Munich - Game Day

(written by Troy)

We arrived in Munich and finally found our hotel after having walked around an entire mall with our enormous packs on our backs. The hotel is nice, but it doesn't quite reflect the 220 Euro price tag that came with it (for 1 night!)

We decided the first course of action was to pick up the tickets to the soccer game. We headed to the nearby U-Bahn station where a nice man helped us with getting a "partner ticket". Once on the train we realized that it might be a good idea to have our passports with us, so back to the hotel and start our adventure again. Turned out we never needed them, but better safe than sorry!

The Allianz Arena is about a 15 minute walk from the U Station. As you approach you can see what looks like a deflated soccer ball (Shara's description) or some balloon's trapped by a net. In front, there are giant q-tips indicating the various parking garages.

We found out that the various ticket booths are outside the stadium which itself is not entirely enclosed. We made our way to Kassencanyon Ost only to find the lines we needed were closed. My confirmation had said to pick up our tickets "at least" 2 hours before kick-off. I think it meant "within" instead of "at least".

We spent about 45 minutes wandering about, looking at merchandise booths and eating pretzels until the ticket window opened. I went up to the window and anxiously and nervously went to get my tickets, hoping that everything in the transaction went smoothly. And then I had them in my hands and anxiousness turned into excitement!!!!

The security was pretty tight. They almost took Shara's water bottle from me fearing it may become a missile or was filled with something other than water. A guard even sniffed the open lid! Shara had to go through her own entrance to prevent being felt up by the male guards! Crazy times.

First stop, the fan shop. This was a BIG store. You would think the LEGO store at LEGOLAND would be big, well this was even bigger. And after only a few minutes and still over 2 hours until kick off, the shop was packed, wall to wall people. We picked up a few scarves and a Bastian Schweinstieger Shirt.

It was a bit of a hike up to our seats on the 3rd level, (117 steps up to be exact), but they were perfect seats, just down from the TV camera's, and the center line by about 25 seats (sec 305, Row 1, Seats 1-2).

After soaking up some of the atmosphere, we picked up some Bratwurst and snacks. The payment method is brilliant, as you are required to purchase a little debit card which then is deducted from, when you buy. And the prices were not that outrageous. (You place the cash card onto this electronic pad and it just automatically completes the transaction.)

The game itself was FANTASTIC! I love the crowd interaction. For player introductions the announcer says the first name and the crowd responds with his last name. Same for goal scorers. The best is when we score a goal the announcer and crowd have the following dialog:

Announcer: How many goals for Bayern?
Crowd: Eins
Announcer: And for Bielefeld? (other team)
Crowd : Null!
Announcer: Danke!
Crowd: Bitte!

The "true fans" are absolutely nuts. They sang, banged their drums, waived their flags and jumped around for the ENTIRE game. No silence from them at all. They all worked so hard that I can understand why they are considered the "12th player". The team even showed them special appreciation at the end of the game. My favorite bits included when one end of the stadium would shout and the other would respond back and forth (sounded like A-Oh), and them shouting "FC BAYERN DEUTSCHER MEISTER" for about 10 minutes straight. I think sitting in that section (well standing) would mean the events of the game would mean much less than the people around you, especially if you were standing behind a big flag.

The game started with a couple if chances at both ends, including a hit off Bayern's goal post. But once the game settled in, it was all Bayern.

And then they scored a goal and I was standing and waving my arms, trying to flap my little Bayern flag that wouldn't unfurl. Shara said I looked like a complete retard, but really it was the first time I saw a goal for my team in real life. I am proud that I was so excited that I made a complete fool of myself. So there. I don't get overly excited much, so its nice to know that it can happen. :)

There was one dis-allowed goal, a shot off their post, and one more goal by Podolski (Ribery got the first). It was a great game for a Bayern fan - all joy, no disappointment. Ribery was fantastic and ran his ass off. He was subbed off to a standing ovation. It was also great to see Oliver Khan in his 3rd last game ever (he even had his own song playing as he came onto the pitch for warm-up).

After the game there was a little tribute to the players for winning 3 trophies this year. VanBommel pranced out and flapped his arms like a bird as some Dutch music played. The team carried a giant logo around the pitch and then started jumping around and dancing all over the place. Crazy Germans.

The journey back to our hotel was a tribute to German efficiency. There was a massive sea of people exiting the stadium heading towards the U-Bahn, buses and cars. Literally tens of thousands of people; it looked amazing. But the crowds kept moving. I was sure there would be a massive line outside the station, but the crowds just moved on in and we waited less than minute for a train car that wasn't stuffed, and then got on. We had to wait a little bit in this crowded car before it left the station, but that was it.

We got back to our hotel by 11:30pm, and went to bed. The sleep was good but seemed too short. Now we are on our way to Heidelberg!

Innsbruck

Our train ride to Innsbruck was nasty. The Italian trains are dirty and smelly! If this is first class, I'd hate to see what second class looks like!

When we got on the train in Bologna, again, the compartment we had reserved was full, and we found another with only 1 man in it. We soon found out why. He was farting up a storm. A smelly storm. And he was farting loudly! Troy and I sat across from one another and communicated with our handy Ipod touch, about how smelly it was, and what we should do. Troy was even trying to muster up some of his own farts to combat with.

Finally I figured it was time to put an end to the farting, so with as much disgust as I could muster without laughing, I said to Troy, "Are you Farting?" and Troy replied "no" and I answered him, "Well it really smells bad in here!"

Troy immediately put his book in front of his face and would not make eye contact with me. I soon found out that was so he wouldn't laugh. Shortly after this, smelly left, and we did what we could to air out the compartment. What an obnoxious person! On top of the farting, he was playing video games on his cell phone, with the volume turned all the way up, he was talking loudly on his phone, and at one time, he bent his nasty face over the seat between him and I, and started doing something freaky I can't even describe. He was a nasty weirdo. Troy said he also spoke audibly to himself. We think he wanted us to leave the compartment...where would we go?

Finally the ride was finished and we arrived in Innsbruck, Austria. A country I love so dearly. We arrived at 4:33pm, and I navigated this time. We easily found our cute Austrian hotel The Weisses Kreuz, and got to our cute little room on the 5th floor, mountain view. We think Mozart stayed in our room, since it is advertised he stayed in that hotel, and there is a carving in the wall, of a date, and Mozart's name.

We settled into our hotel, and set out to explore Innsbruck. We nearly got trampled by a horse carriage, but despite that, it was a cute town. We found a restaurant for dinner called Weinerwald, sine I wanted some schnitzel.

The meal was enjoyable, but we found our waitress was quite nasty. Not to us, but to other people. The dessert we had ordered was supposed to have vanilla ice-cream. It didn't, and the waitress yelled very loudly at the girl who was delivering it. It was quite embarrassing. She took our desserts away, instead of just bringing some ice-ceam. We didn't see the waitress who was yelled at for probably 20 minutes, we thought she may be crying (I would cry if someone spoke to me that way!)

We went back to our hotel after dinner and watched an English movie on our Ipod, and had a fight over something silly that got blown out of proportion, as most fights are.

We woke up at 8am, got ready and went and had a typical Austrian breakfast buffet. From there we walked to the Gondola Station, and purchased tickets to take that and the lift to the top of the mountain. It cost nearly 50 Euro's each, but the views were worth it. The views were breath taking, too bad we couldn't stay longer!

Back in town we did some souvenir shopping, and went to check out, mail some post cards and grab a train ti Munich.

We got a yummy lunch of sandwiches and cookies to teat on the train.

Vernazza

We arrived in beautiful Vernazza after a split second decision to get off at our stop, even thouh we were late and figured we would miss our train. We didn't but had to trust the train number.

We arrived in Vernazza and set out to find a phone as our hostDaria was going to meet us. We travelled from 1 end of town to the other as the first phone we tried was broken. A man came to meet us and bring us to our room. Up and up and up we travelled. 71 steps up with our packs on, it was a lot of work, b ut it was worth it. What a beautiful room. Vernazza Rooms, the hotel we stayed in, was incredibly beautiful. The shower was outside on the balcony, it was enclosed but very fun. The balcony was beautiful and the view was incredible.

We showered and went out to explore the town. We loved it immediately and easily found the beach and rocks for sunbathing. We took off our flip flops and waded in the water and dug our feet in the sand and then wandered down the beach, and selected a bit rock to lounge on which we did for quite a while. I played on the algae, and loved the way it felt on my feet. It was hot and beautiful.

There were a couple of restaurants one which hung onto the edge of the rock wall. We climbed many stairs to find out it didn't open until 7:30pm. We made reservations, and left to do some more exploring!

We returned at 7:30pm and were seated on the outdoor patio overlooking the Mediterranean sea. We got to watch the sunset over the Mediterranean while we ate.

We started with a meat/vege tray and 1/2 litre of local wine. Our first course was an amazing Prawn pasta. Both of us absolutely loved it. For a man, I got a fried fish tray - there were all kinds of fishes, anchovies(which I tried) and bigger fish with their heads chopped off, but their tails intact. Troy's food was a Prawn platter - but the Prawns there were more like crabs...the were enormous, and had eyes! WEIRD!

Monday we wondered up town and came across an amazing cafe with wonderful pastry, taste latte's and blood orange juice freshly squeezed. It was totally awesome, so we decided to make dinner reservations.

Now in Cinque (5) terra (Towns) there are 5 towns (Who would have thunk it). We had decided not to hike between the towns, but to spend the day resting and relaxing, but we did decide to walk up to the top of the town so we could check out Vernazza Castle up, up and up we went. The views got better and better. At every short rest stop we figured we'd go a little further. The hike was a brutal one for most of it, but the views were rewarding, as was the cafe at the highest point where we got some water and pie. The hike was very enjoyable.

At Corniglia after our 3 hour hike, we had some lunch and the most disgusting experience of my life.

We decided to hike to the next town, and that hike was much easier. We really enjoyed the hike. We got Gelato in Magnolia and took a boat ride back to Vernazza as it began to rain.

In Vernazza we stopped and bought a few souvenirs before heading for a siesta.

We had hot showers and headed off to probably the best meal we'd found yet, at the Pirate Place again.

We also made friends with an older couple of ladies and a mid aged couple while we ate. The food was fabulous we had some bruchetta, salads and Troy had Tortellini and I had Cannelloni. Mmmmm It was a perfect day.

The following day we woke up and again had breakfast at the Pirate place and it was so yummy! Now we're off to Innsbruck.

Venice

We got up early the next morning to the sun and beautiful scenery outside. A picture I had become so accustomed to while I lived there, but had forgotten. The cloud separated the mountains from the town; it was beautiful.

Be boarded our train somewhere in the neighborhood of 6:50am, and rode through beautiful Austria. I don't recall anything overly exciting or noteworthy in our first leg. From Villach - Venice we required reservations and have been given 2nd class reservations (even though we had a first class ticket). The car we had reservations in, was full, so we selected another less full car. IN that car, was a chatty girl. She was a student in Salzburg studying, and she knew everything. At least she thought she did. She was entertaining for a while.

We arrived in Venice around noon, and purchased waterbus tickets valud for 48 hours. They were 26 euro's each!

As it turns out we did not require the bus as much as we expected to, and were able to find our way quite easily, thanks to my husband, who surprisingly...is fantastic with maps! I was honestly shocked and very proud of my husband, when we arrived!

Our hotel Al Portico Guest House was run/owned by a very nice lady named Stacy, who showed us around and took us to our room - 6. It was exactly what I expected for Venice, although the bed looked saggy (it wasn't...but it looked it).

We decided to get on our way and shortly after found ourself in a mess of people EVERYWHERE! We sat for a while, and then onwards again.

We took a lovely gondola ride, and shared it with a cute little family form Poland.

St. Marks Square was an absolute mess of wall to wall people. We walked as quickly though there as we could, and found a semi-busy street, lined with painters.

We had an excellent meal on the canal, right beside the Rialto Bridge and enjoyed a rest for our feet. We jumped on a water bus after perusing a bunch of mask stores and finding Troy a Bayern Munich t-shirt knock-off.

The waterbuss took us to S. Elena where we found a beautiful park and some more great photo's. We got very lost here, and ended up wandering around for 2+ hours, trying to make our way back to the hotel.

After finally arriving back to our hotel, we got some dessert at the restaurant next to our hotel, which Stacy also owned, with her husband. It was so delicious!!!

Our 2nd day in Venice we headed to the neighbouring island of Murano. We saw a glass making demonstration which was quite something and then set put to find some beautiful Murano Glass artifacts. We didn't fall in love with anything, so settled for walking around, looking in shops. We did find several we liked a lot, but all of them had 3-4 digit price tags.

We got some pizza for lunch at another cafe along the canal, and once again, rested our sore feet. We headed back to Venice, with empty hands, for a siesta. Mmmm Naps.

We got up again and headed out around 6pm for the train station to purchase our reservations for the next day. We also did some shopping, and found the perfect mask for Lisa, along with some other trinkets.

We ate dinner at a lovely canal, and it was quite nice. Cannelloni, salmon(me), Chicken (Troy) and Ensalate Misto to share. We also shared a small pitcher of wine. It was great!

We had to pay for our stay in cash, since Stacy's Credit card machine was not working. Who would have known it would be so hard! We tried 6 times before we got any cash. A couple ATM's were broken down, some were out of cash, and some were incompatible with our cards. Finally success, after walking around about 1 hour.

Things to remember:
~Crazy coffee lady who would not give me cream for my coffee.
~Cute old man in Stacy's Restaurant, who spoke with us about his servants, and buttons, and how he is a teacher of building restorations at the Venice Uni.
~Man who nearly lost his arm and camera when Asian man on water bus nearly closed the window on his arm.
~Little Baby Chubster and her cross-eyes.
~Banks In Venice try to maximize their bank fee's by limiting withdrawals to 250 Euro's, even though that may be far less than a daily limit.
~

Schladming

We arrived in Schladming around 5pm after a beautiful train-ride in. We had a little trouble finding Haus Katherina, but finally arrived. I think we are the only guests in this hotel as well.

We were shown our cute and very traditional Austrian apartment which has a separate bedroom, toilet room, tub room, and a kitchen/living room. It is on the top floor and has very beautiful views.

We found out we could do laundry here! No more laundry in the sink! W got our laundry sorted and then headed out to find some eats. Nearly all the stores were closed, which was weird, but we finally found a cute little place which looked like a circus inside, and got some dinner. It was weird, but I had never been in that restaurant, or even come across it before. The Pizza there was delicious, as well as the salad.

Both of us were exhausted, and so decided to go back to the hotel to finish off our laundry, and relax for the evening. We watched a football game, and then went to bed.

We woke up May 1st at 9:30am. Our host prepared a beauteous breakfast for us, which we really enjoyed. We cleaned ourselves up, and were about to head to town when we heard a marching band right under our window! There ws also a lot of church bell ringing. We headed into town, and again, we found a ghost town. We finally figured out, it must be a holiday! Tauernhof however, was open. We met a nice girl named Monika, who told us that Martin was on holiday. She did however open the bookstore so we could buy a book, and a couple of post cards, and a beauteous necklace, which Martin's wife made.

The rest of the morning we strolled around town, in the rain. We went for lunch at a little cafe near our hotel, and spent the rest of the day, playing cards, and relaxing.

We ventured out to dinner, and thought we would order some salad. That was a nasty mistake. It was a nasty pickley mess! It was shreaded meat, both pink and white, with eggs, tomatoes, pickles, and who knows what else. It was one of the nastiest things I've ever eaten.

A Short Stop in Munich

We arrived at Motel One where we discovered mistake 2 of 3. Instead of being booked for April 29th, we were booked for May 29th. Luckily, they still had a room for us, but this got us thinking and we didcovered mistake 3 of 3. We were scheduled to arrive in Schladming right now! OOPS. After some frantic searching for a phone (they didn't have a phone we could use in the hotel), we headed to the Ost Bahnhof and called Katherina Haus to change our reservation.

Having cleared up the blunders we were able to relax. Out small but cute and modern room was very nice. It had a fireplace channel on the tv, and the comfiest beds yet! So we layed down for a nap. The shower was amazing too, with the showerhead being about as big as a head...Mmmmmm.



Then off to HofBrauhaus for supper. We looked at a map and saw that this restaurant was near Marienplatz and assumed we could find it from there...but we had to ask a guy for directions. He walked us part way there, and we enjoyed a conversation with him.

On the trainride from our hotel to Marianplatz, one stop into our route, an enormous african american man came and sat across from me. He quite deliberately put his grocery bag on the seat beside him. Another man, drunk and trying to have a conversation with the large black man, forced his way onto the seat with the grcery bag, which was across from Troy. The large man moved his bag, and tried to end the conversation with the drunk guy. The drunk guy then, noticed me. He was saying I was super woman, like Madonna, but those were about the only English words he knew. He was almost yelling, trying to get someone to interpret to me, what he was saying, but the black man, was silently discouraging people from doing this. Finally the big guy, got up to leave. I didn't know whether it was our stop or not, turned it out was, but I figured we should get off too...I figured it we stuck close to him, we'd be safe.

When the drunk guy noticed we were getting off, he too got off, and tried to keep us with us, while yelling, "Madonna!", but we were trying to keep up to the black guy. Anyways, we got away. And with a funny story no less.


We were seated with an older gentleman, and started our fantastic dinner. The man was Australlian/Austrian, and was very well travelled and he had actually just visited Calgary about 4 weeks before! When we sat down, he was just finishing up his beer and must have enjoyed our company, because he stayed and talked to us for quite some time. We enjoyed his company as well.

Our dinner started with 2 beers. Troy ordered a pork steak and I bad the bone-in pork knuckle, on the reccommendation of the older man. Both dinners were very very tasty! Then we had some coffee, Kaiserschmarn, my favorite, and some cake thing, covered in vanilla cream sause for Troy.

Along the way we got talking to our waiter Alex. He is Yugoslavian, and speaks 6 languages. We talked about everything from him, to languages, travel, sport, motivation (for him to learn Greek, it was girls), and how it is easy to make anyone an enemy no matter who or what they are but few people choose to make friends. I think he liked us, because he frequently came to our table, but never offered us a bill. We were there about 3 hours.

The next morning, I was so excited about going to Schladming, that I could hardly sleep. We had a Motel One Breakfast buffet, which was cleverly hidden behind a secret wall.

To save some effort, we decided to see if we could find a train to salzburg from Munich Ostbahnhof instead of going back to the HBF. To our delight, we found one and got on!

After 1 1/2 hours the train was stopped longer than normal. We heard loud bangs, like trash cans being emptied, which is not normal for an in-use train. It turns out, this train was about to go back to Munich, and a bus ws required to continue on to Salzburg. But it was so weird, because the train was marked for Salzburg.

We got out in this place where we didn't know where we were, and asked the DB guy to help us get to Salzburg. We had a 1 hour delay, so trekked into the weird little town in the middle of no where, to get some eats.

When we finished our lunch, we turned back to the train station, and went to the platform, where we were told by the DB guy, and where the signs indicated the train would be arriving. It was very confusing, because first of all the train was very late, I think about 40 minutes, and it ended up coming in on a different track. Everyone was very confused, and no one knew what to do. anyway, after some confusion, we did find the right place to get one, and we were on or way to Salzburg.

We switched trains in Salzburg, and were finally on our way. The train car we were in to Schladming, has windows you could open, so I did the entire way, and took lots of photo's. What a great feeling, going to somewhere you love so much. It was so cool as we rode I was thinking about God...and I thought...the God was the same when I first rode this train to this wonderful town, as He is right now... for some reason, that was very cool to me at that time. I couldn't stop smiling.

Castle Town, Schwangau

We arrived in Munich at 6am but not before being served a breakfast of coffee, which I added dwater to, from the sink. I was about to take a sip, when I noticed the "DO NOT DRINK" sign. Boo. The sandwich we got as well, was terrible.

In Munich we bought a couple of Maps and then to Starbucks for a couple of Vanilla Latte's.

Where we discovered 1 of 3 errors which I'd made in planning this leg of our trip. Instead of borrowing a car from Enterprise across the street from the Bahnhof we were at, the Enterprise I rented from, was across town.

Troy was gracious with me and located a route on the metro. We found the enterprise easily and rented a tiny opel, which had just enough room for us, and our bags. We also rented a tomtom - our GPS system which like everything else this far, has been a Godsend.

We drove through the beautiful country of Germany and even got to drive on the Autobahn. The Opel had no problem keeping up, and easily held speed at 170 kph. It is quite something to be passed, while going that fast, especially when it is a mini-van!

We arrived at our hotel Landgasthof 'Zur Post'in Schwangau around 11am, and were greeted not by a person at the front desk, but by a note welcoming us to town, and providing our key and telling us they were on holidays.
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We found our cute room on the 1st floor (which is considered the 2nd floor in North America). We had a HUGE walk-out patio. We showered and got refreshed with clean clothes, and headed off to see the castles!

We drove to the closest parking lot available, and then purchased our tickets to both castles.

We had a bit of time before our tour began and were very hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifungry. We both got a tasty bevarian sausage and some french fries to share. We then began to climb the massive hill to Hohenschwangau castle. We had a bunch of time to walk around the outside of the castle, before our tour started. What a beautiful place. It overlooked the beautiful Bavarian Countryside. Our tour guide LOVED his job, and it was easy to tell. He chatted a lot with Troy and I, which seemed to annoy some of the other people on our tour, but we had a lot of questions for him, which he was more than happy to answer.

The castle was filled with expensive gifts from dignitaries and famous friends of the Royal Family. Unfortunately they do not allow you to take photo's in the castles.

We took many photo's around the castle, and out windows in the castle, and then walked down the hill, on our way to the next castle.

Neuschwanstein looked magnificent from the valley below, and looked better and better the closer you got to it. We took a horse and carriage ride almost all the way to the top, and we walked the rest of the way.

This castle is really something to behold. It was thought up by King Ludwig II who was said to be crazy. They worked on the castle for 12 years, and by that time, had only completed 1/3 of the work. King Ludwig moved in at this stage, and 2 weeks later, was declared insane. 2 days after that, they found him floating in a lake in Munich. Ever since then, this castle has been a tourist attraction, for obvious reasons. The rest of the castle, has not been completed.

The castle is even more beautiful and elaborate that the first castle. Ludwig even had a secret room, behind his bedroom, which looks like something out of Indiana Jones. Its a cave room/secret passageway, and it honestly looks like you are walking though a cove 1000 miles, inside a mountain. There were stalagmites and different colors everywhere. Very different.

Troy and I tried to find secret passageways in the castle, but didn't find any luck. All the doors were locked, and none of the walls we pushed on moved.

We took many photos here, once again, not allowed inside the castle, but from the windows, and outside, and then we walked around to the bridge behind and above the castle.

We left the castles after trying a delicions donut like treat and another carriage ride down. Our feet, once again, were sore. We got back to our hotel, with still no sign of the owners.

We went to find some eats, after lounging around our hotel room for a bit. We found a local Italian eatery, and a friend. He was a cute old man who could not speak English, but managed to communicate he would be making our breakfast. We entered the restaurant with him, and ordered a shrimp cocktail, pizza's, and wine, and lemonade/coke for Troy. The shrimp cocktail...although not terrible, was something out of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. It was lettuce, cooked, but cold mini-shrimp, with about 1 1/2 bottles of thousand islands dressing on top.

The pizza's however were amazing. I think it was the best I've ever had!

We had a difficult time communicating with the waiter that we would like some dessert, but he did bring us a drink from the cute old man who couldn't stop staring at me. The drink was fairly nasty, but we could not let him know that.

Finally the waiter brought us a bill. I guess he did not want to serve us dessert. We got up to leave, and the cute old guy followed us out. He pointed down the street and told us we should go see "Life Music". We attempted to follow his directions, with no luck, more-so to appease him, than because we actually were super interested.

We couldn't find the life music (live music), but we did find another cute place where we got some Tiramisu, and coffee. Unfortunately we found out after we both started eating that the dessert contained nuts...so Troy couldn't eat it!

We walked back to our hotel in the rain, only to find it locked! Before trying our key, we rang the hotel doorbell, and the owner, who had since arrived, let us in, and told us our key would have worked in the front door. Good to know for next time!

The morning brought rain, so the plans to check out the bobsled, and the crystal spa which we'd discovered were also in Schwangau, were out. Boo.

We got up and ate a lovely traditional breakfast of bread, cheese, meats, yogurt, fruit, jams, etc, and some great coffee.

We then packed up, made a quick stop to the post office to mail our beautious picture, bid farewell to the cute oldie (who we gave the Canadian Pen we'd purchased in the TO airport), and headed off for Dachau.

The drive was beauteous, yet uneventful. It was raining in Dachau. Not hard, but enough to set the mood for a walk through the memories of the past. It seemed very appropriate. It was April 29th, 2008, which is the anniversary of the day that the prisoners of Dachau were liberated.

The Concentration Camp was something neither of us will ever forget, and very graphic. I had a difficult time taking it all in, and about 3/4 of the way through it, I had to stop, it was too much for me. They say that Dachau was not a death camp, because they claim they did not exterminate people there (although they do have extermination chambers). They say it was not an extermination camp, but it certainly was a death camp, because they worked people to death, starved them to death, and beat them to death. It is said about Dachau, that the crematorium burned 24 horus a day, the entire time Dachau was open, and that was not enough time to burn all the bodies of those who died there.

We left Dachau more educated in our world's history, but determined not to let it effect the rest of our day. So naturally, we went to Burger King.

We drove back to Munich, with the help of TomTom, and returned the car, and then were driven to our hotel, Motel One.

A Brief Stop in Vienna

(We grabbed a lovely meal in the dining car, after being laughed at by a bunch of Locals for saying "excuse me" to get by). We arrived in Vienna and Ruth, the friend we made on the train helped point us in the right direction, as our train from Prague was arriving at the Sudbahnhof & we were leaving Vienna for Munich from the west banhoff.

We found it easily, after Ruth departed 1/2 way through our journey. We avoided getting beer spilled on us in the metro by an intoxicated patron, thank goodness.

We arrived at Vienna west Banhnhoff over an hour early and got some snacks, and then waited for the train to arrive. We got to hear a lot of drunk football fans being obnoxious on the platform.

Finally our train arrived!

We easily found our train car, and our friendly attendant showed us to our room. First though, Troy figured he'd see how tough I was, and rammed me in the face with his pack and gave me a nose bleed.

Our room was tiny, but well appointed. Two bunks, one low for Troy, and another super high for me. I needed a ladder to get up and down.

Neither of us slept very well on the train. It was great to have a place to lie down though. We also got rammed by a train joining our train, really hard in the middle of the night. That was a bit scary but par the course I'm sure.

Prague

Beauteous Prague...you're still as beautiful as I remembered you. That's about all I remembered about Prague. We arrived around noon on Saturday by train from Berlin. We stood in a long line at a Relay station to get some Czech currency as change, only to discover they didn't take Euro. We easily found an ATM, but were unsure of how much their currency was worth. We guessed and took out $3000 CZ Monies, which turned out to be a perfect amount.

With troy as our transit navigator, we easily found our hotel, Apart BV, but since it was too early, we were unable to check in. We left our packs at a cost of 30CZ, and took off to find some eats. Its note-worthy at this point, to tell you that I took 2 Gravol on the train, to help with motion sickness, as well as the added benefit or the drowsiness. But wow...I felt like I was as tired as I had ever been. I did no discover that the Gravol had this bad of an effect on me, until our plane ride home, when I again noticed how tired I was, and in addition, noticed my pupils were the size of golf balls.

Anyways. We found some sausages, and sat in Wenceslas Square & admired all the beautiful tulips. I was SO exhausted, so we decided to try to stick around our hotel. We also left our camera in our pack, so couldn't take photo's. We found a McDonald's, for our first and only stop there, and got some fries, and sundae's...to try to get me some energy. No luck, but yummy all the same. Time seemed to move in slow motion.

From there we got a little lost, and stumbled upon an outdoor market full of marionettes, wooden toys, paintings, lace, fruits, and many other fun things. I fell in love with some art work, but we decided to wait to see if we could find something else we liked more.

From the market we headed to our hotel, located at 36 Wenceslas Square. We checked into our hotel which was clean, and comfortable and had a massive window overlooking the square.

Both of us were exhausted...me for more due to the gravol than anything else....and took a nap. 3 hours later we woke up, better rested, yet a tad crabby all the same. We ventured out, and took the metro to Charles Bridge. From there we walked across the crowded but pleasant bridge, stopping to view all the vendors and street artists, including a jazz band, who played along the bridge. We noticed a restaurant which looked nice and was right on the river. We made our way there, funding a funny statue of men peeing on our way.

For dinner, I ordered white wine, Caesar salad and veal schnitzel. Troy ordered water (still) which came in a cool bottle, Caesar salad and the organic chicken on the recommendation of our waitress. The waitress brought us some yummy and yucky bread to start with also. the Caesar salad was very yummy and contained boiled eggs. Our dinners were great, but it cost us $1465 CZ, which we figure is about $80. Go figure. We visit the cheapest city in Europe, and eat in the most expensive restaurant in the city.It was well worth it though, right along the river, with a heat lamp right above it. It was lovely.

After dinner we walked to old town, and spent some time viewing the old town square. We stopped to watch the famous clock on the hour, but were surprised such a sight gained so much fame. We got some ice cream as we left. It was delicious, and after a bit of walking our feet, once again were sore and we retired to our room. Troy rubbed my feet while I finished the finally Harry Potter book. Good Night Beautiful Prague.

This morning we woke up well rested, and happy. We packed up and left our packs for the day and headed off to Prague castle. From the station we walked 2200 meters and arrived. our first stop was the castle cafe for some coffee and apple strudel. Unfortunately it had nuts, so Troy could not partake, because of his allergy.

We walked through the castle grounds, stopping to listen in on some beautiful singing at the cathedral. We saw some great views and easily made our way back into town. We walked over to the Jewish Quarter, thanks to Troy's brilliant Navigational skills, only to find that it was a Jewish Holiday, and the museum as well as the Jewish Synagogue were closed. BUMMER.

We wandered through town and came upon old town once again, not before stopping for some post cards and stamps.

We bought some lunch - Gyro's, but were disappointed with them, and threw most of them out.

We thought briefly of taking a train ridge through the city, but figured we'd get a better tour by foot. And we did. We did purchase a boar ride. A bus took us to the boat port, and we were able to get the last seats on the top deck. Sharing a table with a few older men who turned out to be quite chatty, from Belgium. The boat tour was very enjoyable and we were served colored cake, and gross coffee. It was lovely all the same.

After walking all over town already, we made it easily from the Rive to old town square and then to the market we'd been at the day before. We saw a beautiful picture for 550 CZ and that lady was even willing to give us a 50cz discount. We found a much better price at another booth, for an even more beautiful large picture, and even had enough for 2 small pictures as well. Unfortunately the vendor was unwilling to give us a deal, but the pictures were so beautiful we bought them anyways.

With our beautiful pictures in tow, we walked back and picked up our backpacks and walked to the train. With some help from some locals we purchased some train tickets and boarded a train towards the train station.

With 62 CZ left in our pocket, we arrived at the train station, and purchased a large bottle of iced tea, and 2 8CZ cheese buns. We had 2 CZ to spare! With no problem we found and boarded our train, and even made some friends in our compartment. We are 1/2 way through our trip to Munich now, and they have stooped the train...I wonder if they threw someone off?

We'll soon arrive in Vienna.

Berlin

(written by Troy) "The trip to the airport was not too bad, but the signage for the RER is not as clear as the metro. With some help from some helpful and friendly Parisians, we were directed onto the right train, destined for the Orly Airport.

Easy jet is very cheap, but is it worth the pain of being constantly in a "line"? The check in desk was not open when we arrived but people formed a line before the line. We ignored it. When boarding, you need to be in the front of the line, to get seats together on the plane. Why don't they just assign seats? But the flight was ok, and we arrived on time.

The ticket machine was a little confusing at the Berlin airport, and we got several single use tickets instead of a day pass. But I think it worked to our favor in the long run.

The train ride, was a bit confusing, and the train compartment we were in was LOUD, and obnoxious. About 10 guys got on the train, from Russia, all drunk, and with large bottles of brew in hand. They talked loud, they laughed loud, and some of them even fell asleep, once the train began to move. We felt a bit unsafe in the beginning, but one of them started talked to us, and we found them obnoxious, but harmless. Nearing their stop, one guy, started to wake his sleeping comrades. One of them was completely passed out. He pulled him, off his seat, onto the floor. You can imagine how that went over. In addition, when that guy was sleeping, a German man, boarding the train walked by, and you can imagine the disgust, when he saw this guys dirty feet, on a train seat. Europeans are very protective of their trains, and get quite angry, when people put their feet on the seats.


We found our new home at the Schoenhouse Apartments without incident. And what a wonderful home it was for 3 days. Walking through the cafe into the court yard, and around the corner, was the entrance to our building. Upon opening the door I could immediately detect the scent of a typical German home.

Down the hall and to the right was our apartment which had a relaxing living room (with a TV, that had only BBC News, and CNBC in English, along with MTV Europe, and Spanish game shows), a cute kitchenette and table and our big cozy bed with huge German pillows, and separate duvets for each of us!

After settling in, we ventured into our neighborhood, and sat outside on some long benches at a restaurant for a typical German dinner. (Schnitzel and such). On the way back home we stumbled upon Extra Foods, to stock our kitchen.

German Grocery Highlights:
~Wine as cheap or cheaper than Fanta.
~Sandwich meat, made to look like a Bear.
~Tons of selection in a very small space.

The rest of the evening was spent hand washing our laundry, playing cards, and munching on chips and gummy bears, and of course Fanta (sipping, not munching).

The next day started with a visit to Checkpoint Charlie. After some initial confusion about lineups, entrances, and lockers for the day pack, we were able to check out the museum. I forgot how many crazy schemes people came up with to flee East Berlin. Shara graciously put up with my attempted history lessons.

A short walk down the street and we were tempted by a balloon ride above the city. The view was fantastic, and helpful for orientation. Around another corner, was a long segment of the original Berlin Wall, still standing, and the topography of terror. It probably would have been very educational, but our feet were much too tired to linger, maybe next time.

A few blocks down the street landed us at Potsdamer Platz. Lunch was downstairs, and my donair was big enough for 2, so I shared with Shara, who had a small German Pizza. For dessert we went upstairs, and each ordered Monstrous Gelato Creations. We probably should have shared one.

Trying to make our way to the Brandenburg Gate we were halted by a huge parade of hockey players. Someone tried to cross the street in the middle of the LONG parade, and was harshly reprimanded by the police officer(he yelled at the top of his lungs at him). Continuing onto the gate, we came across an odd, but interesting monument to the holocaust. Cement blocks of various sizes were arranged in rows, each apparently representing a people group, affected by the holocaust. We got this information from another tourist who was admiring the memorial, but he spoke very little, and broken English.

At the gate we found our excited hockey friends again. Shara asked a fan, who was more than happy to tell us that the team had just recently won the German championship.

The Reichstag had line-ups that felt 10X longer than they really were because of our weary feet. The view from the top was worth standing in line for an hour.

While wandering towards home, we thought of taking a boat ride, but the stupid ticket lady kept ignoring us. Grrrrr.

The evening was capped off with foot rubs, a German snack, and a wine bottle, impossibly difficult to open, reading, and some soccer on the tele.

Friday started late, after some much needed rest. We were still Jet Lagging. The First stop was the east side gallery. I tried to imagine that the wall was the only thing separating me from oppressive regime.

The U-Bahn took us next, to the Ku'Damm. The subways are nice enough in Berlin (and often overground), but nobody seems to be able to top the system and security in Paris. To save our tired feet, and maximize sightseeing, we took a double decker sight-seeing bus around the city. We had the back bench all to ourselves, almost the entire back of the bus to be exact. We took lots of photo's, and enjoyed seeing a good portion of the city. It was also raining just a little, so it also kept us dry.

After the bus ride, we made our way to KaDeWe and quickly found the restaurant on the top floor. Having learned NOTHING about sharing large portions, we both had both more than we could eat, but it was yummy. We did a little shopping in the department store, and could not resist getting a German copy of "Settlers of Catan" and shipping it home.

Our feet were tired and we had an early morning the next day, so we went home to do some packing. And then back to Potsdamer Platz to see the U2 3D show. What a great movie. I often felt I should be applauding, (and some audience members did) or that the person ahead of me should sit down (it was actually audience members from the film). "Pride" and "Streets" gave me shivers.

Random Thoughts:
~I love the walk/don't walk guys in Berlin, they are also handy for figuring out which half of the city you were in, as those particular ones, are only found in East Berlin.
~I feel so proud when I can communicate "auf deutsch". One guy at the DB info place, could speak no English, but we both got the message across ok.

Paris

"I write as we make our way by train from Berlin to Prague. We have had a great time so far. We left Toronto on April 20th. A quick stop in Montreal and then off to Paris. It was difficult to sleep on the plane despite purchasing our 3 euro "zoom" blanket & pillow. We arrived in Paris France at 11am and were greated with a friendly border guard who told me it would cost a smile to enter Paris.

We quickly found the correct train, after spending 38 Euro's each for a 3 day transit pass. Expensive, yet we made excellent use of it. It was quite easy to find out hotel "Le Quarter Bastille". We were greated by Vianny (or Fransois". Our hotel on the 6th floor was the smallest hotel room in history, but very cute and comfortable with a balcony opening to the street. The elevator to get to our room was equally small. We barely fit the 2 of us, along with our packs.

We showered and changed into clean clothes before venturing out. Our first stop was the Notre Dame. I suppose first we had to find it, and along the way, found a french version of a hot dog (which was a hot dog/bun, with cheese broiled on the top). It would have been excellent, except the hot dog was cold...oh well.

We came across a beautious building which turned out to be an old prison. Finally we stumbled upon the Norte Dame & Sat down to finish our hot dog where Troy was greeted by a crazy man who insisted Troy feed me the hot dog. The man kept touching Troy and did not understand when Troy told that he did not understand.

Inside the Notre Dame was very beautiful. I thought for sure that the guidebooks suggested viewing the treasury, so we paid the 3 Euro's each. After viewing the treasury, I concluded, the guide books must have said DON'T go see the Treasury, because it was boring and lame.

Our next stop was the romantic Eiffel tower. We made sure we found some kisses in the park and took loads of photo's. We were exhausted from the jet lag, so decided to head back to our hotel, to get some grub.

We soon found out that all restaurants don't open until 8pm, how crazy? We found an open pub, but could not order meals. So we ordered some drinks, and then a cheese platter (when in Paris, do as the French do). We tried each cheese -- Troy nearly barfed. It was a great experience and I discovered my love of Brie Cheese. We stayed until 8pm, and then headed out to find an open restaurant.

We looked for a french looking restaurant, but our tired feet, and jet lagged eyes got lazy and we did with what we could find. Italian.

Troy ordered pizza, with a raw chicken looking meat on it, and I tried to get gnocci with cream sauce, but I got salmon in there too. Dinner was great and the culture even better. Our servers spoke only a little English.

We had a good night's sleep, and then headed for Versaille around noon the following day. Lucky for us we found a vendor selling tickets which allowed you to skip lines. She said that no one ever believed her, and told us there was a ticket office closer to the palace, for when we discovered she was not lying. Once at the palace, we believed her about the waits, and bought tickets. The palace was beautiful as were the gardens. We grabbed a bite to eat in the garden and then headed back to Paris.

Montmare was our next stop & after wandering through a few busy streets we found Sacre Couer. What a beautiful building. We walked the million or so steps to the top for a breathtaking view of Paris & then set off to find the painters.

Many shops and vendors are everywhere, selling anything and everythign you could want. Finally the painters. We circled the painters probably 10 times, looking for the perfect and yet affordable painting. No luck. The most beautiful was 480 Euro's. BOO.

Instead of paintings, we bought crepes, I got a Nuetella/banana one, which was the yummies thing I've ever eaten. Troy had citron.

We made our way to the Arc Du Triumphe, the ceremony of the unknown soldier was going on.

As if you have to pay to walk up 280 steps...only in Paris. We paid the money, and made the circular climb. It was worth all 280 steps. :)

Beautious views greeted us. It is easy to see why everyone loves Paris. We spent quite a while up there, and took loads of photo's.

The Champs Elysse was our next stop, and our feet hurt a lot. We stopped at Quick burger, more-so to rest our feet, but who doesn't want a burger every once in a while. The metro stop was very close, and we decided we were ready to get back to a cozy bed.

The following day, Wednesday, we slept in, and ate a yummy breakfast in the hotel. We departed to Berlin soon after.

Note - beware of people who ask you "Do you speak English". When you tell them yes, they will hand you a note, with an English version of a sob story begging for money. After the first experience of this type, we pretended we did not speak English.

Second Note - When in Paris, making out in public is ok. We didn't, but saw others...loads of others. Maybe we should have given it a whirl."

I Dream In Color

Has anyone ever asked you if you dream in color? I can't really remember who, but I know I've been asked that before, and I've definitely thought about it...and of course I always thought I did, but I know now for sure, that I do dream in color. The reason I know this...is that I remember the color of the little boy's jacket in my dreams. I had a dream that I was in an accident, and I thought I hit a little boy wearing a green jacket. Turned out I didn't hit him, thank goodness...but I woke up remembering the color of his jacket.

Well I made it though my exam...I've since been scared by one of my classmates, that I wrote the exam wrong. The exam was a 3 hour exam, 8 questions, with each question being 25 marks. Now 6 out of the 8 questions were options. Either do part a, or part b. That in itself was quite a test, because you had to figure out how many marks you could get, in each option, and then choose the best one. Anyways. My classmate said that another classmate had told her after the exam, he'd re-read the initial question, and the initial question said that if you were studying from the old text, you were to do part a, and if you were studying from the new text you were to do part b questions.

Anyways - I'm hoping that was a suggestion, and I'm hoping they won't only mark my part b questions, because I'll likely fail if that's the case...but what can I do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and saying lots of prayers about that one.

Anyways, that's all I've got for now. My cute husband is making me one of his famous vanilla latte's and we're going to see Chelsea, Andrew and cutie-pie Jack for brunch in a couple hours. I can't wait!


S

Diet Coke

My beverage of choice in trying to make myself study. As you see, its not going well. Last time I posted, it was 12 days until my exam. Now its 3. I wish I could say that if I went back, to that 12 day mark, I would have spent more time studying, and less time procrastinating...but I'd probably do it the same all over. I'm tired of studying. My mind is tired of pushing things into it, I never wanted to have in there. Troy has left me alone tonight, and I'm trying my darnedest to study, but I only managed to get a combined 25 minutes of it, and my mind won't take it. I think I'll go back in a few minutes.

It smelt like spring outside this morning. I was at the bank machine putting in a cheq, and I caught a whiff of it, and I sort of 1/2 way got out of my car. I must have looked like a lunatic. I don't care...what a wondrous smell. What do you think causes that? The theory I've come up with is this.

You know in life when times are tough? Nothing ever seems to go your way, you feel like you're at the end of your self. And then all of the sudden you think, "I'm not going to live like this anymore." And life changes, your perspective changes, and you start growing, and things all of the sudden change for you, even if the circumstances don't change, you do...and that's where the growth comes from.

I think that's what happens in creation. In the winter it all dies, and then when the spring peeks its head around the corner (this is quite a long process in Alberta, in fact I can never ever remember a true season of spring in the 8 years I've been here) the plants, and the trees, decide they're not going to be dead anymore...they're going to change things. And of course, God commands them to do this, and the obey as creation does...but they decide they won't live dead anymore. Well I think the smell of spring is that decision, to start living again. I see little teeny tiny buds on our big tree in front of the house. That makes me happy. I love the smell of spring.

Speaking of that, I've decided the garden has to go. I've drawn up a plan for the yard...and when we're back from Europe, I'm (and by "I'm" I mean me, and Troy, and anyone else we can recruit) going to dig up the front yard, and uproot all the perennials...which is sort of sad, but necessary. Then we're going to lay sod, and leave some area's to plant some pretty potting plants each year. I think it will be easier to maintain, and enjoy. Its too buggy out there with that mammoth forest of plants...despite its potential.

Well I can't think of anything else to write....I suppose this is coming to an end. I better get back to trying to study. If you think of me, my exam is on Monday at 1:30pm Mountain time.

S