked a little more in the town center of Bamberg. We didn't really have an agenda or anything particular to see, so we just ambled down roads and enjoyed looking at the fruit stands. The problem with not posting an update for a few days is that I have already forgotten if we stopped anywhere in between Bamberg and our next stop of Rothenburg ob set Tauber, but I'm pretty sure a grocery store for lunch was our only stop. My memory is not helped by the fact that not only had my cold not completely gotten better but it was on its way to becoming a sinus infection, but more on that later. Rothenburg is a small medieval city with most of its wall still in tact. It was a really cool little city. Our hostel for our stay was the old horse mill in town, and although not the nicest hostel we've stayed it, it was old and quaint. I took a nap in the afternoon, while the others walked part of the wall and went to the Kathe Wolfart Christmas Museum. I met them for dinner, and afterwards, we took part of the night watchman tour around the city. It was an entertaining and informational, albeit a little cheesy, hour long walk with a guide dressed as a medieval watchman. It even rained at the appropriate time of our tour when he was explaining how rain had prevented the town from being destroyed by the marauding Roman Catholic army in the 1500s.
June 10 -- We had another full day in Rothenburg. It was so nice to not have to pack up in the morning after several days in a row of that. We downloaded a Rick Steves audio walking tour of Rothenburg and did that most of the morning. It was a really fun way to see the city and to hear about the history of the different buildings. The most impressive part of the tour was definitely the wooden altar constructed to show off the drop of Jesus' blood. The drop of blood was not impressive but the altar was one of the most beautiful (huge) wooden carvings I've ever seen. The main part of the carving is of the Last Supper, and the artist carved Judas as a separate piece so that during Holy Week he can literally be taken out of the picture.
We stopped for lunch in one of many beer gardens, where I had a traditional manicotti meal that reminded me more of an omelet than of manicotti.
That afternoon, I took another nap, and we got some laundry done. We stopped by a tourist shop right before closing time to do a little souvenir shopping. The store is owned by a 90-year-old lady who knows the United States and all its interstates, most of which she has traveled on a Harley, better than we do. She and her son, who helps her run the store, were very generous and gave us a free hand drawn map and free post cards. They told us about the wedding tradition where the bride and the groom drink from the same cup, but the cup has two different sections to it that pivot. We went to another beer garden for dinner (nothing like being in Germany while pregnant...haha), where I had a delicious potato soup.
On a funny note, the kids have learned that in Germany at most grocery stores you can turn in plastic bottles and get 25 cents each for them, they so they have become Germany's newest garbage collectors.
June 11 -- The plan was to go to church at the St. Jacob's Lutheran Church in town, but after waking up, I realized that a doctor's visit was in order as I was pretty sure that I either had strep throat or a sinus infection. Since it was Sunday, I knew that the ER was probably the best option, so the others dropped me off on their way to church. I checked in to the ER. They checked my temperature and then told me that the doctor was too busy to see me but that they would refer me to another doctor's office, so I paid 11 euros and got directions from them to walk about 10 minutes to another doctor's office. After checking my temperature, throat, etc., he wrote me a prescription for some antibiotics and told about the only pharmacy that is open on Sundays. And then he said that he wouldn't charge me anything, but he requested that I send him a postcard from my hometown when I get home. That was a nice surprise!
We left Rothenburg in the afternoon and drove to Nuremberg, where we walked through the Nazi Documentation Center and the Rally Grounds. It was an informative museum with a lot of videos and pictures of how the Nazis rose to power. We spent about 2 hours there and didn't nearly cover it all. Then, we drove to Regensburg and checked in to our hostel. It was another cute hostel that was very family friendly and had many families staying there who were traveling on their bikes, even with little kids. It was inspirational.
June 12 -- We spent the day in Regensburg. We saw a 1000 year old stone bridge and the brathaus that was built to feed the people who worked on the bridge. We also went in to St. Peter's Church. It was amazing and beautiful, of course, but unfortunately, all the churches are starting to blend together, so I can't tell you much about that one.
In the afternoon, we took a 50 minute boat ride down the Danube to a place called Walhalla, which is a monument built by King Ludwig the first that is full of memorial statues of Bavarian kings and other important dignitaries. It is a "new" building, built in 1845 that looks a lot like the Lincoln Memorial. It was a steep climb up from the river where the boat dropped us off and had amazing views of the countryside. The boat picked us up again after 75 minutes, we enjoyed the river back to Regensburg. We ate at another beer garden that evening, and I ordered a meat and cheese platter of which I barely could eat half.
June 13 -- We checked out of our hostel and then went to walk around in Regensburg one last time. We wanted to go up the clock tower of one of the churches to get a view of the city, but when we got there, we learned that it didn't open until noon, so we had an hour and a half to kill. So what did we do? Went to another church, of course. This one was called the Basilica of St. Emmeran. It was a strange church because it had skeletons displayed with jewels and ornate paintings of headless people giving their heads away. We couldn't find any information in English, so we just enjoyed the bizarrity and left. The church bell tower that we climbed was from the Holy Trinity Church, where we went up 125 stairs not meant for tall people. It was a 360 degree view at the top, with church steeples and other towered in every direction. We were glad we stuck around to go up.
We left Regensburg, heading to Munich, stopping in Dachau on the way. We spent about an hour and a half at the concentration camp, walking around the grounds. We decided not to go into the museum (partly because it is not recommended for children under 12 and partly because seeing Fort 7 in Poland was enough for me). The size of the camp was mind blowing, and we went into one of the remaining barracks that was supposed to house 200 but by the end of the war was housing 2000 people. The crematorium closed before we made our way over there, so we didn't have to decide whether or not to go in there.
We drove the rest of the way to Munich, through evening traffic, and we found out upon arriving at the hostel that it was limited to people between the ages 18-35, of which in our group only yours truly qualifies. So we went to a beer garden to figure out our next move. It was the biggest beer garden you can imagine with a playground for the children. The beer is only sold in liters and the pretzels are the size of dinner plates. We ate (I had grilled chicken) and found a nearby hotel with availability. We checked in and found a parking garage with some open spots. I still wasn't feeling the greatest so I was very happy for bed.
June 10 -- We had another full day in Rothenburg. It was so nice to not have to pack up in the morning after several days in a row of that. We downloaded a Rick Steves audio walking tour of Rothenburg and did that most of the morning. It was a really fun way to see the city and to hear about the history of the different buildings. The most impressive part of the tour was definitely the wooden altar constructed to show off the drop of Jesus' blood. The drop of blood was not impressive but the altar was one of the most beautiful (huge) wooden carvings I've ever seen. The main part of the carving is of the Last Supper, and the artist carved Judas as a separate piece so that during Holy Week he can literally be taken out of the picture.
We stopped for lunch in one of many beer gardens, where I had a traditional manicotti meal that reminded me more of an omelet than of manicotti.
That afternoon, I took another nap, and we got some laundry done. We stopped by a tourist shop right before closing time to do a little souvenir shopping. The store is owned by a 90-year-old lady who knows the United States and all its interstates, most of which she has traveled on a Harley, better than we do. She and her son, who helps her run the store, were very generous and gave us a free hand drawn map and free post cards. They told us about the wedding tradition where the bride and the groom drink from the same cup, but the cup has two different sections to it that pivot. We went to another beer garden for dinner (nothing like being in Germany while pregnant...haha), where I had a delicious potato soup.
On a funny note, the kids have learned that in Germany at most grocery stores you can turn in plastic bottles and get 25 cents each for them, they so they have become Germany's newest garbage collectors.
June 11 -- The plan was to go to church at the St. Jacob's Lutheran Church in town, but after waking up, I realized that a doctor's visit was in order as I was pretty sure that I either had strep throat or a sinus infection. Since it was Sunday, I knew that the ER was probably the best option, so the others dropped me off on their way to church. I checked in to the ER. They checked my temperature and then told me that the doctor was too busy to see me but that they would refer me to another doctor's office, so I paid 11 euros and got directions from them to walk about 10 minutes to another doctor's office. After checking my temperature, throat, etc., he wrote me a prescription for some antibiotics and told about the only pharmacy that is open on Sundays. And then he said that he wouldn't charge me anything, but he requested that I send him a postcard from my hometown when I get home. That was a nice surprise!
We left Rothenburg in the afternoon and drove to Nuremberg, where we walked through the Nazi Documentation Center and the Rally Grounds. It was an informative museum with a lot of videos and pictures of how the Nazis rose to power. We spent about 2 hours there and didn't nearly cover it all. Then, we drove to Regensburg and checked in to our hostel. It was another cute hostel that was very family friendly and had many families staying there who were traveling on their bikes, even with little kids. It was inspirational.
June 12 -- We spent the day in Regensburg. We saw a 1000 year old stone bridge and the brathaus that was built to feed the people who worked on the bridge. We also went in to St. Peter's Church. It was amazing and beautiful, of course, but unfortunately, all the churches are starting to blend together, so I can't tell you much about that one.
In the afternoon, we took a 50 minute boat ride down the Danube to a place called Walhalla, which is a monument built by King Ludwig the first that is full of memorial statues of Bavarian kings and other important dignitaries. It is a "new" building, built in 1845 that looks a lot like the Lincoln Memorial. It was a steep climb up from the river where the boat dropped us off and had amazing views of the countryside. The boat picked us up again after 75 minutes, we enjoyed the river back to Regensburg. We ate at another beer garden that evening, and I ordered a meat and cheese platter of which I barely could eat half.
June 13 -- We checked out of our hostel and then went to walk around in Regensburg one last time. We wanted to go up the clock tower of one of the churches to get a view of the city, but when we got there, we learned that it didn't open until noon, so we had an hour and a half to kill. So what did we do? Went to another church, of course. This one was called the Basilica of St. Emmeran. It was a strange church because it had skeletons displayed with jewels and ornate paintings of headless people giving their heads away. We couldn't find any information in English, so we just enjoyed the bizarrity and left. The church bell tower that we climbed was from the Holy Trinity Church, where we went up 125 stairs not meant for tall people. It was a 360 degree view at the top, with church steeples and other towered in every direction. We were glad we stuck around to go up.
We left Regensburg, heading to Munich, stopping in Dachau on the way. We spent about an hour and a half at the concentration camp, walking around the grounds. We decided not to go into the museum (partly because it is not recommended for children under 12 and partly because seeing Fort 7 in Poland was enough for me). The size of the camp was mind blowing, and we went into one of the remaining barracks that was supposed to house 200 but by the end of the war was housing 2000 people. The crematorium closed before we made our way over there, so we didn't have to decide whether or not to go in there.
We drove the rest of the way to Munich, through evening traffic, and we found out upon arriving at the hostel that it was limited to people between the ages 18-35, of which in our group only yours truly qualifies. So we went to a beer garden to figure out our next move. It was the biggest beer garden you can imagine with a playground for the children. The beer is only sold in liters and the pretzels are the size of dinner plates. We ate (I had grilled chicken) and found a nearby hotel with availability. We checked in and found a parking garage with some open spots. I still wasn't feeling the greatest so I was very happy for bed.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Day 21-23: Back to Germany
June 6 -- I said a sad "good-bye and see you in four and a half months" to Liam, and we got on a train to Berlin. In Berlin, we switched trains and started heading south. We arrived in Dresden and walked about 20 minutes to our hostel. It was nice to know that it was our last time of hauling our suitcases across town on cobbled stone streets. So far, I have been quite inpressed with the hostels, and this one was also great. We dropped our luggage in the room and took off in the drizzling rain to see as much of Dresden as we could before the downpour that was in the forecast. We walked to the Zwinger, which looks like a palace but was just a cultural meeting place and party central from some kings years and years ago. It has a huge courtyard and four gates each representing a different aspect of culture. The Zwinger was next to the Opera house and the Catholic cathedral and the Royal Palace. The cathedral and the palace are connected by arched bridges so that the royalty could attend church without mixing with the common people. We walked past a role mural the length of a football field, representing all the kings of Dresden. Dresden was almost completely destroyed during the bombings of WW2, but these tiles survived the bombing. Next we saw a mural (eye sore) from the Soviet era. The Protestant church was unfortunately closed by the time we got there, so we couldn't go inside. But it is an amazing building that was rebuilt in the 1990s, after sitting in a pile of rubble for about 50 years. We walked along the Elbe River, and then ate at a restaurant that was a little fancier than we had expected it to be. We walked home with dry rain jackets because the downpour thankfully never materialized.
June 7 -- We picked up our rental car from the airport. It is a bright blue Ford C-Max that fits all our luggage and five people but with not much room to spare. It does feel a little strange to be in Germany yet driving an American car. We drove out of Dresden to Bad Schandau, a little town on the Elbe River next to the Saxon-Switzerland National Park and only 10 kilometers from the Czeck Republic border. We stopped for some lunch at a grocery store and then drove to the Bastei Bridge in the Natural Park. The Bastei Bridge was built in the 1400s out to a castle that was built high above the Elbe River on extremely rugged rock formations. Germany isn't really known for its national parks, but the views rival any national parks in the U.S. We walked around the ruins of the castle for a couple hours. Our hotel for the night was in a tiny village about 11 kilometers outside of Bad Schandau. It was a really cute little hotel (it would be called a bed and breakfast in the U.S.). We drove back in to Bad Schandau and ate at an Italian Restaurant. I had curry turkey pizza and maracuja ice cream.
June 8 -- We couldn't be so close to the Czech Republic without adding that to our list of countries we have been in, so we drove across the border and took pictures with the signs. We didn't drive in too far or stay too long because we didn't want to have to buy a vignette for the car. We left the Czech and headed to Bamberg. It was a 3.5 hour drive with a short stop for lunch at another grocery store. Our hostel in Bamberg is again quite amazing with an awesome view of the Dom (cathedral). It is right in the middle of town, which is convenient for everything other than parking. The car is parked on the side of a street up the road a ways, so hopefully tomorrow it will still be there and without a parking ticket on it. We went to the cathedral (the oldest building I have every been in at over 800 years old) and the rose garden next to the New Residential Palace. Three of us ate very German dinner (schnitzel and sausages) and two ate very non-German dinners (shrimp salad and chicken nuggets). After eating, we walked along the river and saw what is called Little Venice and the Rathaus (town hall) that sits right in the middle of the river to ensure that the ecclesiastical side of the river and the secular side of the river had equal power. We stopped for ice cream, and I got curry banana ice cream. Mmm.
June 7 -- We picked up our rental car from the airport. It is a bright blue Ford C-Max that fits all our luggage and five people but with not much room to spare. It does feel a little strange to be in Germany yet driving an American car. We drove out of Dresden to Bad Schandau, a little town on the Elbe River next to the Saxon-Switzerland National Park and only 10 kilometers from the Czeck Republic border. We stopped for some lunch at a grocery store and then drove to the Bastei Bridge in the Natural Park. The Bastei Bridge was built in the 1400s out to a castle that was built high above the Elbe River on extremely rugged rock formations. Germany isn't really known for its national parks, but the views rival any national parks in the U.S. We walked around the ruins of the castle for a couple hours. Our hotel for the night was in a tiny village about 11 kilometers outside of Bad Schandau. It was a really cute little hotel (it would be called a bed and breakfast in the U.S.). We drove back in to Bad Schandau and ate at an Italian Restaurant. I had curry turkey pizza and maracuja ice cream.
June 8 -- We couldn't be so close to the Czech Republic without adding that to our list of countries we have been in, so we drove across the border and took pictures with the signs. We didn't drive in too far or stay too long because we didn't want to have to buy a vignette for the car. We left the Czech and headed to Bamberg. It was a 3.5 hour drive with a short stop for lunch at another grocery store. Our hostel in Bamberg is again quite amazing with an awesome view of the Dom (cathedral). It is right in the middle of town, which is convenient for everything other than parking. The car is parked on the side of a street up the road a ways, so hopefully tomorrow it will still be there and without a parking ticket on it. We went to the cathedral (the oldest building I have every been in at over 800 years old) and the rose garden next to the New Residential Palace. Three of us ate very German dinner (schnitzel and sausages) and two ate very non-German dinners (shrimp salad and chicken nuggets). After eating, we walked along the river and saw what is called Little Venice and the Rathaus (town hall) that sits right in the middle of the river to ensure that the ecclesiastical side of the river and the secular side of the river had equal power. We stopped for ice cream, and I got curry banana ice cream. Mmm.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Day 15-20
May 31-June 5 -- The head cold continues to rage, meaning I have been forced to take it easy and perhaps not see as much of Poznan as I would have liked. But I would rather get over this cold before we take off on our next jaunt through Germany and into Austria, when I will have fewer options for rest days.
The exciting news from these past few days is that Liam and I were able to go to a prenatal appointment together while I've been here in Poland. Since Liam will be gone for almost the entire pregnancy, we really wanted to work it out to have an appointment while I was visiting and possibly even an ultrasound so that Liam could be a part of that for at least one appointment. With the help of Liam's co-worker serving as a translator, we were able to schedule one. Together, we got to see Baby Trotter squirming around and waving his/her hand and sucking her/his thumb. And the Big Reveal?!?!?!?...The doctor is 100% certain that the baby is...wait for it...drum roll please...HUMAN! Don't worry, we'll have a gender reveal party around the second week of November or so. And he said that everything else looked good for 17 weeks, too.
On Thursday, we went to the Imperial Castle. We didn't know what we were doing or where to go and couldn't read the signs, so we went in a door that was unlocked and ended up wandering around the whole castle by ourselves, not sure if we were even supposed to be in there. We saw the room that was Hitler's office here in Poznan during WWII (but which he never actually visited) and some cool relief carvings of the history of the oppression of Poland, which started way back before 1000 AD. The Polish people have definitely had their fair share of people playing tug-of-war over them. We finally ended up at the 1956 Uprising Museum, which explained what life was like under the Soviet rule after WWII and how the people rose up in protest many different times to try to get out from under the oppression of the Russians. Their uprising somewhat succeeded in 1981, but they didn't get complete freedom until 1989.
We have enjoyed feeling like we live in this city for a few weeks, getting to know the local grocery stores and restaurants. My favorite restaurant so far has been one called Manekin, which is a crepe restaurant. There is a local, free zoo (known as the Old Zoo) about three blocks from the apartment, so we visited that zoo one morning. It had a variety of animals but it is not very big. We saw some very unique birds, some goats, tamarin and capuchin monkeys, donkeys, zebus, alpacas, and a few other animals.
Over the weekend, I had the apartment to myself as GC was able to wrangle another weekend off, and the C family went to the mountains for the weekend. On Saturday, I walked down to the town center around noon and got to see the goats come out of the clock tower and bang their heads together twelve times to the awe and amazement of a town square full of people. It is anti-climatic to say the least, but I don't think one can really say one's been in Poznan until one has seen it. I also walked to one of the cathedrals downtown and took a few pictures there. Poznan has a lot of cathedrals.
On Tuesday, we will have an early morning walk to the train, where we will say good-bye to our dear husbands and to Poznan and Poland and head back to Germany, with a destination of Dresden. From there it will be a whirlwind of sightseeing for three solid weeks.
The exciting news from these past few days is that Liam and I were able to go to a prenatal appointment together while I've been here in Poland. Since Liam will be gone for almost the entire pregnancy, we really wanted to work it out to have an appointment while I was visiting and possibly even an ultrasound so that Liam could be a part of that for at least one appointment. With the help of Liam's co-worker serving as a translator, we were able to schedule one. Together, we got to see Baby Trotter squirming around and waving his/her hand and sucking her/his thumb. And the Big Reveal?!?!?!?...The doctor is 100% certain that the baby is...wait for it...drum roll please...HUMAN! Don't worry, we'll have a gender reveal party around the second week of November or so. And he said that everything else looked good for 17 weeks, too.
On Thursday, we went to the Imperial Castle. We didn't know what we were doing or where to go and couldn't read the signs, so we went in a door that was unlocked and ended up wandering around the whole castle by ourselves, not sure if we were even supposed to be in there. We saw the room that was Hitler's office here in Poznan during WWII (but which he never actually visited) and some cool relief carvings of the history of the oppression of Poland, which started way back before 1000 AD. The Polish people have definitely had their fair share of people playing tug-of-war over them. We finally ended up at the 1956 Uprising Museum, which explained what life was like under the Soviet rule after WWII and how the people rose up in protest many different times to try to get out from under the oppression of the Russians. Their uprising somewhat succeeded in 1981, but they didn't get complete freedom until 1989.
We have enjoyed feeling like we live in this city for a few weeks, getting to know the local grocery stores and restaurants. My favorite restaurant so far has been one called Manekin, which is a crepe restaurant. There is a local, free zoo (known as the Old Zoo) about three blocks from the apartment, so we visited that zoo one morning. It had a variety of animals but it is not very big. We saw some very unique birds, some goats, tamarin and capuchin monkeys, donkeys, zebus, alpacas, and a few other animals.
Over the weekend, I had the apartment to myself as GC was able to wrangle another weekend off, and the C family went to the mountains for the weekend. On Saturday, I walked down to the town center around noon and got to see the goats come out of the clock tower and bang their heads together twelve times to the awe and amazement of a town square full of people. It is anti-climatic to say the least, but I don't think one can really say one's been in Poznan until one has seen it. I also walked to one of the cathedrals downtown and took a few pictures there. Poznan has a lot of cathedrals.
On Tuesday, we will have an early morning walk to the train, where we will say good-bye to our dear husbands and to Poznan and Poland and head back to Germany, with a destination of Dresden. From there it will be a whirlwind of sightseeing for three solid weeks.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Day 10-14: A Necessary Rest
May 26-30 -- Liam only had to work part of the day on Friday and for an hour on Saturday, and otherwise, the weekend was ours to enjoy together. This is the first weekend Liam has had off since he got here over a month ago, so needless to say, we spent much of it just resting. On Friday, we went down to the town center and enjoyed some great food, the best being the Chocolate Restaurant for dessert, which included a flight of hot chocolate, truffles, cappuccino, and at least five different types of chocolate mousse dishes. We were in a chocolate coma on our walk home that night.
On Saturday, we visited Fort VII, which was the first concentration camp established during WWII. It was a dark, eerie place with a horrific history, as can be imagined. It was sad to think that a place that was build to protect the Polish people of Poznan was used by the Nazis to destroy them.
After a dinner of pierogis, we went to a mall to see if it had a theater with English movies, and we were excited to be able to watch Guardian of the Galaxies 2 together in Poland in English.
On Sunday, we attended a small international church that meets in a hotel, and then after a restful afternoon, we went down to the town center again for dinner. We had heard that there was a jazz concert going on near the church downtown, so we went to check that out, but when we got there, we decided that we would rather save our two dollars for more chocolate at the Chocolate Restaurant than pay to go into the jazz concert...you can see that we definitely have our priorities right!
Throughout the weekend, I came down with a head cold, so on Monday and Tuesday, when Liam had to go back to work, I just hung out at the apartment resting in between bouts of coughing. I'm glad for this down time to recover from the cold before we hit the road again next week.
On Saturday, we visited Fort VII, which was the first concentration camp established during WWII. It was a dark, eerie place with a horrific history, as can be imagined. It was sad to think that a place that was build to protect the Polish people of Poznan was used by the Nazis to destroy them.
After a dinner of pierogis, we went to a mall to see if it had a theater with English movies, and we were excited to be able to watch Guardian of the Galaxies 2 together in Poland in English.
On Sunday, we attended a small international church that meets in a hotel, and then after a restful afternoon, we went down to the town center again for dinner. We had heard that there was a jazz concert going on near the church downtown, so we went to check that out, but when we got there, we decided that we would rather save our two dollars for more chocolate at the Chocolate Restaurant than pay to go into the jazz concert...you can see that we definitely have our priorities right!
Throughout the weekend, I came down with a head cold, so on Monday and Tuesday, when Liam had to go back to work, I just hung out at the apartment resting in between bouts of coughing. I'm glad for this down time to recover from the cold before we hit the road again next week.
Friday, May 26, 2017
Day 9: Bubbles and Snails
May 25 -- We planned to have a relaxing day, just seeing what we could see within a short distance from our apartment, but we somehow still ended up walking 8 miles. We found our way down to the Town Center and walked around some. A young guy was making big bubbles with some rope and two sticks, and the kids got super excited about that. They helped him make bubbles and ran around popping bubbles for at least an hour. S and I turned our brains off for a while and mindlessly watched them. We went into a Catholic church on the way back and also stopped in a park with a memorial to the 1956 uprising (we are assuming the Polish were uprising against the Soviets, but we couldn't read any of the signs). The park was surrounded by old castles and other cool buildings, but the kids were more excited to play with the snail that they found.
Liam came after work again and we went to the purple couch restaurant (so called because it has velvet purple couches in the entrance). The restaurant was very fancy, and I'm sure I didn't savor the delicate flavors like I was supposed to. It didn't help that I didn't know what I was eating. But at least it was a very pretty plate of food.
Liam came after work again and we went to the purple couch restaurant (so called because it has velvet purple couches in the entrance). The restaurant was very fancy, and I'm sure I didn't savor the delicate flavors like I was supposed to. It didn't help that I didn't know what I was eating. But at least it was a very pretty plate of food.
Day 8: We've been in Germany for three days. It's time to go to Poland
May 24 -- After a somewhat less amazing, but still good breakfast at the hostel, we dragged our suitcases back across town, stopping for a little shopping on the way, to the train station. Maybe we really are pros now because we had no mishaps getting back to Berlin or getting on the correct train to Poznan, Poland. We spent about four hours on the train total and were glad to watch the rainy, dreary, cold weather from the train rather than walking it through it today. Sadly, our passports were not stamped upon entering Poland, despite our asking for a stamp. Baby Tripp Trotter has now been in 5 countries...pretty good for only being 4 inches big.
G met us at the train station, and we walked through puddles and pouring rain to our home for the next two weeks, a one-bedroom apartment airbnb. It is quite nice with the only problem being that the dryer is broken so we have clothes for five people hanging all over the place.
Liam came over (his base is 10 minutes away) after he was done with work, and we went to a nice Italian restaurant. His curfew for the barracks is 11 pm, so he and G had to head back to what they call the dungeon after hanging out for a couple hours. It was so good to see Liam again.
G met us at the train station, and we walked through puddles and pouring rain to our home for the next two weeks, a one-bedroom apartment airbnb. It is quite nice with the only problem being that the dryer is broken so we have clothes for five people hanging all over the place.
Liam came over (his base is 10 minutes away) after he was done with work, and we went to a nice Italian restaurant. His curfew for the barracks is 11 pm, so he and G had to head back to what they call the dungeon after hanging out for a couple hours. It was so good to see Liam again.
Day 7: Lutherstadt Wittenberg
May 23 -- The breakfast continued to be amazing at the hostel, and we were ready for a short train ride to Wittenberg. We got to the Berlin train station, easily found the right platform without even having to ask someone and sat to wait for our train with time to spare, feeling like pros. The train pulled up and we got on, but we didn't know where our seats were (the numbers on the seats didn't match our tickets), so we asked someone. She told us, "No, that's not this train." So we hurried and jumped off again before the train left the station. In hind sight, we should have just stayed on the train because it was just the slow train going to Wittenberg and not the express train, but in the panic of the moment, we didn't even think about that. By the time we figured out the correct platform for the express train, we had missed it. So back to the ticket booth we went. We had a very similar experience as on Sunday, with the ticket lady not offering help in any way, and ended up having to buy a new ticket on a slow train with an hour and a half to kill before departure. We were frustrated, of course, but also disappointed because that was the only day we had in Wittenberg, a place that was on the bucket list for our trip, and because it meant we would miss the organ concert at noon.
We didn't have any more mishaps getting there and arrived around 2pm. We dragged our suitcases through town and deposited them at the hostel, which just happened to share a courtyard with the Schlosskirche (the church where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses). We toured that church (saw where Luther is buried and saw the door which is no longer wooden) and the Lutherhaus museum (which was in the house where Luther lived and which didn't do a very good job of explaining what we were looking at) and the City church (where Luther did most of his preaching). We ate a sack dinner under the Melancthon statue, while looking at the Luther statue. Our group lowered the average age of the tourists quite a bit, since most had arrived on tour buses and were, as Preston says, blue hairs.
At the end of the day, we had walked another 9 miles and were happy to call ourselves reformed. Happy 500 Years, Reformation!
We didn't have any more mishaps getting there and arrived around 2pm. We dragged our suitcases through town and deposited them at the hostel, which just happened to share a courtyard with the Schlosskirche (the church where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses). We toured that church (saw where Luther is buried and saw the door which is no longer wooden) and the Lutherhaus museum (which was in the house where Luther lived and which didn't do a very good job of explaining what we were looking at) and the City church (where Luther did most of his preaching). We ate a sack dinner under the Melancthon statue, while looking at the Luther statue. Our group lowered the average age of the tourists quite a bit, since most had arrived on tour buses and were, as Preston says, blue hairs.
At the end of the day, we had walked another 9 miles and were happy to call ourselves reformed. Happy 500 Years, Reformation!
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Day 6: Berlin
May 22 -- Quote of the day: "I like Germans. I like how I live when I'm with them." -AC
Our plan was to get up early, eat a quick breakfast, and get out the door. We succeeded at the first part, but the breakfast at the hostel was so impressive that we had no chance of eating a quick breakfast. We had many different kinds of bread and yogurt and cheese and lunch meat and fruit and cereal and juice and coffee, cappuccino, and macchiato. The kids may have gotten a little over-excited about it all and stuffed themselves.
When we finally got out the door, our first stop on the train was Alexanderplatz, where we saw the TV tower and St. Mary's church. And we saw the outside of the Berlin cathedral, but we didn't go into that one. The TV tower was built by the atheist East Berliners to prove man's greatness in living without God. Little did they realize when they built it that the shadow that it would cast was in the shape of a cross. St. Mary's is a cathedral that is 700 years old but had to be mostly rebuilt after WWII.
Next, we stopped to see the Berlin Wall Memorial. We saw the only remaining standing section of the wall and walked a long way along where the wall stood, where the escape tunnels were, where people tried to escape, and the buildings, including a church, that were knocked down/blown up because they got in the way of the security of the wall. We also went to the Berlin gate and ate lunch on some grass outside the Reichstag. We walked to the site of Hitler's Bunker, which is now a gravel parking lot. And we walked through the Memorial for the Murdered Jews. It was a simple, yet fascinating memorial of concrete blocks in the shape of coffins, but of all different heights, which took up a whole city block. Our last destination before an ice cream stop and back to the hostel was Checkpoint Charlie, which was basically a tourist trap where we didn't spend much time. In all, we walked over 10 miles and rode at least 7 trains. And that, folks, is how you do Berlin in one day.
Our plan was to get up early, eat a quick breakfast, and get out the door. We succeeded at the first part, but the breakfast at the hostel was so impressive that we had no chance of eating a quick breakfast. We had many different kinds of bread and yogurt and cheese and lunch meat and fruit and cereal and juice and coffee, cappuccino, and macchiato. The kids may have gotten a little over-excited about it all and stuffed themselves.
When we finally got out the door, our first stop on the train was Alexanderplatz, where we saw the TV tower and St. Mary's church. And we saw the outside of the Berlin cathedral, but we didn't go into that one. The TV tower was built by the atheist East Berliners to prove man's greatness in living without God. Little did they realize when they built it that the shadow that it would cast was in the shape of a cross. St. Mary's is a cathedral that is 700 years old but had to be mostly rebuilt after WWII.
Next, we stopped to see the Berlin Wall Memorial. We saw the only remaining standing section of the wall and walked a long way along where the wall stood, where the escape tunnels were, where people tried to escape, and the buildings, including a church, that were knocked down/blown up because they got in the way of the security of the wall. We also went to the Berlin gate and ate lunch on some grass outside the Reichstag. We walked to the site of Hitler's Bunker, which is now a gravel parking lot. And we walked through the Memorial for the Murdered Jews. It was a simple, yet fascinating memorial of concrete blocks in the shape of coffins, but of all different heights, which took up a whole city block. Our last destination before an ice cream stop and back to the hostel was Checkpoint Charlie, which was basically a tourist trap where we didn't spend much time. In all, we walked over 10 miles and rode at least 7 trains. And that, folks, is how you do Berlin in one day.
Day 5 continued
May 21 (cont.) -- One of our stops on the train was in Mannheim, so in honor of my dad, I took a picture of the railroad sign with a train in the background (unfortunately not a steam train though). I have no idea if the Mannheim Steamrollers actually have anything to do with the city of Mannheim.
When we arrived at the Berlin train station, we spent a solid, stressful hour at the ticket counter trying to figure out how to do trains cheaper than the original 850 euros (about 950 dollars) that they originally quoted for us. Thankfully, with some creative thinking and persistence through the ticket counter ladies' bruskness and, what seemed to us, anger, we found a price with which we could live for our next three train days and our day pass for the subways in Berlin. I don't know who was happier, the kids who were tired of sitting around or the adults, to leave that ticket counter. Little did we know that we would be right back there less than two days later for another frustrating round with the ticket counter ladies.
We took the train to the hostel and took the elevator up to our room. We never learned the history of the building, but it appeared to be an old insane asylum or an old hospital that had been renovated. It was really cool, with really high ceilings, big windows, and hundreds of rooms for guests. After dragging our suitcases after us all day, we were happy to know that they would be able to stay in the room on our "do the whole city of Berlin in one day" that we had planned for the next day.
When we arrived at the Berlin train station, we spent a solid, stressful hour at the ticket counter trying to figure out how to do trains cheaper than the original 850 euros (about 950 dollars) that they originally quoted for us. Thankfully, with some creative thinking and persistence through the ticket counter ladies' bruskness and, what seemed to us, anger, we found a price with which we could live for our next three train days and our day pass for the subways in Berlin. I don't know who was happier, the kids who were tired of sitting around or the adults, to leave that ticket counter. Little did we know that we would be right back there less than two days later for another frustrating round with the ticket counter ladies.
We took the train to the hostel and took the elevator up to our room. We never learned the history of the building, but it appeared to be an old insane asylum or an old hospital that had been renovated. It was really cool, with really high ceilings, big windows, and hundreds of rooms for guests. After dragging our suitcases after us all day, we were happy to know that they would be able to stay in the room on our "do the whole city of Berlin in one day" that we had planned for the next day.
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Day 4 (I think) and 5
May 20 -- We got on the flight! They opened up 30 free seats instead of just the 19 they had originally said. We were fourth on the list, so we probably would have gotten on even without that, but it was quite comical to hear the whole terminal of people (mostly retirees) break out into cheers at the announcement of more seats. We got on the plane (another C17) around 7pm. It was full of shipping containers and helicopter blades, so not quite as much room to spread out, but still enough that we were able to lay out our sleeping bags. The young airmen (is that what they are called?) entertained us by climbing on top of a red cross shipping container to do his safety briefing. The 8 hour flight went by quickly and before we knew it we were stumbling out of the plane at 10 am into 53 degree weather, quite a shock after the 93 degrees we left in the US. One of our fellow passengers offered to let us stay at her husband's apartment about 20 minutes from base, which was a very kind offer since we didn't have any reservations for the night. We stopped at the USO for some refreshments and a recoup and decided that staying closer to base would be smarter since we would have to come back to the same area for the train the next day. We made reservations at a local hotel since the on base hotel said they were booked. Then, we walked across the street to see if we could at least store our luggage at the base hotel while we grocery shopped. When we got there, we were told that they just had a cancellation so we could stay there after all. So I ran back across the street and cancelled the other hotel. We got all our errands run and then checked in to our room...but really I should say apartment. It was four bedroom and two bathroom, with a full kitchen, living room and dining room. I'm sure it's the cheapest yet biggest place at which we will stay our whole trip. It definitely felt good to climb into bed.
May 21 -- We had a brisk walk to the train station this morning through the town of Ramstein. There was no ticket counter as we had hoped, so the ticket booth was our only (unfortunately not cheap) option. Thankfully, we have found enough people who speak English to tell us what platform to be on and at which stop to get off and on, since neither the train app nor the stations themselves are super intuitive to our foreign brains (Germany could take some lessons from Korea in that regard). Our destination this evening is Berlin (330 km or 7 hours on the train). We are excited to eat some German food this evening and experience our first hostel stay of the trip.
May 21 -- We had a brisk walk to the train station this morning through the town of Ramstein. There was no ticket counter as we had hoped, so the ticket booth was our only (unfortunately not cheap) option. Thankfully, we have found enough people who speak English to tell us what platform to be on and at which stop to get off and on, since neither the train app nor the stations themselves are super intuitive to our foreign brains (Germany could take some lessons from Korea in that regard). Our destination this evening is Berlin (330 km or 7 hours on the train). We are excited to eat some German food this evening and experience our first hostel stay of the trip.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Germany Poland and Beyond Days 1-3
May 17 -- Today was our first attempt at getting on a Space A to Germany out of Andrews after spending a very hot, sweaty morning at Arlington Cemetary. We didn't make it, despite the man at the check in desk assuring us we would. We now know not to get any hopes up until we are on the plane even with reassurances from someone in a uniform. We did get on the flight to McGuire though, and we were able to get a hotel reservation on base. It was a fun experience to fly on a C-17 for the first time. When we got to New Jersey, we learned that the flight out of New Jersey for Thursday was cancelled, and the next flight would be on Friday, giving us a free day at McGuire.
May 18 -- We spent the morning walking to the commissary, dodging the 93 degrees in the sun and trying to make our way across base (2.5 miles) in the shade as much a possible. We bought some lunch which we ate in the shade of a tree. Then, we spent a majority of the afternoon menu planning easy, portable meals, purchasing a few things at the PX and grocery shopping again. We were able to get a ride back to the hotel and were thankful we didn't have to lug our groceries back across base.
May 19 -- Laundry in the morning before we had to check out was nice though the slow dryer made the 11 AM checkout from the hotel a hectic process. I'm sure that will be the story of our lives for the next several weeks. We are currently traveling with 5 backpacks, 5 carry-on size suitcases, 5 extra bags of food and camping mats, and a 2 gallon jug of water (which will not be going on the flight with us). We arrived to an empty terminal, which gives us hopefully not unfounded hope that we will be successful today in getting on. We will sit here at the terminal until roll call and glare at anyone coming in to scare them into thinking it's not worth checking in. I'll keep you posted.
May 18 -- We spent the morning walking to the commissary, dodging the 93 degrees in the sun and trying to make our way across base (2.5 miles) in the shade as much a possible. We bought some lunch which we ate in the shade of a tree. Then, we spent a majority of the afternoon menu planning easy, portable meals, purchasing a few things at the PX and grocery shopping again. We were able to get a ride back to the hotel and were thankful we didn't have to lug our groceries back across base.
May 19 -- Laundry in the morning before we had to check out was nice though the slow dryer made the 11 AM checkout from the hotel a hectic process. I'm sure that will be the story of our lives for the next several weeks. We are currently traveling with 5 backpacks, 5 carry-on size suitcases, 5 extra bags of food and camping mats, and a 2 gallon jug of water (which will not be going on the flight with us). We arrived to an empty terminal, which gives us hopefully not unfounded hope that we will be successful today in getting on. We will sit here at the terminal until roll call and glare at anyone coming in to scare them into thinking it's not worth checking in. I'll keep you posted.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)