travel post - germany
i know i oughta have lots of time on-hand to at least update my blog at a decent pace. i really don't know what i've been doing with my time.. yez has already started work for a week and i haven't even been going out much, what has happened to all my time?! i am currently suffering what a horrible week-long jetlag, which was further worsened by the WC finals that got me sleeping at 6am. i'm trying so hard to sleep by 1am every night, but i'll end up rolling in bed for a good three hours before i actually get to sleep. am getting increasingly frustrated cos that's where all my time is going! and when i go to bed at about 4am, i won't be able to wake up till noon or later the next day. *help*
anyway i will attempt to blog about one of the countries i visited during my recent euro trip, before going on to upload more photos onto FB.
germany. the first time i went to germany was in february 2009 and it was my first trip made with newly established exchange friends with me in aarhus :) it was a road trip during the cold hard winter that got six of us squeezing into an opel, as well as speeding up the autobahn despite the snowstorms.. i remember doing a walking tour around berlin was such a torture due to our frozen toes, fingers and noses! i also remember the inexplicable joy on our faces when we walked out of the potsdam palaces to find a warm italian restaurant for dinner.
this time, i visited germany in the summer, but the weather was still terrible and rainy at the start. it got better towards the end.. and we made our trip only to munich, with the sole purpose of seeing the legendary neuschwanstein castle, the inspiration of the disney sleeping beauty castle. it was all worth it.
munich
we arrived on a sunday. thus coupled with the bad weather, the town was really cold in all manners.
germany's signature dishes include the schnitzel (fried battered meat), sauerkraut (sour cabbage), pork knuckles and of course, beer and bratwurst (german sausages). the sausages were definitely one of my favourite and it became a regular staple for us during our short stay.
we found a coffeestand with german dudes standing around and sipping on their coffees on a cold rainy day
schloss nymphenburg is one of the sights in munich. but the visit was semi-disappointing for me and the beauty of the palace was nowhere near that of schloss schonbrunn in vienna.
though i do have an odd habit of taking weird photos in palace gardens :P
nymphenburg:
schonbrunn:
we also visited the BMW museum in munich, though it wasn't part of the plan but we had to go grab some toy cars for yez's friend. which totally puzzled me cos i never imagined people would pay so much for toys that size. but at least i got a shot at sitting in the driver's seat of a BM convertible :P
the dachau concentration camp was a sight which i was insistent on seeing. after watching all the nazi films in the past year, as well as hearing about the nazi history established in munich during the WWII while on the city tour, i was really keen to step foot on the first ever concentration camp to be built in europe.
as this was the first concentration camp to be built, most of the prisoners sent in at the start were mostly the anti-nazis. it wasn't as concentrated with jews as the other camps were.
the crematorium
onto the highlight of the trip: the castle!! *dreamy*
photo was taken at the marienbrucke, which i personally felt was the best spot to get good photos of the castle. though it wasn't good enough for some people, cos he wanted to catch the front view of the castle. so we had to go on hiking.....
one of my best shots of the castle, still taken from marienbrucke.
this was the view from the top. brings a new perspective to the castle. however, we didn't manage to reach the utmost top of the mountain so we just took a break and settled for this. was absolutely good enough for me though.
after this, we were about done with germany, until the last night of our road trip where we had to take a plane back to london from a lil town called memmingen. it was there, where we experienced german celebrations for their victory over england during the WC. brought back memories of the festivals i attended while traveling in 2009 e.g. queen's day in amsterdam, las fallas in valencia.
it was a nice and quaint lil town
anyway i will attempt to blog about one of the countries i visited during my recent euro trip, before going on to upload more photos onto FB.
germany. the first time i went to germany was in february 2009 and it was my first trip made with newly established exchange friends with me in aarhus :) it was a road trip during the cold hard winter that got six of us squeezing into an opel, as well as speeding up the autobahn despite the snowstorms.. i remember doing a walking tour around berlin was such a torture due to our frozen toes, fingers and noses! i also remember the inexplicable joy on our faces when we walked out of the potsdam palaces to find a warm italian restaurant for dinner.
this time, i visited germany in the summer, but the weather was still terrible and rainy at the start. it got better towards the end.. and we made our trip only to munich, with the sole purpose of seeing the legendary neuschwanstein castle, the inspiration of the disney sleeping beauty castle. it was all worth it.
munich
we arrived on a sunday. thus coupled with the bad weather, the town was really cold in all manners.
germany's signature dishes include the schnitzel (fried battered meat), sauerkraut (sour cabbage), pork knuckles and of course, beer and bratwurst (german sausages). the sausages were definitely one of my favourite and it became a regular staple for us during our short stay.
we found a coffeestand with german dudes standing around and sipping on their coffees on a cold rainy day
schloss nymphenburg is one of the sights in munich. but the visit was semi-disappointing for me and the beauty of the palace was nowhere near that of schloss schonbrunn in vienna.
though i do have an odd habit of taking weird photos in palace gardens :P
nymphenburg:
schonbrunn:
we also visited the BMW museum in munich, though it wasn't part of the plan but we had to go grab some toy cars for yez's friend. which totally puzzled me cos i never imagined people would pay so much for toys that size. but at least i got a shot at sitting in the driver's seat of a BM convertible :P
the dachau concentration camp was a sight which i was insistent on seeing. after watching all the nazi films in the past year, as well as hearing about the nazi history established in munich during the WWII while on the city tour, i was really keen to step foot on the first ever concentration camp to be built in europe.
as this was the first concentration camp to be built, most of the prisoners sent in at the start were mostly the anti-nazis. it wasn't as concentrated with jews as the other camps were.
the crematorium
onto the highlight of the trip: the castle!! *dreamy*
photo was taken at the marienbrucke, which i personally felt was the best spot to get good photos of the castle. though it wasn't good enough for some people, cos he wanted to catch the front view of the castle. so we had to go on hiking.....
one of my best shots of the castle, still taken from marienbrucke.
this was the view from the top. brings a new perspective to the castle. however, we didn't manage to reach the utmost top of the mountain so we just took a break and settled for this. was absolutely good enough for me though.
after this, we were about done with germany, until the last night of our road trip where we had to take a plane back to london from a lil town called memmingen. it was there, where we experienced german celebrations for their victory over england during the WC. brought back memories of the festivals i attended while traveling in 2009 e.g. queen's day in amsterdam, las fallas in valencia.
it was a nice and quaint lil town