Reise Nach Deutschland.

I apologize for not updating in so long but the last week has been crazy! Last Tuesday and Wednesday nights I got a total of 7 hours of sleep… Having to stay up until 3am and 4am to study for a Classical Architecture exam and Italian language test. It was really draining and I basically had nothing exciting to write about on my blog. And for those of you wondering what the title of this journal means, it says "travel to germany" in german. I just hope I said that accurately, its been 2 years since I took German! I will post pictures in the blogs to follow... I have A LOT more to write about our trip to Germany! :)
So basically, Thursday night, Mary, Brittni, Greg, Katie and I took off for Munich and here is the journal from Thursday and Friday! Enjoy!


After Italian class on Thursday, we went home, bought a large tub of hazelnut gelato at the market on the corner. I watched Juno on Alyssas laptop with britt and Alyssa and ate all of the gelato. We lost internet for about 2 days but it randomly came back and some drama went down with the other roomies but everything turned out ok except for one person that tried to make it a bigger deal than it really was….but that’s nothing new. Ha!

So we packed up our stuff for our weekend in munich. I brought a small bag and my backpack. We met the whole tour group in front on the pharmacy at Santa Maria Novella. The trip was put on by a tour company in Florence called Florence for fun in which they set up weekend trips to places in Italy and in countries close by as well as wine tasting tours and Fiorentina soccer matches for American study abroad students living in Florence. There were about 30 college aged people in the group and we all got on the bus at 11 30 pm on Thursday night. Brittni and I sat in the second to last row and I was smashed in by the window. I knew it was going to be a long and uncomfortable trip so I made sure to bring my Tylenol pm and I took 2 as the bus starting driving away. I stayed awake just till the outskirts of Florence and happened to see where the Ikea actually is…. Brittni and I were amused by the thought of the day that we thought we could trek to Ikea, and instead we got extremely lost and just went home after 4 hours. I luckily fell asleep and stayed asleep for the next 3 hours until the bus driver made a stop somewhere in Switzerland. We all got out to go to the bathroom and to buy snacks at the little gas station. After that stop, I stayed awake for a little while and got to see the bright moon reflecting off of the snow covered Alps. We got to see the peak of the Matterhorn from the road! It was incredible! I dozed on and off again until we made another stop 4 hours later in Austria, I didn’t get out of the bus that time. Two and a half hours later we arrived in Munich!!! I was passed out when we got there and had no idea that we were already there! Once there, we stashed our bags in the hotel’s luggage storage and went to meet our tourguide mike from mikes bike tours and we had a 4 hour bike tour to see all of the coolest sights in the city.
We even stopped to have lunch in the English gardens at a beer garden. I had a giant pretzel and potatoes with sauerkraut and cream. So good! As most of you know, I am vegetarian and Germany is known for being big on meat... THE FOOD SMELLED SO GOOD I ALMOST GAVE UP VEGETARIANISM! haha, but I was strong and opted for pretzels and mashed potatoes with sauerkraut!

On the tour, we stopped by the famous Marienplatz where the Neues Rathaus is locates (literally meaning new town hall although the building is definitely not new, built in 1874.) The Rathaus houses the even more famous, glockenspiel that is over 100 years old as well. It chimes at 11am and 4pm everyday and 32 life-sized figures reenact historical Bavarian events. We also saw the Frauenkirche which translates literally to the Church of our Lady but is actually called the Cathedral of Our Blessed Lady. It is a famous landmark in Munich and is the city's largest church. It holds up to 20,000 people. Its style is late 15th century Gothic. We rode through Munich’s Viktualienmarkt which is the city’s famer’s market. The name in German means the Victuals Market and it began in the early 19th century. We rode our bikes into the Residence Palace which is the former royal palace of Bavarian Monarchs. Apparently is known for being one of the best European Museums of interior decorating but we did not go inside. It was constructed in 1385 and has 10 courtyards which we rode our bikes through. The outside is Renaissance style because the Duke really loved Classical art. Right across the street there is a loggia that is an exact replica of the one here in Florence in the Piazza Della Signoria. Although the statues in the one in Munich of course hold Bavarian symbols… Lions! We then rode through the Englischer Garten (English Garden) which was created in 1789 by Sir Benjamin Thompson. It’s called the English Garden because Benjamin Thompson was an Englishman and he landscaped the park in the Royal English style. It is also the biggest park in Munich… ITS HUGE!! Some of the attractions in the park are the Chinese Pagoda and its huge beer garden, the Japanese teahouse, the Greek style temple, and the infamous Schönfeldwiese, the lawn where the locals like to sunbathe nude.

After the bike ride, we walked to our hotel-Ludwig Hotel- which was conveniently directly across from the train station and only 2 blocks from both the Marienplatz and the grounds where Springfest was held! The hotel was actually pretty nice; it was practical and very European… Nothing like a hotel in the US, but it was better than our apartment here in Florence! We showered and got ready and then met up with the rest of the group at Springfest! I ate a DELICIOUS chocolate and banana crepe for dinner and then we all went into the “big beer tent” and had some beers and danced listening to traditional Bavarian music and later a rock band came on stage and played 1980’s classics in German! It was great! We met some locals, which was really fun for me to FINALLY be able to use my 4 years of German language classes!! Around midnight, we walked back to the hotel to prepare for the full day ahead of us!

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