Germany

As promised, we have summarized our three trips into Germany (and our three days in Copenhagen) as one blog. We used Germany as a hub for our Europe trip, and took good advantage of the Germany-Denmark railpass that we purchased (which we would recommend for anyone traveling in Germany. They have excellent trains, but are way expensive if you pay point-to-point).

Munich
We were graciously hosted by Uta and Hartmut - friends from our Galapagos trip in Ecuador. They made sure that we experienced Bavaria to the fullest extent possible in three days, with trips to beerhalls or beer-brewing monasteries every night. They don't mess around in Bavaria - beer is served by the liter and every celebration is an excuse to eat generous amounts of pork products (with crackling!) and sauerkraut - the photos are from the Paulaner starkbier festival, held during Lent. Starkbier means strong beer, which we learned the hard way after our 2.5 liters apiece. Prosit!



We also managed to do some sightseeing around the town itself. Munich has some beautiful buildings, such as Frauenkirch (with the distinctive domes) and the Neues Rathaus (the new town hall) on Marienplatz where you (and hundreds of other tourists, video cameras whirring) can listen to the "lovely" sounds of the famous Glockenspiel (or carillon) with dancing figures. We saw a memorable sunset (and storm) atop the viewing platform of the Olympia Tower, overlooking the still impressive and stylish Olympiapark created for the 1972 games. From here you can see the Alps (on a clear day), the city, and even the BMW tower.



Neuschwanstein
We'd like to thank Hartmut for taking a day off and showing us some of the castles of "mad" King Ludwig II. We made it to Neuschwanstein (which the Disneyland castle is modeled after) in time for a beautiful sunrise, but despite somewhat scary attempts at ascending the mountainsides near the castle (not helped by the melting snow), we could not get the postcard picture of the castle with mountains and the lake in the background that we wanted. We still enjoyed our tour of it and neighboring Hohenschwangau (the cheerful yellow castle) - Ludwig II's sometimes childhood home. We wish we were allowed to take pictures inside as words cannot describe the opulence of the rooms we saw there (particularly the Neuschwanstein throne room).



We visited Linderhof, another of his castles (no pictures), which also has really impressive interiors. The grounds of Linderhof are excellent, but best appreciated when not under a foot of snow. :-) Nearby is the Benedictine abbey of Ettal, whose Bavarian baroque basilica is one of the most impressive buildings we have seen. The massive ceiling fresco is combined with sculpture to create a stunning 3D effect - it was almost impossible to distinguish where the wall sculptures finished and the painting began.



Rothenberg
We headed up the romantic road (by train) to Rothenburg - highly recommended by our buddy, Rick Steves. This is a medieval town full of postcard views and according to Rick is Germany's "best preserved walled town." The cutesy views keep a-coming down every turn of every street, along with crowds of fellow tourists and Christmas trinket stores. Despite all this, it was a nice town to visit, and we enjoyed our day of strolling around it. One last thing, you don't need to get a schneeball. We also stuck our heads into nearby Nurnberg and Wurzburg (see night photo), both lovely towns, but we didn't spend enough time there to do them justice.



Copenhagen
We left southern Germany and enjoyed a long sleep on an overnight train arriving in Copenhagen to spend a few quality days with Manny, a coworker from Merck days. We took a quick walking tour of the town with Manny on the first day (of course stopping for some beers on this lovely waterway), but other than that, our activities were confined to the computer. If you're curious as to what we did for two days - check out our blog entries for Brasil, Italy and Croatia. :-) It is sad that we didn't see more of the town (though we have heard that the little mermaid is just that.... little), but sometimes when you are traveling, you need a bit of time to regroup and take care of all the little details.



Rhine
Sick of the computer, but glad to have seen Manny, we headed south into Germany, where we packed in some sightseeing along the Rhine river valley. Starting with a sunrise over the impressive Koln (Cologne) cathedral, and about 10 minutes of freezing our butts off, we hopped back on a train for some fun trips down and up and down the river again (it pays to pay close attention to train schedules). The river valley is really scenic, with entire hillsides devoted to vineyards and medieval castles popping up around every bend. We also enjoyed watching all the boats using the river, particularly the long cargo boats, which sat so low in the water you could routinely see waves breaking over the sides.



We then hightailed it to Frankfurt to meet up with Karen's uncle Mike - he was a huge help in getting us out to RyanAir's Frankfurt airport, Hahn, which happens to be a good two hour trip outside of Frankfurt by bus - yikes!

Berlin
We traveled to Ireland and the UK over Easter (see prior blog), before returning once again to Germany, this time with Karen's mom, Linda, in tow. We visited Berlin, despite mixed reviews from family and friends. We enjoyed our overview tour of the city, and found it a city under construction. There were lovely old buildings, which is what we saw through most of Europe, but there were also reminders of the recent history of the city - the remains of WWII-bombed buildings, the divided city (Checkpoint Charlie and of course the Berlin wall), and the city's rebirth with construction cranes everywhere and sparkling new architecture. We were amazed at how thin the Berlin wall is, and how very little of it remains (it has continually been picked to pieces).



We took the time to visit the Reichstag, seat of the German Parliament. The buildings hosts a newly constructed glass dome (finished in 1999), which you can climb for an interesting view of the city and the interior parliamentary hall of the building.



Potsdam
On our last day of touring Europe, we took a day trip to nearby Potsdam, famous for being the home of Prussian royalty, notably Frederick the Great. It was a very interesting city to tour, and we recommend the guided bus trip. The city was made beautiful in the 1700s by the addition of facades to any "unattractive" buildings. The orange building below was actually the stables. There's a Dutch quarter (not pictured) and a Russian colony - built to house their respective peoples in the style they were accustomed to. There are also multiple palaces, mostly situated in the huge Park Sanssouci. Here we visited Sanssouci palace (the yellow building with a terraced garden of grapes and figs), the New Palace (with a facade painted to look like bricks and some intriguing statues - Frederick really liked statues), and the Chinese Teahouse. We went inside the New Palace (the shell grotto was amazing!), but as usual, no pictures allowed. A final interesting historical note is that the Cecilienhof palace (final photo) was home to the Potsdam conference where Churchill, Truman, and Stalin met to discuss the future of post-war Germany.

Ireland and the UK

The remainder of our time in Europe was spent in Germany, Ireland, and the U.K. As we went in and out of Germany three times, we've set that aside as a separate blog (which we will hopefully update soon). For now, enjoy some island photos.

Ireland
We spent five days in Ireland. Our first day was in Dublin where we spent the majority of our time exploring the Guinness Storehouse - learning a lot about how this mighty stout is made and even enjoying some in the process. We managed to see a bit of the town via a bus tour, such as the "ha'penny" bridge (so called for its 19th century toll)



We were joined by Ben's brother, Tom, and his girlfriend, Nic, and took advantage of their company for a road trip out to the west coast of Ireland - passing some beautiful scenery and resident donkeys on the way. We were lucky to make it out to the Cliffs of Moher for a bit of a (freezing) picnic watching a stunning sunset over the ocean (there's nothing quite like drinking red wine from a plastic cup!).



The next day we headed north of Galway to the Connemara peninsula, which was surprisingly scenic with rugged mountains, BLUE water, and striking yellow gorse-flowers scattered everywhere. It was lambing season - so we stopped often to ooh and aah at the cute little buggers...sometimes they stopped us with a true Irish traffic jam. The weather reminded us of Scotland, changing every five minutes from wind-driven rain to beautful sunshine, resulting in some stunning rainbows in-between.



Northern Ireland
After saying goodbye to Tom and Nic, we decided to head to Northern Ireland. We spent a night in Derry, sight of the infamous "Bloody Sunday" massacre. Murals have been painted on the walls to depict the experiences of the locals from Bogside during these troubled times.



We took a roundabout route getting back to Dublin by skirting the northern coast of the country. We spent some time out on the Giant's Causeway, whose hexagonal basalt columns are really quite remarkable to see. If you spend time in Ireland, we highly recommend a drive along the causeway coast as it is filled with spectacular cliffs, lovely Irish glens, and an abundance of very wooly sheep!



London
We traveled to London where we happily met up with Karen's mom and dad, and we all stayed with Karen's aunt, Karen. We set out on a busy tour schedule and were lucky to have Aunt Karen along as our personal tour guide (we were extremely impressed with her knowledge of English history and royalty).

Our first stop was the Tower of London where we became part of a massive "beefeater" tour group (they are the guys in red - the Yeoman Warders). We had no idea that there was so much to see at the Tower - we easily spent the better part of the day there and learned interesting things such as the distinctive size of Henry VIII's codpiece.



windsor
Home of HRH Queen Elizabeth II (who was in residence when we visited!!!!), Windsor castle makes for an enjoyable visit. The interior of the castle is even more impressive than the outside (unfortunately no photos allowed). St. George's chapel (home to the Knights of the Garter) and resting place of many royals, is as large and as impressive as many of the cathedrals we've seen in Europe.



Stonehenge and Bath
As a day trip out of London, the five of us somehow packed ourselves into Aunt Karen's car and traveled to Stonehenge and Bath. Unlike many famous landmarks, Stonehenge is impressively large in real life (but you don't need to spend much time there if you are not on a tour into the actual stone ring).



Bath is a world heritage city and considered very beautiful due to its Georgian buildings all constructed of the same material (though opinions on this varied within our group). The city was named for the Roman baths that were discovered here, still full to this day (though the green water doesn't look so nice for bathing now). The city also has a lovely abbey, complete with flying buttresses, for all you church fans.



Oxford
We took a bike tour of Oxford and didn't learn all that much except that most of us need more practice on a bike - our tour guide seemed a bit inexperienced. It is still an amazing campus, with great architecture and a sense of history (most of the pubs are older than our respective countries). We did enjoy the tour along the canal and the Thames river, which we probably would not have seen if we weren't biking.



Other fun notes from our trip to London was the time we spent with friends (Ian, Kerrie, Jacqui, Mike, Matt and Tash - it was really, really good to catch up with you! Thanks so much for your hospitality and generousity. Enjoy the coming English summer!) and our family trip to see Momma Mia (an excellent show, though the songs tend to get stuck in your head....for weeks - thanks for taking us, Aunt K!)

We are now in South Africa, and we are lucky to be hosted by our friend, Tracey, and her family in Jo'burg. We're sure to have some good photos for the blog soon as we head to Kruger National Park tomorrow!