I must admit, I was really excited to go to Germany! Italy was great too, but I was excited to be back in a place where I somewhat knew the language! And, Kari and Heather know it way better than I do, and thus I just felt partially like I was going home (in Europe at least) and Kari had been to Munich a few summers ago (although only for a few hours, still good enough). We were in Munich for two and a half days, enough time to gat a taste for the culture, and to see a few cool places. We pulled into the train station around 7a.m. and tried to get into our hotel room, but couldn’t check in until 1p.m. Luckily, they let us leave our luggage in a storage room, so we didn’t have to lug it around during the day. After purchasing our transportation tickets, we hopped on a Strassenbahn in the direction of a Palace, and then jumped off and walked a bit of the way through the neighborhoods of Munich until we reached Schloss Nymphenburg. I really enjoyed walking through the neighborhoods, it was peaceful, and so green, and wet because it had been raining. Side note: it rained every day that we were gone!! Everywhere we went, there was rain, it just followed us, wherever we were, there was rain too! When we got back to Vienna, we learned that it had been raining here too, and also in Greece, where a couple other girls from our group went. I guess it was just the week of rain all over Europe!! And, guess what… it’s raining outside right now!
Anyway, so it was fun walking around the grounds of this palace, it was similar to Schönbrunn here in Vienna, with gardens, and green everywhere. We found a little church as we were wandering the grounds, and inside the church, it was grotto-esque, in other words it looked like the little mermaid – under the sea – it was a huge mosaic of tiny rocks and seashells that covered the walls. There was a statue of Mary too, and she was also covered in tiny rocks and seashells. It was a fun discovery!!
After wandering around the grounds of the palace, we took an S-bahn back to our hotel where we finally were able to check in and we all took a nap for about 2 hours because sleeping on a night train is kind of a challenge. After we were rejuvenated, we went back out to see more of the city. This time we went to the middle of the city, and saw the Rathaus (city hall) and some more churches, and lots of people shopping. We ate yummy Bratwurst for dinner, and an older man showed us some neat things about the Rathaus that we would never have seen, if he wouldn’t have showed us. We were kind of lost and we had out our map, and he approached us and asked if we needed help (auf deutsch of course). He pointed us in the right direction, and then walked with us and showed us a few neat things about a few of the buildings. After that, we went back to our hotel and had a great night sleep!
Disney Castle
Thursday, we went to the castle that was the model for the Disney princess castle: Neuschwanstein! It is in the middle of the southern border of Germany, in the Alps! It was so green-wow! It was really beautiful!! Neuschwanstein is actually the second castle built in the city called Schwangau, Leopold II built it across the way from his parents castle called, Hohenschwangau. We took a tour of both of the castles, and Neuschwanstein really does look like all the castles in the princess movies! It is interesting too because the castle was built in the 1860s, but Leopold died suddenly during the construction of it, so he actually only lived in it for about 6 months, and he never saw it completed. Once again, it rained while we were there, but we also had some sunshine, just enough to see the magnificent green mountains.
Last Day in Munich
Friday morning, we walked around Olympic park, where the Olympics were held in 1972 (I think). It was really cool to walk right up to the entrance to the stadium, where 37 years ago, people from all over the world were in Munich, and star athletes broke records, as they pushed themselves to their limits. While we were walking through the park, Heather spotted the newspaper headlines that Michael Jackson had died. WOW! It was pretty cool to be there in Munich, and to read from a German newspaper, the news that was going on halfway around the world, in the city of Los Angeles, where I am sure the news was on every TV station, and all over the radio. I definitely am detached from most of the world while I am here in Vienna!
To finish off our trip, we had to run to the Train station, and made it onto the train with about 3 minutes to spare!! We definitely utilized every spare second that we could of our week long vacation, and now tomorrow, Monday, it’s back to school! When we arrived in Vienna, I felt some relief, because I have been here long enough, that I pretty much know the transportation system, and I knew that there would be a bed for me where I could relax, and I don’t have to carry around luggage for another month and a half!! YAY! I am grateful I was able to have this week of time to run around, and to relax, I have seen so much history in the past week, it is incredible! This has definitely been an adventure, and I still have a month and a half left for more adventures!!
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