Last Night in Europe -- Munchen (Munich)

When American's think of vacation, they think of getting away from the busy day-to-day stresses of everyday life. Our four country European vacation has been great, but far from stress free. Some of it was good stress (i.e. 200 km/h on the Autobahn), some of it was bad (i.e. riding with the baggage on the TGV while holding a first class ticket). After London, we took a high-speed train to Paris and then took a shuttle to our hotel, Hotel Muguet. Paris was a lot of fun. The Arc de Triomphe was one of my favorites, along with the Eiffel Tower, of course. Our journey into the Catacombs was well worth it, as well as our walk in old Paris around Notre Dame. The most interesting part of it all was that I was expecting Parisians to be rude and arrogant; most of them were actually very nice. In fact, the residents were friendlier than most large Americans I’ve come across in larger American cities. Sure they were different from us, but most were pleasant when I made an effort to be the same.

Moving on to Germany… Our trip to the Bavarian region of Germany did not start out so pleasant. Without going into detail about the whole story, I can tell you that the second leg of our train trip (Stuttgart to Munich), aboard an ICE train owned and operated by Deutsche Bahn, was awful. We had first class tickets, and ended up sitting on the floor in the baggage area of second class. The staff was extremely rude, unfriendly, and unhelpful. It was one of the worst travel experiences of my life. Needless to say, it was not a good start to our German visit. Once we finally made it Munich, we picked up our 2008 BMW 525i. It was an exceptional rental car. Driving on the Autobahn was fairly efficient and fun. Maybe the US should take a note from the German system of motorways. After we left the station in Munich, we headed toward Neuschwanstein. As we approached the southern area of Bavaria, the mountains soon came into view in a breathtaking display of peaks and surrounding countryside. This helped sooth our train trip misery and reminded us of the blessing that we’d been given.

Currently, there is a crazy energy here tonight in Munich since Germans won the Eurocup 2008 semi-final game tonight. We are staying in the Platzl Hotel, and the noise outside my window right now is insane. I guess they love their Soccor (er, Fuβball). I wasn’t intending to wait this long to blog again, but the WiFi in one of the Bavarian Hotels we stayed in was not working, and the other charged ridiculous amounts of Euros to use it. So here I am in Munich on our last night, blogging goodbye. I will post about the rest of our time in Germany when I arrive back home in the states. Auf Wiedersehen and Au Revior.

Our First Day In Europe - London

Well, our first day in Europe is officially over. We landed at Gatwick airport in England around 8:45 AM local time. As you can imagine, we are exhausted after all the travelling and accompanying jet lag. I couldn’t sleep on the plane, which was a bummer. I got a good long nap, though, after we made it to our hotel. Once in London, after negotiating the rail system/Underground with our luggage (TIP: NOT RECOMMENDED!!!), I was impressed with the character and charm of the city. I already regret not having more time to spend here in England.

We visited the London Eye and took a trip around its half-hour journey. We could see all of London, which was nice to do so quickly. We saw parliament, the Thames, St. Pauls, Westminster, Buckingham Palace, and much more all from the Eye. We wrapped the day up with a nice diner on the Thames, followed by a walk back to the “Tube”. Our hotel is great so far, as well.

Tomorrow we will see a show that got its start in London (one of our favorites), ride a double decker bus, and even cruise down the Thames….