TRIP 1: Munich, Germany

Hey everyone, finally have some time after work to update my blog. Now with pictures!
So lets start from the beginning. I flew into Zurich via Frankfurt, got a cool picture, but it’s not mine, it’s Tim’s.





Got into Baden and instantly went to Munich for the long weekend. Took a few trains to get there. Baden to Koblenz, then Koblenz across the border into Waldshut, Germany. Then from Waldshut to Ulm and finally from Ulm to Munich. Takes about 5 hours and 7 euros. The German-Swiss border is pretty cool, it’s the Rhine River. Here’s me infront of the train to Waldshut.




We checked into the Hostel next, it’s pretty cool, didn’t have our own room so slept in this huge hall with 40 beds. Meet a dude from somewhere in the states and a bunch of people from Seattle.



The first place we went to visit in Munich was Schloss Nymphenburg (Castle Nymphenburg). This place was HUGE!!! The front yard was massive and had a stream with like 20 swans, how much Royal-like can you get? The back yard was even bigger with stone statues of Roman (or Greek) gods all over. There was also a stream that seemed to go on forever.








Later on that night we wandered around town, They have a similar thing to our Cow’s in Calgary. A bunch of lions that are painted and all that.




Also found a Ferrari, Lamborginni and Bentley dealership (and BMW and all that, but that’s not as cool anymore when all the taxi’s are Mercedes and all the cop cars are Audi’s and every 2nd car is a BMW).




The following day we took a train to Füssen to see Schloss Hohenschwangau and Schloss Neuchwanstein. O, here’s my traveling group. From left to right is Tim, Diden, Cigden, me, and Keegan, I hope I got the twins right, can’t tell them apart.





The first one was ok, not too big, but it was completed, so could see all the rooms. The other one looked amazing, but a lot of it wasn’t finished since the Duke or King died. We hiked up a huge cliff to get a wicked view of the castles, man they look amazing. Meet a bunch of Canadians as well. Here’s a few pics. The first one is from inside the first castle. The 2nd one is Hohenschwangau from a lookout point, the 3rd is Neuschwanstein from a bridge, the 4th is Neuschwanstein from the top of the cliff and the last one is the roof of the main hall of Schloss Neuschwanstein.












After the castle stuff was over, we trained it back to Munich. So , when in Bavaria, do as the Bavarian do….DRINK! Man these guys are hardcore about their drinking. Back in the day they raised the cost of beer by 2 cents and they revolted against the government. Then like 5 years ago they tried to make last call 11pm and they revolted again. Did you know you can drink in public here? In the trainstation, in the streets, in Mcdonalds even. You can even buy beer at Mcdonalds. Here’s some proof.









Here’s a wicked picture of the Glockenspiel at night (Glockenspiel = clock + play in German, pretty much does this little play with figures and stuff at 11, 12 and 5.





The next day we joined a walking tour, it was great, tons of information and got to meet a ton of people. We got to see Mozart’s place then went to this building nicknamed the Monkey Tower. It’s an old Bavaria legend that when King Ludwig was a baby a monkey took him and brought him to the top of the building, The locals used beer to coax the monkey down (they love their beer). Here’s the building





Another Bavarian legend is how this one church got built really quick (20 years, it’s Huge too). Basically the devil came up and saw the church only had 1 window and thought it’d be perfect to take over and all that since it was dark and stuff. So he made a deal with the builder that didn’t build any more windows the devil would get his minions to build it, so the builder agrees since there was tons of windows, the devil just didn’t see. After it was build, the devil got all pissed with the windows, and when he (or she) found out they got the short end of the stick, he/she stamped his/foot really hard and stormed away. Here’s a pic of the footprint. It’s exact same size as my foot……..




There are a ton of churches here, all are beautiful here’s a pic of one of the bigger ones with the Frauenkirche (2 towers) in the background.




One of the most amazing churches here is the Asamkirche. It’s done in rococo architecture (or something like that). Fricken amazing, tooks of shots inside, was hard tho since a Mass was going on (probably going to hell of it too).






Next we went to the biggest beer hall in the world, the Hofbräuhaus. On a darker note, here’s were Hitler made his first public speech. On a ligher note, I’ll be here again during Oktoberfest.




Last little big of WW2 history that I thought was really cool. There’s this square that the Nazi plaque was and it was required to salute the SA whenever you walked by. Just before it was an alley to bypass the plaque, so there’s trail to commemorate the people take avoided the Nazi’s back then (not an easy thing as the SA would see you walking in the alley and beat/kill you). Here’s also a pic of where the plaque was.







Well, that’s about it for now, was a sweet trip, and quite cheap. It’ll get some pics of my room and stuff later, take care for now you guys.