Germany- August 9-15

I thought some of you at home might appreciate if I went back and told you about my experience in Germany, especially because it was by far my favorite place in Europe! It may have been my favorite for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most is that it was the first place I experienced completely on my own. Arriving to a foreign city with no friends or no one to meet up with allows you to have a unique experience, and not as lonely as you would think.

So we left off with me leaving Venice on the night train to Munich. The night train was nice and relaxing. I was put in a six bed cabin with 5 girls from South Korea, 4 students and their leader who was closer to my age. Those rooms can be quite difficult to move around, but they were like acrobats on Cirque de Soliel. They moved around so stealthfully you would think they were about to perform a magic trick of squeezing themselves into a tiny box. They were also very quiet, which I appreciated, since I needed a good nights sleep. We arrived in Munich around 6:30AM, and just before reaching the city, I watched the sunrise over the beautiful countryside of Germany. It was a lovely way to start the day!

Being quite smart about booking hotels now, I made sure to find a nice place VERY close to the train station, especially after the Venice fiasco. I dropped my bags off at the hotel around 7AM and headed to a coffee shop with my computer. I had prepared myself to struggle with the German language, but ended up being surprised by how many things were in English. And almost everyone in the coffee shop was ordering in English as well. Hmm... Anyway, I spent the morning and part of the afternoon catching up on blogging and emails with everyone at home. Around 2:30PM I checked into the hotel and immediately showered and napped. I had wanted to get ready and spend the day walking around, but it was just not possible with how exhausted I was from all the travel. By the evening I was ready to go. I headed out planning to walk to Hofbrauhaus for a beer, which had me walking through the city center on my way. I saw many street performers that were some of the best I had seen in all of Europe. They were playing beautiful music on saxophones, flutes, and even a piano. I meandered through the center, and saw the famous glockenspiel, that I recently found out was one of my Grandma Alice's favorites. It is a giant coo coo clock with giant toy people that come out and perform a dance and a joust everyday at 11AM. I liked finding out that she loved that clock, especially because she was the major financier of this trip due to the bit of inheritance she left when she passed away a few years ago. I wanted the money she left me to go to something important that would make her proud. She did a lot of missionary work that allowed her to travel the world, and she always encouraged her grandchildren to try and have those same experiences. So I hope it makes her smile to know that I have been able to see and experience these wonderful things that will hopefully make me a woman she would have been proud to call her granddaughter.

After wandering around for a while, I set off to find Hofbrauhaus, but on the way, I saw the Mike's Bike tours office. I knew what time the tours were the next day, and I was already sure I was planning to take one, but I thought I would stop in just in case to confirm the meeting place. One of the guys working there came over to help me and asked me if I was traveling alone. I told him yes and he asked where I was going. When I told him Hofbrauhaus, he said no, and told me everyone was going to the beer gardens tonight. I went with the idea and said I would walk over there, and he said no again! He told me to wait outside and he would be right back. He was a little odd, but mostly friendly, so I went outside and waited. When he finally reappeared he lead me over to a rack of bikes across the street. He said he was giving me a bike for the night and I asked how much it cost and he gave me a silly sarcastic look like "are you kidding?" He told me which direction to head and assured me I would get lost, but just to have fun with it. He handed me a lock and key and said keep it as long as I wanted, and just lock the bike up and drop the key in the mail slot when I was done! Awesome!

I set out to the beer gardem which I knew was in the park. I didn't know at the time though that the park was the Englischer Garten which is the world's largest urban public park, even larger than Central Park in NYC. I rode that bike around for hours, half looking for the beer garden, but mostly enjoying the beautiful scenery and landmarks. The park was such a pleasant place full of people playing music, frisbee, and even surfers in the stream! I didn't know what anything of the landmarks were yet, but I took lots of pictures and enjoyed an amazing sunset. When I finally found the beer gardens I realized two things: I didn't have enough cash to buy anything, and it was getting dark and I didn't have a bike light. I decided to would be safer and smarter to head back to the bike shop and get dinner at the place that had caught my eye around there earlier in the day. I made my way back, getting honked at my a couple buses on the way, but I was careful and stayed on lighted streets. I dropped the bike off and headed next door to the Opatija restaurant. I ordered something on the menu that was in German, having no idea what I would get, and a very larger beer. I ended up with a "steak" of some sorts (pork maybe?) with lots of fries and sauce. I still wanted to find Hofbrahaus and I knew it was close by, but I still couldn't find it anywhere. I found some great live music on the street instead, and enjoyed that before heading in for the night.

The next day I was excited for my Mike's bike tour! The meeting time was 11:15AM right near the glockenspiel, so I got to watch the famous dance and joust (a little anti-climactic but semi-entertaining). When I walked over to meet for the tour, I immediately met a group of recently graduated law students from Houston, Texas and got to chat with them about being "American". One of the guys was particularly cute too so I thought it would be fun to hang around with their group for a while. There were so many people that they had to split us up into two groups, so the young people all grouped to one side to get with the "cooler" tour guide. The only people in our group who weren't college age were a mom and dad that were traveling with their college age son. They were insistent that they were "fun" and should be with the "fun" tour group. I found them entertaining and we got to chatting. They were from somewhere in the midwest that I can't remember now, but they had lived in California when their son was born until he was about 8. We found out that they had lived in Rocklin right near where I grew up. Their son was only a couple years older than me, and we found out we went to the same school for kindergarten. What a small world! The mom seemed to really like me, and wanted to talk a lot about Stanford Ranch where I had lived until I was 10. She was funny and reminded me of my mom, so I liked talking to her.

We headed off and got to see all the different sites around Munich. I had seen several the night before, but now I was getting a full explanation full of entertaining stories. Munich is also the perfect city for a bike tour with lots of bike paths that make it very easy to get around. Everything I saw was so green and clean and very pleasant. There is a lot of history in Germany obviously, but so many things have been rebuilt so the cities function very well. After a couple hours of riding around we stopped for lunch at the beer gardens. I got some sausages and potatoes and another big beer. Our tour guide warned us that if any accidents happen, they all happen after the lunch stop on the trip ;) So after lunch we were all a little more careful with our riding. I particularly enjoyed lunch cause I got to talk to Texas boy a little more.

We saw a few more site on the tour, including the river surfers again, and then headed back to home base. The group of soon to be lawyers decided to go to Hofbrauhaus so I tagged along (since I couldn't seem to find it myself). We had more food and beer, and then the guys had to leave for the airport. There was another girl on the tour, from Texas also, and I decided to go with her to see a few more sites. We went to St. Peter's church and climbed to the top to see a view of the city. It started raining as we climbed up, so the view was a little gray, but absolutely breathtaking nonetheless. It had been such a fulfilling 2 days for me and it was really inspiring to look down over it all.

The next day I got on a train to Stuttgart. I was particularly excited about Stuttgart because there are a lot of vineyards around the area that I was looking forward to visiting. Unfortunately when I arrived it was rainy, cold, and too late in the day to do anything. Because it is such a small town, everything in Stuttgart closes pretty early. I was pretty disappointed, and had a hard time perking myself up to go explore a rainy closed city. I slummed around my nice hotel room for a while eating Pringles and sour candy in bed. I was chatting with my sister and she found a fun Irish pub that had a quiz night on Tuesdays and boasted being all English speaking! This is how I solved the problem of feeling discouraged in a foreign country where no one speaks English; there is always an Irish pub around to meet your needs. I went and had a great cheese burger, the first in a very long time, and a Guiness to wash it down. The bartender was really fun to talk to (at least of what I could understand through his thick Irish accent), and he paired me up with a group of American Marines for the quiz team. They were a great group, very big brother like, and they didn't pick on me too much. It was a fun night and I actually learned a lot from the quiz!
The next day I got up plenty early so I could see the city and the vineyards. In the city center, there was a display of the United Buddy Bears. This is a display that started in Berlin (being that the bear is their mascot of sorts) and has traveled around the world to symbolize living together in peace and harmony. A bear is sent to countries around the world and they have to paint it in a decorative way to represent their nation. It is a nice display with hundreds of bears all in a circle. My favorite was Spain's that was painted as a mosaic like old Spanish tiles. I walked through a couple art galleries and a few churches, and then I decided to set out on my wine adventure. I had picked up a map from the tourist office of a walking tour that was 8.5 miles long if I completed the whole thing. However, it was all in German, so I was on my own to figure out the directions. I hoped on a local train and went to the next village over. The ride there was stunning with rolling vineyards all around me. When I got off, I started walking around the small town trying to navigate around the streets with German names. After going the wrong way a few times, I finally met someone who spoke just enough English to point me in the right direction (plus he could read my map). I found the little tiny winery that was more like someones home. I rang the buzzer and when the woman answered, she had to go find her daughter to talk to me since she spoke no English herself. They let me in and it was fantastic. Basically, these are peoples homes and they make only a small amount of wine, but during the summer they open their doors to sell to the public. I asked to taste a few, and they opened all the bottles, almost 20 different wines! They were really interesting and different varietals and the prices were incredibly low! I offered to buy a bottle, the Müller-Thurgau of course, and they gave it to me! They insisted that I take it for free and they didn't let me pay anything for the tasting either. I was a little tipsy and completely giddy with excitement about my experience. I decided to carry on, and I headed down the road to the next winery that these wonderful women had recommended. The next place was much larger, a more established shop. I still didn't have to pay for the 15 different wines I tasted, but I did pay 4 Euro for a very nice bottle. I love not having to pay import prices!! Across the street there was a hill covered with vineyards that I wanted to go up, but I couldn't see a way to get in. I scowered the wall along the vineyard for an entrance, and finally found a small pathway leading through separate parcels. I wasn't sure if the path was private or not, but I went ahead anyway. There were fences on both sides of me, so I couldn't get to the grapes. With my wine buzz and the sun, this became a goofy mission to find a gate to get to the grapes. I tried reaching through the fence in a couple places, but no luck. I just wanted to try one of the grapes. I have been watching them ripen all summer, and finally I was in the vineyard while some of them were actually sweet enough to be eaten. I walked a ways further and the path seemed to get deeper under the walls and fences around me. I finally saw a light nearing and soon I found a break in the path that lead to open vineyards on all sides. It was an amazing landscape. I was about midway up this hill, so I was looking up at sky and vineyards, and looking down at vineyards over the little village. I put my things down on the path, grabbed my camera, looked up at the steep hill, and started running! I felt like a kid, tromping through the tall grass between the rows in my skirt, yet without a care in the world about getting dirty or tired. It was quite a hike, but I was exhilarated when I reached the top. The view was stunning; it was exactly like pictures I have seen in books for the past few years, but better. I took lots of pictures and skipped back down the hill. I knew it was too late at this point to go to anymore of the wineries, but I was more than content with my visit. I headed back on the train to Stuttgart and got ready to meet my new American friends for a drink.

I met my new friends at a beer garden in the city park. It was very similar to Munich, but not as large. We had a few drinks there and then decided to go back to the Irish bar. It was a great way to end my visit. Since I was not sure where I was going to go next, I took the advice of my new friends and prepared to head to Berlin.

I will leave this blog here for now... I will finish Germany and Belgium next time!