Day 16
Today we got up and ate breakfast at the Hostel. Uh yeah. We forgot to check the message board and didn’t know there was a *huge* group of kids eating breakfast, and by huge, I mean like 54 kids. We finally found a table so we wouldn’t have to stand and ate. We mapped out the day and watched it rain for a little while. Fun huh?
We decided to go to the Berlin zoo. The zoo is huge! We started off by seeing elephants and going from there. They had a lot of animals that I’d never seen before and a lot that I’ve seen. I think Cliff’s favourite exhibit was the monkey house, which went on for freaking ever! It surprised me because they didn’t have any silver-back gorillas. They had gorillas, chimps, and orangutans, but no silver-back gorillas. Some of the gorillas were about our age, but a lot of them were older than my dad. I didn’t realize that they lived *that* long. The pigmy chimps were a bit odd. The other monkeys were just cute and at every cage, Cliff: I want that and that one and that one. Oh, I think that’s the one they make Helper Monkeys from; that’s the one I want. *headdesk* Why does he want a monkey so damn bad???? I must admit, they were cute, but uh, no. No monkeys in my house. It’s bad enough that I have to put up with Cliff. The hippo exhibit was pretty cool. They had normal hippos and pigmy hippos. Going into the big cat house, they had more large cats than I’ve seen (-: Black jaguars, normal jaguars, ocelots, lions (male & female), tigers. One of the tigers kept looking at everybody like he *knew* what was on the menu for lunch. One of the jaguars *knew* she was regal and posed. The black jaguars were rather nice. I’m surprised they didn’t have any panthers or bobcats though. The Central American cats kept pacing like they were nervous so was something up or were they just so damn cold they were trying to keep warm? They also had this odd animal that looked like a cross between a dog and rat. The damn thing kept running around in its cage so we couldn’t get a picture. I think we stood there and watched it for like 10 minutes mesmerized. My favourite animal was the Saharan Sand Cat. It reminded me of my sister’s cat, Madam. There was just this look in her eye that said “I want to screw with you and screw with you hard”. Cliff also got a picture of a really goofy looking grizzly bear. The bear was sitting up in a Buddha pose and grinning. He looked so adorable! It’s like some of the animals there liked to pose and just posed. But to me, the worst exhibit was the penguin. Ick. Cliff and Sabsi are evil. And by evil, I mean about 50 different kinds of evil. Grr
So, after freezing our asses off at the zoo all day, we went to the Hard Rock. Finally, we got to warm up. I miss old menu sometimes. The only thing they have here that I can eat is a veggie burger and it’s not bad. But they used to have this pasta dish that was to die for. Maybe it’s only available in the states? But got my shot glass and Cliff got the t-shirts. I was happy. And it was so nice to sit down and just get warm. It’s nice being over here in the non-tourist time of year, but it’s bloody cold! I don’t think it would be so bad if it wouldn’t rain and the wind wouldn’t blow. I really don’t think I’ve been warm since I’ve been here. After Hard Rock, we walked around and we hit Kaiser Wilham church. The stone work on the ceiling was amazing. It suffered damage in early November 1942 from the war and was totally unusable. By Christmas Eve 1942, they had cleared enough debris out to hold Christmas service. Right next to this church was a ‘modern’ church with stained glass windows and a huge golden Jesus hanging from the ceiling. It was very odd. After the churches we went to a bookstore. *drool* It was four floors of books. Mein Gott. I got a book “Fucking English” and “The Neverending Story”. “Fucking English” is English insults translated into German. Hmmm wonder if that’ll be put to any use. Innocent look. Hehe. “The Neverending Story” is in German and illustrated. How could I come to Germany and *not* get that book????????? I mean, it’s only my all-time favourite book, EVER! I was happy.
The last thing we did was go to Check Point Charlie. It’s just a building in the middle of the street. It’s not very impressive, but it is impressive. Knowing this is where hundreds of people had to pass through to get to West Berlin? It was something to me. Of course they had their “guards” out front (TOURIST TRAP!) and for 2 Euros for each person, you can get your picture. Of course Sabsi and I did it. I had to. We’re in Berlin for crying out loud. We got a couple of good pictures. One of the guards told Cliff that I could stay with him for an hour cause I was nice and warm and wrapped me up in his arms and the American flag. We did find out that we can get our passports stamped with the official Checkpoint Charlie stamp. So I think that we’re going to go back and get that done. That’ll be something to remember.
We’ve had the best time in Berlin. I really don’t want to leave on Saturday. But we have to get back to work. )-:
Me
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Day 15
Day 15
Today we said bye to the Castle and headed to Berlin. We had to drive from the *right* Sommersdorf to Wurzburg and catch the train to Gottening. After Gottening, we headed to Berlin. It was so fun. The train was A: packed and B: kept having computer issues. Blah. So after getting to the main station in Berlin, we headed down to McDonalds for a quick bite. It was 2 and our train was over 30 minutes late getting into Berlin. We hadn’t eaten since 7 the night before so we were pretty hungry.
After finishing lunch, I called Sabrina, who was waiting for us at the station. OMG it was sooooooooooooo nice to finally meet her in person. She’s got to be a good 6 inches taller than me (-: So we went into McDonalds and picked up Cliff and our luggage and got a taxi. We got to the hostel and it’s an experience. I’ve never been to a hostel before so coming into a room that’s a double but has 4 beds is a bit odd. But it’s all a learning experience right? That’s why we travel? So we agreed to meet in 30 minutes and she came down to our room and we just chilled out for a while waiting on it to stop raining. I think this is the rainy season over here. Go figure. I brought her PB M&Ms and she gave me a book on Hamburg (an incentive to visit!), Oreo cappuccino (yummy) and a Deutsch calendar on Deutschland. I can’t decide if it’s going on the wall at home or at work. I’ll probably put it on the wall at home.
After it stopped raining, we walked around the immediate area and got some pictures. We found this candy store that had chocolate carvings. The carvings were of the Titanic, Germany’s Parliament, a Teddy Bear (Berlin’s Mascot), a working chocolate volcano, and something else. They were exquisite. The entire store smelled heavenly. Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything. Why torture myself? So we walked around and did a bit of sight-seeing. We saw the Russian, Italian, French, and British Embassies. We found out that our Hostel overlooks the Korean Embassy. I’m not sure if it’s North or South. I don’t wanna know to be honest. We also saw the government buildings and a gate, I can’t remember the name of it now but I’ll put it in later. We also went to this museum for the Jewish people of WWII and memorial. The Memorial was set up like a graveyard in Louisiana and was very interesting. It was most humbling. The museum itself. Reading what these poor people went through and entire families being wiped out. It’s so sad reading about this. I don’t see how someone could target a certain group of people like that. It makes no sense to me. I’m trying to imagine if someone did that today what would happen.
After the museum and a bit of later afternoon sight-seeing we went to get supper at a Vietnamese restaurant. I had Diesel to drink. Diesel is Becks beer mixed with coke. Can we say SUPER yummy??????????????? I may have to try it when we get home. This was the first German beer I’ve tried and I think I’m hooked. (-: After supper, we came back to the hostel and just hung out in the room and showed Sabsi some of the pictures we’ve taken on holiday. I can’t believe that we’ve been here for 2 weeks and we’ve seen more of the country than she’s seen. She’s lived here her entire live! *Poke poke poke Sabsi!*
Berlin was everything I thought it would be and more. I can’t wait to see what we do tomorrow. (-:
Me
Today we said bye to the Castle and headed to Berlin. We had to drive from the *right* Sommersdorf to Wurzburg and catch the train to Gottening. After Gottening, we headed to Berlin. It was so fun. The train was A: packed and B: kept having computer issues. Blah. So after getting to the main station in Berlin, we headed down to McDonalds for a quick bite. It was 2 and our train was over 30 minutes late getting into Berlin. We hadn’t eaten since 7 the night before so we were pretty hungry.
After finishing lunch, I called Sabrina, who was waiting for us at the station. OMG it was sooooooooooooo nice to finally meet her in person. She’s got to be a good 6 inches taller than me (-: So we went into McDonalds and picked up Cliff and our luggage and got a taxi. We got to the hostel and it’s an experience. I’ve never been to a hostel before so coming into a room that’s a double but has 4 beds is a bit odd. But it’s all a learning experience right? That’s why we travel? So we agreed to meet in 30 minutes and she came down to our room and we just chilled out for a while waiting on it to stop raining. I think this is the rainy season over here. Go figure. I brought her PB M&Ms and she gave me a book on Hamburg (an incentive to visit!), Oreo cappuccino (yummy) and a Deutsch calendar on Deutschland. I can’t decide if it’s going on the wall at home or at work. I’ll probably put it on the wall at home.
After it stopped raining, we walked around the immediate area and got some pictures. We found this candy store that had chocolate carvings. The carvings were of the Titanic, Germany’s Parliament, a Teddy Bear (Berlin’s Mascot), a working chocolate volcano, and something else. They were exquisite. The entire store smelled heavenly. Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything. Why torture myself? So we walked around and did a bit of sight-seeing. We saw the Russian, Italian, French, and British Embassies. We found out that our Hostel overlooks the Korean Embassy. I’m not sure if it’s North or South. I don’t wanna know to be honest. We also saw the government buildings and a gate, I can’t remember the name of it now but I’ll put it in later. We also went to this museum for the Jewish people of WWII and memorial. The Memorial was set up like a graveyard in Louisiana and was very interesting. It was most humbling. The museum itself. Reading what these poor people went through and entire families being wiped out. It’s so sad reading about this. I don’t see how someone could target a certain group of people like that. It makes no sense to me. I’m trying to imagine if someone did that today what would happen.
After the museum and a bit of later afternoon sight-seeing we went to get supper at a Vietnamese restaurant. I had Diesel to drink. Diesel is Becks beer mixed with coke. Can we say SUPER yummy??????????????? I may have to try it when we get home. This was the first German beer I’ve tried and I think I’m hooked. (-: After supper, we came back to the hostel and just hung out in the room and showed Sabsi some of the pictures we’ve taken on holiday. I can’t believe that we’ve been here for 2 weeks and we’ve seen more of the country than she’s seen. She’s lived here her entire live! *Poke poke poke Sabsi!*
Berlin was everything I thought it would be and more. I can’t wait to see what we do tomorrow. (-:
Me
Day 14
Day 14
Today is our last official day in Bavaria. We used it to go to Nurnberg. Nurnberg was one of the hardest hit cities of WWII. We got there about 10 this morning and walked around. The entire city was basically in ruins by the end of the war.
The first church we went in was very Gothic in the outside. On the inside, it was very modern. There was little to no Gothic or semblance of the previous church that stood there over 60 years ago. The second church we went in was uber Gothic on the outside and on the inside, you could see where old stone met new(ish) stone. This church was actually trying to keep in tradition with the old style, but you could tell that it was costing a pretty Euro to do so. Cliff, that asshat, wouldn’t drop anything into the donation boxes of any of the churches and I had no cash on me. *sigh* I’m married to a moron. He wouldn’t even donate a couple of Euros to help with the preservation of the churches around here.
Going in the churches and walking around Nurnberg is hard to describe. It’s much like old meets new. You see so many outlines of old buildings but the building next to an old building is a new building made entirely of glass. But to see the pictures of what Nurnberg looked like in 1945 after the war and what the Allies did to it is really heartbreaking. This city was nothing but a pile of rubble. The last church we went in had pictures with details in several languages about the pictures. They basically had an entire picture history of the reconstruction of the church from the ground up. It was pretty amazing. But going in one of the churches was really just bad. The old church had painted walls and columns. Again, thanks to WWII, only a small percentage of that original painted walls and columns were left. The churches didn’t even bother to really replace the stained glass windows either. I think they kept what they had and put in normal windows for the remainder of the windows. It’s so amazing to see something like Koln Cathedral and then go to a church in Nurnberg. To see the damaged churches and undamaged. The difference is amazing.
On top of it already being cold, it started to rain whilst we were rambling around Nurnberg today. After it stopped raining, it got even colder and the wind started blowing. Loverly. We walked to the castle, which is the highest point in the city. I’m not one for heights so Cliff got a couple of pictures for me. :-)
I’ve noticed that when we go on these trips, we go for completely different reasons. Cliff goes for the architecture and I go for the history. We’ve seen a lot of both in the two weeks that we’ve been in Germany or Deutschland. There’s a lot of history that I’ve learned by just being here and there’s a lot to see that you won’t see by staying home. We can’t replicate a lot of what’s here and we can’t get across some of the awesomeness of what’s here. Prime example: we can tell you that the Koln Cathedral is really freaking big, but unless you see it yourself, you don’t know *how* freaking big it really is. I can sit here and tell you that there’s a sense of overwhelming sense of something going through the city and through the churches, but until you’ve been there yourself, you won’t know. So, here’s my advice to anybody who reads this, if anybody reads this at all: travel. Go see the world. I don’t care if it’s going to Tokyo or the town next to where you live, get out of your groove and just go somewhere. There’s a whole wide world out there ready and waiting for you to explore it. Go. Enjoy. Don’t be one of those people who, at the age of 90, says “I wish I had travelled” or something to that effect. Enjoy life and go forth and experience the rest of the world. Trust me, the rest of the world ain’t like America. It’s a helluva lot different and you learn so much about you as an individual by going out there and seeing the rest of the world. On that note, I’m out of here. I need to go pack. We have to be out of the castle by 7:30 and return the car tomorrow and head to Berlin to meet up with the one and only Sabsi!
XXXXXXXX
Me.
Today is our last official day in Bavaria. We used it to go to Nurnberg. Nurnberg was one of the hardest hit cities of WWII. We got there about 10 this morning and walked around. The entire city was basically in ruins by the end of the war.
The first church we went in was very Gothic in the outside. On the inside, it was very modern. There was little to no Gothic or semblance of the previous church that stood there over 60 years ago. The second church we went in was uber Gothic on the outside and on the inside, you could see where old stone met new(ish) stone. This church was actually trying to keep in tradition with the old style, but you could tell that it was costing a pretty Euro to do so. Cliff, that asshat, wouldn’t drop anything into the donation boxes of any of the churches and I had no cash on me. *sigh* I’m married to a moron. He wouldn’t even donate a couple of Euros to help with the preservation of the churches around here.
Going in the churches and walking around Nurnberg is hard to describe. It’s much like old meets new. You see so many outlines of old buildings but the building next to an old building is a new building made entirely of glass. But to see the pictures of what Nurnberg looked like in 1945 after the war and what the Allies did to it is really heartbreaking. This city was nothing but a pile of rubble. The last church we went in had pictures with details in several languages about the pictures. They basically had an entire picture history of the reconstruction of the church from the ground up. It was pretty amazing. But going in one of the churches was really just bad. The old church had painted walls and columns. Again, thanks to WWII, only a small percentage of that original painted walls and columns were left. The churches didn’t even bother to really replace the stained glass windows either. I think they kept what they had and put in normal windows for the remainder of the windows. It’s so amazing to see something like Koln Cathedral and then go to a church in Nurnberg. To see the damaged churches and undamaged. The difference is amazing.
On top of it already being cold, it started to rain whilst we were rambling around Nurnberg today. After it stopped raining, it got even colder and the wind started blowing. Loverly. We walked to the castle, which is the highest point in the city. I’m not one for heights so Cliff got a couple of pictures for me. :-)
I’ve noticed that when we go on these trips, we go for completely different reasons. Cliff goes for the architecture and I go for the history. We’ve seen a lot of both in the two weeks that we’ve been in Germany or Deutschland. There’s a lot of history that I’ve learned by just being here and there’s a lot to see that you won’t see by staying home. We can’t replicate a lot of what’s here and we can’t get across some of the awesomeness of what’s here. Prime example: we can tell you that the Koln Cathedral is really freaking big, but unless you see it yourself, you don’t know *how* freaking big it really is. I can sit here and tell you that there’s a sense of overwhelming sense of something going through the city and through the churches, but until you’ve been there yourself, you won’t know. So, here’s my advice to anybody who reads this, if anybody reads this at all: travel. Go see the world. I don’t care if it’s going to Tokyo or the town next to where you live, get out of your groove and just go somewhere. There’s a whole wide world out there ready and waiting for you to explore it. Go. Enjoy. Don’t be one of those people who, at the age of 90, says “I wish I had travelled” or something to that effect. Enjoy life and go forth and experience the rest of the world. Trust me, the rest of the world ain’t like America. It’s a helluva lot different and you learn so much about you as an individual by going out there and seeing the rest of the world. On that note, I’m out of here. I need to go pack. We have to be out of the castle by 7:30 and return the car tomorrow and head to Berlin to meet up with the one and only Sabsi!
XXXXXXXX
Me.
Day 13
Day 13
Today we went to Rathenburg. Rathenburg is a nice medieval town about 45 minutes away from where we’re staying and it’s a rather quaint little town. We started out the morning by parking and getting our ticket and guess what. The ink in the parking ticket place didn’t work. So we got a black ticket and with a hope and prayer, we put it in the window. After doing that, we walked the town perimeter by walking the town wall. They’ve got the original town walls still up and you can walk either on top of the walls or through the interior. We opted for the top of the walls. It was pretty foggy, so Cliff got a lot of nature/fog pictures. He likes those for some reason. They have guided town tours, but we didn’t take those. We’re really not ones for guided tours.
After walking the town through the walls, we decided to walk the town. We went in a few shops and did some sight-seeing. We ended up buying a few more Christmas presents. The best thing we found was the continuation to our friend Brooke’s present: a beaver dressed in lederhosen and when you squish it, it yodels. I really hope she likes it. We picked up a few other presents: we got something for Cliff’s dad, a magnet for my other mother, magnet for me and a t-shirt for my mom. My magnet is one that you really have to either know German or have been in Germany to really understand.
We went to the biggest church in town and I wanted to go in and see the inside of the church. The fee to get in the church was 2 Euros a person. Doesn’t that kind of counter the whole idea of a church? Should you really be able to charge people to see the inside of a church? I refuse. I’ll give donations, I’ll give to the poor, but I refuse to pay and admission fee to see the inside of a church. I have a huge problem with this. Like HUGE! I guess it’s like going down to the 1st Baptist Church on the corner of 1st and Main and them charging me a couple of bucks to come in and pray on Sunday. WTH??? I may not be a church goer every Sunday, but that’s not right. I know they have to keep up expenditures and have loads of expenses, but c’mon. Put out a donation box and get donations. I’ll do that. I think I’ve donated about 20 Euros to all the churches I’ve gone to since we’ve been here. The other big church in town closed from 12-2, so I didn’t get to go see it. It’s okay. There should be churches in Nurnberg tomorrow for me to see.
The only museum in town that was open was the criminal museum. OMG. It was friggin’ awesome. It was 4 floors of torture. 4 floors of torture: thumb screws, leg screws, tongue screws, iron maidens, shame masks, execution swords, etc. I think that was about the best 8 Euros I’ve spent the entire time I’ve been here. I wish that Cliff had taken some pictures while we were in the museum. Cliff told me that this says something about my mental state that I enjoyed that more than any other place we’ve been too. It was also the busiest (read most popular) museum that we’ve been to since we’ve been here.
At 5, we had wine with the Baron and had a tour of the castle. I think I had about 4 glasses of white wine. He just kept pouring! But it was very good wine. Cliff said it was one of the driest wines he’s had but it wasn’t dry to me at all. I guess my taste buds really have changed since I started taking my meds. But the castle was very lovely. We saw the converted stables. They have been converted into a dining hall. We also saw the play room for his grand kids. It’s what’s left of a tower and it’s too cute. We also went into the catacombs and saw the coffins of his ancestors. Kinda cool if you ask me. 2 of the caskets are now on tour with mummies of the world. We’re walking though the catacombs and everybody is ducking. I’m walking through like the doors are made just for me. Cliff won’t let me have any “Krishna-size doors” put in the house. Boo on Cliff! We ended the tour with a look at his classic cars. He had a Model T that was from 1913, a 1961 Benz, an ooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllldddddddddddddddddd Caddy and another car. They were all pretty sweet. I want the Benz.
So…..I’m outta here!
Me
Today we went to Rathenburg. Rathenburg is a nice medieval town about 45 minutes away from where we’re staying and it’s a rather quaint little town. We started out the morning by parking and getting our ticket and guess what. The ink in the parking ticket place didn’t work. So we got a black ticket and with a hope and prayer, we put it in the window. After doing that, we walked the town perimeter by walking the town wall. They’ve got the original town walls still up and you can walk either on top of the walls or through the interior. We opted for the top of the walls. It was pretty foggy, so Cliff got a lot of nature/fog pictures. He likes those for some reason. They have guided town tours, but we didn’t take those. We’re really not ones for guided tours.
After walking the town through the walls, we decided to walk the town. We went in a few shops and did some sight-seeing. We ended up buying a few more Christmas presents. The best thing we found was the continuation to our friend Brooke’s present: a beaver dressed in lederhosen and when you squish it, it yodels. I really hope she likes it. We picked up a few other presents: we got something for Cliff’s dad, a magnet for my other mother, magnet for me and a t-shirt for my mom. My magnet is one that you really have to either know German or have been in Germany to really understand.
We went to the biggest church in town and I wanted to go in and see the inside of the church. The fee to get in the church was 2 Euros a person. Doesn’t that kind of counter the whole idea of a church? Should you really be able to charge people to see the inside of a church? I refuse. I’ll give donations, I’ll give to the poor, but I refuse to pay and admission fee to see the inside of a church. I have a huge problem with this. Like HUGE! I guess it’s like going down to the 1st Baptist Church on the corner of 1st and Main and them charging me a couple of bucks to come in and pray on Sunday. WTH??? I may not be a church goer every Sunday, but that’s not right. I know they have to keep up expenditures and have loads of expenses, but c’mon. Put out a donation box and get donations. I’ll do that. I think I’ve donated about 20 Euros to all the churches I’ve gone to since we’ve been here. The other big church in town closed from 12-2, so I didn’t get to go see it. It’s okay. There should be churches in Nurnberg tomorrow for me to see.
The only museum in town that was open was the criminal museum. OMG. It was friggin’ awesome. It was 4 floors of torture. 4 floors of torture: thumb screws, leg screws, tongue screws, iron maidens, shame masks, execution swords, etc. I think that was about the best 8 Euros I’ve spent the entire time I’ve been here. I wish that Cliff had taken some pictures while we were in the museum. Cliff told me that this says something about my mental state that I enjoyed that more than any other place we’ve been too. It was also the busiest (read most popular) museum that we’ve been to since we’ve been here.
At 5, we had wine with the Baron and had a tour of the castle. I think I had about 4 glasses of white wine. He just kept pouring! But it was very good wine. Cliff said it was one of the driest wines he’s had but it wasn’t dry to me at all. I guess my taste buds really have changed since I started taking my meds. But the castle was very lovely. We saw the converted stables. They have been converted into a dining hall. We also saw the play room for his grand kids. It’s what’s left of a tower and it’s too cute. We also went into the catacombs and saw the coffins of his ancestors. Kinda cool if you ask me. 2 of the caskets are now on tour with mummies of the world. We’re walking though the catacombs and everybody is ducking. I’m walking through like the doors are made just for me. Cliff won’t let me have any “Krishna-size doors” put in the house. Boo on Cliff! We ended the tour with a look at his classic cars. He had a Model T that was from 1913, a 1961 Benz, an ooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllldddddddddddddddddd Caddy and another car. They were all pretty sweet. I want the Benz.
So…..I’m outta here!
Me
Day 12
Day 12
Today we did nothing but laze about. I’ve not been feeling well, so we decided to just stay inside where it’s warm and dry. So, that’s what we did. Had noodles with pesto for lunch (yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and slept the day away. About 8 tonight my friend called me and we set up plans for meeting up on Wednesday. I can’t wait. It’s going to be a really kick-ass trip. We talked for about 30 minutes and she was so afraid that I wasn’t having a good time over here. I don’t know how she could have thought I hated it in Germany. I love it here. It’s been a very enjoyable trip.
Today we did nothing but laze about. I’ve not been feeling well, so we decided to just stay inside where it’s warm and dry. So, that’s what we did. Had noodles with pesto for lunch (yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and slept the day away. About 8 tonight my friend called me and we set up plans for meeting up on Wednesday. I can’t wait. It’s going to be a really kick-ass trip. We talked for about 30 minutes and she was so afraid that I wasn’t having a good time over here. I don’t know how she could have thought I hated it in Germany. I love it here. It’s been a very enjoyable trip.
Day 11
Day 11
Today we woke up late and it was raining. It made it so hard to get up. We debated about going to Nurnberg but it was already 9:30 and shops close at 4, so we decided to wait until Tuesday to go. We were going to go to Neunenstein castle, but couldn’t find it on the map. Instead, we went to Schwabisch Hall. There’s supposed to be a castle there, but we never saw it. Instead, it’s a medieval town with half-timbered houses and it’s a quaint little town.
After parking, we went walking around town and first stop was a toy store. We got our friend Chell’s son his Christmas present. Chell and Chris are going to hate us. We got her son wooden toys: whistle, flute, noise maker and something else. We get to give him the toys and go home. Ain’t life beautiful? After walking through the toy store, we walked around town, in the rain. We came up on St Michael’s. We’re going to have to some research on the church. We didn’t take any pictures inside, but did get the outside. The inside was unusual. There were carvings from the 1400s, stone carvings that were much older, and a section of the floor cut away with plexi-glass and a multitude of skeletons and I’m guessing that there were more skeletons underneath the entire church. I’m really going to have to do some research on the church. The inside of the church was very gothic and made you look up to every focal point. Have you noticed a theme with all the churches around here? 90% of them are gothic churches. Nothing wrong with that.
After leaving St Michael’s, we walked around town and went to what we thought was another church. It turns out that it’s not a church, but an art museum with free admission. The paintings displayed were original works from between 1450-1575 and different German artists. Very few of these paintings were behind glass. They were out in the open for you to look, admire and maybe touch. I had to leave my bag in a locker, but that’s no biggie. In America, this wouldn’t happen. If they had an exhibit like this, all the paintings would be behind bullet proof glass and guarded by police. Around here, you walk around and see something that’s several centuries old just standing out in the open for people to look at. It’s amazing the difference in the cultures and the respect they seem to give this stuff. It’s like they see it so much that they have a different view of it than we do.
After the church and art museum, we had our first taste of German Chinese food. We’ve already had German American, *news flash: now it’s time for our happy bell ringer!* German fast food, German German, and German Mexican. Uh….German Mexican wasn’t the best; I wouldn’t recommend it, ever. German Chinese wasn’t bad. I missed the spices and the onions to be honest. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best. It was rather bland and they put some stuff in there that I’m still trying to figure out what the hell I ate. I think I ate some Chinese veggies, but I’m not 100% sure. I’m hoping to try German Japanese next week with Sabsi. So far the German German and German fast food have been the best in our opinions. I’ve liked the German German and Cliff likes the fast food.
For today to be a rainy, wet, cold, windy day and we picked a spot on the map and didn’t know where the hell we were going, it ended up being a nice day. We really enjoyed it. Eating here has been an experience, let me tell you. Driving in the Autobahn has been another experience. But I’m outta here. It’s time for supper.
Me.
Today we woke up late and it was raining. It made it so hard to get up. We debated about going to Nurnberg but it was already 9:30 and shops close at 4, so we decided to wait until Tuesday to go. We were going to go to Neunenstein castle, but couldn’t find it on the map. Instead, we went to Schwabisch Hall. There’s supposed to be a castle there, but we never saw it. Instead, it’s a medieval town with half-timbered houses and it’s a quaint little town.
After parking, we went walking around town and first stop was a toy store. We got our friend Chell’s son his Christmas present. Chell and Chris are going to hate us. We got her son wooden toys: whistle, flute, noise maker and something else. We get to give him the toys and go home. Ain’t life beautiful? After walking through the toy store, we walked around town, in the rain. We came up on St Michael’s. We’re going to have to some research on the church. We didn’t take any pictures inside, but did get the outside. The inside was unusual. There were carvings from the 1400s, stone carvings that were much older, and a section of the floor cut away with plexi-glass and a multitude of skeletons and I’m guessing that there were more skeletons underneath the entire church. I’m really going to have to do some research on the church. The inside of the church was very gothic and made you look up to every focal point. Have you noticed a theme with all the churches around here? 90% of them are gothic churches. Nothing wrong with that.
After leaving St Michael’s, we walked around town and went to what we thought was another church. It turns out that it’s not a church, but an art museum with free admission. The paintings displayed were original works from between 1450-1575 and different German artists. Very few of these paintings were behind glass. They were out in the open for you to look, admire and maybe touch. I had to leave my bag in a locker, but that’s no biggie. In America, this wouldn’t happen. If they had an exhibit like this, all the paintings would be behind bullet proof glass and guarded by police. Around here, you walk around and see something that’s several centuries old just standing out in the open for people to look at. It’s amazing the difference in the cultures and the respect they seem to give this stuff. It’s like they see it so much that they have a different view of it than we do.
After the church and art museum, we had our first taste of German Chinese food. We’ve already had German American, *news flash: now it’s time for our happy bell ringer!* German fast food, German German, and German Mexican. Uh….German Mexican wasn’t the best; I wouldn’t recommend it, ever. German Chinese wasn’t bad. I missed the spices and the onions to be honest. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best. It was rather bland and they put some stuff in there that I’m still trying to figure out what the hell I ate. I think I ate some Chinese veggies, but I’m not 100% sure. I’m hoping to try German Japanese next week with Sabsi. So far the German German and German fast food have been the best in our opinions. I’ve liked the German German and Cliff likes the fast food.
For today to be a rainy, wet, cold, windy day and we picked a spot on the map and didn’t know where the hell we were going, it ended up being a nice day. We really enjoyed it. Eating here has been an experience, let me tell you. Driving in the Autobahn has been another experience. But I’m outta here. It’s time for supper.
Me.
Day 10
Day 10
I’m still freezing my ass off. It’s about 45 degrees F here, 9.5 C. Yeah, it’s rather cold. It sucks because I *still* can’t drink hot chocolate or tea and I want some frigging hot chocolate and/or tea right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think some happy jackass gets up every day and rings the bloody church bells at 7 am. We heard them yesterday and today. The happy little fool rings them for 5 minutes. It wouldn’t be so bad if the church bells weren’t right outside our windows.
Today we got up and drove to Neuschwanstein. In the middle of a picture, our camera battery died and the back-up camera was dead. Bad day huh? At least we were able to get a panoramic and a couple of shots of the castle before it died. But this castle. My god. I don’t know how to describe it! It’s big just for the sake of being big and only one-third of it was completed over seventeen years. Mad King Louie spent less than half a year total in the castle and he was found dead in the pond a few days after the first one-third of the structure was completed. Of that one-third, maybe 10 of the rooms were completed. Mad King Louie knew how to build a castle. Good Golly. The hike to get to the castle was unbelievable. The completed rooms in the castle showed A: how crazy this guy was, B: how much he liked to spend the state’s money, C: how obsessed with Wagner he was and D: how anybody will do anything the king says do.
The room that is supposed to show tact, decorum, holiness, and spirituality ended up being a parody and really really super gaudy. No pictures were allowed in the castle, so yeah. This room was brightly painted and the end of the room that had St George slaying a dragon looked like St George killing a dinosaur. The ceiling on the other side of the room that had Jesus and his disciples made me want to go grab a Bob Marley CD and jam out to reggae music. It was odd.
His bedroom: oh my god. His bed took 4 years to make because the top of the canopy bed has a freaking gothic church. The royal toilet is really a throne. It’s a plushy green canvas throne with a hole in the middle. Cliff wants that for his bathroom at home. *groans* They had automatic flushing toilets (nice huh?) and running water in the castle in the 1870s-80s. The castle even had pipes running hot water through them warming the castle. Rather modern thinking.
After the bedroom was the living room which was also pretty gaudy. There were over 100 swans in the room so it was also called the “Swan Room”. As all rooms, it was heavily influenced by Wagner and because King Louie was trying to save money, he didn’t have tapestries for his walls. He had hand painted canvases hung on the walls. It’s good to be the king. 10 pts if you can tell me where that comes from.
After that comes the man-made cave that was based on yet another Wagner opera. This nice American lady was asking another tour guide if was a real cave and she was nice and said no, it’s man-made. Then nice American lady said but it’s based on the opera from Wagner right? Wagner with a w sound, not v sound. I could have died. Cliff muttered it’s Vahgner you retard. You’d think that someone who is traveling Europe, going to this castle would at least have the knowledge that it’s not Wagner, it’s Vahgner. The tour guide has been pronouncing it right from the very beginning and this lady made a complete ass of herself and said it the American way. I could have died.
Last finished room we toured was the music hall. Nothing but Wagner influenced and each painted scene was based on a scene from another opera. This dude *really* loved him some Wagner. Geeze Louise. Sadly, Konig (King) Louie didn’t live to hear any music in this hall. It was completed the day after he died. It was the story of one of King Arthur’s knights and very well done. The acoustics in the place must be amazing. I’d love to be able to go hear some Wagner or chamber music played in that hall.
Over all, it was a rather nice day. Colder than hell. I think this would be the downfall for me living over here. They’re giving snow for higher altitudes this weekend. WTF???????? It’s only 8, but I think I’m gonna curl up with a blanket and a book and read for a while. Later!
Me.
I’m still freezing my ass off. It’s about 45 degrees F here, 9.5 C. Yeah, it’s rather cold. It sucks because I *still* can’t drink hot chocolate or tea and I want some frigging hot chocolate and/or tea right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think some happy jackass gets up every day and rings the bloody church bells at 7 am. We heard them yesterday and today. The happy little fool rings them for 5 minutes. It wouldn’t be so bad if the church bells weren’t right outside our windows.
Today we got up and drove to Neuschwanstein. In the middle of a picture, our camera battery died and the back-up camera was dead. Bad day huh? At least we were able to get a panoramic and a couple of shots of the castle before it died. But this castle. My god. I don’t know how to describe it! It’s big just for the sake of being big and only one-third of it was completed over seventeen years. Mad King Louie spent less than half a year total in the castle and he was found dead in the pond a few days after the first one-third of the structure was completed. Of that one-third, maybe 10 of the rooms were completed. Mad King Louie knew how to build a castle. Good Golly. The hike to get to the castle was unbelievable. The completed rooms in the castle showed A: how crazy this guy was, B: how much he liked to spend the state’s money, C: how obsessed with Wagner he was and D: how anybody will do anything the king says do.
The room that is supposed to show tact, decorum, holiness, and spirituality ended up being a parody and really really super gaudy. No pictures were allowed in the castle, so yeah. This room was brightly painted and the end of the room that had St George slaying a dragon looked like St George killing a dinosaur. The ceiling on the other side of the room that had Jesus and his disciples made me want to go grab a Bob Marley CD and jam out to reggae music. It was odd.
His bedroom: oh my god. His bed took 4 years to make because the top of the canopy bed has a freaking gothic church. The royal toilet is really a throne. It’s a plushy green canvas throne with a hole in the middle. Cliff wants that for his bathroom at home. *groans* They had automatic flushing toilets (nice huh?) and running water in the castle in the 1870s-80s. The castle even had pipes running hot water through them warming the castle. Rather modern thinking.
After the bedroom was the living room which was also pretty gaudy. There were over 100 swans in the room so it was also called the “Swan Room”. As all rooms, it was heavily influenced by Wagner and because King Louie was trying to save money, he didn’t have tapestries for his walls. He had hand painted canvases hung on the walls. It’s good to be the king. 10 pts if you can tell me where that comes from.
After that comes the man-made cave that was based on yet another Wagner opera. This nice American lady was asking another tour guide if was a real cave and she was nice and said no, it’s man-made. Then nice American lady said but it’s based on the opera from Wagner right? Wagner with a w sound, not v sound. I could have died. Cliff muttered it’s Vahgner you retard. You’d think that someone who is traveling Europe, going to this castle would at least have the knowledge that it’s not Wagner, it’s Vahgner. The tour guide has been pronouncing it right from the very beginning and this lady made a complete ass of herself and said it the American way. I could have died.
Last finished room we toured was the music hall. Nothing but Wagner influenced and each painted scene was based on a scene from another opera. This dude *really* loved him some Wagner. Geeze Louise. Sadly, Konig (King) Louie didn’t live to hear any music in this hall. It was completed the day after he died. It was the story of one of King Arthur’s knights and very well done. The acoustics in the place must be amazing. I’d love to be able to go hear some Wagner or chamber music played in that hall.
Over all, it was a rather nice day. Colder than hell. I think this would be the downfall for me living over here. They’re giving snow for higher altitudes this weekend. WTF???????? It’s only 8, but I think I’m gonna curl up with a blanket and a book and read for a while. Later!
Me.
Day 9
Day 9
I’m sitting here drinking my glass of wine and enjoying the feel of the castle. Cliff and I had to get up early this morning for breakfast with the baron, his wife and fellow castle guests. We got up early and explored our quarters and common room a little bit. Downstairs is a full suit of armor, bear skin rug, internet, TV, radio, and a place just to chill. It’s kind of nice. We went to eat breakfast with the baron and his wife and their dining room is just amazing. Let me break for a moment and talk about Moritz. Moritz is their dog and he’s a loud dog but super friendly. You pet him behind the ears and I think you have a friend for life. I do believe that a child could put a saddle on him and ride him as a horse. He sat beside me and his head was up to my chest. Big, but friendly, dog. Cliff and I were afraid to sit down in the chairs. I swear to god this entire castle is done in antiques and they’re used every day. I’m so afraid that I’m going to break something y’know? But breakfast was water for me, seeing as that’s all I can drink at the moment, grapes, pineapple (ew), fresh rolls (yummy!) and scrambled eggs with spices and tomatoes. The two other couples that are here are really nice. One couple is from CT and the other is from FL. We had a lovely breakfast and the baron talked to us and told us some of the places to go that were rather inexpensive to eat and that tourists hadn’t found yet.
I do believe that our getting lost is going to be infamous around here. We were told that we need to make sure we have the right Sommersdorf plugged into the GPS and that the castle gates close at 7 and don’t let anybody else in. lol But we had a nice breakfast. After breakfast, we walked down to the town. It was about 50 F and windy (cold right?) but they said it’s still warm and would be getting colder in the next few days. I’m gunna die. I swear. I’m gonna D-I-E. After walking through town, we went to Ansbach. Ansbach is about 15 minutes away from where we’re staying and has a nice market square. We went to a couple of churches and a palace. The palace wasn’t all that, but it was a nice little walk through. You could get a guided tour, but we really weren’t up for the guided tour. I think we’ve had just about enough of guided tours. The churches we went through were the two Catholic churches in town. The façade of one couldn’t decide if it wanted to be Gothic, Renaissance, or Louis XIV. Going inside, it was a bit of all three, but it actually worked well together. The other church we went inside was gothic on the outside and rather plain on the inside. It was still a gothic church, but just lacked the grandeur on the inside.
After Ansbach, we went to the town right outside Sommersdorf and went to the grocery store. I always forget about the European grocery. You have to bring your own bag or pay for a bag (makes sense to me), they’re rather small (guess I’ve been shopping at Publix too long), and for certain things (meat, cheese, bread) you really have to go to a specialized store to get the good stuff. But we’re only here a few days so I think we have enough to get us by. We’re back at the castle and I think we’re going to stay here for the rest of the night. I’m freezing my happy little Florida butt off so I’m going to pour myself another glass of wine and curl up in a blanket and read my e-books. Tomorrow we’re going to Neuschwanstein castle. Everybody knows this castle even if you don’t think you know it, thanks to Disney. It’s the castle Cinderella’s castle at Disney World is based on. So I’m going to get warm, maybe turn up the radiator (I MISS MY ELECTRIC BLANKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and get my fuzzy blanket.
Cheers!
Me
I’m sitting here drinking my glass of wine and enjoying the feel of the castle. Cliff and I had to get up early this morning for breakfast with the baron, his wife and fellow castle guests. We got up early and explored our quarters and common room a little bit. Downstairs is a full suit of armor, bear skin rug, internet, TV, radio, and a place just to chill. It’s kind of nice. We went to eat breakfast with the baron and his wife and their dining room is just amazing. Let me break for a moment and talk about Moritz. Moritz is their dog and he’s a loud dog but super friendly. You pet him behind the ears and I think you have a friend for life. I do believe that a child could put a saddle on him and ride him as a horse. He sat beside me and his head was up to my chest. Big, but friendly, dog. Cliff and I were afraid to sit down in the chairs. I swear to god this entire castle is done in antiques and they’re used every day. I’m so afraid that I’m going to break something y’know? But breakfast was water for me, seeing as that’s all I can drink at the moment, grapes, pineapple (ew), fresh rolls (yummy!) and scrambled eggs with spices and tomatoes. The two other couples that are here are really nice. One couple is from CT and the other is from FL. We had a lovely breakfast and the baron talked to us and told us some of the places to go that were rather inexpensive to eat and that tourists hadn’t found yet.
I do believe that our getting lost is going to be infamous around here. We were told that we need to make sure we have the right Sommersdorf plugged into the GPS and that the castle gates close at 7 and don’t let anybody else in. lol But we had a nice breakfast. After breakfast, we walked down to the town. It was about 50 F and windy (cold right?) but they said it’s still warm and would be getting colder in the next few days. I’m gunna die. I swear. I’m gonna D-I-E. After walking through town, we went to Ansbach. Ansbach is about 15 minutes away from where we’re staying and has a nice market square. We went to a couple of churches and a palace. The palace wasn’t all that, but it was a nice little walk through. You could get a guided tour, but we really weren’t up for the guided tour. I think we’ve had just about enough of guided tours. The churches we went through were the two Catholic churches in town. The façade of one couldn’t decide if it wanted to be Gothic, Renaissance, or Louis XIV. Going inside, it was a bit of all three, but it actually worked well together. The other church we went inside was gothic on the outside and rather plain on the inside. It was still a gothic church, but just lacked the grandeur on the inside.
After Ansbach, we went to the town right outside Sommersdorf and went to the grocery store. I always forget about the European grocery. You have to bring your own bag or pay for a bag (makes sense to me), they’re rather small (guess I’ve been shopping at Publix too long), and for certain things (meat, cheese, bread) you really have to go to a specialized store to get the good stuff. But we’re only here a few days so I think we have enough to get us by. We’re back at the castle and I think we’re going to stay here for the rest of the night. I’m freezing my happy little Florida butt off so I’m going to pour myself another glass of wine and curl up in a blanket and read my e-books. Tomorrow we’re going to Neuschwanstein castle. Everybody knows this castle even if you don’t think you know it, thanks to Disney. It’s the castle Cinderella’s castle at Disney World is based on. So I’m going to get warm, maybe turn up the radiator (I MISS MY ELECTRIC BLANKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and get my fuzzy blanket.
Cheers!
Me
Day 8
Day 8
Today we left the Rhein Valley to head to Bavaria. Okay. It started out cold; that bone chilling cold that gets deep into the bones and won’t let up. We made it to the Mainz station and stopped for lunch at McDonald’s. Cliff stayed with the bags and I went to order the food. There were several police ordering food and the door opened, let in a brisk breeze and I shivered said damn it’s cold and would you believe that the police LAUGHED at me?????????????? Yes. They laughed at me. Apparently it wasn’t all that cold to them. My god, it was windy and about 12 C (54 F). Over here at McDonald’s, Pommes (fries) are our normal fries served with ketchup. American Fries are thicker, have spices and are served with sour cream. They’re actually better than our fries.
After the Mainz train station, we take the ICE (Inner City Express) trains to the last city on the stop to get the rental car. I was totally expecting a Ford Escort or something. Nope, we got an Audi. Hells yes. There was one problem with getting from the car rental place to the actual castle. Our tour group forgot to include directions and the car rental was nice enough to actually give us the GPS for free. Thank God. So we dinked around for about 20 minutes trying to find the right Sommersdorf and there are about 8 of them. The map had us going and said it would take about 2 hours. Okay. We get on the A-6 and little do we know that it’s actually the Autobahn. People keep passing us doing about 130Km. Cliff and I are wondering what the bloody hell and can’t figure out what’s going on. We’re starting to get a little worried when 3 comes and goes. We’re supposed to be at the castle by 3 mind you. So we stop at a pay phone and it doesn’t take money. We go through these towns and find a pay phone that takes money. Nobody answers. Okay. We keep going. We go over the hills and through the woods and see some of the prettiest German country side we’ve seen. We see the leaves changing, valleys, etc. It’s beautiful. It’s quite lovely. Finally, we pull into Sommersdorf and look for the castle. There ain’t no castle. In fact, there are only about 20 houses. We’re thinking oh my god. So we finally find a city that’s close to where we need to be and plug it into the navigation. Apparently we were about 2.5 hours south of where we needed to be. We drive back and we’re worried by this time. We pull into this grocery store and nobody speaks much English. This nice lady allowed me to use her mobile to call our hosts and thankfully they were still up and told us to come on to the castle and not worry about the time. Yay! About 4 hours into driving, we notice that people are still driving like bats out of hell on the A-6 and we’re looking at each other and say “We must be on the Autobahn”. Great. Leave it to us to learn to drive in GERMANY ON THE AUTOBAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We drove through Nurnberg which was a nice little town. We’re going to go there Saturday.
Finally, about 9 pm, we pull into Sommersdorf, the right one this time thank God, and see the castle. It’s really a really beautiful castle at night, all light up and the light on the castle, moat, etc. We ring the Baron at the gate and he has to let us in. It’s a private castle and there are signs all around to let you know that. He greeted us with homemade apple strudel. I tried it and it tasted like metal thanks to the medicine I’m taking but my god it was good. (-: The room we have. We’re in a castle that dates back to before the 1500s. There are what I guess are original pieces of art on the walls, original valuable rugs on the floors, antique furniture in the rooms, china plates. It’s pretty swanky. But the bathroom has powder blue accessories. I’m so going to be taking pictures. The Baron is as nice as he can be; he even remembered I’m a vegetarian for the breakfast we have to go to tomorrow and asked if I’m a vegan. So, after all that driving, getting lost etc., I’m beat. I’m going to crawl into my bed. Speaking of beds, the Germans are weird. They don’t have full size mattresses. The mattresses are twin sizes and you only have a quilt and the fitted sheet. It’s odd. I never thought I’d say this, but I really miss my bed and pillow. But I’m headed to bed. Cheers.
Me
Today we left the Rhein Valley to head to Bavaria. Okay. It started out cold; that bone chilling cold that gets deep into the bones and won’t let up. We made it to the Mainz station and stopped for lunch at McDonald’s. Cliff stayed with the bags and I went to order the food. There were several police ordering food and the door opened, let in a brisk breeze and I shivered said damn it’s cold and would you believe that the police LAUGHED at me?????????????? Yes. They laughed at me. Apparently it wasn’t all that cold to them. My god, it was windy and about 12 C (54 F). Over here at McDonald’s, Pommes (fries) are our normal fries served with ketchup. American Fries are thicker, have spices and are served with sour cream. They’re actually better than our fries.
After the Mainz train station, we take the ICE (Inner City Express) trains to the last city on the stop to get the rental car. I was totally expecting a Ford Escort or something. Nope, we got an Audi. Hells yes. There was one problem with getting from the car rental place to the actual castle. Our tour group forgot to include directions and the car rental was nice enough to actually give us the GPS for free. Thank God. So we dinked around for about 20 minutes trying to find the right Sommersdorf and there are about 8 of them. The map had us going and said it would take about 2 hours. Okay. We get on the A-6 and little do we know that it’s actually the Autobahn. People keep passing us doing about 130Km. Cliff and I are wondering what the bloody hell and can’t figure out what’s going on. We’re starting to get a little worried when 3 comes and goes. We’re supposed to be at the castle by 3 mind you. So we stop at a pay phone and it doesn’t take money. We go through these towns and find a pay phone that takes money. Nobody answers. Okay. We keep going. We go over the hills and through the woods and see some of the prettiest German country side we’ve seen. We see the leaves changing, valleys, etc. It’s beautiful. It’s quite lovely. Finally, we pull into Sommersdorf and look for the castle. There ain’t no castle. In fact, there are only about 20 houses. We’re thinking oh my god. So we finally find a city that’s close to where we need to be and plug it into the navigation. Apparently we were about 2.5 hours south of where we needed to be. We drive back and we’re worried by this time. We pull into this grocery store and nobody speaks much English. This nice lady allowed me to use her mobile to call our hosts and thankfully they were still up and told us to come on to the castle and not worry about the time. Yay! About 4 hours into driving, we notice that people are still driving like bats out of hell on the A-6 and we’re looking at each other and say “We must be on the Autobahn”. Great. Leave it to us to learn to drive in GERMANY ON THE AUTOBAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We drove through Nurnberg which was a nice little town. We’re going to go there Saturday.
Finally, about 9 pm, we pull into Sommersdorf, the right one this time thank God, and see the castle. It’s really a really beautiful castle at night, all light up and the light on the castle, moat, etc. We ring the Baron at the gate and he has to let us in. It’s a private castle and there are signs all around to let you know that. He greeted us with homemade apple strudel. I tried it and it tasted like metal thanks to the medicine I’m taking but my god it was good. (-: The room we have. We’re in a castle that dates back to before the 1500s. There are what I guess are original pieces of art on the walls, original valuable rugs on the floors, antique furniture in the rooms, china plates. It’s pretty swanky. But the bathroom has powder blue accessories. I’m so going to be taking pictures. The Baron is as nice as he can be; he even remembered I’m a vegetarian for the breakfast we have to go to tomorrow and asked if I’m a vegan. So, after all that driving, getting lost etc., I’m beat. I’m going to crawl into my bed. Speaking of beds, the Germans are weird. They don’t have full size mattresses. The mattresses are twin sizes and you only have a quilt and the fitted sheet. It’s odd. I never thought I’d say this, but I really miss my bed and pillow. But I’m headed to bed. Cheers.
Me
Day 7
Day 7
Today we went to Marksburg. It’s the only castle on the Rhein that was never destroyed. Getting to the castle is feat in and of itself. It’s about a 30 minute hike uphill. Yeah, I made it but dear God I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I thought I was going to die. To make matters worse, I started getting a migraine about halfway up and it wasn’t fun. The scenery getting up the hill wasn’t bad and luckily they had benches strategically placed so the unfit could stop and rest occasionally.
After we finally got to Marksburg, we went to the restaurant and ate lunch. Cliff got bratwurst mit pommes and I got a noodle with sauce and veggie dish that was really good. After lunch, we went and bought tickets for our guided tour and I found out that Cliff really can’t understand the Germans speaking English. He has some sort of block against them. Our tour was for 1:55 and he said it was for 3:55. So, from now on, I’m dealing with all the shop keepers, etc. Cliff is not dealing with anybody over here. Oy .
Marksburg was a pretty impressive castle. We went through various rooms of the castle and because it’s a German only tour, we had our little guide book in English (lovely) and stuck out like a sore thumb. This lovely, lovely German tourist was oh so lovely and was a complete and utter bitch when it came to getting her pictures. She was going to get that picture and everybody else be damned. She actually pushed us out of the way to get a couple of shots. Mein Gott! The best room, in my opinion, was the wine cellar. Yeah, I know. I’m a lush. But hey, it was the wine cellar. Go up a floor and they had the original wine press. What more can you ask for? Cliff liked the torture dungeon. I wanted to see some demonstrations and was going to offer Cliff as an example, but he wouldn’t let me. The castle itself isn’t as impressive as some of the other castles that we’ve seen, but I guess because it’s the only castle not to be destroyed that’s pretty impressive. The only damage done to the castle was from WWII artillery shots from the US. Nice huh?
On the way back from Marksburg, we ran into our tour guide and said bye. She’s such a nice lady. Again, *much* nicer than the lady from Rome. I’m getting the feeling she didn’t have a couple of biddies to contend with like the lady from Rome had. But I stopped at the store and got a bottle of eiswine. Yay! I’m so happy. That’s something you can’t really get back home and it’s only for special occasions. I’m going to order a *good* bottle when I get paid again.
Right now, my legs are killing me from that hike. So I think I’m gonna just lay down and curl up in a blanket. We still haven’t figured out how to work the heating in the living room. Who uses radiators for heating these days??? I’m outta here! Cheers!
Me.
Today we went to Marksburg. It’s the only castle on the Rhein that was never destroyed. Getting to the castle is feat in and of itself. It’s about a 30 minute hike uphill. Yeah, I made it but dear God I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I thought I was going to die. To make matters worse, I started getting a migraine about halfway up and it wasn’t fun. The scenery getting up the hill wasn’t bad and luckily they had benches strategically placed so the unfit could stop and rest occasionally.
After we finally got to Marksburg, we went to the restaurant and ate lunch. Cliff got bratwurst mit pommes and I got a noodle with sauce and veggie dish that was really good. After lunch, we went and bought tickets for our guided tour and I found out that Cliff really can’t understand the Germans speaking English. He has some sort of block against them. Our tour was for 1:55 and he said it was for 3:55. So, from now on, I’m dealing with all the shop keepers, etc. Cliff is not dealing with anybody over here. Oy .
Marksburg was a pretty impressive castle. We went through various rooms of the castle and because it’s a German only tour, we had our little guide book in English (lovely) and stuck out like a sore thumb. This lovely, lovely German tourist was oh so lovely and was a complete and utter bitch when it came to getting her pictures. She was going to get that picture and everybody else be damned. She actually pushed us out of the way to get a couple of shots. Mein Gott! The best room, in my opinion, was the wine cellar. Yeah, I know. I’m a lush. But hey, it was the wine cellar. Go up a floor and they had the original wine press. What more can you ask for? Cliff liked the torture dungeon. I wanted to see some demonstrations and was going to offer Cliff as an example, but he wouldn’t let me. The castle itself isn’t as impressive as some of the other castles that we’ve seen, but I guess because it’s the only castle not to be destroyed that’s pretty impressive. The only damage done to the castle was from WWII artillery shots from the US. Nice huh?
On the way back from Marksburg, we ran into our tour guide and said bye. She’s such a nice lady. Again, *much* nicer than the lady from Rome. I’m getting the feeling she didn’t have a couple of biddies to contend with like the lady from Rome had. But I stopped at the store and got a bottle of eiswine. Yay! I’m so happy. That’s something you can’t really get back home and it’s only for special occasions. I’m going to order a *good* bottle when I get paid again.
Right now, my legs are killing me from that hike. So I think I’m gonna just lay down and curl up in a blanket. We still haven’t figured out how to work the heating in the living room. Who uses radiators for heating these days??? I’m outta here! Cheers!
Me.
Day 5
Day 5
Day 5 and we still have no internet. I’m over here and I’m fucking freezing. OMG. Cliff’s answer: It’s nice, enjoy it and shut up. Okay. Enough of that. In the house it’s 17 degrees Celsius and I can’t remember my conversions but I KNOW IT’S COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a down blanket so I think I’ll be okay. Maybe. If I don’t make it home, just know I froze to death in Germany. ‘k? Hold a memorial service for me and donate blankets to the American Tourists in Germany in my memory.
Today we went to Mainz. Mainz is the home of Johannes Gutenberg. All I wanted to do was go to the Gutenberg museum. Cliff indulged me and went. Yay. That made me happy. He told me that he views our trips to Europe as day spa trips and any day he doesn’t spend walking is a day wasted. We had no idea where we were going , so we hit a book store to see if we could find a map. Luckily, we found a walking map of Mainz in English. Talking about luck. We bought it and went all over the city. I got to see my museum and Bibles that Gutenberg himself printed on his first printing press. Talk about history? These Bibles are in a special room with so much security. At night, I think they drop the room down into the floor so that they’re not even stolen. Wow. Also in the museum, I saw some early prints of “Canterbury Tales”, “Paradise Lost” some of Martin Luther’s early works and other works. For any history buff, it was really cool. But to me, the Bibles were the best. Attached to the museum was an exhibit of Asian print work as well. We saw some printings from the Chinese in the 13th century. Again, for the history buff, it kicked much ass. For the non-history buff, it may have been pretty boring. It’s amazing to me that Gutenberg is credited with the whole printing and stuff, but the Chinese were doing it much earlier than Gutenberg.
After the museum, we went to The Cathedral. It wasn’t as impressive as Koln, but it was impressive nonetheless. Cliff was a good little monkey and took off his hat in all the churches. He told me he was raised Southern, he knows what to do. Go figure. We’ve got some pictures of all the churches. This was another Gothic church and the carvings were just as nice and everything as Koln, but on a lesser scale. All these places are so hard to describe unless you’re actually there. The last church we went to…this is the only way I can describe it. I felt like I needed a slot machine and a bucket of quarters. It was so Vegas. It’s pretty recent, built in 1748. The façade is Gothic and the interior is almost like Renaissance but super gaudy. Really, it’s G-A-U-D-Y. Gold everywhere, pink columns, cherubs, etc. The pictures we too make it seem much classier than it really is. But it was truly an experience that I don’t think I’d give up.
For supper, we at in a little mom & pop owned restaurant. I had the German version of pizza and it was based on true Italian pizza. It was really good. Cliff had the German version of lasagna. Um, I don’t think they’ve got it down pat yet. He said it was 2 noodles, soupy cheese on one side and meat on the other. But that it was pretty good. After supper we went exploring. We finally made it to the store under the place where we’re staying. The place serves as a Christmas store and a wine store. We tried peach brandy (OMG SO GOOD!) eisweiss (oh. My. God. Even better than the peach brandy) and a few other drinks. We ended up buying the peach brandy, apple winter, blackberry and strawberry. We got little travel/trial sizes so we can take them home. The GOOD thing: they ship to America. Woo Hoo! So now I can get the cheap Eisweiss to take home and let people try and get the good stuff for me. Hehe Eisweiss is so nice and smooth. Cliff, who is not a wine drinker, liked it. It’s just so expensive though. Even the cheap stuff is about 25 Euros for a small bottle and that’s about 30$. The good stuff is 70 Euros and that’s about 80$. Eisweiss is wine made from the frozen grape and one bottle takes about 65 lbs of grapes to make. But, I’m about to break out the Riesling and have a glass or two before bed. Cheers!
Me
Day 5 and we still have no internet. I’m over here and I’m fucking freezing. OMG. Cliff’s answer: It’s nice, enjoy it and shut up. Okay. Enough of that. In the house it’s 17 degrees Celsius and I can’t remember my conversions but I KNOW IT’S COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a down blanket so I think I’ll be okay. Maybe. If I don’t make it home, just know I froze to death in Germany. ‘k? Hold a memorial service for me and donate blankets to the American Tourists in Germany in my memory.
Today we went to Mainz. Mainz is the home of Johannes Gutenberg. All I wanted to do was go to the Gutenberg museum. Cliff indulged me and went. Yay. That made me happy. He told me that he views our trips to Europe as day spa trips and any day he doesn’t spend walking is a day wasted. We had no idea where we were going , so we hit a book store to see if we could find a map. Luckily, we found a walking map of Mainz in English. Talking about luck. We bought it and went all over the city. I got to see my museum and Bibles that Gutenberg himself printed on his first printing press. Talk about history? These Bibles are in a special room with so much security. At night, I think they drop the room down into the floor so that they’re not even stolen. Wow. Also in the museum, I saw some early prints of “Canterbury Tales”, “Paradise Lost” some of Martin Luther’s early works and other works. For any history buff, it was really cool. But to me, the Bibles were the best. Attached to the museum was an exhibit of Asian print work as well. We saw some printings from the Chinese in the 13th century. Again, for the history buff, it kicked much ass. For the non-history buff, it may have been pretty boring. It’s amazing to me that Gutenberg is credited with the whole printing and stuff, but the Chinese were doing it much earlier than Gutenberg.
After the museum, we went to The Cathedral. It wasn’t as impressive as Koln, but it was impressive nonetheless. Cliff was a good little monkey and took off his hat in all the churches. He told me he was raised Southern, he knows what to do. Go figure. We’ve got some pictures of all the churches. This was another Gothic church and the carvings were just as nice and everything as Koln, but on a lesser scale. All these places are so hard to describe unless you’re actually there. The last church we went to…this is the only way I can describe it. I felt like I needed a slot machine and a bucket of quarters. It was so Vegas. It’s pretty recent, built in 1748. The façade is Gothic and the interior is almost like Renaissance but super gaudy. Really, it’s G-A-U-D-Y. Gold everywhere, pink columns, cherubs, etc. The pictures we too make it seem much classier than it really is. But it was truly an experience that I don’t think I’d give up.
For supper, we at in a little mom & pop owned restaurant. I had the German version of pizza and it was based on true Italian pizza. It was really good. Cliff had the German version of lasagna. Um, I don’t think they’ve got it down pat yet. He said it was 2 noodles, soupy cheese on one side and meat on the other. But that it was pretty good. After supper we went exploring. We finally made it to the store under the place where we’re staying. The place serves as a Christmas store and a wine store. We tried peach brandy (OMG SO GOOD!) eisweiss (oh. My. God. Even better than the peach brandy) and a few other drinks. We ended up buying the peach brandy, apple winter, blackberry and strawberry. We got little travel/trial sizes so we can take them home. The GOOD thing: they ship to America. Woo Hoo! So now I can get the cheap Eisweiss to take home and let people try and get the good stuff for me. Hehe Eisweiss is so nice and smooth. Cliff, who is not a wine drinker, liked it. It’s just so expensive though. Even the cheap stuff is about 25 Euros for a small bottle and that’s about 30$. The good stuff is 70 Euros and that’s about 80$. Eisweiss is wine made from the frozen grape and one bottle takes about 65 lbs of grapes to make. But, I’m about to break out the Riesling and have a glass or two before bed. Cheers!
Me
Day 4
Day 4
Today we went to Koln. Cliff wanted to go here for Koln Cathedral. I tagged along because A: I’m in Germany, B: it’s a church and C: it’s Koln. Yes, I’m spelling it right :-) Germans spell it Koln, um I can’t figure out how to put the umlauts on the “o” but they spell it Koln, not Cologne. So we get off the DB (train) and walk out of the station. Right outside the station is the Koln Cathedral. Yeah, it’s a pretty freaking big cathedral. It’s this huge monstrosity of a church and totally Gothic. We walked and got pictures, and of course Cliff had to have me stand next to a door so he could get a scale picture. Go figure. While we’re there, we see a few tourists and now we know *why* stereotypes are sometimes true. I’ll just say this: the Japanese love their cameras and taking pictures.
We went through the cathedral museum and looked at some of the treasures of the church. It’s very interesting. The older the artifacts, the more ornate and more just out there. Does the archbishop really need a sword that’s decorated in precious stones and metals? But as the church got less popular I guess, crusades became less profitable and exploring was lessening, the jewelry, clothing, and props became much less ornate. It was a most interesting progression. Also, they had the shrine to the magi. Even though I’m not Catholic, I felt that I needed to bend down and cross myself. Don’t ask me why. I just felt the need to do so. In another room in the museum, we saw a supposed nail from the cross and several bones from saints. Those were kind of cool.
Back to Koln Cathedral. My dad joked around that he was worried that Cliff and I would end up on Warsaw and he’d get an e-mail: “Daddy, how do you get from Warsaw to Berlin”. Nah, that didn’t happen. But, we did run into a biker rally in Koln. We’re coming around the cathedral trying to find the door to get in and there are hundreds of bikers. Cliff and I are thinking omg what’s going on. Everybody had warned us about the pick-pockets and we knew that these were the last people you wanted to pick-pocket, so we felt pretty safe. We finally found the door to go in so we went inside the church. It turns out that inside the church was a special mass to bless the bikers on their journey. They had gathered at the church for a charity event headed by the priest at the cathedral. They rode from the church to another place and it was all for charity. Want to talk about being somewhere at the right time? All these bikers in Koln Cathedral for a special mass blessing their trip. That was pretty neat. After mass, we walked around the church. The builders of the church knew what they were doing. You had to look to the ceiling and admire the view. The church was just freaking gorgeous. The ceilings are so high and just lovely. The sculptures, stained glass, organ, everything is so gothic in style and just wonderful.
After the church, we wandered around Koln for a while. We visited the outdoor mall. We both liked the concept of the outdoor mall. They even had a Lego store! YAY! I didn’t go in cause it was so crowded. But walking around, we found a couple of other churches. One of the churches we went in was a working church and pretty. The original stained glass windows from the 1400s were destroyed in WWII. So sad. Ate lunch at Hard Rock Café. That’s becoming a tradition with us. Eating lunch at HRC and getting a t-shirt and shot glass. Cliff gets the shirt, I get the shot glass. After that, we came home and just chilled the rest of the night. On that note, I’m going to bed. Cheers!
Me
Today we went to Koln. Cliff wanted to go here for Koln Cathedral. I tagged along because A: I’m in Germany, B: it’s a church and C: it’s Koln. Yes, I’m spelling it right :-) Germans spell it Koln, um I can’t figure out how to put the umlauts on the “o” but they spell it Koln, not Cologne. So we get off the DB (train) and walk out of the station. Right outside the station is the Koln Cathedral. Yeah, it’s a pretty freaking big cathedral. It’s this huge monstrosity of a church and totally Gothic. We walked and got pictures, and of course Cliff had to have me stand next to a door so he could get a scale picture. Go figure. While we’re there, we see a few tourists and now we know *why* stereotypes are sometimes true. I’ll just say this: the Japanese love their cameras and taking pictures.
We went through the cathedral museum and looked at some of the treasures of the church. It’s very interesting. The older the artifacts, the more ornate and more just out there. Does the archbishop really need a sword that’s decorated in precious stones and metals? But as the church got less popular I guess, crusades became less profitable and exploring was lessening, the jewelry, clothing, and props became much less ornate. It was a most interesting progression. Also, they had the shrine to the magi. Even though I’m not Catholic, I felt that I needed to bend down and cross myself. Don’t ask me why. I just felt the need to do so. In another room in the museum, we saw a supposed nail from the cross and several bones from saints. Those were kind of cool.
Back to Koln Cathedral. My dad joked around that he was worried that Cliff and I would end up on Warsaw and he’d get an e-mail: “Daddy, how do you get from Warsaw to Berlin”. Nah, that didn’t happen. But, we did run into a biker rally in Koln. We’re coming around the cathedral trying to find the door to get in and there are hundreds of bikers. Cliff and I are thinking omg what’s going on. Everybody had warned us about the pick-pockets and we knew that these were the last people you wanted to pick-pocket, so we felt pretty safe. We finally found the door to go in so we went inside the church. It turns out that inside the church was a special mass to bless the bikers on their journey. They had gathered at the church for a charity event headed by the priest at the cathedral. They rode from the church to another place and it was all for charity. Want to talk about being somewhere at the right time? All these bikers in Koln Cathedral for a special mass blessing their trip. That was pretty neat. After mass, we walked around the church. The builders of the church knew what they were doing. You had to look to the ceiling and admire the view. The church was just freaking gorgeous. The ceilings are so high and just lovely. The sculptures, stained glass, organ, everything is so gothic in style and just wonderful.
After the church, we wandered around Koln for a while. We visited the outdoor mall. We both liked the concept of the outdoor mall. They even had a Lego store! YAY! I didn’t go in cause it was so crowded. But walking around, we found a couple of other churches. One of the churches we went in was a working church and pretty. The original stained glass windows from the 1400s were destroyed in WWII. So sad. Ate lunch at Hard Rock Café. That’s becoming a tradition with us. Eating lunch at HRC and getting a t-shirt and shot glass. Cliff gets the shirt, I get the shot glass. After that, we came home and just chilled the rest of the night. On that note, I’m going to bed. Cheers!
Me
Day 3
I’m sitting here in my apartment with the window open (it’s about 55 degrees and I’m *freezing*!) listening to the Rhein (yeah, I spelled it right) River and the boats going up the Rhein. It’s so peaceful. I think I could live here. All I really need right now is my cat and my cup of tea and I’d be a happy girl. A very happy girl.
Today we took a sight-seeing tour to Cochem and it was rather nice. Oh, it was so nice. There were 7 people in the tour and we walked all around town, walked up to the castle, but didn’t tour it, and had lunch. I got to try fedderweissen or however the hell you spell it. Oh my god. It’s only available this time of year when the wine is still fermenting and it’s damn good. Too bad I can’t bring it back home with me. It’s not sealed because it’s still fermenting and because it’s not sealed, you can’t bring it home. It’s also a buy now drink now kind of wine. But damn, it’s good. Back to Cochem. Cochem is a nice quaint little town on die Mosel River. It’s very touristy but still laid back. The castle there is gorgeous but Cliff and I didn’t take a tour. The reason we didn’t take a tour is because it’s a guided tour and we like to go at our own pace and wander all over. The food here is out of this world. They don’t play around with the food. I got a veggie plate and it was broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and carrots over a plate of rice. It was freaking HUGE! Cliff got potatoes, side salad and schnitzel. We still can’t figure out what the hell schnitzel is. But we’ll find out.
I have made a new friend over here. Yay! I just have to remember to look her up on FB when I finally get internet access. It’s the contact lady for Untours and she’s been super nice and helpful. But I’m outa here. All this walking around has made me super tired. I think we’ve walked as much if not more than Rome.
Me.
Today we took a sight-seeing tour to Cochem and it was rather nice. Oh, it was so nice. There were 7 people in the tour and we walked all around town, walked up to the castle, but didn’t tour it, and had lunch. I got to try fedderweissen or however the hell you spell it. Oh my god. It’s only available this time of year when the wine is still fermenting and it’s damn good. Too bad I can’t bring it back home with me. It’s not sealed because it’s still fermenting and because it’s not sealed, you can’t bring it home. It’s also a buy now drink now kind of wine. But damn, it’s good. Back to Cochem. Cochem is a nice quaint little town on die Mosel River. It’s very touristy but still laid back. The castle there is gorgeous but Cliff and I didn’t take a tour. The reason we didn’t take a tour is because it’s a guided tour and we like to go at our own pace and wander all over. The food here is out of this world. They don’t play around with the food. I got a veggie plate and it was broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and carrots over a plate of rice. It was freaking HUGE! Cliff got potatoes, side salad and schnitzel. We still can’t figure out what the hell schnitzel is. But we’ll find out.
I have made a new friend over here. Yay! I just have to remember to look her up on FB when I finally get internet access. It’s the contact lady for Untours and she’s been super nice and helpful. But I’m outa here. All this walking around has made me super tired. I think we’ve walked as much if not more than Rome.
Me.
Day 2
Today, we had orientation and our contact lady is so nice. Tracy is much nicer than the lady from Rome. Orientation was supposed to last an hr and a half; it ended up lasting over 2 hours. One of the couples cancelled their trip to Germany due to family problems so there are only 4 people over here right now. After orientation, we all ended up eating lunch together. I had tomato soup with bread and it was almost as good as mom’s. Cliff had bratwurst, sauerkraut, and potatoes. Can I say that the water here SUCKS? They have tap water which isn’t bad and mineral water which sucks. At least Cliff has the sodas to fall back on. But orientation was great. I learned a lot about the area and we’re going on a sight- seeing tour to see a castle. It should be fun. After orientation today, we visited castle ruins. Holy moly. This was the largest castle on the Rhein River and it’s in ruins. Only about one-third is left. If only one-third is left, I can’t imagine what the entire castle looked like. It was a functioning castle and it was ginormous. We walked all over it and it took about an hour and a half. I refused to walk on top but Cliff got some excellent pictures. We also went by the Cuckoo Clock store. I found my dad’s Christmas present. God help me.
Germany is so damn clean that it’s not even funny. Walking through the streets, I haven’t seen any stray papers, cans, etc. It’s amazing. Going through the castle, they had a worker walking picking up scraps of paper. Not something you’d really see back home. It’s just so clean. You don’t have to hunt for trash bins or anything. I love it.
We’re sitting here watching tv tonight and we don’t know German. We’re making up our own dialogue for each show. It’s most interesting watching TV when you don’t even understand the language. Hopefully we can contact the apartment owner tomorrow and get the password for the internet so I can actually update my blog, e-mail home and let everybody know we’re okay. On that note, I’m outta here.
Cheers!
Germany is so damn clean that it’s not even funny. Walking through the streets, I haven’t seen any stray papers, cans, etc. It’s amazing. Going through the castle, they had a worker walking picking up scraps of paper. Not something you’d really see back home. It’s just so clean. You don’t have to hunt for trash bins or anything. I love it.
We’re sitting here watching tv tonight and we don’t know German. We’re making up our own dialogue for each show. It’s most interesting watching TV when you don’t even understand the language. Hopefully we can contact the apartment owner tomorrow and get the password for the internet so I can actually update my blog, e-mail home and let everybody know we’re okay. On that note, I’m outta here.
Cheers!
Day 1
Today we traveled from Atlanta to London to Germany. OMG. I’m exhausted. Flying into Heathrow London is an experience I don’t wish to repeat, but I know I’m going to do it again. We had to exit the plane and get on a bus to get to the airport and wait about 5 hours for our commuter flight. Lovely huh? Coming into Germany? Customs was so easy. The police just looked at my passport, stamped it and said Danke. Then we got our train vouchers validated and waited an hour and a half for our train. Got to the house and it’s nice. The living room has a view right over the Rhein River. It’s so gorgeous. Looking out the window, I’ve also got a view of Burg Katz and down the river is Burg Maus. I’m exhausted. Going to bed. Cheers.
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