Back to London

Monday 9/24

Before leaving Munich Tonya and her mom made a trip to the Harley store and I opted to have a lazy morning of recovery from all our fun the night before. During this time the maid showed up earlier than planned and was trying to kick me out. I was in the middle of packing up and tried to explain but she only spoke Portuguese and German so there were lots of hand motions involved! Fortunately T's mom was all packed up so I wheeled her suitcase into the hallway, then grabbed all of T's clothes and attempted to pack them so the maid could get started on cleaning the bedroom and linens. T and her mom came back not too long after this madness started and we got things packed up and headed to the airport.

We had heard the subway ride was really easy and opted to save our $ (a 60 Euro cab ride). We made it there with plenty of time and grabbed lunch before checking in. We flew with German Wings and surprisingly we had a ton of legroom (yes, I know I already have more than average since I'm so short) and they had really good food! We had a plane change in Cologne, Germany and I almost didn't make it through the Passport Control station. Maybe I look like some International spy??? After a bit of delay we finally boarded the plan and landed in London around 10pm. We then had to take a train, to then take the tube, to then walk a mile home! Needless to say we were exhausted, and it was so nice to be back "home" for a few days!

Munich Day 3

Sunday 9/23

We took an early morning train to Fussen to visit the Nueschwanstein Castle built by King Ludwig in 1886, better known to us Americans as the Disney "Sleeping Beauty Castle". The two hour train ride passed quickly, and the landscape was beautiful, especially since we were heading into the foothills of the Alps.

A short walk from the train station brought us to the ticket office and we had a 2 hour wait until the next English tour was available. We walked back down into the town and visited a few shops before picking a restaurant for lunch. The weather was perfect so we sat outside on the patio and enjoyed some Bavarian wine (gotta mix it up a little) and again, more sausages/brats! Mine was served with a potato salad instead of sauerkraut and it was a pleasant surprise! It was no a mayo/mustard base like our American style, but instead had a sweet taste and chunks of cucumber. The patio gave us a great view of the nearby mountain and the castle we were about to visit. Sadly, (what the brochures and tour guides don't tell you!) is that there was scaffolding covering 75% of the exterior which makes for some really bad pictures!

I'd say the process of getting up to the castle could have been a little smoother. You can either hike (40 minutes up a mountain, no thanks!), take a bus, or ride a horse drawn carriage. In hindsight I'm wondering if the carriage would have been best, but we took the bus. The tourism office did nothing to stagger the people going up in regards to your tour time, and the bus was off schedule, and the other tourists not very considerate, but we made it on the bus and had just enough time to literally run almost a mile to the actual castle to make our tour time!

Pictures were not allowed inside but take it from me, it was gorgeous! The highlights included a bejeweled chandelier in the King's throne room, pretty spacious and elegant servants quarters, a "cave" hallway located on the 4th floor (now might be a good time to mention he had some mental problems), his bedroom which had the most intricate woodwork on his bedframe resembling the exterior of a gothic styled church, and the concert hall.

The views from the castle and almost mile walk to the bus stop were breathtaking as you saw a quaint and colorful town below surrounded by lush, green fields and then the Alps to the other side. We headed back into town and had just missed the train back to Munich so we waited about an hour for the next one.

We got home with enough time to stop by the house, change into our Oktoberfest T's, and try one last time to get into a beer tent. We started at Paulaners and easily found a spot in the outdoor beer garten. Beside us was a couple from Berlin and 2 men from Denmark. The Danish men were quite talkative, and had been drinking all day, so once they started to get unreasonable regarding American politics & religion we left.

We passed by Pschorr and didn't see any lines waiting to get in so we stopped in and I quickly spotted a table with enough room for us. It would probably be more appropriate to say that I spotted a bench, as at this point of the night everyone was standing on the benches singing, dancing, and cheering! We climbed on up, made friends with 2 young German guys, and joined in! If you ask me, a lot of the songs sounded more Russian than German, but it was fun and occasionally you'd catch on and join in on the singing...or at least the toasting! We stayed for a few rounds, then headed home. Suddenly the crazy/spinning fair ride lights weren't so pretty anymore, and being jostled by the crowd as Tonya (who had a spurt of energy) literally ran us home, with her mom between us, linking her arms through ours so we could all stay together! (Oh Momma G, thanks!) I won't go into details, but let's just say I was SO thankful to have a mom along with us as that night I didn't feel good at all and she was so kind to take care of me!

Munich Day 2: Oktoberfest

Saturday 9/22

We woke up excited for the parade (I love a good parade, remember I was at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade at 5 am!) and contemplated each of us taking our umbrella because it was a bit cloudy, but we didn't...not even an hour later we realized that was a big mistake! We walked our 2 blocks to the fair and that's when it hit me, we were TOTALLY the tourists! Literally almost everyone was in costume and it was only 10 am! We explored the fairgrounds for awhile because we weren't quite sure which route the parade would take. We passed a lot of rides similar (and possibly even hand-me-downs from the US) to what we'd see, but then also a few fun ones unique to them such as "The Toboggan!". We passed lots of pretzel stands, and the souvenirs you mostly saw were either gingerbread hearts varying in size from 3 inches to almost 3 feet and scarves with a pattern of daisies, some adorned with pretzel charms.

We made our way closer to the more popular beer tents and soon found the parade route. This was definitely a fun parade as everyone was in traditional costume and the wagons and carriages carrying the families behind these popular breweries were decked out in beautiful flowers and gingerbread designs. The horses and their harnesses were beautiful as well! There were several different bands, all with unique costumes, and various sized wagons came by either loaded with one ginormous keg or multiple smaller ones usually spelling out the beer house name. Literally, they deliver the beer this way! The whole time it was sprinkling but it was really started to come down towards the end so we dashed into the nearest beer tent, Lowenbrau! We didn't know it at the time, but that is actually one of the most popular halls and we were able to be in there for the festivities surrounding the first keg tap! It was quite fun, and definitely more of a madhouse than the Hofbrauhaus had been the night before! We met some nice Aussies and the girls gave us a few pointers about where to go and how to get beer. Unfortunately you can only be served if you have a seat and those were impossible to come by! These girls had lined up at 7 am to get in and said they made a mad dash and had to stake claim on their territory until 12 when the beer was allowed to be served. After walking all around we decided we'd have to go back out in the downpour of rain and either go home or try another place. We walked past Pschorr and saw that their outdoor beer garten (yes, I know I replaced my d with a t, it's German) had lots of availability (big shock since it was RAINING!). We decided to suck it up and huddled close with our one little umbrella to enjoy our first official Oktoberfest beer! It was raining SO bad the workers came out with squeegees to try to wipe the rain off of the picnic tables! While standing in the rain, we made a new friend who explained a few things to us:
   -the color of your shirt depicts what part of Germany you are from
   -the gingerbread hearts are given to your sweetheart
   -the scarves tied around your neck signify your relationship status based on what side the knot faces

Honestly, we couldn't complain too much! We had amazing weather up until today, but the cold and rain was getting to us (me mostly, I think I was the wettest!) so we bought a few pretzels (which I stuffed into my shirt, literally giving me a "pregnant pretzel belly" and then grabbed a few brats and ran home! It felt so good to shower,put on dry clothes, and eat warm doughy pretzels with mustard and the brats were so good too! So good in fact that we all fell asleep for a few hours and had a long overdue nap! We had been on the go every day for almost 2 weeks!

When we woke up we walked to the train station to investigate booking tickets to Fussen to see the castle Matt had recommended, and then back over to the Marionplatz to grab some food.

Hello Germany!

Friday 9/21

It was an early morning start with the alarm going off at 5 am! We had a taxi coming at 6 (at least we hoped he'd show up!) to take us to the train station and begin our second leg of the trip to Munich.

The train ride wasn't quite as scenic as I was hoping it would be. Honestly, I felt like I was in Pennsylvania as we just rode through all the farmland, making an occasional stop in a fairly sized town. I did really enjoy seeing the small towns pass, especially as their churches and steeples are so quaint looking. We were barely even off the train when we saw our first boy in Leiderhosen!

We took a cab to our hotel, only to find out that they were overbooked and we would be staying elsewhere in town at an apartment that they had arranged. We also learned that we had to pay in cash!!! T had made all the arrangements and had booked it from one of those non-refundable travel sights and on the 3rd page of her receipt it said in really small letters "a charge will be held against your account until check in, then cash payment will be the only form of payment accepted". OOPS! Long story short the lady tried to explain a tragic story about credit card fraud from the previous year and we tried to explain that we had valid credit cards but our banks would not allow us to take out THAT much $ to pay her. After some persuasion and photocopies of all forms of ID we had our room...or apartment...and she paid for a taxi to take us to our new destination.

The apartment was actually pretty great! They had completely stuffed the fridge with all the OJ and yogurt we could want, as well as the buffet that was overflowing with muffins, breads, tea, and the cutest individual packets of Nutella! (I LOVE NUTELLA!) Oh, and the location, we were barely 2 blocks away from the Oktoberfest fairgrounds! We settled in quickly and then set about to explore downtown Munich. It was an easy walk (about 15 minutes) to the Marionplatz, a sort of town center. Along the way we browsed through a few boutiques, entertained the idea of buying Drindle's, and picked up a few souvenirs. I didn't know just how badly Tonya had wanted to go to Oktoberfest, and my practical side talked me out of spending the money on a drindle when it was supposed to be cold and rainy, and seriously, when else would I wear it? We ended up buying cute "baseball" type T's that say Oktoberfest Munchen 2012 instead. (Sorry T, I didn't know just HOW important it was to be in costume!).

We headed over to Hofbrauhaus, the original Beer Hall since 1589 and entered into a madhouse, a fun one, of very happy people who are fond of spontaneously bursting into song, dance, and cheers! It was a "fend for yourself" seating sort of place and we found a table occupied by several Americans and joined them for a Liter. Matt, who works for Audi and who grew up just 30 mins away from where Tonya is from, was quite a source of knowledge as he's been to Munich several times. He gave us a few pointers and suggested we visit the Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen (instead of the Dachau concentration camp). After finishing our beer we decided to check out Ratskeller, per our British friend Darren's suggestion. It was quite good and we dined on Pork Knuckle (I know, what a name! It was so tender inside and crunchy outside) and a Sausage Variety plate. We also happened to spot our new friend Matt here as well! We didn't stay out too late as we had plans to attend the Oktoberfest parade in the morning!

Paris Day 8

Thursday 9/20

Today is so bittersweet! It's our last full day in Paris before we head to Germany. We got off to a slow start, or maybe it was just oh-so-European of us to not be rushing off somewhere in a hurry, and went to a nearby bakery for our last baguettes and chocolate croissants (again, oh so buttery!) and then hopped next door to a cafe for some espresso. On our way to the metro we stopped at a local boutique and bought several pairs of shoes, so we trekked back home to drop those off, and then again headed for the metro! Our first official stop of the day was to the Harley Davidson store b/c Momma G's boyfriend is a biker! Interestingly enough, I think this was my first time ever in a Harley store. Shocking, I know. I'm constantly mistaken for a biker girl.

We then metro-ed over to Marais, one of the oldest areas and one of the first areas we explored. I really loved this neighborhood for so many reasons: the architecture, the boutiques, the cute cafes. It just felt SO Paris to me! I was on the search for souvenirs and still needed to get something for myself. After several strike outs, I walked away with 2 new scarves and my sister...well, she will just have to wait to see what I got for her!

Our guidebook suggested Tati for discount designer fashion. WHOA! That was so misleading. We got to the neighborhood and I'd say it's probably the seediest area we'd been in. Definitely should have just gotten back on the metro as the store was a big disappointment, bad selection and poor quality. This is not what I'd call discount designer! (I think I was expecting something like Marshall's and this was like Big Lots). Also per our guidebook's suggestion we headed to the exact opposite and found ourselves at Le Bon Marche, an all too expensive and designer only mall! I was in awe at some of the creations of Christian Dior, Alexandar McQueen, etc. but then outraged at the cost! Since we couldn't afford anything we went next door to their deluxe grocery store and picked up a few items for dinner.

T made us a delicious Italian dinner (yes, on our last night in France), we did a load of laundry, and finished our wine. Paris had come to an end and it truly couldn't have been better! It was exactly what I'd thought it would be since I had the perspective of coming as a tourist. I did so much and saw so much! If I never make it back I think I'll find a way to live! But if I do make it back I'll know all the good places to go shopping and dining and there are probably a few things I didn't get to see ;)

Paris Day 7

Wednesday 9/19

Tonya, ever the gracious hostess and best "big sister" got up early, returned the car and then left Momma G and I to navigate ourselves to the St.Michel's metro stop to meet her as we planned to take the train to Versailles. Originally we were going to drive to Versailles but we decided it would be much cheaper and easier to just take the train, only meeting with T at the station was a bit trickier. Unfortunately Momma G and I didn't have any wifi access so we couldn't get in touch with T to tell her where we were as there were several entrances to this station, and not all nearby. We waited for awhile at the top and then eventually decided to go in the station and look for her. T decided to look for us above ground so it took awhile to meet up, but we were all fine and reunited after not too long! We soon boarded the train and settled in for an easy 45 minute ride.

Once we arrived we headed straight for Starbucks to grab lattes and breakfast. (Have I mentioned yet that they don't have pumpkin spiced lattes over here---sadness!) Once our belly's were good and we had caffeine pick me up we walked about 10 minutes down the road to the Palace of Versailles. Oh it was so grand! It is just so amazing to me just how old these buildings are, and what history has taken place in them and here is little ole' me, just loving every minute of exploring them!

There is a really nice self guided audio tour included in the admission and we enjoyed walking around all the lavish rooms with period pieces. Unfortunately there were some very "unique" art designs that sadly obstructed your view of some of the REAL art but several of the pieces were quite interesting. I just didn't think they belonged at Versailles though! I came to see OLD ART, not your weird interpretations of pots and pans modeled as a shoe.

We wandered out into the gardens and made the smart decision to purchase "train" tickets so we could ride out to the Grand Triannon (aka the summer home, quite lavish), the Garden more extensively (about 2 miles long), and the Marie Antoinette Estate which was my favorite as it was built in the English village/manor style and was so idyllic!

After such a wonderful visit to Versailles we thought we'd grab dinner at a local restaurant before heading back into Paris. Sadly, this was probably the worst meal we ate during our trip! So, when visiting Versailles, do not, I repeat, do not eat at the Italian restaurant near the gift shops, it's awful. Moving on, we made it back to the train station, got on the right train, and back into Paris by early evening. The Train, the RER, drops you off near the Eiffel Tower and since we'd been by to take pictures but not yet to visit we decided to scope out the line and see if this would be our night to go up to the top! Ideally I wanted to go around sunset so I could watch the sky change and see all the city lights come on. Well, since this is the trip where dreams come true, this one of mine did and there was hardly a line and we made it up to the top in 45 minutes (or less) just in time for sunset, and with champagne in hand we toasted to yet another lovely day in Paris! Seriously, I probably took 200 pictures from the top, but how can you not when the view is this great and with the ever changing lighting!

Paris Day 6: Roadtrip!

Tuesday 9/18

Today we broke out of our routine, even skipping our daily dose of America (a.k.a. Starbucks) and took the metro across town to pick up a rental car for our day trip to Normandy! The Budget/Avis rental people really personified that stereotypical French rudeness as they barely acknowledged your presence and were most unhelpful regarding maps and GPS assistance. After getting settled into our "Fancy Fiat" we made a quick stop at nearby train station where I dashed in to look for a road map. After 5 unsuccessful attempts I finally found a bookstore (Library in French) and bought one, then we were on our way! Almost $15 in tolls, and a stop at a gas station for more food (again, the gas station food in Europe is way better!--sorry Sheetz) we made our way to Omaha Beach, one of the strategic sites for the infamous D-Day battle.

The memorials that have been erected at Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, and Point de Huc are phenomenal! It was so overwhelming to see such a great tribute to our soldiers in a foreign country! My Granny had told me we had a relative involved in D-Day so I searched several monuments and found someone with her family name (still waiting for confirmation if we're related). It's really crazy to think of what bloody and ugly history happened here because today the land and monuments are just gorgeous!

We jumped back in our Fancy Fiat and drove over to Utah beach where they had an interesting sculpture along the coastline to commemorate the Naval reinforcements during the battle. And finally we made it to Point de Huc, one of the most crucial sites of the battle. This memorial is huge and also very well done! There is a cemetery there very similar to Arlington National Cemetery, multiple monuments to distinguish honor bestowed on various branches of the military, and several great depictions of the attack plans to give you a better understanding as to how intricate and involved this siege was. Another interesting point of interest is the actual Point de Huc battle site where you walk along a very uneven trail dodging craters made by bombs and you can get down and explore underground battle stations, trenches, and hideouts. This place is a little boys dream, and a grown man's nightmare.

As it was quite cold, and the sun was starting to set we made our way to the car for our 3 hour ride back to Paris. Fortunately we didn't run into too much traffic but we missed returning the car early by 10 minutes so we parked it at a nearby garage (parking in Paris is not easy!) and metro-ed home.