Dom, da Dom Dom Dom!

Friday, May 27, 2011

Today was all about the Dom or cathedral in Köln. We awoke and ate breakfast at our hotel. The hotel breakfast was very tasty and there was a lot to choose from. I even snagged a packet of nutella and some babybel cheese to snack on later.

We got to the Dom at 11:45 and a prayer service was scheduled for 12 pm. They generally clear out all of the tourists for services, we decided to stay for the service. The service was in German but they did provide a flier with the English translation. There was a mens choir that sang a few songs and it was really quite a lovely service. After the service we walked around the cathedral taking pictures of the beautiful windows and the 140 foot high ceiling that makes you feel so incredibly small. The Dom truly is amazing and a great reason to stop in Cologne.

After wandering around the cathedral we completely switched gears and walked towards the Rhein and more importantly, the chocolate museum. The chocolate museum is run by the Lindt chocolate company. The museum begins with a history of where chocolate comes from and how it came to Europe. It was pretty interesting and there is a lot more to chocolate than what comes out of the factory. The museum also has a greenhouse rainforest that shows you what a cocoa trer looks like.

The best part of the museum was seeing the chocolate getting made in the factory. While I'd seen it on Unwrapped it was still mesmerizing to watch the machine make the chocolates. In this room there is a gigantic chocolate fountain and a woman dips wafer cookies in the chocolate and gives them to you! It was very yummy, it makes me even more excited for Belgian chocolate!

The museum ends with a look at chocolate advertising and old vending machines. There was even an area dedicated to the cult of candy, very cool.

After leaving the museum we were ready for some food so we grabbed a pretzel and kept walking to find a place with supposedly amazing desserts. We found it and ordered Ghoulash with noodles and coffee. After the real food we ate the mpst delicious chocolate cake. The layers were so thin and it was cake and mouse with a ganache topping over marzipan. Incredible!

We walked back to a plaza that we had walked past before to find it all set up for a wine festival. We wanted to try some local wine to compare it to the wine from the Mosel valley region. We settled on a stand from.a winery along the Rhein and I had a dry reisling. We had to search a bit for a place to sit and once we did sit down it began to sprinkle and then it turned into a serious downpour. We were lucky to find some seats under an umbrella but the rain took away some of the ambience so we stayed until the rain ended and then headed back towards the hotel. We wanted to get some more pictures of the Dom but there was a concert obstructing the view. We thought about going out again but decided rest was more important. Cologne was cool but I never really got a feel for the city, I felt this way about Copenhagen as well. Tomorrow we leave for Brussels and so far the consensus from people we talk to is "why would you stay overnight in Brussels?"

Suzie :-)

Traveling the Romantic Road

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

This morning we woke up and packed our bags and headed out early. We took the subway to go and pick up our rental car from Avis so that we could begin our driving portion of the trip. Before I left the states I printed directions from Google and since they didn't offer the gps we didn't ask. Big mistake! We ended up making at least 6 u-turns before getting on the autobahn and then for some reason the directions had us driving in the direction of Prague which made no sense and we should have followed our instincts.  As we got closer to the Czech border we decided to stop at a gas station were for 8 euro we bought a road atlas.  Once we got turned around it didn't take too long to get there. On the autobahn I got our little vw golf up to 180 but it was too windy to go faster. Driving fast is very fun!

We pulled into the parking lot outside the city walls of Rothenberg ob der Tauber and left our stuff in the car while we walked around a bit. Oh my, this city is the cutest little town I've ever been to in real life! It looks like it is straight out of a fairytale and I am in love with it. There are a lot of tourists here but I don't even care.

We walk around a bit and stop in at a celler restaurant recommended by Rick Steves where we order the German version of Martinellis only it tastes sooo much better. I ordered the pork schnitzel with fries and it's real meat and it is pan fried and incredibly delicious!

After lunch we wander around a bit taking pictures and then head over to the medeival torture museum. Awesome museum all about the history of crime and punishment. I can't  wait to post some pictures of the crazy torture devices!

On our way out of the museum we stopped at the museum cafe to try Schneeballn. Schneeballn are local pastry that is basically strips of pie crust balled up and baked and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar or dipped in something like a candy coating. They are okay but I'm not sure what all of the fuss is about, they aren't that amazing.  Along with our schneeballn I had and eiskaffe which is a cold latte with a scoop of ice cream and whipped cream on top. It was amazing!

From there we headed to a souvenier shop where we got a free map of the town and some great gifts to take home. We finally checked into our 500 year old guesthouse and went to get our packs from the car and put them in the room. We relaxed for a little bit and then headed out to get some ice cream before our evening entertainment. I got a scoop of rhubarb and blueberry, the rhubarb was nice and sour while the blueberry was nice and sweet. We ate our ice cream in the market square while we waited for the night watchman's tour!

There were a lot of people waiting for the tour including a large group of middle school children. We weren't sure about the quality of the tour given the size of the crowd. However, the night watchman did not disappoint. He was entertaining while also giving a lot of information about the history of the town. I learned that the city was it's own little country for about 400 years and had it's own city government. I also learned that the night watchmen was mainly responsible for keeping the city safe at night and make sure that a fire didn't start at night.

After the tour we went to have dinner and do a little wine tasting. We had beef roast over spätzle noodles along with 5 tiny glasses of wine that came with a card telling what each one was. I discovered that I don't like sweet wines, I like dry white wines. Who knew?

Suzie :-)

Visiting good friends

Sunday to Monday, May 22 to 23, 2011

After our trip to Dachau we ate some dinner in Munich and then hopped on a train for a short ride up to Nürnberg to stay with our friend Nick. Nick went to Cascade with us and lived in the Portland area until September of last year when he transferred jobs to Adidas in Germany. We got the privilege of being his first visitors from the States. His apartment is right downtown within the city walls so we had a great location for sightseeing.

In Sunday we just enjoyed the ability to sit around and hang out and catch up. Monday we took our time getting up and ready and then headed out to tour the town. For lunch we had Nürnbergers which are little sausages similar to our breakfast sausage links.  We ate them with potato salad and Radler which is half beer and hald Sprite. It's a nice refreshing and inexpensive drink.

After lunch we walked towards the castle stopping for ice cream along the way :) The castle is made up of quite a few buildings and while we didn't go in it was beautiful on the outside.  We left the castle and walked by the home where artist Albrecht Durer lived. There are a few statuea of him around the town. We opted not to go in the museum since it doesn't have any of his original works, just reproductions. We did see some of his work in one of the other museums that we visited. We saw a couple of Gothic churches. I am just not a huge fan of the gothic style, it is all so dark and when I think of God I think of light.

We sat at a cafe outside and people watched and then headed back to Nick's where we did some laundry. Nick is heading to Moscow for work and needed to leave his car at a friends house so we decided to have dinner outside of the city.  We got to drive on the Autobahn for a little bit to get there. Nick wanted to give us the full experience by going 200 kmh, it was a little frightening but also awesome!

We had dinner at an Italian place run by Italians that was good, not as good as the place in Berlin but pretty darn tasty. After dinner we dropped off his car and his friend brought us back to town where we packed up our stuff and for the next day since we were scheduled to pick up the car at 9 am. It was nice to visit someplace where we knew someone and we could really just relax.

Suzie :-)

Onion Domes and Faux Finishes

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Today we spent our time walking around Munich taking in the sights and more importantly the food of the city. Munich is often symbolized by the two onion dome tours of Frauenkirche but there is much more to this modern, quaint city.

We awoke this morning pretty late and made our way over to Marienplatz to catch the chiming of the clock tower and the Glockenspiel figures that "joust" daily. I tried to get a video and once I edit it I'll upload it here, it was pretty cute. The clock tower is on the new city hall that appears to be really old. Actually that's a recurring theme in Munich as most of the city was flattened by the war but they decided to try and restore the city rather than level it and try to completely rebuild it.

From Marienplatz we went into St. Peter's Church whic was very beautiful. We then headed to the market area where there is basically a farmers market set up. It was really crowded as it was Saturday afternoon. We ate the German take on a gyro and then I got some fresh strawberries from one of the vendors, they were incredibly tasty.

From the market we headed to St. Anslem's which is a very small little church with BIG character. The church was built by two architect brothers and is basically the design studio of churches. Other church leaders could come and see this church and pick the parts they wanted to add to the construction of their own churches.  It was very busy, alright, it was downright gawdy. It was everything that is wrong with church design! The only cool aspect was the way the ceiling was painted to appear curved even though it was really flat.

Anyway, the next stop was Frauenkirche where we toured the interior and then took a ride up to the top of one of it's spires, the highest spot in the city and a great place for pictures!

After the church we headed to the Residenz. This is where the Bavarian royalty lived until the after the first world war. We took two different tours here, the first was of the treasury which is all of the fancy pretty stuff that was given to the royal family. Lot's of pretty sparkly things in here! Next up was a tour of the 90 or so rooms that make up the museum which is only about half of the Residenz. Again, much was destroyed during the war but they are still working to restore it. It was quite incredible. There was one room that stood out called the reliquery, full of religious relics. They uad what they claimed was John the Baptists skull! A lot of the "relics" were body parts or bone in really ornate cases. Sort of creepy but also cool!

In one of the many dining rooms the ceiling was painted to appear taller than it really was, at first it looks goofy but if you stand in the very middle of the room it totally works! It feels like Disney's Haunted Mansion when the room stretches out. Very cool but also a little weird.

On leaving the Residenz I realized that what I thought was a stone facade was fake, it was a flat wall faux painted to look like it had depth, I did not like this fact, it seemed so fake!

After the Residenz we walked over to the Hof Garten, a little park with lots of people lounging.  We took a break for a bit and enjoyed the sunshine before we were off again. This time we were in search of gelato and internet access since the wifi in our hostel refused to work. We found Eis and a Starbucks with 2 hours of internet for the price of a small iced coffee.

Next stop on our tour of Munich was dinner at the Haufbrohaus. The Haufbrahaus is said to be really touristy but that was fine with us, the band played traditional polka music and everyone sits at long tables with strangers who become friends pretty quick. The beer comes in huge 1 liter mugs, they were ridiculously huge! Even more ridiculous were the people at our table on their 3rd or 4th beer. I have no idea where they put it all! It was good fun eating spätzle and a pretzel singing along with the band.

Since we were only in Munich a short time there were a lot of places that we wanted to try so we left the Hofbrahaus and went over to an upstairs yodel bar where a guy plays according and sings. Everyone was dressed traditionally and the atmosphere was great. Unfortunately it was too crowded for us to get a seat and there was a group of men there for a bachelor party who were being overly friendly even after we told them we were married. So, we left there a little earlier than we really wanted to and headed to our last stop. Der Pschor where it was much more subdued and they served traditional apple strudel and I had the apple fritters which were absutely amazing! I want to go back just for the strudel!

We were exhausted by this time and knew that we uad a long day ahead of us in the morning so we headed back to the hostel for our last night in a dorm room.

Suzie :-)

Dachau

Sunday, May 22, 2011

This afternoon we took a day trip from Munich to the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. The experience was very sobbering. You read about concentration camps and maybe see a few pictures in your history book but it really doesn't adequately portray all of the horrendous things that humans have done to one another.

I think it's difficult to comprehend the atmosphere of Germany following the first world war that could lead to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. I think the most disturbing part of the experience was the realization that the type of atrocities that took place at Dachau still take place today. You seen signs all over saying "never again" yet racial genocide still takes place, perhaps not quite as organized as the Nazi regime but it still happens.

It makes my blood boil to think of the factories that thought nothing of using the camp victims for slave labor. Or the townspeople who saw the victims in the plantation and said nothing. I would really enjoy hearing there stories and knowing what they thought was happening.

While most of the museum was specific to Dachau and the relationship between it and the other camps there was a special exhibit at the end that focused pn 7 women who were pregnant while in a concentration camp. This exhibit brought tears to my eyes, I guess I had never really thought about that possibility. It was heartbreaking and anger inducing all at the same time. How could anyone treat another human that way?

Even more than that I started thinking about my own behavior and what I would have done if I were a German in the 1930's. Would I be strong and fight the injustice? Would I run away and hide out until the war was over? Would I be patriotic and loyal to Germany?  I'd like to say that I would fight but who really knows.  This made me think about what my responsibilities are in the world today, is the attitude of "it doesn't effect me so I'm staying out of it" really the correct attitude? Should I be more vocal when I feel that someones human rights are being violated? If nothing else, today's visit gave me a lot to think and pray about.

Suzie :-)

Two Castles and a Change of Plans

Friday, May 20, 2011

This morning we arrived in Munich a few hours late thanks to an animal on the tracks somewhere around Hamburg that led to our train needing a new engine. Unfortunately I was not able to sleep well at all. I felt like this train in particular was quite jerky and loud and for some reason my earplugs were really uncomfortable. Nonetheless we made it to Munich.

Once in Munich we checked into the hostel and stowed our bags and then headed back to the train station to talk to someone at the Euraid about future train travel. While the guy was very helpful and spoke perfect American English he had a way of making feel stupid and inept. Apparently we've been using our pass wrong and we are lucky that it didn't get torn in half. He sorted us out and gave us some advice about our future travel days. The most interesting thing that he pointed out was that we could save about $45 by going to Schwangau today to see the castles of King Ludwig rather than wait until tomorrow when we would need to buy a train ticket or use another day on our pass. I called the castle tour office and they were able to accomodate us today so we hopped on the next train to Fussen!

The train was about 2 hours followed hy a 15 minute bus ride and a short hike up to the first castle, Hohenschwangou. This is the summer castle of King Ludwigs father and he grew up here. It was beaitiful and the views were stunning. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside but if you google it you'll find lota of images.

After touring the first castle we ate our picnic lunch of bread, cheese and an apple before heading up to the main attraction, Neuschwanstein Castle.  This is the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauties castle, it really is a fairy tale castle. King Ludwig used the operas of Wagner as inspiration for all of the wall paintings in the castle.

King Ludwig seemed to be a little more interested in building the perfect castle than ruling a kingdom so he was forced to step down because he was not mentally able to he king, aka he was crazy King Ludwig! Shortky after stepping down he eithe killed himself or was murdered, no one knows exactly what happened. Because of these events Ludwig only spent about half a year living in his castle and never quite got all of the work done. To this day it is still unfinished. What is finished is incredibly oppulent and simply stunning. Every window has an amazing view as well, it really is breathtaking.

After visiting the castle we hiked up to Mary's Bridge, which is quite an engineering achievement of the 19th century. From the bridge we had a spectacular view of the castle and the valley that lies below. There is also a waterfall off the other side of the bridge. It would be great to come back and do some hikinh around the village as there are lots of trails and paths to follow.

After getting our pictures we headed down to the village to grab a bite to eat, schnitzel sandwich, and catch the bus to the train station.  We made it back to Munich without much excitement.

After getting the key to our room and taking our bags up we set out to get a bite to eat. We wanted to go to the Augustiner Beer Garden but ended up at there downtown restaraunt instead. We sat outside and people watched while we ate our pretzels and then headed back to the hostel for some much needed sleep!

Suzie :-)

The Importance of Ice Cream and German History

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Last night we decided that we could afford to sleep in today since we had a noon check out and only a few sites planned for the day. We got up around 10 and checked out of the hostel just before noon. We were pretty hungry so we headed to the Cafe at the Opera House which is famous for its desserts. The menu was a little out of our price range so we decided just to get dessert and we could buy a pretzel from a street vendor later.

We ate some amazing ice cream, we had raspberry and lavender poppyseed with fresh raspberries, sauce and whipped cream. It was incredible. We did stop and get a prrtzel before going to the German History museum.

First of all, the German history museum is huge. Second, German history is pretty much Western European history since Germany didn't become a country until the mid-1800s.  I focused on the areas covering the Protestant reformation, the life of Karl Marx and the conditions leading up to WWII. It was so interesting, a little tough to follow at times but well worth the time.

After spending 3 hours at the German hostoey museum we walked across the street to the Guggenheim. Jamie has a goal to visit all of the Guggenheims. The German Guggenheim is much smaller than the one in New York and is not as intereting looking. The exhibit was okay but we only spent about 45 minutes there.

After the Guggenheim we headed back towards the hostel. We stopped at a traditional German restaurant and ate some really good, filling and inexpensive schnitzel.

From there we headed back to the hostel to get our packs and then to the main train station where I bought an Appel Manchen, these are the East Berlin stop and walk signs at street lights, they are really cute. I got the green walk guy on a magnet.

We finally boarded the train at 9:15 and settled down to sleep.  It's our last overnight train and I'm pretty thankful for that!

Suzie :-)

Hello Berlin!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

This morning we arrived in Berlin at 6am and we promptly made our reservation for the overnight train to Munich for Thursday. This time we remembered to request the bottom bunk since we've been on the top bunk on our previous night trains and it makes it difficult to get up and use the bathroom or really do anything!

After making our reservation we headed to our hostel to put our bags up. The hostel is in a great little neighborhood and seems to be fairly quiet. It has free wifi and we have a private room which is awesome.  We mapped out our strategy for the day and headed out for breakfast.

We were both really hungry so we went to a sit down place to get something other than bread and coffee. The meal was amazing and after being in Denmark it seemed so cheap! We took our time since it was raining and we were meeting a walking tour just outside of the restaurant.

The walking tour we did was fantastic, the guide was so knowledgable and went at a good pace. Our guide, David, was very friendly and was even able to give us some great restaurant suggestions in our neighborhood. On the tour we hit Museum Island, Unter Din Linden, the book burning memorial, an amazing chocolate shop, the wall, checkpoint Charlie, the bunker where Hitler killed himself, Brandonburg gate and we could just make out the Reichstag.  The walk gave us a good sense of the things that we wanted to go back to and the things that may not be for us.

After the walk we took the subway down to Potsdamer Platz which is where the 4 sections pf Berlin came together, now it's full of new skyscrapers and a mall. From there we walked to the Gameldegalerie, the cities fine art gallery. We ate in the cafeteria before heading in.

The museum has some worls by Rembrandt, Rafael, Vemeer and many other artists, particularpy Dutch and German. It was a beautiful museum with a good free audioguide.

After the gallery we came back to the hostel and officially checked into our room. After relaxing for a bit we headed to il due forni for what we were told would be authentic Italian pizza made by punks. They didn't lie, it was amazing!  Best pizza I've ever eaten!

Finally we went to bed exhausted but ready to do it all again the next day.

Suzie :-)