Munchen

We arrived in Munchen (so much more fun to say than Munich don't you think?) around 4 pm and headed straight to Oktoberfest! I mean - HELLO! What would you do - right?

So the one thing I didn't know is that Oktoberfest is basically like a State Fair - well a real cool State Fair that has huge BEER tents that seat 8500+ people, but still a State Fair. Rides and everything. My question is - who rides rides after drinking several 1 liter beers? Okay, so say there ARE a couple crazy drunk people (guys I'm sure) who ride the rides. Do they puke? Are there huge puke buckets at each ride? Sorry so crude - but seriously these were the questions that were going threw my head, so basically we just stayed really far away from the rides!:)

The beer tents at Oktoberfest hold the "Big Six" Breweries. If you want to find out more about them go here. I think the history behind their origins is very interesting.

The first tent we came upon was Paulaner - but when we saw the white table clothes we thought - NO WAY - we need craziness and dancing on tables:) So we just walked around their tent and on to the next. But it was beautiful - see:

Paulaner

The next tent was J.W. Augustiner. We REALLY wanted a beer but were told that you had to have a seat to be able to get one. Of course there were no open seats, so I asked a waitress if we might be able to "get a beer". She said "Vate right here". She then continued to smoke two cigarettes and I was like "what the hell is going on" but I wasn't about to ask again in fear that she might say no - so we "vated".

Then she started yelling something at another woman - went away for about 5 minutes and then came back with our 4 beers and pulled us over to a table. We were on the "outside" of the fence and there were lots of signs that said "YOU CAN NOT STAND HERE" in big letters and NO ONE else was standing there - but hey the waitress said we could - so no questions from us!

The 1 liter beers at the Oktoberfest were going for 8.50 Euro, but the waitresses pretty much expected 10 Euro. A lot of them take unpaid leave from their "real" jobs to waitress at the Oktoberfest because it is so lucrative! Our waitress was really nice, and we ended up finding out a bunch of information from her. If you want a reservation for a table you basically have to make it ONE YEAR in advance, because that is how quickly they fill up. And when you make the reservation it is for 2 beers and a chicken:) I thought that was a fun tidbit:)

So here she is -our waitress - who Nathan now fondly refers to as "His Girlfriend" - don't they look cute together? She could carry about 12 of those 1 liter beers at one time! It was amazing! I tried to get a picture, but was never at the right angle, and I thought she might kill me if I stopped her while she was carrying all that and said "Can I take your picture?":) And yes, my husband has a Miller "Champagne of Beers" hat on at Oktoberfest!:)

So that tent was a lot of fun - we made some friends, ate some BIG pretzels, drank some beer but it was time to move on - next up Hofbrauhaus!

Now this is where it got interesting! The Hofbrauhaus is obviously the party tent! We tried the same trick with asking a waitress and it worked again! We were outside the "rail" but so were lots of people and obviously the Hofbrauhaus didn't care about fire safety!:)

We found out that this tent was set up a little different - so they still had the tables you could reserve a year in advance, but they also had standing tables in the back that were first come first serve. We started talking to the people on the "other side" of the rail at the tables - they were US Marines stationed in Germany and we had a lot of fun with them! They ended up giving us their place when they left by helping us climb the railing!:)

Here are some pics from the Hofbrauhaus - definitely my favorite tent! Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries around 8 pm so I don't have any of the late night craziness (it definitely got crazier by the hour). I'm also really bummed that I don't have a picture of the two Russians that Nathan gave his phone number to and told them to come visit us in the States when we get back - good times!:)

One liter beers are fun!!!!!

Most people were dressed up in the traditional Bavarain outfits of Lederhosen and Dirndls - these guys.... not so much:)

It was definitely a party atmosphere! People were singing with the band, dancing, and just having a good time. They played a lot of american songs - I think here it was Sweet Home Alabama:)

I'm not exactly sure how Nathan and I had the sense to get ourselves back to our hotel but we did! I say this b/c apparently I ate a huge plate of fried potatoes and honestly have no recollection at ALL of doing that:)

So needless to say Nathan and I were hurting a little the next morning (my parents were a little more sensible with the amount of beer they drank), but we rallied and went on the Sandeman FREE Walking Tour of Munich (Nathan had done one of these in Prague and really enjoyed it!) The tour is technically free, but they ask you to tip for what you think it was worth at the end.

The walking tour was 3 hours long and highlighted many of the significant city landmarks made infamous by the Third Reich. I thought our tour guide was very knowledgeable and I would recommend doing this if you are in Munich. Munich has so much history - I can't possibly recap it for you here - but if you are in Germany I think it should be on your list of "must visit" cities (even without Oktoberfest:)) Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures to show you either b/c I was a little hungover and didn't take my camera out much:(

Dodger's Alley Tribute - This is the gold line painted in the road as a memorial to all who refused to salute the Nazi plaque on the wall in the main street and went down this alley instead.

The New Town Hall in Marienplatz - home of the famous Glockenspiel - rated #2 on Most Overated Tourist Attractions in Europe:)

We spent the rest of the day revisiting some of the spots on the tour (you don't get to spend that much time at each place), checking out the market, and finally walking through the English Gardens.

We stumbled across something REALLY cool at the English Gardens - Surfing! What?! Yes - surfing! So cool! So there are a bunch of streams running through the garden, but at this one bridge (I think it was on Prinzregenstrasse) there were waves (I'm not sure how there were waves but there were). Check out the video:

That night we ate at the Ratskeller - a traditional cellar restaurant in the Rathaus (city hall) basement. The Rathaus is the beautiful building with all the flowers in Marienplatz. I was worried it would be hard to get a table because there were tons of people in Munich but the place was so huge that it wasn't a problem at all. The food was really good and I would recommend it if you were visiting Munich.

The next morning we went to Dachau, the site of Germany's first concentration camp under the Hitler regime. Now it is a memorial to those who died under the Nazis. Some 200,000 prisoners passed through Dachau's gates between 1933 and 1945, of whom 32,000 lost their lives from disease, starvation, torture, execution, slave labor, and medical experiments. The museum with all the pictures of the horrors of the Holocaust, stories from survivors, and detailed explanations as to how such atrocities came to pass was a very sobering experience. We were at Dachau for about 3 hours, and still didn't get to read all the information in the museum. Visiting Dachau and walking through the gas chambers and crematorium gave us a creepy feeling that is hard to describe. How could people be so evil? There was a plaque near the museum exit that said "those who forget the past are destined to repeat it". This was the main statement throughout the memorial and the reason they are still educating people on the Holocaust today. If you are in Munich, I would definitely recommend this day tour. The memorial is free, but we purchased the audio tour. I enjoyed the audio tour, but the memorial is so well documented (in English) that it wasn't absolutely necessary.

The Gate at Dachau Translated to "Work will set you free", this sign hung over the entryway to all camps.

The "Roll Call" Area Everyday the tired and sick were forced to take roll call at attention, a long and painful process that was part of the torture

The Living Quarters - the camp was originally built to hold 6,000 prisoners but at its height it held 30,000

The Crematorium

Now back to the train station to head home to Zurich:( Why is it that when you are on vacation the time flies by, but when you are working sometimes the days seem to drag on?:) So not fair!

Well that was the end of our adventures for a while. Back to "normal" life. But what I want to know is "Hey Nathan, where are we going next?!"

Love to Everyone! Mandy

More pictures from Munich.

Vienna - The city of Wieners

Vienna or Wien as the Europeans call it is full of Wieners (people from Wien:)) Nathan loved Wien while we were there, and said he could definitely live there, but I'm not sure I could be a Wiener:)

Is this kind of like Wallyworld?:)

Anyway!:) We arrived at the Marriott which was right on the "ring" street! What an amazing location we stayed in! The hotel was located directly across from Stadtpark and within 10 minute walking distance from St. Stephan's Cathedral! Thank you Nathan!

Day 1

So the first morning we got up and headed over to the Hofburg Palace to see the world famous Lippizzaner horses at the Spanish Riding School! We were there on a Tuesday so we couldn't see a regular performance (friday-sunday only) so went to see a morning exercise session. The building where they perform is really cool and the horses are amazingly beautiful, but my uncultured husband wasn't really into the "exercise" routine.:) I thought it would be kind of a rehearsal for the real show, but really they were just exercising - trotting, galloping, whatever it is that horses do:) But at one point Nathan held a fake gun to his head- so I guess that was our key to leave:)

Hofburg Palace

Lipizzaner Horses at the Spanish Riding School

Next up - Bonnie (Nathan's mom) had suggested that we take one of the site seeing buses around the city to get a handle on all the sites (Vienna is quite big and slightly overwhelming when you first arrive). She had done that and really enjoyed it - so that's what we did! There are several different bus tours, but we went on the Vienna Sightseeing bus - I thought it was very good and they had a lot of interesting facts and history about Vienna and the sites we were seeing! We definitely got to see more of the city this way - not sure if we would have made it out to Prater to see the Giant Ferris Wheel without the bus! We took the two hour tour and I think it was a good use of 16 euro!

Sightseeing bus

After this we decided to walk around the city and see up close the things we liked from the bus tour. We started with St. Stephan's Cathedral - Vienna's best known landmark.

St. Stephan's Cathedral

Then we had the best day just walking around the city! I love doing that! What a great way to get a really feel for the city! I have no idea how many miles we walked but it was a lot! We walked through Stadtpark, the Naschmarkt, Museums Quartier, Burggarten, little side streets and more that I can't remember!:) Nathan kept saying "I could live here":) Can you say we liked it?!:)

While we were waiting for the tram to take us back to our hotel I saw this sign!

Are you kidding me?! This was an ad in the middle of the city at a TRAM stop! I knew I liked Vienna!:)

So although they were talking about a party on Thursday we decided to take their advice and party it up at the Heuriges (local wine taverns) in Grinzig! Yes my mom and I are winos from WAAAAAAAAAY back! I 100% suggest doing this if you go to Vienna! Take Tran 38 from Schottentor to the end of the line.

We ended up at Heurige Zum Martin Sepp - great food and great WHITE wine! Yes - I said white wine! These heuriges mostly made white wine because of their location in Austria. But it was really good!

After Zum Martin Sepp we went to another place (that I can't remember the name of) but they served us wine in beer mugs - uh oh! Maybe we were over served but it was a lot of fun!:)

Two beer steins of wine? This can't be good....

Yes - two steins of wine leads to fondling of the statues - good times!:)

Great time in the Grinzig Heuriges!

Day 2

This morning we started our day at a local coffee house - the Viennese are very proud of their "coffee culture". My mom did say it was some of the best coffee she ever had!

Then on to Schonbrunn Palace. When they say you can take four hours here they aren't lying! We toured the Palace then all the grounds - more beautiful gardens! (My mom loves flowers which is one of the reasons I wanted her to come to Austria - they love their gardens in this country!)

Out front of the Palace

View of the Palace and Gardens from the Gloriette

Aren't those the cutest topiaries you've ever seen!:)

We didn't make it to the Rathaus the day before so we went to see it up close! There was a Circus there and we stopped for a bite to eat and some beer.

Rathaus

I got suckered into eating one of these whole fried fish - head, eyeballs, tail, and all! Yuck!

We were all a bit tired (my Dad and I had caught a cold on the trip) so we came back to the hotel so the boys could go to the sauna before the Opera! Good times:)

This night we headed to the Vienna Opera House to see the opera Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades). I had no idea I would love the Opera so much! I think it helped that they had little "teleprompter" things in front of each seat that translated the words - boy did that help! Either way the show and the singing were amazing! I purchased our seats at the last minute (why I didn't get them earlier I don't know....) so our seats were on the side and we could only see about 2/3 of the stage which was kind of a bummer, but it just makes me want to go back for another one! Does anyone know if all opera houses have those little teleprompter screens?:)

Can you see the "teleprompter"? It is to the right of my head:) Yeah for technology!:)

Such a beautiful Opera House!

If you have never been to an Opera please go if you happen to be in Vienna! Highlight of the whole trip for sure!

Day 3

We got up and headed to the train station for Munich - I hated to say goodbye to Vienna, but Oktoberfest was calling our name!

Prost! See you in Munich,

Mandy

Here are the rest of the Vienna pictures!

Salzburg - The Hills are Alive!

***We have been back from our vacation for 1 week as I write this - so sorry for the delay! This was a tough week trying to get back up to speed at work and I was very sick:( So without further ado...

Salzburg, Austria - Day 1

The day after the Alpabfahrt we headed off by train to Salzburg to start our trip. This was going to be the longest train ride of the trip (6 hours), but since our train rides in Italy were very enjoyable I figured it would be a nice relaxing, scenic trip. Wrong!:) It was so freaking hot on the train we all thought we were going to die. No air and no windows! At one point my mother was actually pouring water on herself to cool down - good times!:) We were very excited when we finally arrived in Salzburg!

Doesn't my mom look comfy in her backpack? She said it really helped with her posture:)

We were staying at the Crowne Plaza which was a short walk from the train station. I was thinking - hells yeah - Crowne Plaza! Plush - right? Well yes plush, but.......when we got to our rooms we found out that the air was broken (this was even worse b/c we had just gotten off that hellish train)! We got maintenance and the guy who came to our room said "This happens on the 5th floor sometimes". They tried fixing it for a while, but said it wouldn't happen because it was Sunday and every one was off. Okay - then can we get another room? On the phone the front office said yes, but when we got down there they told us they were fully booked. Then we said "But you just told us we could." So then they told us it wouldn't matter where we stayed b/c "It's too cold outside for the air to work." WHAT?! "Yes, when the outside temperature gets below 80 degrees the air doesn't work in the whole hotel" Well my Dad wasn't buying into that crap and said he wanted a new room anyway. And guess what? The new room had air! Go figure! I guess they just didn't want to move us....hmm! Of course, Nathan and I stayed in our unairconditioned room b/c we are used to that but at least the parents were comfy!:) Now on with the trip!:)

So after that little set back we decided to spend the rest of our day wisely and go to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Our hotel was in the Neustadt (new city) across from the Mirabella Gardens (so beautiful!) so we got to walk through there every time we headed to the Altstadt (old city -i.e. where eveything is located).

The fortress was really cool and it has a GREAT view of the city! (Great View as in lots of steps Bob:)) The fortress had a cool Welt der Marioenetten (Marionette Museum).

View of the Fortress from the Altstadt

View of the Altstadt from the Fortress

The Von Kratus Family inside the Marionette Museum

Nathan rocking the marionettes!

The guys enjoyed the Rainermuseum, a military museum displaying armor, swords, and other war type stuff and the Burgmuseum (fortress museum) displaying weapons used in revolts and a collection of medieval torture devices.

Chastity Belt -yikes!

Since it was a Sunday everything else was closed by the time we left the Fortress so we decided to go to dinner. Most restaurants were closed, but we stumbled upon the Sternbrau. What a find! The food and beer were really good! And we sat in the cute outside beer garden! Great find and I defintely recommend it! All of our meals were excellent but I think the Beef Goulash was the best:) Of course we also had to try the traditional dessert, the Salzburger Nockerl! We weren't sure exactly what it was when they served it but basically it is a dessert souffle - excellent, but in small quantities:)

Salzburger Nockerl - straight sugar! Mmmmmm!

After leaving dinner we took this great photo of Salzburg at night (at least I love it)! Salzburg is such a cute little quaint city!

Salzburg - Day 2

Friday afternoon I decided to book a Sound of Music Tour b/c I know how much my mom loves that movie! Rick Steves said he thought Bob's Tours were the best so I decided to go with that (he had not steered us wrong up to this point - so why not? Right) Well.....I had gotten a confirmation on Friday night saying that Bob's Tours would pick us up at the Crowne Plaza between 8:45 and 9:30 am Monday morning. But I started to get a bad feeling around 9 am so I called their office, and the slightly rude women who answered the phone said she didn't have a reservation for me and therefore would not be picking us.....oooh - wait a second...sorry Mrs. Becker I have it right here. You did it after closing on Friday so I didn't get it until this morning.

I understand mistakes, but if you are going to allow your website to continue to take reservations after closing, don't you think someone should be following up with them? Especially when the website sent me a confirmation email saying they would be picking us up at our hotel! Anyway, I only tell you this, so if you try to book a tour - do it before closing time on Friday! So after a lot of "sorry we can't fit you in" to "we will book you on a competitors bus" to "now we have room" - we actually ended up on Bob's Tours with Bruno as our tour guide!

So although the day started out with a little drama the tour was very nice and it was cool to see all the places they filmed the Sound of Music! My mom and I also sang ALL the songs! I don't think it bothered the other tourists.....well at least not that much:)! Surprisingly Nathan has NEVER seen the Sound of Music! (Actually I wasn't that surprised to find this out, I already knew he grew up under a huge rock.:)) So I think we are actually going to watch it tonight! You HAVE to see the Sound of Music at least once - right?! Especially when you've been on the Sound of Music Tour! Loved the tour and if you are in Salzburg it is a must!

Start of the Sound of Music Tour - Mirabelle Gardens

The little gnome Nathan is with was in the movie - he is the one sticking out his tongue. We didn't remember this in the movie but we loved the little guys!

Gazebo at Hellbrunn Palace.... I am sixteen going on seventeen:)

Church on Mondsee where Maria and Mr. von Trapp got married

After the tour we spent the rest of the day walking around the Altstadt and ended up at a very cool cafe restaurant - which of course I can't remember the name of now - but the most important part about it was that while we were sitting there drinking beer and having a great lunch my mom and I wanted to find a Trollbead Store in Salzburg. (For those of you who don't know - we sell Trollbeads at Swagger. They are bracelets that you fill up with collectible gold, sterling silver and/or glass beads. We are completly addicted and wanted to find some cool "one of a kind beads" in Europe. They started in Denmark and Europe has the best selection of one of a kind beads!) Anyway, I digress. So as I was trying to find stores (in German mind you) on the Austrian Trollbeads Website and then possibly trying to map them - I was about to give up when Nathan goes "Hey isn't that the name of one of the stores?" Holy Crap! The largest Trollbeads Distributor in Salzburg was actually right behind us! Yeah! They had a beautiful selection and we bought way too many:) I know some of you guys are also collectors so if you are ever in Salzburg head over to Perlenwelt.

That was the end of our time in Salzburg so we headed back to the train station to catch a train to Vienna. We actually made a friend in the station - Nubby! Nubby definitely deserves a mention in the blog:) Poor bird only had one foot but don't worry... Nathan fed him (and then the other 20 birds that flocked our way when he started giving out food:)) and we all wished him well! Hello Nubby whereever you are! Good Luck!:)

Nubby! ..... Yes we are sick:)

So even with all the little "issues" we had a wonderful time in Salzburg - Next up Vienna! Coming VERY soon.... love ya, Mandy

p.s. - we are watching the Sound of Music right now! It is so cool to pick out all the places we went!:) Doe, a deer. A female deer....... :)

The rest of our pictures from Salzburg.

Alpabfahrt Mels - Let's Party till the Cows come Home!

I know. I know. The German word "fahrt" still makes me laugh. You can take the girl out of America but you can't take America out of the girl:)! Anyway, the word "fahrt" means journey or trip. So Alpabfahrt (which we were pronouncing "Applefart"..... close - I'm sure:)) is a journey of the cows coming back down from the Alps.

If you are in Switzerland during the middle to later part of September you simply MUST go to an Alpabfahrt! I think there are several, but we went to the one in Mels - I found it on http://www.myswitzerland.com/). The reason we went to that one was b/c it was the closest (only 1 1/2 hours) from Zurich. My parents had arrived from the States at 8 am so I didn't want to go too far b/c I knew they would be tired.

So the Swiss Alp herders bring the cows back down from their summer home in the Alps to their rightful owners during the Alpabfahrt. The cows have beautiful headdresses on and the herders wear traditional garb.

The first animals that came by were sheep - how cute is this!

My mom was a little concerned with the "droppings" they left in the middle of the road b/c people didn't seem to care if they stepped in it. Little did she know that this sheep poop was nothing! You'll see what I mean in a second:).

About 10 minutes later we started to hear lots of cow bell and the parade began! How cool is this!

Now that looks like a heavy necklace!

Here is a video:





So after the parade of cows was over (at least we thought it was over) we saw most of the crowd turn around and run towards this water fountain in the center of town - so hey since we didn't know what was going on we all followed! Boy was this a good/bad thing:) The cows continued their parade through the little town of Mels and then once they get to the water fountain they all started drinking out of it. Hundreds of cows in this one little area! Then the massive chaos began!

The first couple of cows to reach the fountain!

Serious chaos! The herders couldn't keep the cows together! Nathan almost got trampled!

True love:) And yes that is what you think it is on the ground - eeewwwwww!

Smile!

People were just walking through the cow poop - seriously disgusting!

My mom tried to tip toe over to the cows so as to not step in the poop! However, you saw the picture above - I don't think that was possible!

We didn't know why they were letting all the cows stop at the fountain causing all the chaos, but we found out later that the water fountain is where the cows get transfered from the Alp herders to their "rightful" owners.

A "rightful" owner!)

We met a nice Swiss gentleman waiting for the bus home and he gave us the history and run down of the Alpabfahrt - so here it is (of course he could have been making it up and we wouldn't know the difference:)):


During the spring the cow farmers bring some of their cows to Mels and then the Alp herders/farmers come take them up into the alps (this is not a big production with the headdresses and everything). During this time the Alp herders keep the cows to make Alp cheese and stuff (we aren't 100% sure about the business relationship here so if anyone knows please tell us - Nathan was VERY concerned about the money aspect:)). Then when it starts to get cold (mid September) the Alp herder's bring the cows back down the mountain and there are big festivals and the cows get "dressed up". The cows and herders walk for about 5 hours out of the alps to reach the town of Mels. We were told that 5 different sets of cows would parade through the town - (I think it is b/c they were from 5 different alp communities?). Then when the cows get into town they parade through and then stop at the water fountain where the cow farmers come get their cows. That explains why we saw several people with only two or three cows leaving the town center - duh! Such a cute Swiss tradition - we loved it!


While we were waiting for the bus a farmer came by us with his two cows and I asked to take a picture since we didn't get a good one in town (too much chaos!). After they left we all started laughing b/c this is what the cows in the field across from us looked like as the farmer and his cows were walking by! Too funny!

I'm pretty sure they were thinking "Wow - isn't she beautiful with that flower tiara. I wonder what her number is":)

Anyway, such a cool experience! One of the coolest things we have done in Switzerland (it doesn't take much to impress us:))! I'm so glad my parents were here for it!
Mandy
Here are the rest of the pics!