K...so last weekend was spent squiring Barnes the Younger 'round Munich. We flew out of London Friday morning and into the beautiful Munich airport (really-its beautiful!). Scott plugged in his trusty Garmin navigational system and off we went! We drove to a gorgeous little Bavarian town (whose name I never quite caught, something with Strasse in it I'm sure!) that was nestled at the bottom of the Bavarian Alps. This ski town sits next to a glassy lake where pedal boats and steins of beer call your name. <Update -- Name of town is Schliersee> That evening we attended a work [View Full Entry]

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Neuchatel Switzerland was a perfect relaxing day last wednesday after our hike through the alps. We had a nice dinner there too, a fisherman´s catch salad. Wow, that seems so long ago. We ended up in Zurich on Thursday and made a day trip out of it, as the plans to stay with Deb´s sister fell through. Zurich was...less receptive and warm than every where else we´d been. A big city mentality, a little snotty. I thoroughly enjoyed the Swiss National Museum though. We spent a good 4 hours there on our rainy day. And I won´t scoff at the delicious [View Full Entry]

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Last I updated I was heading towards the black forest, I know this was only a few days ago but so much has happened since then. We have been pretty much living life by the hour instead of by the day. We are just going with whatever whims that we have. This has turn out great for us turning the last few days into a blur of random encounters and making new friends. To start from the beginning, on Friday morning we woke up bright an early ready for a busy day. We hoped a train to Freiberg which we had [View Full Entry]

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Munich! The land of the... well, beer. We arrived at Munich Hauptbahnhof in the afternoon and trammed over to our hostel, 10 minutes away. It was called the Tent, and we didn't really know what to expect. It was a giant tent. With 150 beds inside. Nice! It looked exactly like a summer camp on the outside... bonfire over here, campy kitchen over there, tables and benches and hammocks and other private tents set up. It was kinda late, so we had lunch at the hostel itself. 3 Euro pasta = Amazing. Oh my it was good. Afterwards, the girlies went [View Full Entry]

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MARTA LOVES MUNICH doo dah doo dah It;s one of those places that really suprises you. I didn't hear that much about it beforehand and was a tad apprehensive about going there because of Dachau and it's potential resonance with the people but I'm so glad we did we had a ball!!! Hofbrauhaus was one of the most fun places I've been to, despite weird poms shelling out free hugs and a Hulk Hogan look-a-like from Gundegai, Ally drank litre radlers and I litre beers so we've the beer thing down pat. I had scruples in visiting Dachau. On one had, [View Full Entry]

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Sorry I got cut off...anyway, the haufbrauhaus was even better than we expected...an oooompah band played hits all night and the halls were filled with drunken americans and japanese tourist groups (honestly, the bathrooms here smelled worse than any other that we have utilized). The next morning, we got up at around 9am to the sound of pouring rain (the area outside of the tent was complete mud) and headed out to our hostel, just around the corner from the main train station. Here we met up with our boy Rich (a ruffian university of Wisconsin grad student that we met [View Full Entry]

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Simply stated, Munich has been awesome. Quite easily the best city that we have visited thus far! We arrived two days ago with Lionel Ritchie's "all night long" playing on my i-pod...looking back, I cannot help but laugh at the symobolism as this was about how long we stayed at the haufbrauhaus our first night!! (sadly, it closed at midnight). Anyway, after our arrival at the main station we headed out on the number 17 tram in order to find our lodging: "The Tent". Although EJ thought that we were going to sleep in the dirt, we were surprised to find [View Full Entry]

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Well...we visited Vienna. It was a nice city, one that we will surely visit again...when we are about 62 (as this seems to be the median age of its tourists). When we first arrived, we were concerned that a day and a half would too short of a time frame to properly see all of the cities sights...we were wrong! Our first night we ventured into the old city square to check out the St. Stephens cathedral and adjacent Hofburg palace in order to get a head start. Immediately after coming out of the subway we were rushed by Turkish men [View Full Entry]

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We have been in Munich for 3 days now and it certainly has lived up to it´s claim as one of the most fun cities in Europe. Probably our favorite activity was taking a 4 and a half hour bike tour around the city where we learned a lot about the history of Munich and went to a biergarten which is a must while you are in Germany. The bikes we took out were pretty interesting. Imagine your first bike, complete with back pedal breaks, and triple it in size. Apparently you never forget how to ride a bike, but learning [View Full Entry]

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Our assult on Munchen coincided with a gigantic lesbian street festival, highlighting the party vibe you'd expect from ze crazy Germans. We quickly assimilated, scoffing bratwurst and swilling Lowenbraus in the street surrounded by The Village People lookalikes and a host of latexed and feathered friends. Dinner involved a rowdy bier hall complete with a totally German menu and a menapausal bier wench. Thank god for the friendly locals and their exceptional translation skills. A day in Dachau Concentration Camp brought down the festive mood a bit whilst expanding our intelligence for the first time in months. It's been raining solidly [View Full Entry]

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