Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 670

Again, speeding down the Autobahn, we flew to Berlin in about 5 hours. We actually didnt stay in Berlin, but outside of the city about 40 minutes in Joachims family farmhouse. The house was in former East Germany, and it was very interesting to see the differences there. The farms around the house had lettuce patches and horses. It was really quiet and peaceful. We went into Berlin and did some sight seeing. All the neat government buildings and monuments, and then went over to the Holocaust memorial. After that, Checkpoint Charlie, an old gate between East and West Berlin where tensions rose during the Cold War, and also to pieces of the Berlin Wall. That night, we went to the area of town hosting the gay festival that attracted over 300,000 gays from outside of ... read more

Travel Blog: Day 5 (I think) Cologne/Heidelburg Welcome back to the good life. I hope that all is going well in America, but I must say, things are better here than they are there… this is simply because I am living a glorified life, traveling around, meeting strange people everyday and having fun everywhere I go… sure beats working. We are on the train right now, going from Cologne to Heidelberg. Heidelberg is known in Germany as a students city, there are a lot of universities and colleges there, and it is supposed to be very good to the youth. Problem there, is that when we planned the trip, Josh and I both had different places that we wanted to go to. Cologne was my main choice, because I am very interested in the Kolsch beer ... read more

OK so I know I have not written in a few days, it is because I am having such an awesome time in Berlin!! In fact I am staying 2 days longer because I love it sooo much. I made this choice on the first day. I feel in love with this city, it is not beautiful as Salzburg or the country side, however the history is what made me fall in love with this city. Most of you know how much I enjoy history especially post WW2, and if you did not, well now you do. The great divide in Berlin after WWII of the Soviet occupied area and the West (American, French and the British occupied area) is so interesting. To see how one side of the world lived and then go 20 min ... read more

We went to Munich on a long weekend mainly to visit the Bavarian Alps and Neuschwanstein Castle. We spend 2 full days in Munich and 1 day traveling around the Allgau region, which was enough to visit the main tourist sites. As I expected, Munich is a very organised city. Everything is clean and works. Despite being a big city, it doesn't have that claustrophobic feel. I was amazed by the fact that pedestrians don't cross the road until the red man turns green, even if the road is clear! I was also impressed by the number of people cycling and by the parents pulling their kids on a carrier thing attached to their bikes. There are cycle paths in the entire city, not to mention that the bikes are left unchained and unattended! On Friday ... read more

What a Fun Day!! We got up at 6:00am to have an early breakfast, and to fight the commuter traffic in Munich to get to Neuschwanstein Castle by 9:45am to check in for our tour. Charlene had purchased combo reservations back home for us to see this Castle, as well as the Hohenschwangau Palace. The location is about 1 hour 45 minutes southwest of our hotel in Munich, and the the rain was pretty heavy this morning. Our trusty GPS got us there without a hitch (and we had several road changes on the way - I would have been lost with a traditional map). Took lots of pictures on the way down there as the countryside was absolutely beautiful - lots of farmland with backdrops of dramatic mountains (still containing some snow). Got stuck behind ... read more