We got up early to set off for Bavarian Castle country. We had purchased our tickets in advance a few days ago and had our first visit around noon. We didn't leave ourself an extra cushion of time, so between rain and an unexpected road closure on our route, we ended up arriving too late. In addition, Susan had forgotten to bring the confirmation number along, so we were concerned that our advanced tickets would not be honored. Thankfully, they just rescheduled our visit for a few hours later and we were on our way without waiting in the long line for those who had not purchased tickets in advance.

It was raining all day and Susan hadn't realized that 3 weeks of walking in her old shoes had left large cracks in the soles - at least she didn't know about them until she stepped outside where her socks were instantly soaked through. It was cold, rainy, and foggy all day, which detracted considerably from the majestic views we were hoping to get of the outside of the castles - especially Neuschwannstein, which is the most famous of all Bavarian castles - the one that the Disney castle is modeled after. The first castle of the day, Hohenschwangau, turned out to be the most rewarding (although least well-known) because the interior was amazing and there was a lot of information provided through the audio tour. Neuschwannstein was quite disappointing - considering that they had 17 years to build it and they only managed to finish a dozen rooms or so. The view from Mary's Bridge is supposed to be amazing, but we just saw white nothingness from the fog.

The next stop on our Bavarian castle tour was Linderhoff. We were told that it was a copy of Versaille, so we were expecting something quite large. It may have been inspired by Versaille (Johan Ludwig was a great admirer or Louis XIV and Louis XV) but it's certainly not a copy. We had a nice tour but then were so tired of the cold and rain that we made a beeline back to our home base for the night where we got warmed up and dried and ate some yummy food.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We've spent time over the last few days trying to sort out our rental car situation as it pertains to visiting Italy. After much confusion and hearing different stories depending upon who we called, we decided that it was OK for us to drive to Italy. Consequently, Czech Republic is in the same category as Italy in our rental agreement, so we decided to make a quick trip to Czech today. One of the biggest reasons why rental car companies prefer that you not take their car to Italy and Eastern Europe is the large number of auto thefts in those countries. To diminish that threat, we decided to avoid the traditional tourist towns (namely, Prague) and instead decided to visit the region closer to Germany. It started with a drive through Plzen, a large, unknown town not too far from the German border. Then, after looking at a map we decided to visit a local castle, which turned out to just be a hunting lodge and was more of a large house than what you would normally associate with the word "castle" or "kozel." To get there, we drove on many small, winding roads in the back country of Czech and it was delightful. The scenery was pretty (although not as green as Germany) and the villages were quaint. After parking near the Kozel, we walked up a path to get to our destination and on our way saw a nice lake. We stopped to take photos of the surrounding fauna and were astonished to find Jaws' little brother right there in the lake. In fact, dozens of his little brothers. Dorsal fin and all, cutting through the surface of the water in search of food, and the little buggers couldn't have been more than 6 inches long. It was quite a fascinating sight and we stopped to try to capture it on film. The pictures truly don't reflect the experience of seeing these fish, but we did our best.

We had a tour of the Kozel and it was cozy - some rooms more elaborately decorated than others - and then we got back in the car (which, thankfully, hadn't been stolen) and returned to the safety of Germany. We stopped in Regensburg again with every intention of getting a bite to eat at the ancient bratwurst stand, but due to an embarrassing misunderstanding with the waiter we left without filling our tummies. Which was a good thing, because a wonderful, traditional dinner was waiting for us back at "home" - ham hock and sauerkraut.

Labels: Czech, Europe 2008, Germany

Another day to sleep in followed by a late breakfast with the family. However, today we decided to spend the afternoon in Nurnberg. Of course, we know of Nurnberg from the War Trials after World War II, but we were surprised to learn what a hotbed it was for pro-Nazi activities. We learned all about it at the Nazi Documentation Center (another interesting place that we found courtesy of Rick Steves). We found it to present a lot of information in what seemed to be a very objective, non-biased way - the good, the bad, and the ugly of Nazism, it's birth and death (or at least downfall). It was very interesting to learn what political and social changes were happening to Germany to make it's citizens receptive to the Nazi agenda and to watch interviews of people from all sides of the political spectrum who lived through those times. We stayed until closing time and then, of course, paid a visit to the famous court house. It's still in use and is closed to the public, so we only saw the outside. Finally, we returned "home" for another delicious dinner with the family. Unfortunately, the dinner table became somewhat hostile as a political debate developped (we do not have the same political perspective as our German relatives) and things rapidly developped into a loud disagreement. Eventually, things calmed down and we were able to go to sleep with no hard feelings (I hope).

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We slept in and had a traditional continental breakfast with the family. We finally realized how the term "Continental" breakfast came into being - it's basically a buffet of bread, meat, cheese, and fruit - and is so named because that's what people in continental Europe eat, as opposed to the heartier hot breakfasts eaten in England. Who knew?

We went to Regensburg to see the town (lots of churches, a river, and a 1700 year old bratwurst stand). We got some great Italian sorbet and then returned "home" for another relaxing evening.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We all slept in, had a late breakfast, and then bid adieu. We went back to Heidelberg to see the castle and stop in a few souvineer shops we had seen along the way. Afterwards, we departed for our relative's house in Bavaria. ALong the way, we stopped for a snack at a bakery in a very small town off the highway. We had fun trying to communicate with the owner, who didn't speak any English. In the end, we all got tasty food and had a good laugh!

We arrived at our relative's house in the evening and had a delightful time. The family consists of Grandpa, parents, and two children (an 18 year old son and 9 year old daughter). We only saw the son once during our visit, but the rest of the family was around most of the time and we really enjoyed spending time with them.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We got up relatively early again (7am), ate breakfast, packed up, and set off for Heidelberg, where we met up with Ivan's schoolmates. The drive was beautiful and it was exhilerating to travel on the autobahn, though we certainly weren't the fastest ones on the road. We saw numerous signs for turnoffs to historic places on the way, but wanted to spend as much time as possible with Ivan's friends, so we decided not to stop. We arrived at Johann and Julia's house for lunch and then were joined by another classmate, Vitaliy, who drove down from Frankfurt. Together we went to Heidelberg where we waleked through old town (the largest pedestrian walk in Europe, or so we were told) and went for a boat ride on the Rhine. We had dinner in a delightful restaurant and returned to Johann and Julia's where we spent the night. Us ladies retired around midnight while the guys stayed up until 3am!

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

We decided to get up early to try to get tickets to see the Historic Green Vault (they only give out 200 tickets each day). To get there fast, we borrowed bikes again and rode into town. We only had to wait in line for 45 minutes and we were still among the first 50 in the door - not at all as crowded as we expected, though perhaps the rain had something to do with that.

The treasures in the vault were incredible and we are all very glad we were able to go (it was Claire's suggestion - Ivan and Susan were hoping to take a train to Prague, but the visit to the Vault was amazing). You aren't allowed to take any pictures inside, so the best we have is one postcard we bought of the emerald collection (our birthstone - yes, all 3 of us were born in May!!). We also got a day pass for the rest of the museums and palaces, so we spent most of the day in the old town.

We took a break for lunch of bratwurst at a street stand and in the evening returned to the hostel for a tasty dinner of ravioli, grilled cheese, and (for Ivan) tuna. We spent some time on the computer (downloading Claire's photos and recording some expenses) and went to bed at 10pm. Susan was moved from the co-ed room she had last night into the girls only room with Claire and it was considerably quiter (probably because the windows were mostly closed) so at least the girls got a better night's sleep.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

Mental Note: Stick to rental car companies in the center of the city. Yeah. They don't all speak English in the suburbs.

Ivan and Susan woke up early to go to the EuropCar office to pick up our car. Our first problem was that the guy helping us didn't speak English. Eventually, a woman who spoke English helped us and we learned our second problem was that the car they had for us couldn't be driven to Zurich (it was too many kilometers to put on the car) even though our reservation clearly said we would be dropping it off in Zurich. So, they had to have a car driven to us from another location, which delayed us by over an hour. When the car finally came, it seemed to be an upgraded version and they told us we couldn't take it to Italy, although our reservation specifically said we could go to Italy. We still need to get that sorted out, but we were just too glad to get the car and be on our way that we didn't want to bring it up at the time.

We drove back to the hotel to collect our belongings and Claire, got lunch at the Kebap stand, and drove to Dresden. In Dresden, we stayed at a great hostel. We were able to borrow bikes for free and spent the evening on a bike tour of the city (guided by Rick Steves). We had dinner at a soup restaurant and returned to the hostel for a decent bed time. Unfortunately, although there are many nice things about the hostel, quietness at night is NOT one of them. The hostel backs up to a few bars and the noise throughout the night made for difficult sleeping.

Labels: Europe 2008, Germany

Today we slept in (Hurrah!). We had planned to see the DDR museum in the early afternoon and the German History Museum in the evening - the tour guide yesterday said that it and all other state museums were free on Thursday from 6-10pm. We arrived at the DDR museum with a large crowd of others, so we decided to get ice cream instead because the museum was really crowded. After we finished our ice cream, we took a bus around the city with the intention of taking the self-guide Rick Steves bus tour. However, when the bus got to the Reichstag we saw that the line wasn't very long (probably because it was SO hot today) so at the last minute we jumped off the bus to visit the Reichstag. It was very hot, but we only had to wait 30 minutes (usually the wait is 1+hrs). We got a great view of the city and learned some more history.

Afterwards, we had some time to kill before the museums were open for free, so we went to another local restaurant (recommended by Rick Steves) which was pretty good (but also more expensive). Ivan ordered the schnitzel; Susan tried the jager sausage (with spagghetti); and Claire had another type of sausage. All of the food was very tasty and very German.

At 6pm, we went to the German History Museum only to find - to our dismay - that it closed at 6pm and wasn't participating in the free museum activities. We had all been looking forward to that museum the most and were disappointed that we missed out in our attempt to save a few Euros. Instead, we went to the new museum where the Egyptian display is and saw Nephratitit's head (among other things). We stopped at a coffee shop on our way home (and a Birkenstock store - though we didn't find anything we liked) and then went back to the hotel to pack most of our stuff and prepare for the next leg of our journey which begins tomorrow.

Labels: Berlin, Europe 2008, Germany

We awoke in time for the 10am walking tour with the "Original Berlin Walk" (recommended by Rick Steves). It was fantastic, but we got so much more out of it having done the Rick Steves self-guided tour first. Probably 1/2 of the tour were places we had seen yesterday, but we learned so much more history from our guide today. However, after 3 1/2 hours of walking, we were all pretty tired by the end. We went to the kebap stand by our hotel for a fabulous lunch of Donner Normal sandwiches (a cheap and tasty middle eastern / Mediterranean food) and returned to the hotel for rest and internet use.

In the afternoon, we went back out on the town to take in more sights. We were pretty interested in the Check Point Charlie museum, but we decided to divide and conquer: Claire went to the museum while Ivan and Susan took a look at Ku'Damm and Potsdammer Platz (the "Times Square" of Berlin). After Claire was done with the museum she told us many of the amazing stories she learned of how creatively people attempted to escape from the East. The successful stories were very exciting and the unsuccessful stories were heartbreaking. We enjoyed some refreshing ice cream on the street and then returned to our hotel where we retired relatively early.

Labels: Berlin, Europe 2008, Germany

Off for Berlin... But first, sometime between 1am and 4am, the storm knocked out the electricity to our cottage (yes, even though there's no running water, there is... correction, was... electricity). It made things much more difficult to get ready for the day and especially to clean up after ourselves, but we did our best to leave the cottage as clean as possible.

We first drove to the port where Ivan's parents will be leaving in the evening and then returned the rental car. During our flight to Berlin, a problem was discovered in-flight, which required us to turn back for Helsinki after about 30 minutes in the air. However, about 20 minutes later, the problem was resolved and we were able to turn back around. The pilots made up most of the lost time and we managed to arrive in Berlin only 15 minutes late. The landing was a bit of a hair raiser as the plane kept rocking back and forth and the land was approaching awfully fast. Still, the pilots managed to pull off a safe landing and everyone lived happily ever after.

In the airport, we collected our luggage, bought a map, and found public transportation to the hotel (later we learned about a group day pass, but not before we spend 6.30 Euros getting to the hotel). We disembarked the tram at the specified stop, but there were unable to find the hotel from the directions given. Thankfully, with the help of two very nice German ladies (who didn't seem to speak any English), we were pointed in the right direction and were happy to finally arrive. The staff of the hotel was very friendly, helpful, and spoke excellent English.

We napped and found a fantastic restaurant (reccommended by Rick Steves) for a traditional German dinner (schnitzel, meatballs, etc) and then took a walking tour of the city (again, with the help of Rick Steves). We were able to get familiar with the lay of the land and the public transportation system and decided to take a guided tour tomorrow morning.

We returned to our hotel (which was quite nice, although the room was very small for three people) and got a good night's sleep.

Labels: Berlin, Europe 2008, Germany