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| Germany Trip |
arrived there on a Tuesday morning and headed for a shower at our friend's house. We had a lovely lunch at a small local restaurant - it was the beginning of a week of more than delicious meals! That night our kind host, Robert made us homemade spaghetti - incredible.Wednesday morning we headed to Neuschwanstein Castle. I remember loving going there as a kid and I loved it all over again as an adult. It is so pretty and the surrounding area is so beautiful (even in the cloudy weather that day). We took tons of pictures and had a "sad to be an American" moment when a couple taking pictures next to us had to be so white trash - the boyfriend/husband turned to his girlfriend/wife and asked her to pick the dip out of his teeth before the took the picture...which she proceeded to do with out any sort of thought to it. It was memorable, really. After we left that castle we headed to another one of Ludwig's castles - Linderhof. We got there too late for the tour but had a great time wandering around the beautiful grounds of the estate. It was so pretty and I was able to have two pretzels this day which was fabulous!!!
On Thursday morning we got up and headed out to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. It was very sad and hard to see, but we both felt it was very important for us to go there. After that we left and headed into Munich for a tour of the BMW factory. It was absolutely incredible. We really went b/c Brian so wanted to go there, but I actually really enjoyed it. It puts American car companies to shame, or it should. I have never seen a more spotlessly clean factory. Makes me even more sad that we are driving our American made car that is so poorly thought through on the inside. But the day was topped off with a yummy pretzel at the factory's cafe.
Friday was probably my favorite day. We got up early and headed up to the Stuttgart area and went to the little town of Böblingen where I lived for three and a half years of my life as a child. It was so fun - we went and found my old neighborhood and we took a picture of my little school. After we left there we headed an hour north to visit my kindergarten teacher and her family. We had a wonderful time. Also I got to have the one thing I had wanted more than anything else to eat while we were in Germany - Laugenbrotchen with German bologna and butter (nothing better in all the known world). It tasted so good and exactly how I remember it tasting!! Yum yum. We took a walk with them though their neighborhood and we got to see Elke's new kindergarten school. It was really fun. I had told Brian one of my big memories of school was all the shoes out in the hallway (b/c when you go to school you take off your shoes and put slippers on for the day). And when we walked into Elke's school - there were the slippers all lined up! It was great! We left these dearest of people around 4 and headed back Böblingen way to the town of Sindelfingen where my dear friend Sandra lives. We went to Kindergarten together and our families did many fun things together as well. We got to her house and got to meet her very nice boyfriend Andy. We had some very yummy snacks and then her parents came over to say hello! I thought I might cry - it was so much fun to be with them all again! That evening after her parents went home, Brian and I went out to dinner with Andy and Sandra to a Chinese restaurant. It was fabulous! We laughed a lot and decided we must not wait another 17 years to see each other. It was hard to say goodbye.
Saturday we went to Salzburg! I also remember going here as a kid and it was great again! We definitely hit it on the right day b/c there was a really cool little sidewalk festival going on when we arrived. We parked the car inside a mountain (yea, I said INSIDE) which was really cool looking. We wandered around all afternoon and bought some fun little trinkets at the festival and listened to some fun folksy music a girl was singing outside one of the stores. We then had lunch in the oldest restaurant in Austria dating back to 803!!! It was so very very good. For dessert we had this thing called Salzsburger Nockerl. It was so amazing we even had the waiter take a picture of us with it!!!
Sunday morning we helped Robert get his sail boat out of the lake. We had a good time doing that and when we were done we got showered and dressed so we could head to Oktoberfest!!!! I can't even begin to describe how much fun it was! We arrived and walked around for a bit before it was time to go into our tent. I was able to get yummy candy coated almonds that I love and a pretzel, of course (I lost track of how many I actually had on our trip). We rode a few rides and then it was time to go into our tent. We actually had a table in one of the tents (which is really hard to get) b/c Robert's family has had a table for years and so in we went to our table and it was a hoot and a half. We sang and sang til our throats hurt. I think the funniest thing was the first song they played was "I'll have the time of my life" from Dirty Dancing - seriously funny. Most of the songs were German but you could almost sing along if you got into it. We had, once again, delicious food. I had spätzle for the third time this trip and it was yummy again!! We also ate tons of gigantic pretzels.
Our last day there we went to one of Germany's national parks. It is called Berchtesgaden and it was so beautiful. We were going to go up to the Eagle's Nest which is near to Berchtesgaden but we missed the last bus to the top. So we walked around the little town and had a great time. We stopped in a deli and ordered a yummy sandwich, we ate more pretzels and we bought more stuff for the kids and a preset from my parent for our anniversary. There was a manger scene that I wanted (my parents have the same one from when we lived in Germany, so it was special) and I found it on our last day!!!
We had a wonderful trip and we can't wait to go back. Next time we want to take the kids and show them around. I would love someday to be able to live there again. Time will tell.
