I always do that...stop posting in the middle of a trip.
Last few days in Munich:
We went on a free city tour of Munich It was pretty good. Lasted about three hours and we learned alot about the city, Hitler's beginnings and beer. That night we went on the Munich Beer Tour. The guide took us to three different beer halls and taught us about the different types and some beer history.
The next day we took a late flight home. Pretty uneventful...now I just need to post some photos.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A visit to the original SS "School of Violence"
We got a late start today. Didn't get out of the hostel until around 1130. We got on the S2 train and headed north-east today to the town of Dachau.
The town was made famous for the concentration camp that was built there in 1933. It was a fitting day to visit, very cold and gray.
We arrived in the town of Dachau about 1230 and went for a short walk. Found a little cafe to eat lunch and then set out down main street to do some shopping. Looked in a toy store but nothing special...you can only see so much Playmobil and Lego.
About a block or two later we came to a luggage store. Heather found a few things. She may or may not have bought a few Christmas presents.
Took the bus to the main entrance of the camp. There is no fee to visit the concentration camp and we only paid €3 for the audio tour.
First, we watched a 20 minute movie about the camp. The majority of the footage was shot by WWII soldiers who liberated the prisoners in 1945. The footage was b&w and no sound, but very moving. Lots of bad things happened there...
We walked out into the large court yard where the prisoners all had roll call every day. There's now a large sculpture and memorials set up all over. We went down the middle of the camp past the area where the barracks used to be. At the end was the crematorium. Really eerie stuff. I'm sort of glad Nick and Tom are still a little too young to understand the incredibly terrible things that happened there.
Ahmadinejad's comments are an all to scary reminder of the very recent history. The things that happened in Dachau were only 63 years ago. Ahmadinejad believes it his his calling to bring about the end of Israel and the United States thus fulfilling Islamic prophecy. Let's pray the President-Elect Obama has learned from the past. The last thing you want to do with a mad-man is try to reason with him.
So we left the camp and took a bus back to the train and took a train to Munich city center (Mareinplatz) and walked a few blocks to the Hofenbraus brewery. It's a large beer hall where t the lady's carry 5 to 10 steins full of beer all at once! Kind of like the Augustiner we went to last night, only much larger and much more popular.
We had sausage, meatloaf, potatoes, pretzels and beer. We haven't tried schnitzel, yet, but the apple strudel was very good. It didn't stand a chance...it was gone about 30 seconds after it hit the table.
Caught the train back to the hostel, the boys took a shower and we finished watching "Atlantis" on the portable DVD player....
Bud
The town was made famous for the concentration camp that was built there in 1933. It was a fitting day to visit, very cold and gray.
We arrived in the town of Dachau about 1230 and went for a short walk. Found a little cafe to eat lunch and then set out down main street to do some shopping. Looked in a toy store but nothing special...you can only see so much Playmobil and Lego.
About a block or two later we came to a luggage store. Heather found a few things. She may or may not have bought a few Christmas presents.
Took the bus to the main entrance of the camp. There is no fee to visit the concentration camp and we only paid €3 for the audio tour.
First, we watched a 20 minute movie about the camp. The majority of the footage was shot by WWII soldiers who liberated the prisoners in 1945. The footage was b&w and no sound, but very moving. Lots of bad things happened there...
We walked out into the large court yard where the prisoners all had roll call every day. There's now a large sculpture and memorials set up all over. We went down the middle of the camp past the area where the barracks used to be. At the end was the crematorium. Really eerie stuff. I'm sort of glad Nick and Tom are still a little too young to understand the incredibly terrible things that happened there.
Ahmadinejad's comments are an all to scary reminder of the very recent history. The things that happened in Dachau were only 63 years ago. Ahmadinejad believes it his his calling to bring about the end of Israel and the United States thus fulfilling Islamic prophecy. Let's pray the President-Elect Obama has learned from the past. The last thing you want to do with a mad-man is try to reason with him.
So we left the camp and took a bus back to the train and took a train to Munich city center (Mareinplatz) and walked a few blocks to the Hofenbraus brewery. It's a large beer hall where t the lady's carry 5 to 10 steins full of beer all at once! Kind of like the Augustiner we went to last night, only much larger and much more popular.
We had sausage, meatloaf, potatoes, pretzels and beer. We haven't tried schnitzel, yet, but the apple strudel was very good. It didn't stand a chance...it was gone about 30 seconds after it hit the table.
Caught the train back to the hostel, the boys took a shower and we finished watching "Atlantis" on the portable DVD player....
Bud
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Winging it!
We got up this morning and decided to go to Salzburg. I looked at the tourist dept website and saw that they have a Christmas Market. We knew there's train to the city but we didn't know the schedule. So we decide to "wing it." Worst case scenario we miss the last train back to Munich and have to stay the night in Austria.
We had breakfast at the Hostel and then took a tram to the main train station. As we walked into the station we saw a train leaving for Salzburg in 10 minutes. Tried to figure out the automated ticket machine but even with the English menu there were too many options. I was afraid of buying the wrong ticket...so we went to the ticket booth to talk to a real live ticket agent.
We got the Bayern Pass which is a round trip ticket for two adults and two kids for €29 and the train was leaving in 4 minutes. So we booked it back to platform 21 and barely made the train. I'm talking the train started moving as we were looking for a seat!
The trip was about 2 hours and uneventful. The boys bickered over who got to watch the latest Star Wars Clone Wars episode on the iTouch and who got to read the first "Twilight" book.
From the station in Salzburg, Austria, we walked to the Christmas Market, stopping for a cappuccino. The first market was small, but had cool gluhwein mugs. The main market was about 15 minutes farther but worth the walk. Very large and lots of people.
We bought an ornament for our tree and Tommy got a new hat (you'll see it in the video.) Got some snacks - sausage with kraut, chocolate covered pretzels and bananas, gluhwein, chocolate apples, and some really good toast with bacon - and headed back to the station. Stopped a skate board shop and picked up some stickers.
We made the 1718 (5:18 pm) train which got us back to Munich at 1912 (7:12 pm.) We had dinner at the market in Marienplatz - pasta with cheese and ham - and then took another train back to the hostel.
The boys were done with showers by 2100 (9:00 pm.) We left them our cell phone and went downstairs for a drink. Right next to the hostel is this cool old biergarten. I don't remember the name, but they've been brewing beer since 1328!
Went back upstairs an hour later and got the boys to bed.
Bud
We had breakfast at the Hostel and then took a tram to the main train station. As we walked into the station we saw a train leaving for Salzburg in 10 minutes. Tried to figure out the automated ticket machine but even with the English menu there were too many options. I was afraid of buying the wrong ticket...so we went to the ticket booth to talk to a real live ticket agent.
We got the Bayern Pass which is a round trip ticket for two adults and two kids for €29 and the train was leaving in 4 minutes. So we booked it back to platform 21 and barely made the train. I'm talking the train started moving as we were looking for a seat!
The trip was about 2 hours and uneventful. The boys bickered over who got to watch the latest Star Wars Clone Wars episode on the iTouch and who got to read the first "Twilight" book.
From the station in Salzburg, Austria, we walked to the Christmas Market, stopping for a cappuccino. The first market was small, but had cool gluhwein mugs. The main market was about 15 minutes farther but worth the walk. Very large and lots of people.
We bought an ornament for our tree and Tommy got a new hat (you'll see it in the video.) Got some snacks - sausage with kraut, chocolate covered pretzels and bananas, gluhwein, chocolate apples, and some really good toast with bacon - and headed back to the station. Stopped a skate board shop and picked up some stickers.
We made the 1718 (5:18 pm) train which got us back to Munich at 1912 (7:12 pm.) We had dinner at the market in Marienplatz - pasta with cheese and ham - and then took another train back to the hostel.
The boys were done with showers by 2100 (9:00 pm.) We left them our cell phone and went downstairs for a drink. Right next to the hostel is this cool old biergarten. I don't remember the name, but they've been brewing beer since 1328!
Went back upstairs an hour later and got the boys to bed.
Bud
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Why is this such a mindsuck?!?!?
Why haven't I updated this stupid blog for over a month and a half? It's not like it's hard to download photos from the camera, type up some silly commentary and upload a few pictures. It's such a chore just to think about it..."Crap! I gotta blog..." And know I can't get it to upload a photo! Argg!!!!
We're in Munich. We flew in last night to go shopping at the Christmas Markets. They actually call them Christmas Markets here...not some cheesy "Holiday" festival.
The first one was in the airport. We had just got off the plane and were trying to find the Starbucks. It was a good size market...had an ice skating rink in the middle. We had our first taste of Gluhwein (pronounced "glue vine") which is hot German wine with brandy.
We checked in to the hostel. The same hostel chain we stayed at in London. If fact, we made our reservations for here the day we left London.
This morning after breakfast we headed to Marienplatz, the center of town, to check out the big Christmas Market. Stopped for a coffe at Lavazza, an Italian espresso chain, and ran into a couple of people we know from Sicily! They're here on vacation as well. We actually saw them at the airport yesterday leaving Italy and figured we would run into them somewhere.
Walked around the market for a bit and then headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.
Afterwards, we went on a wild goose chase for some Rokenbok toys. Looked up a toy store on the internet that sells Rokenbok, but when we got there, the store was gone. A shop owner next door said the toy store no longer existed but suggested another one down the street. It was the bottom floor of a department store. They hadn't even heard of Rokenbok but pointed us at still another store. No Rokenbok.
So, we got a coffee and went ice skating. It was really fun! We couldn't believe we actually got Tom out on the ice. He's usually very reluctant to try anything like that. But they had these big plastic polar bears on skis with a handle to help people who aren't the best skaters. I think that motivated him...not to try ice skating but to push the bear around.
From there we walked back to the market for dinner. Heather and the boys had pasta. I went for the German sausage and potatoe cake. Took a wrong turn after exiting the train on the way back to the hostel, but made it back before 2030 (8:30 pm.) We're all pretty tired...
Bud
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