Heavens Birthday Extravaganza

October 26-November 1, 2013

26^th- Today we got up early to begin our adventure. We started by driving to Munchen (Munich) stopping at McDonalds along the way for lunch. We arrived in the crazy city…very crazy drivers. We parked the car and began walking to the main center. It was huge!! They have tons of shops! We walked to Marienplatz (town hall) and stopped at the TI station to get a map. Then we went to two different churches which were really beautiful and then to the Market place. We did a bit of shopping and then decided to go up the Tower- many, many stairs!! Very exhausting but a beautiful view from the top. Once finished we went to Hofenbraus, one of the biggest beer houses and had 2 giant beers (1 each) and a pretzel. Then we went to an Italian Pizzeria for dinner and shared a pizza and salad. Then got the car and drove into the middle of nowhere to find out hotel, which was very nice and off to bed.

27^th- Today was Daylight Savings so we got an extra hour of sleep and then checked out of our hotel and almost got stuck in the parking area because Vera (our lovely little car) couldn’t make it up the giant hill to get out lol and I had to back all the way down and rev up and try again. Then we began the very long drive to Fussen. We got lots a few times because of all the road blocks but it was an amazing view of the mountains- the Alps, so pretty we decided to stop off and take a picture. We eventually made it to Fussen running on fumes and found our hostel- beautiful view of the mountains. Then we took a walk into town. We stopped at some shops then ate lunch- scrambled egg and bacon with coffee. Then we walked back to the square and began our walking tour with Rick Steves as our guide. We began in Kaiser-Maximilian-Platz- with the Seven stones fountain which wasn’t working this time of year but still cool to see. It was built to celebrate Fussen’s 700^th birthday and the stones symbolize the community as people gathered together and when the water runs the ‘heads’ of the stones nod. Next we headed to Hotel Hirsch and the Medieval Wall- one of the first hotels in town and the wall is one of the two surviving towers. Then through the gate to the Historic Cemetery of St. Sebastian- which is completely full and only members of great importance who already own a plot will be buried there. There was also a World War I memorial and a statue of God holding a fetus to remember the unborn babies. Next the town view from the Franciscan Monastery which was really pretty, especially the view of the river- beautifully blue. Next down to the Lech Riverbank where people used to build rafts to travel downstream to Augsburg and sell their goods and travel back to do it again. Then off to the Church of the Holy Spirit- which was very pretty and the view of Benedictine Monastery, as well as seeing the outside of the Heritage Museum and off to another church- St. Magnus Baslicia which houses a glass cross containing the relics of St. Magnus. Finally we saw High Castle or Hohes Schloss- which was beautiful but it began raining really hard so we started to head back and had to stop under a shop because it then thundered and hailed!! So we decided to get ice cream instead. We got a HUGE ice cream and milkshake to share in a nice little Italian coffee shop and then went back to the hostel to relax before dinner. Later that night we attempted to get Chinese but they didn’t accept card so we went to another Chinese place that said they would and in the end we still had to pay with cash because their machine didn’t work. Go figure. But it was good food, then back to the hostel for bed.

28^th- Today we were up early for breakfast that we paid 3 euros each for, which wasn’t that great and then began our trek to the two beautiful castles in the mountains. We drove to the Castles and as soon as we saw Neuschwanstein our breath was taken away. We bought out tickets and headed up to the first Castle- Hohenschwanstein built by Maximillian II. We got a tour of the Castle and saw the telescope that his son Ludwig II used to keep an eye on his project Neuschwanstein. There was also an amazing ceiling with stars which was beautiful. There was also a beautiful garden with a swan fountain and also a lion fountain. We also saw a swan chandelier in the dining room. After the castle tour we took a nice walk by the lake with a beautiful background of the mountains. Then we took the bus up to the scariest bridge of my life. Absolutely scary, freaky bridge, that I barely went onto but boy was it worth it because it had the most beautiful view of Neuschwanstein that you could never get anywhere else. It was absolutely beautiful. Then we walked up the Castle and waited for our turn to go in. It was beautiful. The reason the Castle was never finished was because Ludwig II spent too much money on all the rest of the Castle and you can definitely see that by how gorgeous it was. There was an Amazing room where there should have been a throne but because lack of money there is no throne. He also was one of the first places to have a telephone but it could only call the post office. There were beautiful paintings all from Wagner’s pieces and a theatre room dedicated to the Opera and mostly Wagner’s pieces. The 2^nd floor was never finished and is now a museum and Ludwig II only lived here for 4 months before he was declared insane for spending so much money, dethroned and mysteriously drowned with his psychiatrist. Therefore because his brother Otto was already declared insane and could not become King, and because neither boy had a wife or kids the throne went to his Uncle and now belongs to the government, however the other castle still belongs to the family and they lived in it up until the 1970’s. This castle was made a tourist attraction only 6 weeks after Ludwig II’s death and this is even without lots of it being built! It looks amazing and is breath takingly beautiful! We began to walk back down and decided to have lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Castle. Then we took a horse and carriage ride back down to the car. Because it was getting so late we immediately made our way to the gondola which you could see from the Castle and looked pretty scary. We bought our tickets and had enough time to go up the 5,500 feet to the top of the mountain and see the panoramic view of the beautiful landscape. We walked around the top of the mountain before catching the last lift down which was crammed to the brim with people- so much scarier. Then we bought tickets for the luge ride right next door. It is a heated luge so can be used all year round and even though it was freezing and we had to ride in separate cars we took a ride. Heavens went first (big mistake! As she got stuck right at the get go!!) but it was really fun zipping along down this big hill! Although I tried to video the whole thing and accidently didn’t push the right button and didn’t record any of it!!! Luckily Heavens did. We finished the ride and had a hot chocolate because it was so cold and we didn’t want to leave yet. Then we sat and looked at the Castle and Heavens said a nice goodbye…crying a little and then we went to the shop to pick up dinner and watched tv in bed before sleep.

29^th- Yesterday was my 3 year anniversary living abroad, which we forgot about, so we decided to celebrate it today. We woke up late which was nice and then went to the Castles to see them again before going into town for lunch. We looked at all the shops and went into Woolworths for cheap Christmas shopping!! We got souvenirs, coffee, and a nice slice of cake.  Then took a nap and went out for dinner. We got huge burgers and a radler- beer with lemonade in it. Then we came home and ate snacks and played cards before bed.

30^th- Today we got up early and checked out of our hostel and saw snow on the Alps so we decided to drive to see the castle one last time. We took some pictures, said our goodbyes and headed to Triberg. It was very far away but we finally made it there and went into the TI office to get a map. Then we looked in some shops for souvenirs and decided to have a quick lunch. Then we began the walk up to the tallest waterfall in Germany. We didn’t walk to the top because it would take too long so instead we walked up the trail to the bridge and began feeding the birds the peanuts we bought. They were everywhere!! They flew down and were surrounding us. So we bought 2 more bags of peanuts and began feeding the birds everywhere, they decided to follow us wherever we went. It was really cool and fun. Then we went to see some more shops and then drove to the worlds biggest cuckoo clock and saw it ring. Then we drove to our hotel which was really cool, it was our favourite for the trip. We even had a balcony looking into the mountains. For checking in we got a booklet with free stuff in it so we decided to use one and went to a luge…which was so much bigger than the one we already went on. This looked like a mini roller coaster and you had to be buckled in! We got a free ride and this time got to go together, which was good because it was scary!!! But so much fun that we did it again! This time we felt we did pretty good at going fast but when we finished a woman pointed out that we were only going 34 km/h where a dad and son were going 45 km/h lol. Then we went back to our hotel, showered and had dinner at the hotel. We played cards and went to bed.

31^st- Happy Halloween!!!! Today we got up early for breakfast and then made our way to zip lining. We almost didn’t make it because we got lost but luckily we made it just in time! We got all geared up, a harness and helmet. We listened to all the instructions and then began our huge trek up the mountain. It took forever but we finally made it and went on two practice courses, they were the scariest! Then we went on the 3^rd which was the first real one and it was amazing! High above the trees it was so beautiful. We were so high and went so fast, it was really awesome! We had so much fun! There were 5 zip lines to go on and it took 3 hours and the last zip line was 80km high and we went 65 km/h and last 1 whole minute! It was an amazing experience and we really enjoyed the people we were with! Then we went into the town for a quick lunch and then drove to the 5 sense walk and found out it was closed!!! I was really gutted because I was really looking forward to this park but instead we decided to go to mini golf…which was closed!!! Go figure! So we drove back to the town we did zip lining in and went to the glass museum…which was open! We walked around and watched the people blow glass and make cool ornaments and vases. You could blow your own vase and take it home but it was too big so we decided to buy small ornaments in the gift shop. Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for our Halloween Party!! We drove to Europa Theme Park and entered the big dome where there were 5 rooms you could go in to party. There was also food and drink although you didn’t pay the people you bought the food from you paid a cashier who gave you a card and it was crossed off once you used that amount of money…strange. So we ate dinner and rode on the indoor carousel before the party began. The party was from 8-1am and we moved around between a few of the rooms- the clubbing room, the acoustic room, and the 80’s and 90’s room. We mostly stayed in the 80’s and 90’s room and listened to the dj’s play music and dance on stage. There was a couple there who looked completely bored but were standing right at the edge of the stage. We couldn’t figure out why until all of a sudden the band Camouflage came on (a german band who sings in English) and this couple went mental!! Jumping up and down, taking pictures, singing along. They were so happy! It was nice to see. And they left the minute the band stopped playing lol. Also the lead singer looked identical to Heaven’s brother Tim lol. We stayed in this room because next up was Lou Bega who sings Mambo Number 5 and yes he did sing it, TWICE!! He was so cool lol! We listened to all his songs and were just about to go when a boy band called The Exchange came on. They sing acapella and were really good but it was getting late so we decided to leave and got back to our hotel at 2:30 and went to bed. We decided not to dress up at the party because when we got there, there we not many people dressed up but by the end there were loads of people who went all out and it was cool to see. 

1^st- Today we got up early for breakfast and then drove to Nuremberg which took forever! We got there and needed to pee so ran around town trying to find a place to pee and found a pub/bar which was cool because we decided to eat lunch there as well. Then we walked around town a bit looking at all the churches and pretty buildings…I also got gingerbread which I was very happy about as Nuremberg is where gingerbread is made. Heavens bought me a cookie heart that says I love you in German on it to say thank you. Then we searched and searched for an open starbucks to try and get a pumpkin latte, we finally found one but no pumpkin latte L. However we did get coffee and then went to two churches and drove home. It was a very long day and we went to bed early.

Overall it was an amazing holiday and a great way to celebrate Heaven’s birthday!!!

Until next time,

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Differences

September to November 2013

For my 100^th blog I figured why not do something special. And also because I did one for England I figured it would only be fair to do one for Germany. So here is the blog entitled Differences of things in Germany compared to America.

To begin with of course the language is different, but even translated words can be difficult because you cannot translate everything word for word and sometimes it is funny to listen to the Germans trying to do that.  Some little things in Germany are different for example when going to the doctors or the dentist, you sometimes book an appointment, sometimes not and every time no matter if you have an appointment or not you sit and wait in the waiting room, could be even for hours lol. Very strange. Also, you say hello and goodbye to everyone in the waiting room when you arrive and leave. And everyone responds to you! Not only are doctors’ offices different but the schools are very different. We both work in kindergartens so basically like preschools however, there is almost all play and sleep and food, and rarely any learning. Throughout the day the children sit down and learn for maybe an hour, sometimes and hour and a half and that is it. The whole rest of the day is spent eating, sleeping, and playing. And don’t forget brushing your teeth after your meal! Also the children eat their lunch in the classroom, with real plates, forks, knives, spoons. You always say Enjoy your meal and Thank you same to you before eating and you are silent when you eat. The food is completely different- always potatoes usually some sort of meat, and some random vegetable or salad and eaten all together covered in gravy. Back to food a little later, continuing with the school. Kids are hard core around here and teachers are really lax on safety. Even parents are lax on safety. The kids punch each other, hit each other, fight and no one intervene. They can go on field trips without telling a single person, trips where they walk with one or maybe two teachers for the whole class, crossing roads and everything. Kids are left in carts alone in supermarkets. They are very trusting here. You sometimes don’t pay for things until you are done with them, so you could leave at any point and not pay but they trust you not to. Not only are they very trusting but most people are very nice. They would do anything for you and say hi to and try to help you out in any way they can. It is very nice to see. Grocery shopping is different as well. Almost all places require you to bring and bag your own stuff, as well as pay with exact change as much as possible. And they always double check your cart to make sure you are paying for everything. There are also specific sections dedicated to meat- about 1/3 of the store, and alcohol- about 1/3 of the store and everything else goes in the last 1/3. Driving is very different here as well. Not only did I have to learn to drive standard which in itself was a challenge but most road signs are different, the right of way makes no sense here. On the highway there is no speed limit and some cars take advantage of this. There are lots and lots of tunnels and lots of people ride bikes or walk places. However they ride bikes in the road and get in your way. Even old people who you think would not be able to ride a bike very far, ride up major hills! The toilet rest stops along the highway are not very nice, unless you find a rest stop where they have a gas station and in that case you probably have to pay anywhere from .30 to .70 cents to pee! If it is free then it is literally a port a potty but inside a building. Completely gross and you don’t like to use them unless it is an emergency. Eating out at restaurants can be difficult, especially with the language barrier and the differences in meals. Most meals contain sausages or some type of meat and always with some sort of potatoes. You are not required to tip, although we usually do and they leave you after you eat to stay as long as you please and even some more as you literally have to flag them down to get the bill. Lots of people here smoke, despite the fact that it is very expensive, and no one chews tobacco. You can smoke in most places so usually people are smoking inside. They also have lots of hookah bars. People also pay to get their hair dyed and cut strangely even though it is expensive and generally do not care what they look like. They are very laid back with looks and most people have tattoos, piercings, dyed hair- like pink or green, and usually strange haircuts- shaved one side or a design shaved into their hair. Most of these are parents at my school! Words are very different here. Their words are so long! You could say a simple sentence like I went to the store and translated it could take minutes to say! This sometimes makes translating words difficult, although some words are very similar and sometimes you can figure out what someone is saying based on context and body language. Holidays are different here as well. There are tons of Halloween decorations in every store, and we even want to one of the biggest Halloween parties in Germany where lots of people dressed up…yet we saw no trick or treaters anywhere on Halloween and nobody mentioned trick or treaters. Very strange. Christmas is their biggest holiday…although why not since they invented the Christmas tree. They celebrate it on Christmas Eve though and there are Christmas Markets in most towns as well as Christmas decorations everywhere.

Overall it is a very fun, but different experience living in Germany and we are learning a lot about Germany culture.

Until next time,

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Rothenburg ob de Tauber

October 3-6, 2013

3^rd- This is our first trip since arriving in Germany. We were very excited for this trip. Today we got up early and drove the 3 hours to Rothenburg, it is a walled in city that is very old. We checked into our hotel Gladius Raidel, and met Norry, our housemaster. It was a cute wooden hotel and Norry was very sweet. We checked in and then parked the car, as there cannot be any cars parked on the streets overnight, and barely any cars are allowed in the city at all. It is very narrow and hard to drive. Then we walked into town and found market square, the center of the town. There we waited for the English Walking Tour. Our guide was Claudia and she took us around the city telling us about the sights and the history. We learnt about the traditional food of an onion pastry with fresh wine and snowballs- circular dough fried in a ball mechanism and sprinkled with sugar, or non-traditional have chocolate, cream, nuts, anything you can imagine. She even let us have a taste of the traditional kind. It was good, but I think the non-traditional ones sound better! They made these snowballs because back in the old days when they hosted parties, lots of important people came and the cooks needed something that would last for a while so they could bake it ahead of time. This worked perfectly. We always learnt about the war and the wall that was built for protection and the towers that could overlook the wall. We saw the museums and the fancy houses and learnt that everything in the city must stay preserved and must not be modernized which is why everything looks so old. After the tour we went back to Market Square and tried one of the onion pastries with the wine. It was very good! We met a couple from Colorado doing a bike tour and chatted with them for a while. Then we did some shopping and decided to get a non-traditional snowball with a coffee. I was right!!! YUM YUM!!! We continued to shop along the high street and then picked up a pizza to have later for dinner. We went back to the hotel and relaxed, read, and ate our pizza.

4^th- Today we got up early to have breakfast at the hotel. We met a mother and daughter from California on their way to the Czech Republic for some genealogy stuff. They were really nice. Then we went into town to look at some more shops and then back to Market Square for Rick Steve’s walking tour. He is very popular in the city, some shops even said they were recommended by him in his books! We began with Market Square and were sad to discover one of the first things on his list was to watch the clock tower open up and chime, but because they are doing some upkeeps to the building it was out of use and we couldn’t see it. So next was Town Hall. There is two different looking buildings for town hall and one has a tower. We went inside to go up the tower to one of the best view points in the city, according to Rick Steves. However, as you begin it is okay but once you get towards the top, it gets very scary with narrow stairs and even a ladder to climb up to the very top where it is very, very narrow! Heavens didn’t like it very much but we did get to see a lot. It was a beautiful view. After that we went to St. Jakobs Church, and saw the dog statue which symbolizes a story that the bell ringer jumped out of his tower because he built a tower and another person built a fancier tower right next to it, his dog followed but got stuck halfway down and this is where the statue is. Although this is only a story. Inside it had a beautiful altar, stained glass windows, and a huge organ. But the main event here is the famous wooden, hand carved Altar of the Hold Blood which contains a crystal with God’s blood inside. It was truly amazing at how old and beautiful it is. We also witnessed some men performing a song, which was random but cool. Next we walked to Covent Garden, which is not the same as the one in London, this one is literally a garden and very tiny. Then to the Castle Gardens where there once stood a castle that was partially destroyed with bombing but also the bricks taken and used elsewhere. Although there are some beautiful views there and I found a house that I absolutely love but would never live in…scroll down to see! Next we walked to the Christmas Museum- Kathe Wohlfart’s Christmas museum, very famous. The museum part was not so amazing, but the shop was outstanding. First of all giant, so many floors I don’t know if we saw it all, a giant, 3 story Christmas tree and decorations everywhere. Although, very expensive, so we just looked around. We did learn a little bit during the museum visit, like the history of the Christmas tree. It began in Germany when they would hang the tree from the ceiling and use candles instead of lights, which caused lots of fires. They travelled out of Germany via soldiers receiving them as gifts and began to be popular in the US. Later on the angel became famous because a man put one on his tree to remember his daughter and it caught on. Finally, much later the US began using lights instead of candles. Next we went to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. This was very interesting. The crimes you were punished for, like baking bread badly and selling it in your bakery, or a musician playing bad music on the street, or two women gossiping or fighting. And the punishments you received were terrible- being trapped in a cage and dunked in water, being put in the stocks, or having to wear masks to make you look silly. These weren’t even the severe punishments, those could cost you an arm and a leg….literally! You could be pulled apart, limb by limb, beheaded, or hung! There were three floors of pictures, replicas, and original torture devices. Very interesting.  After the museum we went to a café and got a coffee and an onion pastry..got to love them! Then back to the hotel to nap. Then we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We still tried to eat German food by ordering Ribs and Schnitzel though. Then we went on the Night Watchmen’s Tour. The Night Watchmen dresses up and carries and axe and lantern. He was very funny and informative.  He explained that back in the old days it was a very low class job but it was important to guard the walls and keep an eye over the city. They would be in charge of telling everyone to go to bed and if you were not inside the walls before time was up they would lock you out. The only back in would be through a tiny door inside the bigger door and it would cost you a lot to get through. He explained that Rothenburg has been through a lot. It was very rich, then poor, then rich, then poor, then almost non-existent, and now rich again. He said they almost died out because of plague, war and bombings, but barely survived even though nothing happened for hundreds of years. They were saved during the war by an American Military Man who loved the beauty of the city and years later by artists who also loved the city. This brought tourism back to the city and made it the wealthy place it is today with 2,000 overnight visitors every day and many more who come just for the day. Only about 2000 people live inside the walls. You can now pay 1000 euros to help fix up the wall, as everything must stay preserved and have your name put on the wall. There is even one family who after generations and generations still live in the house. They had old fashioned door bells but had to disable them because tourists ran them all the time lol. It was a nice tour and great to see a different side to the city, as well as the tour guide was hilarious. He even made a DVD so that we didn’t have to remember all the information lol. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel to go to bed.

5^th- Today we got up early again to eat breakfast at our hotel, then we finished up some shopping while the shops were still open. Then we headed to the wall. You can walk the wall almost the entire way around the city so that is what we did. Along the way seeing the names of all the people who have paid to help fix it up. It was a beautiful view as well to see the city and the surrounding areas. After we looked in a few shops and again went to a café for onion pastry and coffee. Then on our way back to the hotel looked in some more shops. We went to take a nap before dinner. Then we were walking to a pub that Rick Steves recommends and saw a marching band in the Market Square. They were celebrating the holiday where the Berlin wall came down. They were even going to have a performance but we decided because it was in German, and we were hungry to go eat dinner. However, Rick Steves did not mention that on a Saturday night you should make reservations and therefore we couldn’t get into the pub so back to the Italian place, but this time for pasta!! YUM! We also met a tour group from America so we were chatting with them the whole night. We even forgot it was our anniversary! Oops! On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got some snowballs to take back home with us and then back to the hotel for bed.

6^th- Today we got up early for breakfast again and this time after breakfast packed our bags, said goodbye to Norry, and headed out. We stopped in Zwichau to see Annette (our new best friend in Germany, and also my boss) on our way home and chatted with her for a few hours then home to relax as it is back to work tomorrow.

Until next time,

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