More Cow Bell!

Returned late last night from spending the week in southern Germany. Scott's brother has been in a language refresher class there for the last five weeks (he's an Army linguistic, speaks Arabic), so we rented a car and drove down and took days trips in southern Germany this week.

We stayed in a quaint town nestled in the Alps called Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Loved it! We rented a room (kind of like a bed and breakfast but very cheap) from Gerta. She spoke little English, and we speak even less German, but we managed just fine. I wish I could tell her how much we loved staying at her house. Each morning we had a typical German breakfast: meat and cheese, bread, jam, coffee, and (for the Americans) a soft-boiled egg served in an egg cup with this cute crochetted cover that looks like a chicken to keep the egg warm. So adorable!

Tuesday, on the drive down, we spent several hours in Rothenburg. This town dates back to the 1200's. We shopped a bit, walked the town wall, a church, and a beautiful park that is where the town's castle once stood.

Wednesday we visited Nerschwanstein (Mad King Ludwig's castles). This was our favorite day thus far, I think. Bascially, this king who was removed from power because he was deemed insane, had a dad who build him his dream castle in the 1800's. (This is the castle that the Disneyworld castle is modeled after). The inside is amazing with the paintings, woodcarvings, and other decorations, but the best part is the view from the castle of the Alps and valley below and the hiking available around the castle. Kind of like hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, but greener.

After the castle and hiking, we drove the car to Ruette, Austria, just to be able to add another country to our trip. Beautiful scenery, especially the lakes nestled into the mountains with a curvy road running right beside. I think I could spend a week just there :)

Thursday we visited Dachau, the concentration camp near Munich. I don't known what to say about it besides that it really makes me think about the evil that exists in the world. As far as information goes, the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC is more extensive, but there's something about walking the camp road, passing through the gate that all new arrives had to go through with the iron sign "Work Will Set You Free" above it, and just being there that is humbling.

Thursday afternoon we went into Munich. We'd both admit that this was one of the more frustrating/stressful parts of the trip. First, after two failed attempts to find the BWM museum, we arrived to learn that it was closed for the afternoon...argh! Then, on our way to Mary's Plaza (the old downtown area) we had the hardest time trying to find a place to park. Would be helpful, I suppose, if we could read more German :)

We finally found parking success, though, and then enjoyed our time downtown. Scott enjoyed a beer at Hofbrauhaus (the most famous beer house in the world). It's really a shame that he couldn't spend time there with Todd, Anthony, and some of our other friends who really appreciate a good beer :)

On our way to the English Garden (the largest public park in Europe) we walked past a smaller part where lots of group of people were playing bocci ball, complete with a man playing accordian in the background. People in Munich are serious about their bocci! They have these elegant-looking silver bocci balls (instead of my primary colored ones back home), and they have a measuring string to officially determine close calls...slighly more accurate than us measuring with our shoes, eh? :)

At the English Garden, we watched an unexpected sporting activity: surfing on the river in the park! There was a part in the river that created just enough rapids/waves for young men and women to practice their surfing skills. How creative!

Friday was our day to explore Garmish. Unfortunately, after three crystal clear days, it was overcast...not quite ideal for taking a cable car to the top of a mountain, but we did anyway. We chose the Alpspitze peak, and enjoyed our time hiking up top, seeing the view between clouds, and eating lunch at the resteraunt at the top. Earlier in the day, we hiked around the paths in between the towns. These paths even run through cattle pastures, where we were serenaded by the cow bells...yes, their cows actually wear bells. I swear it makes them seem happier!

An overall highlight of the week...at least for Scott :)....was driving on the Autoban. Our rental car was a KIA station wagon (not exactly what Scott was hoping for), but he found it had pretty good speed and torque and had not probably going 100 mph consistently....and he still got passed often! This is the land of Mercedes and BMW's, and we saw several other expensive, rare-ish cars (you'd hav to ask Scott for the details) that made Scott drool. Car lovers and speedy drivers paradise!

Thus ends week one in Germany!