Augsburg, Karlsruhe, Romantic Road, and the Black Forest, oh and 2 hours in Amsterdam
Day 30: Munich
Arrived from the train at 6am. Tried to check in but was unsuccessful, so we headed to a coffee shop instead for some croissants and internet access. Hung out until 11, then went on a 7 hour walking tour of the city. Saw all of the sites, including 2 bier gartens, surfers in the park, the glockenspeil, and more. We had to leave the tour a little early so I could go get my passport, then it was off to meet Chris and Katherine for dinner. They had driven down to Munich from Hamburg. Had dinner at a brewery, then me and Steph went to the hotel bar for a nightcap.
Day 31: Romantic Road to Fussen and Augsburg
Well, after hanging out in Munich for 1 night and 1 day, we were off in our BMW 320i convertible to see the rest of Southern Germany. We took the A5 south to Fussen with Chris driving at speeds up to 230km/h. We were heading to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Schloss, the castle that Sleeping Beauty's was designed from. The first thing that really caught my eye though was the Lederhosen... a whole set including shoes for 199euro. Oh how I wanted it. Didn't get it though since I couldnt really see myself wearing them other than on drinking dares and on Halloween.
Took a bus up to the castle and spent some time taking pics and walking around it. It's beautiful but we didnt want to pay the 9euro to get in, so we just had to admire it and watch the parasailers fly around off the cliffs above the castle. We had originally planned to take a walk across the border to Austria, but the hiking took a little too long so instead we took the car on its way to Augsburg, a town about 150km up the Romantic Road.
Augsburg was not much to look at, but the hotel we stayed at was pretty nice except for the 10k spiders everywhere. F'in A. I hate spiders, so having 15 of them outside of each window kind of freaked me out. Luckily none (that I knew of) came inside, so we didn't have to leave. On the way back from dinner, we saw the coolest thing: a metro with a disco inside of it going along the street. Full on with strobe lights and everything. Need to find out more info on that in case I ever decide to go back to Augsburg again.
Day 32: Romantic Road, Black Forest, Baden Baden
Woke up and decided to head along more on the Romantic Road towards the Black Forest. It was my turn to drive. 130 miles an hour! And usually cruising at 100! I love the Autobahn! A lot. We hit up some small towns on the way towards the largest waterfall in Germany. There were supposedly squirrels to feed there, so I bought some peanuts to feed them... mainly just ended up throwing them at Stephanie instead.
We tried eating Black Forest Cherry Cake but the horribly shitty restaurant was out of it. They then tried TWIcE to say we didn't pay for our drinks (we did) and chased after us. I'll post the name when I get the pictures back from the camera, took a pic of it to warn people away from it. Drove another 2 hours or so to Baden-Baden for the baths. Steph and I were uncomfortable with mixed nudity w/ other people, so we went to dinner while Chris & Katherine went to the baths. We had a pretty eclectic dinner, nachos, tomato soup, thai noodles, pasta, beer, and wine. Yummy though. Chris drove to the hotel in Karlsruhe and we checked in.
We were channel-surfing and came upon the coolest thing ever... strip human sized foosball. They had girls being the little dudes who kick the ball and any time one team scored, the other had to strip. Way to go German TV :)
Day 33: Karlsruhe, trains to Cologne and Amsterdam
Woke up and found some breakfast at the local gas station, then headed to the "castle" in Karlsruhe. It's more like a small palace, but whatever. It did have a nice park around it that we spent some time at. There were a lot of fountains. There are actually a lot of fountains everywhere in Germany.. most i've seen in any country. Had some Pho like soup for lunch and headed to the train station.
We rode in our first German trains today. The 1st class ICE trains are NICE. Power, reclining seats, tv's, and AC! Much better than the other "1st" class seats we've had so far. Arrived in Koln at 5ish, and spent the next 45 minutes trying to figure out how to reserve a seat for the train to Amsterdam. The computer kept saying that none were available... what it meant was that none were needed. Because of that, we had to RUN across the entire station to get to the train 2 minutes before it departed. Made it! I was very happy because you know what I love most about Amsterdam? Their Mexican food! Yep, that's our dinner tonight. Then pancakes tomorrow! We're spending 3 days in the 'dam, then off to Paris to visit with Sofia.
The Mexican food was awesome, from a place called Las Pilones. On the way back to the hotel after dinner, I found a bag on the street full of english-language books, including 2 by the author of the book I just finished! Awesome, right?
Arrived from the train at 6am. Tried to check in but was unsuccessful, so we headed to a coffee shop instead for some croissants and internet access. Hung out until 11, then went on a 7 hour walking tour of the city. Saw all of the sites, including 2 bier gartens, surfers in the park, the glockenspeil, and more. We had to leave the tour a little early so I could go get my passport, then it was off to meet Chris and Katherine for dinner. They had driven down to Munich from Hamburg. Had dinner at a brewery, then me and Steph went to the hotel bar for a nightcap.
Day 31: Romantic Road to Fussen and Augsburg
Well, after hanging out in Munich for 1 night and 1 day, we were off in our BMW 320i convertible to see the rest of Southern Germany. We took the A5 south to Fussen with Chris driving at speeds up to 230km/h. We were heading to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Schloss, the castle that Sleeping Beauty's was designed from. The first thing that really caught my eye though was the Lederhosen... a whole set including shoes for 199euro. Oh how I wanted it. Didn't get it though since I couldnt really see myself wearing them other than on drinking dares and on Halloween.
Took a bus up to the castle and spent some time taking pics and walking around it. It's beautiful but we didnt want to pay the 9euro to get in, so we just had to admire it and watch the parasailers fly around off the cliffs above the castle. We had originally planned to take a walk across the border to Austria, but the hiking took a little too long so instead we took the car on its way to Augsburg, a town about 150km up the Romantic Road.
Augsburg was not much to look at, but the hotel we stayed at was pretty nice except for the 10k spiders everywhere. F'in A. I hate spiders, so having 15 of them outside of each window kind of freaked me out. Luckily none (that I knew of) came inside, so we didn't have to leave. On the way back from dinner, we saw the coolest thing: a metro with a disco inside of it going along the street. Full on with strobe lights and everything. Need to find out more info on that in case I ever decide to go back to Augsburg again.
Day 32: Romantic Road, Black Forest, Baden Baden
Woke up and decided to head along more on the Romantic Road towards the Black Forest. It was my turn to drive. 130 miles an hour! And usually cruising at 100! I love the Autobahn! A lot. We hit up some small towns on the way towards the largest waterfall in Germany. There were supposedly squirrels to feed there, so I bought some peanuts to feed them... mainly just ended up throwing them at Stephanie instead.
We tried eating Black Forest Cherry Cake but the horribly shitty restaurant was out of it. They then tried TWIcE to say we didn't pay for our drinks (we did) and chased after us. I'll post the name when I get the pictures back from the camera, took a pic of it to warn people away from it. Drove another 2 hours or so to Baden-Baden for the baths. Steph and I were uncomfortable with mixed nudity w/ other people, so we went to dinner while Chris & Katherine went to the baths. We had a pretty eclectic dinner, nachos, tomato soup, thai noodles, pasta, beer, and wine. Yummy though. Chris drove to the hotel in Karlsruhe and we checked in.
We were channel-surfing and came upon the coolest thing ever... strip human sized foosball. They had girls being the little dudes who kick the ball and any time one team scored, the other had to strip. Way to go German TV :)
Day 33: Karlsruhe, trains to Cologne and Amsterdam
Woke up and found some breakfast at the local gas station, then headed to the "castle" in Karlsruhe. It's more like a small palace, but whatever. It did have a nice park around it that we spent some time at. There were a lot of fountains. There are actually a lot of fountains everywhere in Germany.. most i've seen in any country. Had some Pho like soup for lunch and headed to the train station.
We rode in our first German trains today. The 1st class ICE trains are NICE. Power, reclining seats, tv's, and AC! Much better than the other "1st" class seats we've had so far. Arrived in Koln at 5ish, and spent the next 45 minutes trying to figure out how to reserve a seat for the train to Amsterdam. The computer kept saying that none were available... what it meant was that none were needed. Because of that, we had to RUN across the entire station to get to the train 2 minutes before it departed. Made it! I was very happy because you know what I love most about Amsterdam? Their Mexican food! Yep, that's our dinner tonight. Then pancakes tomorrow! We're spending 3 days in the 'dam, then off to Paris to visit with Sofia.
The Mexican food was awesome, from a place called Las Pilones. On the way back to the hotel after dinner, I found a bag on the street full of english-language books, including 2 by the author of the book I just finished! Awesome, right?