I woke up on Sunday morning and found that for the third morning in a row, two of the people (one boy and one girl) in our group were sleeping in their clothes. Funny, funny stuff! For the first time in Munich, I had a real breakfast. I think my body was happy to have the protein from eggs! Four people in the group decided to take an all day trip to this castle about 2 1/2 hours away from the city. Its the castle that Walt modeled his Cinderella castle after at Disney World. The pictures are amazing, but I decided there was more of Munich to see. The rest of us headed out to see Olympic Park - site of the 1972 Summer Games. It was quite spectacular! BMW has a large musuem there ... read more

I awoke the next morning pretty early...around 8 am. And I've found the beauty of Oktoberfest...the tents close around 10:30 pm which makes for early to bed, which makes for lots of sleep and a limited hangover. When I stood up, I was actually surprised that I didn't fall over. I was feeling a-ok and starving! Few people were awake yet but people started to stir. I left with a few folks to grab some breakfast. Today we have reservation at the Hippodrom at noon. Oh, that's right, noon. We have a table for 3 hours and we're kicking our day off right! And if we learned anything from yesterday...our group does fabulously when we begin drinking at noon! While we are getting ready to go...everyone is retelling their version of what happened the night before. ... read more

And here are a few photos from Innsbruck. The next blog will be Munich and Oktoberfest! ... read more

I'm back in the US, but thought I'd finish up my blogs. The good thing is, the y and the z are in the right spot on the keyboard :-) I woke up early on Wednesday at my hostel. I had to check out that morning and move to another place. The hostel was full for the night and it worked out for me because I moved closer to the train station. After another nice breakfast, this time with two types of jam, I headed out to catch the bus to Swarovski Kristallwelten. It was a beautiful ride on the bus. I mean, really, how could it not be. We headed back east so teh valley was getting bigger and bigger but the mountains were still beautiful with the morning mist/fog. It was about a 30 ... read more

my arrival in innsbruck was interesting...but let me back up... my train trip was great! i met a couple from chicago and ended up sitting with them on the train. turns out the austrian trains are a bit different than the german trains and i originally sat down in a reserved seat. three older people were yelling at me in some language shoving their tickets in my face...um, sorry, ill move. i wondered the train for a while and then found the chicago couple. they had an empty seat so i took it. one train ride to go...i hope i actuallz know whats going on this time. the landscape changed dramatically as we passed from salzburg to innsbruck. the foothills turned into to mountains and the scenery turned into something youd see in montana. it was ... read more