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Published: April 9th 2005
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Europa Park
This was our first ride... the pictures only got worse! We missed our train in Milan and arrived in Frieburg late but Tommy's dad, Klemmens was there to meet us anyway and what a nice change it was for us! We got to leave the train station in a car instead of trying to navigate public transportation and we arrived at a house instead of some dodgy hostel! It was a very good day for us. While in Freiburg we celebrated both Tommy and Andrea's birthdays. It's tradition in Germany that the night before your birthday all your friends take you out and do a new year's-esque countdown 10 seconds before midnight. And even though it was Andrea's first trip to Germany, her birthday was no exception. Tommy's friends all met us at the beer garden on April 2nd and counted down to midnight, after which there was a round of champagne and everyone sang happy birthday to her (in English!) After that the two of us and Tommy walked up the Schlossberg (the hill overlooking Freiburg) and enjoyed another bottle of champagne. On April 3rd Tommy's parents prepared a birthday breakfast for her, including candles and an apple tart (that everyone agreed was even better than Tommy's birthday tart!) That
Birthday Girl!
Pre-Europa Park birthday breakfast day we went to Europa Park, a total Disneyland rip off. Tommy takes Europa Park very seriously so we arrived with a strict intinerary and ended up riding every single ride at least once in the 8 hours we spent there, we didn't even get to sit down for lunch! Other than that we pretty much used our time in Freiburg to relax. One day we decided to watch Scream while Tommy was at work and we started to smell smoke, we didn't think any thing of it but after about 45 minutes it got quite strong. Upon investigation we found that the entire downstairs was filled with smoke but we couldn't find a fire anywhere. We enlisted the help of Jan (the Polish handyman) who was the only one in the restaurant at the time and he discovered that the dryer had set the clothes on fire. Jan was very calm about it but Andrea and Liz ran around filling up vases with water and throwing it on the flaming dryer. Although the clothes weren't even ours we somehow felt responsible! A few days later some friends of Liz's family came to visit and we spent our last two
The Boys
Tommy, Mickey and Matze with Mickey's new "accessorie" the ipod... days in Freiburg showing them around, including a two hour visit to the Munster (the Cathedral in the center of town) The nice part was going out everynight with locals! We spent most of our time with Tommy's future housemates Mickey and Matze. It was a lot of fun except fot the one night where we got into an argument with Mickey about American foreign policy and gun control and all Matze could add to the conversation was "Oh mein Gott" ("Oh my God" for those Deutche deficient) which became our favorite German phrase. We really enjoyed our stay and it was hard to go, we even extended it by one day! But it was time to move on....
Our next stop was Munich. Unfortunately we only had time to stay for one night. We got there at about 3:30 in the afternoon and decided to go to Dachau, the concentration camp about 45 minutes from Munich. We didn't realize that it closed at 5 and we didn't have time to look around so we went back the next morning before we left. We started with the museum which was very interesting and showed the progression of the Nazi
CENSORED!
Liz took a little tumble down the cement stairs of Zum Loewen movement from World War I through the liberation of the camp in 1945. We saw the SS and prisoner barracks, the crematorium, and the different religious memorials. Our favorite was the Jewish memorial, the whole thing was very interesting and incredibly moving. Also in Munich we went to the Augistiner Brauhaus (a non touristy traditional German beer hall) We were intimidated by the burly women carrying huge steins of beer but we found ourselves a seat anyway and mustered up the courage to order some ourselves. While we were waiting we ended up meeting two East German girls who were working temporarily in Munich and were terrified of it! They told us all about the cultural differences that still exist between East and West Germans and we taught them how to cross the street NOT at the crosswalk! Andrea decided she needs to go back to Munich to actually see the city! We left at 4:30 on a Prague bound train...
Peace and Love,
Andrea and Liz
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anonymous
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I'm amazed
i'm amazed you chose to spend your one day in Munich by going to Dachau. Especially since you wouldn't go with your parents when we were there Go figure? I am happy to know that the Disch family survived the assault of family marsh and friends. I thought it was stretching it a bit to have you both visit after the good time you had a christmas. Then when the Walkers showed up as well. I knew we were over the top. Setting their 400 year old gasthous on fire was really a bonus. I hope the citizens of Frieburg willl be happy to see us next time we visit. Once again I think it is time to move on! Wishin you guys the best! Give em hell in Prague! dad - marshdad