Today we rode the train to Wurzburg. What a lovely litle city!
Upon arrival at the train station, we made our way down the main shopping street, past the nice churches and market. Wurzburg was first mentioned in documents ~700AD. Pretty amazing to us Americans! We crossed the old bridge with canal lock systems and hiked our way up to the fortress overlooking the city, which afforded fantastic views with a (finally!) beautiful sunny, blue sky. We then treated ourselves to some bakery goodies (cheese danish for me) and some sausages on a bun…because that’s what you do in Germany. We then walked over to the Residence and decided not to go on the tour, but took some nice pictures of the outside and also in the garden. We ran out of daylight to do Bamburg, so we returned home and then made our way up to Verena’s brother and sister in-law’s home for some real Italian pizza. Lecker! JD and Basti bonded over star wars and scotch whiskey. A good time was had by all, and we enjoyed seeing travel pictures of the couples’ Las Vegas elvis wedding and California wedding.
Day 9 – We had a final breakfast of bacon and eggs with Peter, Celia, and the boys, got our bags packed and made our way to Bad Worishofen to meet up with Tante Brigette and Tante Gertrude. The drive along the Autobahn (portions without speed limits!) was fun, and with the “Foen” (literally means hairdryer in German, refers to warm air coming up from Italy), the Alps were not only visible, but looking very close. We had a nice lunch at a local restaurant (Maultaschen for Audrey and a steak with cheese Spaetzle for JD), then took a look around town and the convent turned wellness resort that Brigette and Gertrude are spending their holiday at. We exchanged presents, said goodbye and returned to Munich just in time to catch the 4pm train Nuremberg. Verena met us at the train station and we were welcomed by Anne and Marita back at Anne’s apartment. We had the traditional German “Abendbrot” and stayed up till the wee hours catching up on many years’ worth of chit-chat.
The next day (Day 10), we did a proper tour of Nuremberg. We checked out the Lorenzkirche, Marktplatz (with Christkindlmarkt!), Schoennbrunn, Sebaldskirche, Kaiserburg (castle from ~1050AD overlooking the city), Johannesfriedhof, Albrecht Duerer House, Handwerkerhof…We also snacked on the famous “drei im Weckle” (three Nuremberger Bratwuerstchen in a roll). As the sun went down, we then got to enjoy the christmas market by light – and what a beautiful sight it is! We then went to a local restaurant and enjoyed some “real” Schnitzel and beer courtesy of Marita. So delicious!
Day 11 – We went into the city in the morning to do a little more shopping and enjoy the Christmas market again. Come 2pm on Christmas Eve, all the stores finally shut down and it was time to head home, have some Lebkuchen, then open Christmas presents! (That’s right, Santa visits Germany a little early). It doesn’ matter how old one is, present time is always the best! =) We had fresh leberkaese and Bratwurstchen for the evening meal, then decided it was finally time to sleep in the next morning.
Day 12 – Christmas Day 1 – (there’s TWO in Germany!) Feeling a little bit weird about not having presents on Christmas morning, we were quickly feeling better about the idea of having a nice relaxing day. We drove into Wendelstein to visit the town where I did my exchange program and walk around the canal a bit. Later, we went on a run to get some exercise, then had the most delicious carrot ginger soup and filet for dinner. We had much wine, beer, champagne, and enjoyed listening to music and at times having a dance/karoeke party (Te Amo, anyone?). It was really a wonderful day feeling happy and full and celebrating with such a wonderful family!
Day 13 – Xmas part Deux – Again, a nice sleep in followed by a relaxing German breakfast. We then went to the DokuZentrum, which is a great museum that explains the establishment of the Nazi party and their eventual stronghold on the city of Nuremberg. The museum did a really great job taking visitors through the evolution of the party and subsequent war, and of course, it was a sobering experience. We all knew bits and pieces of the info, but the museum put it all together for us. We returned home to a homecooked meal of Rouladen(!!!) with dumplings and sauce with red beet field salad….so good! Again, a quiet, relaxing evening was had by all, but we had to say goodbye to Tante Marita, as she had to go back to work in Berlin; JD was especially sad to lose his beer enthusiast friend. We really enjoyed getting to spend time with her.
Today was yet another lovely day in Munich. Peter and Celia once again had such a lovely breakfast spread that it kept us full for much of the day. As we were eating breakfast, we noticed sunshine through the window – this made us very excited since we hadn’t seen clear skies in a while.
Our first stop of the day was Schloss Nyphenburg, which stretches for as far as the eye can see. JD made a cool panorama of it on the gopro that he’ll have to work on when we return home (our travel netbook isn’t up to the computing challenge). We actually didn’t even go inside, but very much enjoyed walking the 500+ acres of grounds associated with the castle.
Next stop was the olympic park, when Munich was home to the Olympic games in 1972. Some say it’s dated, and yes, parts of it may be, but if you consider the big picture (look at those cool roofs), its actually pretty amazing that this was created 40 years ago and still looks somewhat futuristic. We paid for JD to go into the arena to take some of the coolest pictures of the complex, but then spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how he could get out from said stadium after closing time. There was a brief moment where we thought he’d have to climb the fence to get out, but luckily, we finally came across an exit. We also checked out the aquatic center, which was very warm and moist (compared to the outside) and unkind to our camera lenses =)
Last stop of the day was the BMW Welt, and althought it’s somewhat of a marketing showcase, it was very cool to see all of their lineup. From the Rolls Royce on display (look but no touch), to the 175,000 Euro custom BMW that they did actually let you sit in, to the Mini Coopers in all vareities not usually seen in the US, to the motorcycles (swoon!), to their i3 and i8 electric vehichles (major swoon!), we spent an enjoyable hour there. Also cool was how the center of the building was a pickup area for people buying their brand new BMW’s. We had wanted to go on the factory tour, but they were already closed for the holidays (imagine giving your workers off until after New Year’s?!…c’mon America!)
We then made our way home to the House of Weber for a *true Munich speciality – Weisswurst with sweet mustards, fresh soft pretzels and good Munich beer. (*except for the part that a “real” Muenchner wouldn’t eat such a sausage for dinner…it’s meant to be eaten before noon…it has to do with lack of preservatives during the olden days). We had a nice time discussing the wonderful trips they have been on (30 days of vacation a year helps make this possible), and dreaming of our next destination…
Guten Nacht!
We slept till 9:30am (oops!) and forced ourselves to get up despite getting 9 hours of sleep. We had fresh croissants with Nutella, Muesli and fancy European espresso (despite how good it tastes, for cost reasons, I think we’ll stick with good ‘ole drip coffee). We rode the subway 4 stops up to Universitaets Platz and got off for a stroll around the Englischer Gartern.
We saw the Chinese Pagoda and walked around a nice duck pond/lake that was partially frozen over (would be great for ice skating), with a beer garden that must be lovely in the summer time.
We mosied our way back into town and saw some guys “surfing” a spot where the small river that runs through the park moves rapidly and tumbles down a small drop to form a standing wave. It looked very cold, but considering their only option within their country is the North Sea, I guess it’s not too bad.
Our ultimate destination for the day was the Deutsches Museum, as the forecast was calling for rain. We check trip advisor, read our guidebooks, ask for reccommendations, but sometimes it’s a bit of a gamble if a particular museum will appeal to you. In this case, we won the lottery! To say the Deutsches Museum is HUGE would be an understatement. We spent 4 hours there, but felt like we needed at least 4 days to make it through all the wonderful exhibits.
The Deutsches Museum is part Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, part science museum and totally awesome! We started with the mining exhibit which was creepily underground and HUGE (we spent an hour there not realizing that there were 50 other exhibits to see).
We then picked up the pace and checked out the aircraft/spacecraft hall, boats/ships, old-school computers, microscopes and telescopes (including an old-school original electron microscope), nanotechnology, printing presses, musical instruments, and photography… just to name a few… They had old stuff up through modern day, and even though most of the descriptions were in German only, it somehow worked (sorry, my knowledge of German mining terms is limited). The size and scope of their collection is really awesome and a great gift to the future…(i.e. when the next generation asks what a floppy disk looked like, it’s captured in the museum).
With our ticket, we got a free admission to one of their two branch locations (they have so much stuff they set up auxillary locations for aircraft and trains, cars, etc.)
After the museum closed at 5pm (so sad), we made our way to Marienplatz and noshed on another pretzel with cream cheese and chives, some Nuremberg Bratwurstchen and a 1L Mass of Paulaner…very exciting indeed! We wandered around the Viktuelienmarkt and then made our way home by foot. We are so glad we have yet another day in Munich!
Salzburg was such a welcome change from the hustle and bustle and (sorry!) relative grime/smell of Vienna. After all, the “hills are alive with the sound of music” and fresh mountain air, right? Upon arrival on our sleek Westbahn train, we put our stuff in a locker at the train station and walked into the old part of town.
Our first stop of the day was at Mirabelle Palace and Gardens. We then crossed a bridge over the river that had tons of locks attached to it, representing people’s marriages/anniversaries, etc., while trying to ignore the beggars that knew where to strategically place themselves to prey on tourists who are just visiting because “OMG…the SOUND OF MUSIC!!!”
On a side note – fun “Sound of Music” factoid courtesy of Rick Steves…in the movie when the Von Trapps are fleeing over the mountains, they are depicted as heading straight towards Berchstegaden, home of Hitler’s “eagle’s nest”…probably a bad call on their part…
We then walked past Mozart’s birthplace (this fact was played to the hilt in all gift shops), down to the town hall, and stopped in the Salzburg Museum to look at the Panorama, which was highly reccommended by our buddy and travel companion, Rick Steves. At first entry, my heart sank…3 euros each, for this?! But upon closer inspection, the display was quite impressive – the world’s larget panorama (popular back in the day before iphones), painstakingly hand-painted in 1829. This painting was huge, and the attention to every little detail about Salzburg was impressive. This display toured Europe upon its completion…no big deal, right? Well in 1829, getting to see another city was a pretty big deal because leisure travel wasn’t really a thing unless you were rich. Very cool and worth the price of admission.
We then made our way to the Cathedral, which migh be our favorite so far on the trip. The stucco work (done by a Bavaria artist) was amazing. The cathedral doesn’t have stained glass windows so it felt light and airy and the crypt underneath featuring portions of the old church (the church was rebuilt in the 1800’s on top of the original church dating 700AD) was a cool extra. The pictures of the destroyed dome after WWII were sad to see…an all too common fate for many churches in the region.
We then hiked up to the Salzburg Fotress. Not too bad, especially because we were lured by the fact that hiking up would save us the 10 eruro tram ride up the mountain…But alas…to actually get up to the castle, there’s an admission fee.
After consulting trip advisor, we decided we’d pass and take pictures of the view (despite the clouds) and keep hiking to Monchsberg…boy…are we glad we did. We were rewarded with even better views of the fotress and the snow-capped alps poking through the clouds.
We then made our way back down, checked out the horse baths (think fountain for horses) and the water wheel/canal system that was used to flush the town on a weekly basis, making it one of the few towns that escaped the Plague. Next door, there was a bakery selling delicious sweet buns for 1 euro – nice little afternoon snack!
Next up, St. Peter’s church and beautiful cemetary that looked more like a garden, with each gravesight so beautifully manicured. Mozart’s sister and Hayden’s brother are buried here. The inside of the church was impressive as well.
Then…dinner…we were cold and hadn’t had lunch, so we found an pretty authentic and un-touristy Austrian restuarant in an otherwise very touristy town. We had a beef roast in an dark brown onion sauce with potato fritters and beans wrapped in bacon. Wash that down with some local beer…yummm!
We were finally warm again (too bad we don’t own and therefore didn’t bring coats capable of handling such cold) and happily strolled back to the train station to collect our belongings and return to Munich. We even found some other people to share a Bayern Nacht ticket with us, so our return was even a better deal than expected.
All in all, we had a great time in Austria, but it’s good to be
back “home” in Bayern!
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Today was a bit of a rest day. We slept in a bit, then came up with our plans for a slightly earlier departure from Vienna. Around 10am we headed out to the Imperial Furntiure collection (included in our Sisi ticket), which was extensive. The museum really highlighted a) how much stuff the Habsburgs had (seriously… who needs 1,000 candeloboras) and b) what a pain it must have been back in the day to move said stuff from palace to palace… it’s not like you just rent a truck from UHaul… nonetheless, a nice way to spend 2 hours on a dreary and cold day.
We then came back to the hotel, had a lunch of bread, salami, and the world’s foulest smelling cheese (which was quickly disposed of… had the true nature of the contents been known, we wouldn’t have bought it).
We then made our way to Belvedere palace, which was quite beautiful in the snowy/ice covering that had been coming down. We didn’t go in… but wandering the grounds, and eating fried spaetzle with bacon and onions at the Christmas market out front was quite a highlight.
We then had the bright idea to visit a Heurige (The Vienesse have wine gardens instead of the Germans’ beer gardens), but after riding around on the subways/streetcars for a while decided we’d call it a night and instead buy a $3 bottle of Austrian wine at the supermarket… (suits our tastes…)
JD went out with Tucker to have a farewell beer. I stayed in and packed our bags for our onward journey to Salzburg. Bis bald!
Today was a day of grandeur. We started with the world-famous Schoenbrunn Palace, which was a short tram ride from our hotel. I can’t tell if the outside or inside was more magnificent, but seeing as they wouldn’t let us take pictures inside, the Rick Steves highlight reel and some postcards will have to suffice.
The grand ballroom and the millions room were definitely show-stoppers. We hiked up to the Glorietta, and noticed that the cold had reached a new level – you’ll notice icy trees in the background. We came back to the hotel, warmed up with a Doner and some chocolate from the Austrian Aldi then heaeded into town.
We met up with Tucker at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. He and JD climbed the 350 steps to the tower, while I toured the Nave – some pretty awesome carvings, paintings and general ornateness about that church. We then made our way over to the Hofburg. Our combo ticket included Schoenbrunn, the Hofburg imperial aparmtents, the Sisi museum and the silver collection (as well as the imperial furniture gallery that we’ll see tomorrow.) The tour starts with the silver – suprisingly interesting and impressive. I enjoyoed seeing the Meissen porcelein (shoutout to Germany!), the 30m long gilded table centerpiece, service sets for 140 people, and candelobras and tiered serving dishes out to wazoo.
The Sisi museum was also interesting – go look this woman up. The wife of Franz Josef who was devastatingly beautiful, mysterious and sad (it sounded like she definitely had some serious depression going on). After being murded by an Italian anarchist, she became somewhat of an icon. The museum even had her murder weapon on display, which was kinda crossing the line into creepy territory. Lastly, the Hofburg imperial apartments. Very nice, but not quite on the same scale as Schoenbrunn.
We then rounded out the day with a dinner meetup with Tucker and Priscilla then a trip to the Haus der Musik, which was a good way to stay out of the cold and get to play around in the interactive museum.
We’re still getting over the jet lag a bit, so the early start this morning caught us slightly off gaurd. Peter was kid enought to dropp us off at the train station and we were on our way to Vienna via Salzburg. For the first leg of our journey, we had an entire compartment/saloon to ourselves, which was really neat. We got to see cool little villages and the alps off in the distance as we rolled silently through frost-covered fields and forests. We then changed over to a very modern Rail Jet the rest of the way to Vienna. For portions of the trip, we were doing over 250 km/hr! JD was specially pleased with the free wi-fi on board. Sure beats driving!
We arrived in Vienna shortly after noon and had to figure out why the ticket machine wouldn’t let us pay with credit card OR cash for our Vienna transit card. We then had to figure out how to locate our hotel address without the use of an iphone and by speaking German in my poor accent to Austrians, who have a different one than what I’m used to hearing. Luckily, we found our hotel before reaching panic mode, dropped our bags and went to lunch. JD had his first ever Doener kebab and approves tremendously. We also hit up the Austrian version of Aldi to get an el-cheapo Austrian SIM card that we spent the rest of the day trying to troubleshoot =/
Tucker met up with us and played tourguide, as we were completely lost in a city that seems much bigger than Munich. We walked through the Naschmarkt, then into the older part of town. The temperatures started to drop, and before we knew it we were all freezng our butts off, but continued to tour around despite the loss of feeling in fingers and toes. Getting to see the attraction lit up so beautifully at night (ahem…4pm when it starts getting dark 😉 was really a treat. The Albertina, the Hofburg, the Opera, the library, Rathaus, the Volksoper, museuems, shopping streets, Christmas markets…everything is just so beautiful for the holidays. I think the real show-stoppers were the Rathaus (think Hogwarts) and the St. Stephens cathedal (unlike anything I’ve ever seen before! – can’t wait to tour the nave tomorrow).
We also got to check out the impressive Vienna Opera house the poor man’s way. For 3 euros a piece, we bougth standing room only tickets to what turned out to be an interpretive ballet performance instead of opera performance. I can’t say which I would have preferred, but the dancers were VERY talented and it would be worth at least three times that amount just to have the chance to look at the inside of the building, let alone enjoy a show there.
We returned home via subway tired and cold. Nothing a hot shower and some good sleep can’t fix!
Tomorrow we plan to visit Schoenbrunn palace (apparently the Hapsburg version of Versailles) and many of the city sites that we just viewd from the outside tonight.
In the meantime, please send some warm weather our way – daytime highs in the 30’s is just a little bit much for us softies…
Two long flights, one long train ride, and one bout of food poisoning later, we’re happily in Munich, the gem of Bavaria.
Our first night was mainly spent trying to stay awake (JD) and not feel sick (Audrey). Peter (Nancy’s cousin) picked us up at the train station and we got to meet his lovely wife, Celia, and their two adorable boys, Vincent & Lenny. We had a small bit to eat and went out to the Christmas market held on the Oktoberfest grounds right across the street, despite the rain. Very cool market – our first of many to come on this trip =) We came home to a lovely German abendessen and thankfully were able to sleep through the night (being sick helped me overcome jetlag?!)
Today we managed to sleep till 9am!!! and had a wonderful breakfast (Nutella!!!) and off we went into the city. First stop was the ornate baroque Asam kirche. We then made it just in time for the noontime “showing” of the Glockenspiel in the Marienplatz. We walked around the Christmas market by the Rathaus, stopped at the Theatenerkirch, saw a very impressive collection of royal jewels at the Residenz, walked down Maximillianstrasse (think 5th Ave in NYC) to the Bavarian parliment, then back to the Marienplatz for some grub. JD had a vegetarian pizza (he wanted veggies) and I had a giant preztel with cream cheese and chives = so good!
We then looped around the city again and saw the Frauenkirche and ended up at one of the several Pinkotek Museums in Munich. But, much to Audrey’s chargrin (JD was more open minded about it), it was the modern art museum. Getting to see Dali and Picasso works was quite cool (the museum was only 1 Euro on Sundays too!), but most of the time, we had not a clue what we were looking at. We then made our way back to the Marienplatz once more for a trink of Gluehwein from a souvenier boot-shaped glass (that’s going in our china cloest!!!).
We came home and had a light evening meal (I like the way the Germans do it) and got our bags packed for our trip to Vienna in the morning. I’ll miss sharing sweets with Vinny and Lenny and they’ll miss talking Star Wars with JD. Not to worry – we’ll be returning to Munich on Friday, but in the meantime, Vienna and Salzburg are calling our names.
Bis spaeter!
There are few words to describe what we saw on our private tour of the Alberta Oil Sands. The scope and scale of the operation is beyond even what I had imagined. Seeing the process in person gave me a fresh perspective on why tar sand mining exists, its environmental ramifications, corporate morality in the oil industry, and international oil politics. These pictures speak for themselves.
