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I'm making a log of our German trip...what we did/where we ate and so forth.
Tuesday, September 22nd
Flew to Dallas first. That was at about 11:30 AM or so. Then flew to Germany. Got to Germany about 7:00 AM or so the following day.
Wednesday, September 23rd
Got to Germany. Met Brian at the airport right away. We hung out at the airport and caught up until Brian's Girlfriend Whitney got there around 10:30 or so. The airline lost Whitney's bag. I was glad we didn't check any.
Leaving the airport, I got in the back of Brian's A4 Audi. Brian flies up a corkscrew in the parking lot and I felt very sick. Didn't throw up but I had to move to the front seat. I felt a little sick the rest of the day. We're driving to Munich. I got a bottle of water along the way, and it made me have to urinate more than I've ever had to my entire life. We eventually just pulled over somewhere in Munich, and I ran into this rowhouse/apartment complex and went in some bushes. As I was leaving some old lady closed the entrance doors. Kind of funny in retrospect.
We got to our hotel, and then walked to Oktoberfest. It was a long day. :)
The Oktoberfest is freaking huge. We're walking around, looking at tents. Go in some. We were entering one and some official from the tent starts talking to me in German. "Ich spreche nur wenig Deutsch" I say, and he starts speaking in English. We end up in the Hoffbrau tent, which is affiliated with the Hoffbrauhaus (famous place off site). I had at least two beers -- mind you they're a liter each, plus stronger than regular beer. I don't know whether I had two or three, but at some point around nine I decided I was done. I walked back to the hotel, and stopped at an internet cafe to let eveyone know I had gotten to Germany okay. I updated my facebook status and let "everzone" know I was safe in Germany. The "Z" and "Y" keys are switched on the German keyboard. Mike, Brian and Whitney continued on, but I'm not sure how. I'd been up for over 30 hours straight.
Thursday, September 24th
I was the most hungover I've been since Chuck's wedding 4 years earlier -- though it wasn't as bad as that time. Last night was the most I drank on the trip, though we drank every night. We got up and ate breakfast at the hotel. I had little wurstchen's and bacon. The coffee machine was a bit strange, so Mike ended up getting a cup of froth. It took a while for the coffee to shoot out when getting a cappucino.
We headed for Berchtesgaden to see Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" which is a name given to it by the Allies. It is called "Kehlsteinhaus" in German. Brian has named his GPS "Nancy." We go in and out of Austria a bit on the way.
We took a bus up to the site. It's now a restaurant. Mist is all over one side of the mountain. When we go back down, the bus ride makes everyone a little motion sick. We ate at a hotel restaurant in Bechtesgaden. I got beef broth soup with a giant cheese dumpling. It was very good. The dumpling was probably 4 inches across and an inch and a half thick.
Next we drove back to Munich. We went to Oktoberfest again, but this time don't stay in any of the tents. We got a beer at an outside bar. We watched people go up this ramp to get to a slide. It was so funny, I could have watched it all night. Mike goes up it and falls immediately. We hadn't had anything to drink at that point. It was funny to watch drunken Germans in lederhosen go up it. Some made it fine and some didn't.
We bought some Gebrannte Mandeln -- which is sugar roasted almonds. They're too good to put down. Once you eat one, you have to keep eating them until they're gone. I think they sell them at Independence Center back home, so I'm looking forward to getting more.
On the way back to the hotel Mike and I stopped and bought some pizza. Pizza is big in Germany.
Friday, September 25th
We got up at the hotel. I felt a lot better this morning. Same breakfast in the hotel -- for me wurstchen, bacon, and musli.
We walked east from our hotel to the Glockenspiel. Lot of tourists around looking at it. The weather was nice again. We continued east a bit more to the Hoffbrauhaus, a famous site. I bought a maß. I also bought a couple of shirts at the Hard Rock Cafe across the street.
We walked back and left the hotel for good. We drove to Neuschwanstein castle near Fuessen. Once again, there was a bus ride to the top. Then lots of walking. There were a lot of Asian tourists. We toured around the outside of the castle. Then there was quite a hike up to the Marienbrucke (bridge) overlooking the castle. They're renovating the side visible from the bridge, unfortunately.
Next, we went back down the mountain and ate at a little restaurant in a hotel. I actually got Schnitzel Wiener Art, or Wiener Schnitzel. This time made of pork I think, it was just okay. I've had better Schnitzel. It came with French Fries.
We had a long drive back to the town Brian lives at, called Kaiserslautern. We walked to a brewhaus, and I had probably my favorite beer I had in all of Germany. It was the local brewhouse's wheat beer. It came in a long tube with a spiget on the end so we could serve ourselves. Whitney ended up with beer spilled on her a couple of times.
I got a flatbread pizza with some sort of sliced sausage/(American)pepperoni on it. Very good.
Saturday, September 26th
I think we must have slept in a bit, since we were up real late watching youtube videos. When we did get up, we walked to the Saturday Market. We stopped at one of the little outdoor cafe type places that are all over in Germany. I got a really good Heisse Schokolade. I also got some sort of pizza Kaese suppe. It had a green tint to it and was basically a cheese soup with some little pizza like toppings in it. Very good.
We went to see a movie in English that night. "Public Enemies," which I had seen before, but nobody else in our group had, and I didn't mind seeing it again. It's funny, they actually started the movie in German, so people had to get up to go and tell them of the mixup. It switched to English on the fly.
That night in K-town we went to the same brewhouse we went to on the previous night, but this time they didn't have the giant tube of beer. They did have the same wheat beer though, just not in the tube. So we got some more of it just in glasses. They weren't making the little flatbread pizzas this night, though. They weren't offering much of anything, actually. No sausages either. We were all very hungry so we decided to finish our beers and go elsewhere. We did buy pretzels to tide us over.
On the way home we stopped at a Doener shop. They're all over the place in Germany. It's basically like Gyros. I got a giant wrap that must have weighed at least 2 pounds. Very good but it didn't sit so well when I woke up the next morning.
Sunday, September 27th
I think our train to Hannover was scheduled to leave around noon or so, and we would get to Hannover around 2:30. We got up and walked out into Kaiserslautern. We stopped and had some ice cream. Mine was some really good banana dish.
We said our goodbyes to Brian and Whitney (Brian was pretty sure he'd catch back up with us in Cologne -- Whitney returned to the states on Tuesday).
We got on the train. This was a smaller train. We were to change trains in Mannheim. On the trip to Mannheim we sat by a couple of people who were in Germany to see an auto show. One of them had a cousin who worked as a physician or pharmacist or something in Kansas City. Small world.
In Mannheim we got on one of the ICE trains. It was very confusing as far as where we were supposed to sit. We didn't reserve seats (I wasn't aware you could do this). It only costs a few extra Euros. The train was crowded so we ended up standing for the first part. Then we found some open seats (there was no way of telling whether they were reserved) -- we didn't get bumped out of them the rest of the trip.
We arrived in Hannover, and Bernd met us there at the station.
Bernd took us back to his house. It's part of a rowhouse. He also lived there when I visited in '92. They have fixed it up though. Lots of white paint instead of darks.
There was a lot of family there. Sunday was Karin's birthday. We saw Ingo and met his wife Gabi. We played Skat against Ingo and Jurgen (who I'm not sure how we're related.) I played a bunch of hands. I think I won a couple. I know I lost a null and another hand by 1 point.
We ate traditional German dinner. There was a beef (I think it was Rouladen) and also Kartoffeln and Rotkohl. There was a rasberry dessert.
That night we bought tickets online for our trip to Cologne in a couple of days. We got reserved seats this time :)
Monday, September 28th
We got up and got ready. We had that traditional German breakfast again, with Brotchen and cold cuts and also eggs and Musli cereal. Today would be a busy day.
We first drove to Hachmuehlen. I had been there before, but at that time I didn't know which house my father was born and grew up in. We knew this time.
The house is now "Pension Westermann." It was "Gasthaus Grimme" when my dad lived there. We knocked on the door and a boy answered (he was maybe 18 or so). He got his mother, Frau Westermann. We went inside the house. Bernd talked with Frau Westermann and told her how our father had lived there. Very cool to be inside of that house. We next went by the former Sporleder house.
Our next stop was Hannover. We parked and walked. While walking Bernd recognized a couple of people.
We walked to the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus). Inside, they have various maps of Hannover throughout history. They had one in 1689. Also one in 1945 -- the town had been bombed like crazy. We went to the top of the Rathaus and got a good view of the city.
We decided we wanted a burger for lunch. No McDonalds for us though!
We went through a nice new mall, and stopped and ate at a place called "Play Off." It seemed to be an Americana sports type of restaurant. I got a pretty good burger there.
Our next stop was at the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. I didn't realize that it had also (and I think first) been a POW camp. Lots of Russian soldiers there. They had a new information center. It was long -- and very well done. We spent a lot of time reading up on what happened there. I didn't realize that people stayed there after the war, after the camp was liberated by the British (there is still British military in the area today). Those people were basically without a country/home.
We then ventured out into the grounds, where the actual camp had been, but it is mostly gone now. Mostly all that is left are the giant mass burial mounds and memorials. There is a memorial to Anne Frank, who died there, though of course they don't know the exact spot where her remains are.
It's very interesting what happened there, and of course very very sad.
Our next stop was Celle. It's an old town that has many good examples of "Fachwerk" or wood framed houses. We parked the car, got out and walked around town. We got some good pictures.
We returned to GroBburgwedel and picked up Karin. Her knee was bothering her, so I helped her along. I offered to have Mike carry her, but she declined.
We went to an Italian restaurant. It was really good. The waiter and chef (who we talked to) were of course from Italy.
I got an appetizer of shrimp scampi. I had never had shrimp served to me with the heads still on before. They came right off though so no big deal. Very good. Karin had a flat-bread pizza that consisted of a crust, spinach and sliced tomatoes and cheese. She shared it with us.
I had for my entree a ravioli in a orangish cream sauce. For dessert there was panna cotta in caramel sauce. It's the second time I've had panna cotta. Love that stuff.
We did a couple of schapps shots with Bernd again when we got back home.
This was probably my favorite day on our trip.
Tuesday, September 29th
We got up and had breakfast again. I don't remember what we did that morning, other than a couple of things. I know we went and walked around GroBburgwedel a little bit. Mike had a cold so we bought him some medicine at a pharmacy. We went to a toystore because Bernd wanted to get something for the boys. I picked out a combine for Owen (he loved it). Also a stuffed squirrel for Chase -- probably because we'd taken a liking to the German word for squirrel, which is Eichhoernchen.
We played Skat with Bernd for a while. I think our train for Cologne was to leave at about 2:30 or so.
We went to go to the train station. I was hoping to look for some German books for Owen, but we didn't have much time. We hurried over to the mall and looked, but I didn't find anything I wanted. I had hoped to find books that I know we had the English equivalent of.
We made our train, and were off to Cologne. This time the train was much less crowded, and we seemed to be in a nicer part of it. I think the trip was maybe 2 1/2 hours or so. It goes by pretty quickly.
Marc met us there at the train station, and we went to meet up with Brian and Katrin. Brian had dropped Whitney off earlier in the day at the airport, but then he came up to Cologne to continue to visit us. Brian was waiting for us at Katrin's store, an outdoors type store that sells a product called Jack Wolfskin. I don't think it's available in the states.
We went to a restaurant, a brewhouse I think. Got some more good beer, and I got a really awesome dinner. It was basically cheese and potatoes, baked with ham and hollandaise sauce. Really good.
We next went back to Marc and Katrin's house. It's sort of out in the country. They have two dogs, named Nalla and Lord. Nalla is a Bernese mountain dog, and Lord is a Dalmation.
Wednesday, September 30th
We got up and had the typical german breakfast again. We got in the car and headed to Cologne. When we got there, we parked and walked to the Cologne Cathedral, the Koelner Dom.
Words and even pictures can't really put into perspective how impressive that place is.
There was a guy dressed as Spiderman and another as a Roman soldier taking pictures with people in front.
We went inside and toured around. It is actually a Catholic church and services were going to be starting soon, at noon.
We went up the spiral staircase to the top. It's quite a workout. Everyone else (Marc, Mike, and Brian) were only a little bit ahead of me, and they all said it was a good workout, too. We got to the top of the spiral staircase. Then there was another outdoor staircase going up.
At the top, there is fencing/wiring to ensure people don't jump off, I suppose. There were a lot of German school children there, I would say they were about middle school age.
Walking around Cologne, we went to a Dunkin Donuts. I asked them in German for "etwas kalt aber mit kein Kaffee" I should have just asked for something "ohne Kaffee." Oh well. Marc said I was understood. Their smoothie machine was broken, though.
We made our way to the Lindt chocolate museum. It was quite a walk, but that's something the Germans do :)
It's kind of funny, the mustard museum is right across the street from the chocolate museum. We picked the chocolate museum.
When we were done in there, we went to the museum's outdoor cafe.
Mike and Brian both got an ice cream trio of white, milk and dark chocolate. When they got theirs, I tried to change my order form cake to ice cream, but the lady said "no you've already ordered." I thought that in America they would have certainly changed it for me, especially since it cost nearly double what the cake cost. The cake was good, though.
We headed back to Katrin's store. Brian's car was there. We said our goodbyes to Brian. We headed to the store with Marc to get some dinner. We got chicken breasts. The store we got them at was sort of like a Cosco or Sam's club in the states. A wholesale club. It was very big. I'd never seen escalators for carts before.
That night at the house we prepared dinner, and afterward we watched a British sci-fi TV show that was dubbed into German.
Thursday, October 1st
This was our travel day.
I think our flight was to leave at 2:30 PM or so, so we wanted to get to the airport at around 12:30. I think it was about an hour and 15 minute drive. Not too bad.
When we got to the airport we stopped at Starbucks. I got a vanilla creme smoothie. Very good.
The flight back was on a 767 -- our flight to Germany had been on a 777. The 767 has a 2-3-2 configuration while the 777 had a 2-5-2 configuration. The flight was 9 hours or so. It's funny, it actually went by pretty quickly, even though I didn't really sleep at all on it.
We got to Chicago, and man is that place a mess. We waited through a customs line (it was separated into natives and visitors). That was relatively painless. Then we had to find where the heck our flight to KC was. I think we got to Chicago about 5:00 PM Central time.
So we figured out where our flight was and took a tram/rail thing to it.
We found out our flight was delayed from 8:05 to 8:30. It would be delayed again until after 9:00. I got a chocolate chip drink at the Starbucks here. It'd been a long day. We were waiting at our gate, and the previous airplane (heading to Albequerque) was still there.
At one point after the plane was loaded to older ladies came huffing and puffing up, trying to get on the plane (which was still there). They'd ran to try to make the flight. The person at the gate called the plane but they wouldn't let them on. The plane left perhaps 1 minute later.
I got on Mike's case because he was asking/pestering me about how much he owed me for paying for one of our train trips. I wasn't in the mood to talk about it.
I had an airline person single me out and put my carryon in a testing thing because she thought it was too big. I had carried it on on all of our previous three flight no problem (including the KC to Dallas one on the same type of plane MD-80). She told me it was too big (despite the fact that I mostly got it into her testing thing). I wasn't happy. As Mike recalls it, the conversation ended with and I going back and forth several times with her saying "it's too big" and me saying "no it isn't."
We got home at about 11:00 or so.
I called Sara, and she got there right after I got my checked bag. It was unharmed, thankfully.
We had a great trip!
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