Since I am a bit behind on my writing I will try and update for this whole past week in Munich. Because we did a lot of day trips, but I could not really write being so busy and on top of that the internet access was even worse then in Zurich. In Switzerland I could atleast use the hotel lounge computer for free, but in Munich you had to pay for that! And if I wanted to buy wireless it was 5euro for 30mins, or 10euro for 120..ridiculous.
So, Yes..Munchen! We got in to our new hotel with not to bad of a commute, it was very long however. The train was nice with small tables and it was a very smooth ride, you could have drink glasses out on the train and they would spill or anything. The only bad thing was that it was about a 4 and a half hour ride. We got in at about 6pm after a taxi ride from the bahnhof and we just put our luggage in the rooms. The hotel was up more in the northern part of the city in a residential area it was very nice. Oh and by the way you can only have a max of 3 people in a hotel room in Europe, so it’s always just me and Christian in a room. Then we went down and ate at the restaurant. which was connected to the hotel.
Our first day trip out was on that Tuesday, we picked up our new rental in Munich which was a VW van, I liked it more then the last rental. So we wanted to check out the city of Rottenburg I believe was the name. It is supposed to be one of the best preserved medieval towns in Germany. After a pretty long drive of about an hour and a half we made it okay. Oh and the driving in germany is stereotypical to what you think of the autobahn, not exactly though. On the larger highways there will be usually three lanes, the trucks stay to the right and they even have the speed limit they are aloud to go on the back of their trucks so you can tell when driving behind them which is cool. Then average cars in the other two lanes. But the outside left is for the basically no speed limit part. We’re in the middle lane and these cars just come from no way past you doing about 120mph. If you want to pass in that lane you have to check you rear view for about 3miles back because that how fast they come up on you. And no police either, Ive only seen a few here and there but none really enforcing anything. Anyway! We get to the old town and it’s really neat, it was like a whole medieval town inside the wall of huge castle walls and only a few small entrances. But very big inside like blocks and blocks worth.
The next day we went out on the castle tours, which is like southwest from Munich. All of the locations we visited were somehow related to King Ludwig. The first was his personal palace where he spent the majority of his time. It was beautiful but real hot that day, we had a running joke going that whatever clothes we wear to match the weather forecast the weather will be completely opposite. We got to tour his palace and it was incredibly beautiful with artistic details I couldn’t even begin to describe. Then we went to his castles. This was neuschwanstein and hohenschwangau. Neuschwanstein was the castle that Disney modeled their famous castle after..but the actual castle was never finished because King Ludwig went bankrupt and died. SO we went to hohenschwangau instead, they are only like 1 miles apart so you can see them both great. We got a tour inside, but I think outside in the garden was the best part. From the garden you could see the lake, the other castle and mountains for miles. Then we went down to the lake, walked around for a bit and had dinner.
The next day was to be Berchtesgarden and Salzburg, Austria. After a lengthy drive we made it to Berchtesgarden. We found out that the tour there was like 4 hours long so we decided to cut out Austria for that day. The tour of the mountain there was run by all British, so we had a brit tour guide. I never really knew everything about the place. I thought it was just Hitler’s eagles nest, like one little vacation home on top of the mountain. But it was so much more the whole side of the mountain was where Hitler and his top ranking officers lived and had their families. We went down into some underground tunnels from the war, which were pretty creepy. We finally get all the way to the top. The famous eagles nest was only built has a second tea room for Hitler’s 50th birthday, not to be slept in or anything. So we go up the sketchiest road ever in a big bus, 180 degrees turns with straight 1000ft drops on the sides. Then we had to walk up the tunnel where guests would have been dropped off in a car, the tunnel was 400m long and then the original elevator still works and that’s 400m high in 41seconds. We get the top and the views were insane, and they now have a restaurant up there too. It was certainly weird at the same time too, because there we’re pictures of like Hitler and Eva Braun up there just standing right where we were, had to see and touch the same things. I don’t know why I was thinking that but an eerie feeling overall.
We got back from the trip out to berchtesgarden today, on the way Christian pointed out this random Gypsy dude who was selling whole rotisserie chickens on the side of the road we saw earlier in the day when we got lost a bit. So we stop and he just closed so we got a chicken and he basically gave us another one for free and a thing of pork because he didn’t want to take it home. Half of us ate that, but I was feeling more of a meal so the other half went down to the restaurant here at the hotel. I got a burger and soup and then everyone went up after dinner. But at that point it was only 9pm and I just didn’t feel like being around people so I sat down at the bar and got a beer. This guy was sitting across from me at the bar just us two down there and we start talking cause he was American to, so I get pumped when I hear anybody speakin English. Anyway we were talking for the next two hours and just keep orderin beers. He was a real cool guy from Michigan who was a Pashto translator for the US military (Pashto is the language they speak in Afghanistan) He is stationed here in Germany and he was traveling around with his wife and kids this weekend. He hasn’t been in Germany too long but he gave me a lot of good tips of do’s and don’ts while I live here.
I’m sorry I have been so bad with posting I promise it will get better, it was just hard when I didn’t have internet for the two weeks of travel and now I have been so busy with school I just haven’t had time, But I did get some pictures up! So you can check them out on my facebook.
I am in my apartment in Freiburg now and I will right next time about my new city the whole hectic checking in to school, getting my room, meeting my flatmates, my fellow students, orientation and life here so far!
Hope everything is well back home,
I can now skype (joshbitler) and can answer messages or whatever so hit me up if you want to talk!
-Josh
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