Riding with Chris around German Bavaria

  • August 18, 2009 6:15 PM

Day 19: I knew if I didn’t get all of the EuroTrip posts up before I got home, I would slack. Luckily, there are only a couple more entries.  After Munich, one of Thomas’ coworkers took the day off and toured with us on his motorcycle around the Bavarian countryside.

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Chris on his motorcycle

We started off with some really windy roads up and down the mountains. There were a ton of motorcycles enjoying the gorgeous weather, but unfortunately we saw two that fell over in tight curves.  The switchbacks weren’t my favorite, but I really enjoyed the views, especially the lakes.

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Dallas and Thomas posed by a lake overlook

Finally, I got the guys to stop so I could dip my feet in one of the lakes. I was so tempted to just jump backwards and float, but riding in wet clothes wouldn’t have been fun. I really want to spend a week by an Austrian or German lake.

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A quick dip in a lake

Afterward, we went to the Neuschwanstein Castle which has it’s fame as being used as a model for Disney’s Cinderella castle. Unfortunately, the whole side of it was under construction, but it was quite impressive to see.  We went up to a little swinging bridge to get a great view, and then hiked up to the castle.

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Neuschwanstein Castle from the swinging bridge

It was a ton of fun touring around with Thomas’ coworker, and I hope when he comes to visit the Belgium office, we can show him around here.

I’ve now got the rest of the photos from the Budapest leg of the trip on Flickr if you’d like to see them:

Munich

  • August 11, 2009 4:22 PM

Day 16-17: By the time we arrived in Munich, I was starting to realize some things about this trip — the biggest one being about our travel style. I’ve always held visiting as many countries as possible as one of my lifetime goals.  And I struggle with a feeling that if I’m living in Europe and not traveling, then I’m wasting my experience.  But I was quickly discovering that the big cities were not as exciting for me.  Part of it was tourists and crowds, part was exploring alone, and part was that I realized that I was rushing through to “collect them all.”  It’s really made me look at the other places I want to visit and see if there’s really something I want to see there, or is it just another check mark.

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Huge Beers at the Hofbrau Haus

In Munich, I didn’t really do the touristy things. The first day, I wandered around the downtown shopping area. Did you know they sell Lederhosen right there along with jeans and dress shirts? Crazy! I found a cute watch in a department store, and some used English books in an Oxfam shop. I spent probably an hour looking through a toy store – the toys were all so creative, thought-producing, and well made. There were shelves of Ostheimer wooden figurines, all kinds of construction and block building kits, boardgames I wish I could have bought, puzzles, dress up clothes, etc. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t see tons of plastic crap or toys based off of TV shows. In the afternoon, I ate lunch on the side of a fountain and people watched.  And then, I found an outdoor cafe to sip a cappuccino and read one of my new books. It was a great day!  The second day, I toured the Deutsches Museum, the German equivalent to the Smithsonian.

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Quiet Beirgarten at the Augustiner

Both nights that we were in town, Thomas’ coworkers took us to famous breweries for dinner. The first night, we went to the Hofbrau Haus, originally the Royal Brewery and now open to the public. It has been around since the 1600s and was one of the places where Hitler started holding Nazi party events. The waitresses wore bar maid outfits and a band played traditional Bavarian music. It was really loud and packed with tourists, but we had a great time. The food was delicious – pork knuckles and potato dumplings – and the drinks were huge. I tried my first radler (beer + lemonade) there. The second night, we went to the Augustiner which dates back to the 1200s. This place was much quieter and had a lovely beer garden outside.

I’ve finished editing the photos from the Prague leg of the trip and have posted them on Flickr:

Quick Post with Videos

  • August 5, 2009 6:40 AM

I’m just making a quick post to share a couple more trip videos…

This first one is what it’s like to ride on the back of Thomas’ motorcycle (a BMW R1150 GS). This was shot in Austria, my favorite country we’ve driven through. It was beautiful with green hills, blue mountains, and a crystal clear river running along the road.

This next video was from one of our driving breaks in the Alps when we stopped to ride a luge. We went together two times, and this time, Thomas steered, but like on his motorbike, he was a very cautious luge driver and didn’t want to go too fast.

If those didn’t make you feel dizzy, I’ve also got the rest of the Berlin photos edited and posted on Flickr. You can check them out at:

Today, we leave Munich and wander the countryside for a couple days.  We’ve only got one more major stop at my cousin’s house at the end of this week, and then we return to Brussels.  I’ll try and catch up on the rest of my photo-a-day posts soon. :)

Beautiful Northern Bohemia

  • July 26, 2009 6:43 PM

Day 7: We drove from Berlin to Prague in a day filled with gorgeous scenery. Just look at this photo – it was an amazing view of the Bastei Bridge in the Saxon Switzerland National Park just outside of Dresden, Germany. The area of Northern Bohemia was some of the prettiest scenery I’ve seen in Europe – very green and lush. We followed the Elbe River through Germany and right up into Czech Republic without any problems.

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In Dresden, we toured the Hygiene Museum. As kitschy as it sounds, it was pretty neat. The museum started in 1912 and is still going strong, though it was temporarily taken over by the Nazis and their racist ideology for a while. We saw exhibits on everything from how babies are born, to how old age effects the body. My favorite exhibit was one where you could wear various contraptions to simulate old age – sight and hearing loss, walking bent over, and shaky hands.  I also found it interesting that children were encouraged to go through the museum. I don’t think all parents would be fans of some of the racy exhibits on sex or the disturbing examples of physical effects from various diseases.  However, children seemed to really enjoy the interactive exhibits.

Berlin Again

  • July 26, 2009 9:29 AM

Day 6: Thomas went to work and I toured the Jewish Museum. This museum was great – it was huge – it could take an entire day to see it all. I was really impressed with all the different interactive designs they used for the exhibits. Wouldn’t it be fun to be a museum exhibit designer?

There were also some powerful memorials. This one in the photo, called Fallen Leaves was a long echoey hall where you could walk across metal faces. They’re all separate and clink as you step on them, and the silence of the visitors mixed with the echoey clinks is really chilling.

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Berlin kind of surprised me. At first, I didn’t like the city. It feels big and busy and dirty, but in the end, I liked that I learned a lot there – about the Cold War, Socialism, Communism, etc. It really just blows my mind that this all happened in such a recent time period – families instantly split apart (for 28 years), living conditions that were hard enough that people risked their lives sneaking across the border… It really made me think about what’s going on right now in other parts of the world – North Korea, Sudan, Afghanistan, etc. I think, especially living in the US, it’s easy to forget about places far away and not realize that the crazy things you hear about are real and now.

Thomas caught up on his photo-a-day for Berlin all in one post – be sure to check it out: Ich Bin Ein Berliner