Stuttgart

July 3rd -- We left this morning for Stuttgart (actually Leonberg, a small town outside Stuttgart). It was our nicest train ride by far. We had a private compartment in first class, so the 2 hour train ride went by very quickly. For those of you that don’t know, Amy’s sister, Lisa, is married to Gabe Harcrow. Gabe is in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Afghanistan back in January. They live in Austin, TX with their 2 boys, Chance (age 2) and Cole (age 1). Gabe’s brother is in the Army and is also deployed. He is stationed in Stuttgart with his wife, Anne-Marie and their 2 children, Emma (age 2) and Kaja (age 1). Lisa and the boys came over to Germany in June to spend the summer with Anne-Marie and the girls, since both husbands are deployed. We arrived at the Leonberg train station a little after noon. Anne-Marie picked us up and drove us to her house, which is only a few minutes away. The kids were immediately excited to have both toys and other kids to play with. The rest of the day was spent watching the kids play, the Mom's going to the commissary to buy groceries and a spaghetti dinner.

Sports & Cars in Munich

July 2nd—We were slow moving this morning mainly because we slept in from our late night. Once we left the apartment we took the subway to the 1972 Olympic Park. We ate lunch first at the park before walking around. We fed the ducks in the pond and went inside the Swim Hall. It is still divided into swim lanes and the diving area. The Olympic complex is still standing and it’s amazing the architecture back then for the buildings. The rooftops have a cobweb style architecture. It’s pretty impressive! After walking around for a while, we went to the BMW Welt which is right by the Olympic Park. We went inside the glass-and-steel BMW World building. We were able to check out the latest cars and technology. We even were able to design our own beamer, but unfortunately weren’t able to take it home with us. It was late afternoon by this time and we wanted to head into Marienplatz to do some last minute shopping before leaving Munich. Mike had grabbed the wrong size t-shirt at the Hofbrauhaus the other night so we had to exchange his shirt. He then found a store to buy a beer stein from the beer capital of the world. By this time, the sky was turning dark and it was thundering/lightening a lot. So, we headed back to the apartment to let the weather pass before going to dinner. We decided to go back to the beer garden by our apartment that we went to on our first night in Munich. We really enjoyed the food and the kids loved playing on the playground. After dinner, it was back to the apartment to pack up to head to Stuttgart early in the morning.

Neuschwanstein Castle

July 1st—Today we took a 2 hour train to the small town of Fussen. Fussen is located South of Munich right next to the Germany/Austria border. Upon arriving in Fussen, we took a taxi to the small village, Hohenschwangau, below the castle. The taxi dropped us off right at the ticket center. We walked right up and got our tickets except the next English tour wasn’t until 12:55, it was 11:00. It worked out well though because it gave us a chance to walk around the village and eat lunch. After eating lunch, we took the shuttle bus up the hill to just below the castle. There was still a walk to get up to the castle, but before doing that, we walked across Mary’s Bridge. The bridge gave us the best view of “Mad” King Ludwig’s castle. The bridge was quite an engineering accomplishment 100 years ago. From the bridge, we walked about 10 minutes to the castle entrance and waited for our tour to begin. The tour was about 30 minutes long of viewing 16 rooms inside the castle. The Neuschwanstein Castle was King Ludwig II’s home for only 172 days before his death. The construction of the castle stopped with Ludwig’s death (only a third of the interior was finished) at the age of 40. The castle was extra special to see for Abby because it resembles Cinderella’s Castle… or wait I believe it was Disney that copied the Neuschwanstein Castle. After finishing our tour of the castle, we took the horse carriage back down to the village. From here, we got a quick snack and took a 5 minute taxi ride over to Tegelberg. In Tegelberg, we enjoyed the luge course and playground among the mountains. (In the wintertime, this is a ski area too.) After having been in Switzerland during the winter, we had discussed wanting to go back to experience Switzerland in the summer. This gave us a good taste of the nice, summer mountain life. We all had so much fun that we missed getting back into Fussen for our 4:19 train to Munich. Instead, we caught a later bus into Fussen and ate dinner before getting on the 6:19 train back to Munich. We were all entertained on the train ride by Abby and Austin’s new friend, Manu. He was traveling with his mom and Aunt. They were from New York. Manu is 5 years old and the kids had a lot of fun together. It made the ride go by fast and we arrived back into Munich about 8:40. We took the subway back to apartment and arrived there about 9:10. This is where our evening gets really interesting…upon arriving back at the apartment, we went to unlock the door and couldn’t get the key to turn. After trying for about 10 minutes, Mike called Thomas to let him know that we couldn’t get into the apartment. He said he was on his way, but 40 minutes outside of the city. Luckily, there’s a little courtyard area with a picnic table outside the apartment. And, luckily, it doesn’t get dark until about 10:00 around here so we didn’t have to sit in the dark for long. There were so many thoughts going through our heads like: Will he come with tools? Will he have to call a locksmith? Where are we going to sleep if we can’t get in? Thomas arrived around 10:20. He quickly determined that the key was not going all the way in so he jammed it into the lock with his tools and turned it opened, but he had to replace the lock. So, yes, he came totally prepared with tools and a new lock. It didn’t take him that long to fix the lock. It was about 11:00 when we got the kids to bed.

Munich in a day

June 30th--We moved very slow this morning. I think the traveling every few days has caught up with us. After watching cartoons and doing some laundry, we started to get dressed for the day. Mike took the kids to the playground while I finished getting ready. I met them at the playground a little later and we walked to the Subway station. We took the subway to the Marienplatz stop where the Old Town are located. We walked to Viktualienmarkt to find some lunch. We all settled on some kind of sausage in a bun and sat on a picnic table under the beer-garden chestnut trees to eat. This market is full of food stalls, crafts and fresh produce. After eating lunch, we went through 3 churches: St. Michael's, the Frauenkirche and St. Peter's. Each of these churches were heavily bombed in World War II. We actually climbed up the dome in Frauenkirche and got a great view of Munich. The onion shaped domes of Frauenkirche are the symbol of the city. In between going into the churches, we looked into some typical German shops which had beer steins and coo-coo clocks. We eventually made our way to the train station to visit the Euraide office again to find out what is the best way to get to Fussen tomorrow. After getting the train information, we headed back to Marienplatz to see the glockenspiel at 5:00. The New Town Hall is famous for its glockenspiel, only 100 years old. The Spiel went off for about 10 minutes with jousting and dancing. The kids were very entertained by it. From here, we walked toward the Hofbrauhaus, but first stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe (which is across the street) to buy a pin. The kids were given balloons by a nice girl in the Hard Rock. So, we all walked towards the Hofbrauhaus and I went into the gift shop there. While I was looking around, Austin had apparently lost his balloon and Mike jumped up to get it. Well, he had on flip flops and when he came back down, 2 of his toes were bent under. After a period of time, it was determined, by us, that he had either badly strained or broken his toe because it started turning black and blue. That isn't good considering the amount of time we spend walking, but it's nothing that a little beer from the most famous beer hall can't cure. We found a table right in front of the oompah band. We all really enjoyed the music, the atmosphere and the food. We made our way back to the apartment to head to bed after a long day of exploring Munich.

Travel day to Munich

June 29th--Our train left Berlin at 9:52 this morning. We had to rush to get our stuff packed up and get out of the hotel. Luckily, we arrived at the train about 5 minutes before it departed. It was a little hectic trying to get there on time, but we made it. We have a 5 country eurailpass that we bought before leaving the States so we got to use it today. It was nice because we have a First Class pass so that meant we got to sit in First Class on our 6 hour train ride to Munich. Although, if we had to do it all over again, we would never have pre-purchased a First Class railpass. After traveling on trains, we've realized there's not much difference between first and second class except the price. Also, First Class is generally occupied by business travelers, so less kid friendly. Anyway, the train ride got a little long today, but we made it to Munich about 3:45. Upon arriving, we visited the Euraide office which helps English speaking travelers, specifically those traveling with a railpass and got cash. After this, we exited the train station to hop on our bus to the apartment. It was a quick 5 minute bus ride to our stop, but then had to pull our luggage several blocks to the apartment. We were greeted by Thomas who was very nice and helpful. He even walked us to the local grocery store and pointed out a huge playground along the way. After getting the essential groceries, we came back to the apartment to put them up and head out to dinner. But before going to dinner, we started a load of laundry because we had been without a washing machine for a week now. The laundry had definitely piled up. We had no idea where to go eat, but I had remembered seeing a beer garden when we got off the bus. So, we walked back that direction and found the Paulaner Bier Garten. We walked into the restaurant and the place was dead. There was not a single person inside eating or any waitstaff around. Mike walked back toward the kitchen and was quickly directed outside. That apparently was where all the action was...the tables were full and people were everywhere. It was a great atmosphere outside and there was a playground for the kids. The restaurant had a buffet too so we decided on that since we could see what we were eating. The buffet basically offered a little bit of all kind of German type food. It was very good and a very enjoyable first evening in Munich. We headed back to the apartment to do more laundry...

Americanized Berlin

June 28th—Today we experienced a lot of American things in Berlin. We first started off by visiting Checkpoint Charlie. The old Allied checkpoint was not named after a person, but named because it was checkpoint number three (as in Alpha, Bravo, Charlie). Charlie was most famous because it was where most foreigners would pass. After taking our picture with actors playing American guards, we went into the Museum of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie. The museum contained lots of interesting pictures, artifacts and stories about life during the time of the wall. After leaving the museum, we stopped off at Snack Point Charlie and went to Subway for sandwiches. We ate our sandwiches while following the cobblestone path to see a surviving stretch of the Wall. Right next to the Wall was a hot air balloon ride. The kids really wanted to do this so up we went. It wasn’t quite the same as a normal hot air balloon ride because it was tethered to the ground and just took us up 150 meters and then back down about 10 minutes later. Nevertheless, it still gave me a feel of what it would be like to take a hot air balloon ride and I think I’m out on it. It gave me the same fear as flying. Although, we did get some great views of the city while up in the balloon. After getting off the balloon, we walked to Postdamer Platz. Postdamer Platz is described as the “Times Square” of Berlin with a lot of skyscrapers and the Sony Center. CineStar is a movie theater located within the center and plays movies in their original language. So, we bought our tickets to see the Hannah Montana Movie. Everyone really enjoyed the movie. It reminded Mike and I of a kids version of“Pure Country”. After the movie, we went to eat at Hard Rock Café and got a really cool pin marking the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall. From here, we walked back to our hotel and got ready for bed. The kids got all hyper from watching a special on Michael Jackson (MTV was playing his top videos) and dancing to the music. It was Mike’s turn to end the night talking to his mom on SKYPE in the bathroom while everyone else slept.

Happy Birthday, Mike!

June 27th-- It felt so good to sleep in this morning. The hotel room had blackout shades so the kids slept much later this morning than they have in the past “bright” apartments. Once we did get up and dressed, we went downstairs to eat breakfast at the hotel. We enjoyed the nice breakfast and then got ourselves ready to head out to sightsee for the day. Before leaving the hotel, we stopped by the front desk and reserved a babysitter for the evening. We asked that she be there at 6:00pm. So, we headed out walking along a major street in West Berlin. As we were walking along the street, we noticed that there was some kind of parade getting ready to start. There were 18-wheeler like party trucks lined up for about a mile on both sides of the street. There were a ton of people circulating the area and we soon noticed that most of them were dressed in drag. Just imagine any costume available, somebody had it on. It was cool, fun and exciting to see it all. At one point and time, there were 4 men standing on the street, outside of a Calvin Klein store, handing out flyers. The thing is these 4 men had nothing on, but their Calvin Klein undies. Abby about busted a gut seeing these men. As we got to the front of the parade line, we saw banner advertising Berlin’s 2009 Gay Pride Parade. As we continued walking, we saw a break dancing tribute to Michael Jackson in the square outside of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. This church’s bombed out ruins have been left standing as a memorial to the destruction of Berlin in World War II. It was here that we caught the bus to take us to Eastern Berlin. When we got off the bus, we walked through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This is a new Holocaust memorial which consisted of 2,711 gravestone-like pillars. It was a labyrinth type memorial that allowed us to spend time pondering this horrible chapter in history. From here, we walked to see the Bradenburg Gate and then into the Kennedy Museum. JFK visited Berlin on June 26, 1963. We arrived in Berlin on June 26th, 46 years later. The museum was filled with Kennedy memorabilia and pictures and moves of Kennedy’s historic visit in 1963. The museum also had a special exhibit on President Obama and comparing him to Kennedy. Leaving the museum, we walked back through the Bradenburg Gate where we got some sausages and drinks to enjoy on the street. This was also where we could see a double line of cobblestone on the street indicating where the Wall was once located. Since we were in the democracy state of mind, we went to the Reichstag Building. This is the parliament building that is the heart of German democracy. Before going inside, we took a look at the Memorial to Politicians Who Opposed Hitler…his first victims. The line outside was very long, but thanks to Rick Steves we were aware of a side entrance available to visitors with children under 8. We hopped right onto an elevator and took it up to the glass dome. We walked the sloped ramps to the top of the dome for some great views of the city. After leaving the Reichstag building, we walked back through the Brandenburg gate into the heart of the former East Berlin. After a quick snack we headed down Unter den Linden. At the beginning of the street is Hotel Adlon. This hotel is famous for hosting a lot of notable celebrities. However, given recent events, it was most interesting to us because this is where Michael Jackson dangled his little baby over the balcony railing. We continued our walk seeing some of East Berlin’s sights including the Opera, Humboldt University and the Berlin Cathedral. At the end of Unter den Linden we decided to catch a bus back to our hotel. Here’s where the day gets really interesting. It was 5:15 and we needed to be back to the hotel by 6:00 for the babysitter. Now we were already cutting it close, but figured we could hop on the bus and be back in time. So, we got on the bus and it went a couple of stops down the street and then just stopped. Of course, we couldn’t understand what the bus driver was saying, but soon realized that the bus was not going any further. So, we got off the bus and started walking back towards the Bradenburg Gate area to try to find a taxi or underground line. We quickly realized that the parade we had seen earlier in the day had made its way through the city and was right in front of us. Now, pre-parade, all was good….6 hours later and the participants having lots to drink…not so good. The streets and sidewalks were completely jammed with people. The buses had stopped running and we couldn’t get through the crowd to get to the subway station so we were just stuck in the middle of a bunch of obnoxious people and really loud music. We saw things we’ve never seen before (including people passed out on the streets being attended to by medics) and had to walk through the trash and broken glass on the streets. The hardest part was having to answer the questions coming from our five year old, Abby. Not the easiest thing to do. However, Abby was most concerned about how trashed the streets were and felt very sorry for the person that would had to clean it up. Anyway, it was about 6:00 when we finally got to a subway station. We got on the subway, got back to our stop and walked as fast as we could back to the hotel. Luckily, the babysitter was still waiting in the lobby for us when we arrived at 6:30 and was so nice. She left the hotel with Abby to go pick up McDonald’s for the kids to eat while Mike and I got cleaned up to go out. We left the “nanny” in our hotel room with the kids and headed out for Mike’s birthday celebration. We went to eat at an Italian restaurant nearby and then went to Quasimodos, a jazz bar. Quasimodos was a lot of fun and it was Disco Inferno night so we really enjoyed the music. The band was actually really good and they had 3 singers singing all the favorite disco songs. It was funny watching a place full of German speaking people singing disco. We arrived back at the hotel a little before midnight and the kids were sound asleep. “Nanny” (that’s what we call her because we could never understand her name) said that they did great!