May 31st, 2011 - Munich

We had a wonderful free breakfast again from our hotel again.  We had it three mornings in a row and sat at the same quiet table in the corner every morning.  I order the ham omelet and Mark had fried eggs and bacon.  Bacon is a lot different here, bigger fattier strips, not cooked as well.  We headed to Marian Platz together.  Mark wanted to go through the Residenz castle and I just wanted to walk around and look in shops.  I walked him all the way to the castle and then we split ways.  We had planned to meet in 45 minutes under a kodak sign in Marian Platz, the town square.  When I left Mark, I turned around to head to the main shops and there was a Starbucks directly in front of me.  I HAD to stop!  I went in, ordered my usual grande cafe mocha light-skinny.  I used the restroom and headed on.  I was on a mission to find sunglasses.  My pair had broke the previous day and I was very lost without them.  I went to two stores with no luck.  Then I headed to H&M.  They are everywhere in New York, London, Paris and Munich.  At H&M, I found a couple cute things, went to try them on, but the line was too long.  I didn't have time before I needed to meet Mark, so I bought a cute blue and white striped scarf headband and headed to the kodak sign. We had planned to meet around 12:15 or 12:30.  We thought Mark would be done by 12:15 and if I was walking around the square, I would look under the sign for him.  I waited about 20 minutes until I saw a very handsome, tall, dark, American heading towards me!  I could breathe again!  Every time we separate, I panic and think of all that could go wrong.

We headed to the hotel, used the bathroom and headed on to the train station to meet our tour guide for our Dachau tour.  There were 7 people in our tour plus our tour guide.  We took the train to a bus and the bus took us to Dachau.  It was warm there, very somber, sad, erie and quiet.  Only about 5 buildings remained, then just concrete foundations and barb wire.  We saw the bunk houses, gas chamber, inferno, jail and three miniature memorials - jewish, catholic and presbyterian.  There is a catholic convent on the other side of the concentration camp walls and everyday at 3 pm, the nuns ring the bells in the memorial because that was the time of the day they were liberated.

The tour was very long and emotionally draining.  I went back and forth about whether I should have come.  I don't want to forget about the history and want to be educated on it, but it was devastating to hear about.

When the tour ended and we got to the train station, it had started to rain.  We ran to the hotel in the rain.  Just one of the many times we would get stuck in the rain!  We decided to just lay around the hotel, read and have wine while we waited for the rain to pass, so we could go to dinner.

After about an hour and a half, the rain stopped and we headed to dinner.  We walked to the same beer garden as the night before, but it was closed due to the rain.  We had originally planned on trying Hofbrauhaus, but had been advised not to by two different locals we talked to.  We were told instead to go to the pub/bar across the street from it.  We headed there.  The place was packed.  No open tables, so the bartender told us to sit at the end of a table with 2 older German men on the other end.  We forgot they share tables in Europe!  They share tables, space, personal bubbles, streets, sidewalks...everything!

We had saurkraut, mini-brats (about the size of breakfast links) and a side of fries.  I LOVE the fries in Europe!  None have disappointed!  I had a Radler again and Mark had a Dunken-Weiss (Dark Wheat).  During dinner it started to rain again.  Mark insisted on taking a taxi home, which was wonderful!  It was weird being in a car - we had not been in one for almost 9 days!

May 30th, 2011 - Munich

We walked from the train station to our hotel since it was only about 5 blocks.  During our walk to the hotel, we noticed several casinos and strip clubs, so we were both a little nervous about the location of our hotel, but neither of us said anything.  It turned out that our hotel was very close to all the central spots and in a very nice part of town.  Despite arriving to check-in at 8:00 am, luckily they already had our room ready.  We got to our room to find it was huge!  Actually, it was probably just an average size hotel room in the US, but compared to the previous European hotels, it was enormous. 

We hadn't eaten breakfast yet, so we went to the hotel's complimentary breakfast - it was wonderful - fruit, rolls, jams, juices all on a buffet, in addition to being able to order fried eggs, bacon and omelets from the waitress.

After breakfast, we headed to Marian Platz, which was just about 5 blocks away and is the center of town.  On the way, we passed many trendy stores that weren't quite open yet - they opened at 10 am - an hour later.  We came across a store called Konen - which was very close to Laura's dad's company, Kone.  The letters on their sign went down the side of the building, so Laura held her hand up to block the last "n", so it looked to read "Kone".  Only later did we realize how bad it probably looked, with Laura's arm stretched out like that!  We also heard later that it's actually illegal to do the "Heil Hitler" sign - glad we didn't get in trouble - that would've been hard to explain what we were doing!

We arrived at Marian Platz, which is a big open plaza, in front of a large building with a huge clock tower.  Laura started to pose for a picture when a guy standing nearby offered to take both our pictures instead.  He was from DC, but had lived in Munich for 3 years.  He asked our plan for Munich and suggested some new sites in addition.  He also mentioned that he is a tour guide on a bike tour that started in 2 hours at 11:30 am.  He gave us a couple of coupons for 10 euros off, so it was only 14 euros each.  We were hesitant to do it though, because it was 4 hours long and we only had 2 days.  This would eat up most of our day.  We were also planning on going to a beer garden later that afternoon, which would have to be delayed due to the bike tour.  We talked about it and finally decided to give it a shot - Tony, our tour guide, seemed very fun, knowledgeable, energetic and we were having trouble figuring out what everything was.  We had a blast on it!  After about 2 hours of biking and seeing the city, we biked through a park and into a hidden beer garden!  We stopped for an hour to drink and eat - it was awesome!  They served huge pretzels, sauerkraut, and bratworst in addition to all the great beer!  Tony, our tour guide, got one of the huge pretzels and a brat.  He cut a slit in the pretzel and stuck his brat in it to make a bun - he said they don't offer buns here and he missed them!  Laura got a Radler beer, that was a mix of lemonade and wheat beer - she really liked it, and I got a dunken (dark) beer.  We met a couple on the tour who had just gotten engaged from Miami who we compared trips with and talked about frustrating language barriers we had run into.

After the beer garden, we hopped back onto our bikes for more touring!  We rode through more of the park and entered a large opening that was a nudist "beach", but no sand.  It was completely packed with people sitting on beach towels in the grass and some people wading in the small stream too.  The vast majority were wearing swimsuits, but we did see a few who were bearing it all!  Then we rode to another part of the stream that for some reason, had some white water that people were surfing on - very odd and cool!  We started talking to a family from Pittsburgh.  Mom, Dad and 4 daughters from 16-24 yrs old.  They were very experienced travelers, so it was good to get some travel tips from them.

After the bike tour we headed home for a quick shower and then on to a different beer garden!  We both got beers - Laura got the same mixture as this afternoon.  I got another dark beer - Dunken.  We split a giant pretzel and 2 large bratworsts with a pile of saurkraut.  A couple of locals standing by the table next to us inquired about our trip and if we were enjoying Germany so far.  Despite being a Monday, both beer gardens so far were packed!

After that, we walked around the town a little and got a little lost.  We came across an old statue of some german that had become a makeshift shrine to Michael Jackson.  We found it very funny, so we took a pic by it.  It had hundreds of pictures of MJ taped to it, with flowers, etc.  We grabbed a bottle of wine and then headed back to the hotel for and early night.

May 29th, 2011 - Paris

This morning we got up, got ready, had some fruit that we had picked up at the super market next to our hotel and checked out of our hotel room.  We left our bags with the hotel and headed to Starbucks.  We/I got a caffe mocha and we walked on to the Arc du Triomphe.  We walked and walked and finally got there.  The walking is always fun and pretty to see all the architecture and streets.  We noticed on the walk that all the stores were closed because it was a Sunday.  The Arc du Triomphe is a beautiful war memorial in the middle of a traffic circle/wagon wheel of streets.  It is much larger than it looks in pictures.  We took some pics and then crossed the street via an underground tunnel, so that we could walk through the middle of it.  While walking through the tunnel under the very busy street, we passed the Polizia patrolling in the tunnel.  They were wearing fun uniforms, berets, and had their big guns (assault rifles) drawn and just walked around with them in their hands.

After the Arc we walked down a fun busy street called Champs-Elysees.  It had very ritzy shops on each side.  We were starting to get very hungry so we decided on a ham & mozzarella panini to split.  Mark also grabbed a cheeseburger from "Quick" (a fast food joint, immitation Arby's or McDonald's) and a sprite for us to drink.  He forgot to specifically ask for any ice in it, so we didn't have any in the drink.  We looked in a pharmacy for moisturizer for me because of course I ran out, but couldn't find any.  On our walk home we passed two pretty museums that we took pics by and checked prices to go in but we didn't end up going in.  We walked over a beautiful bridge and ordered gelato from this really nice man who sold gelato out of the back of his old truck.  He was the 5th generation in his family to sell gelato out of the back of that truck.  He said he "now has 2 fans from Misery!" when we told him we liked his ice cream.  We walked on and walked through a castle and pretty garden/shrubbery paths.  We got a lot of good pics.  We had been walking for about 4 hours at that point - maybe 5 - so we decided to head to the hotel to relax and take advantage of their free internet because we wouldn't have it for the next 3 days.  We relaxed for a little bit and then we left again to get something to eat.  We found this great little pizza shop with one guy making the pizzas and 5 tables inside.  He had a moped with a delivery box/warming box on the back that he would jump on in anyone wanted a delivery.  We got the pizza to go and walked to the Eiffel Tower park area again.  We sat on a bench and shared the pizza.  Prior to finding the pizza shop we had stopped in a little fruit market and got some fruit, a water and chips for our train ride to Munich tonight!

After the pizza, we headed back to the hotel to gather our bags and head to the train station.  At this point in the trip, we wanted to get to the station early - like an airport.  We quickly learned though, there is no reason to get to the stations early :)  We boarded our train a couple hours later and headed to Germany.  Our train left Paris at 8:20 pm and arrived in Munich, Germany at 7:16 am.  The overnight train was very neat.  We both really enjoyed it.  But you don't get a very good night's sleep.  We sat on one of the bunk beds and watched the sun set out the train window and then went to bed around 10:30.  We woke up in Germany!  Actually, we woke up many times before that :)

May 28th, 2011 - Paris

First full day in Paris.  We headed on the train towards the Latin Quarter.  We found the Pantheon and took some pictures outside of it - great view of the Eiffel Tower from there too.  Then we started looking for a breakfast cafe.  We sat down at one, but didn't see anything that appealed to us, so we got up.  We then went into a little corner bakery.  I got a breakfast roll that was like a hard, flat croissant with apple jam inside.  It was pretty good.  Laura tried to order a cafe mocha drink, but instead got a microwaved nesquik, served in a tiny dixie cup sized cup.

Then we headed back to the Pantheon.  We peeked in, but tickets were quite expensive, so we just moved on to the Luxemburg Gardens instead.  They were just a few blocks away and didn't disappoint.  Laura loved them.  We got lots of pictures and walked around it quite a bit.

We were starting to get hungry for lunch, so we stopped at an open front cafe and sat at a table near the sidewalk.  We ordered two waters and shared a ham and cheese sandwich.  He brought us two 12 ounce bottles of Evian water and our sandwich with no side.  It was good, but nothing special.  Our tab came to 16 Euro - 4 Euro for each water!  It would have been cheaper to get a beer!  The waiter was very rude, despite not being busy at all.

We then headed for the Shakespeare bookstore we had heard so much about.  After walking for 5-10 minutes near where it was, we asked a waiter where it was.  He pointed just around the corner into a small alley that we never would have found.  We went into the store - we could barely walk.  The "aisles" were no wider than 2 feet and sometimes narrower.  We felt the owner needed to be on an episode of "Hoarders" - so we left shortly after.

Then we headed for the Notre Dame cathedral.  It was really a neat sight.  The intricate detail on the front was amazing.  The inside was equally impressive.  We couldn't get very good pictures due to it being so dark and no flashes were allowed.  It had really big stained glass windows on each side of the alter.  From there, we walked to the galleries mall.  It was gigantic and in a neat building.  It was lots of different shops all in the same "mall" - almost hard to tell them apart as you walked along - it had the feel of a huge department store in the US.

After leaving there, Laura went into H&M while I went to look for water.  I found a mini-grocery store just a few doors down.  I was shocked at how cheap the water was.  It was 20 cents for a 1.5 liter bottle.  By the time I got back, Laura was done looking already.  We headed home on the train and then into the grocery store next to our hotel to buy some wine to take, along with McDonald's, for our picnic at the Eiffel Tower park for dinner.  Before heading for our picnic we both rested for a couple hours to regroup.  While resting, we both just drank out the wine straight out of the bottle, since we had no cups.

The picnic didn't disappoint.  I got a Royale with bacon (mentioned in Pulp Fiction) with a beer for the value meal's drink - very interesting getting a beer at McDonald's.

At the picnic, we laid down a sheet we borrowed from the hotel sheet closet.  We found a quiet spot near the tower to eat.  Then we people watched mostly.  Lots of guys selling mini Eiffel Towers, wine, champagne and little light up toys they fling into the air.  Whenever the police would come near, the guys selling the alcohol would take off running, but would be back shortly after the police left.  We sat next to an evergreen tree that they used to stash the unsold alcohol inventory.

We walked under the tower and came across some impromptu street performers doing breakdancing.  It was neat to see, but only lasted 10-15 minutes.  After laying around, people watching and looking at the tower, we headed home around 10 pm after a long day.

May 27th, 2011 - London

We had a relatively late night last night and got so much done this week already, so we decided to sleep in a little so we'd be refreshed for Paris!  We started our day with breakfast at the hotel.  They serve it in the basement, which was the servant quarters at one time, most likely.  After breakfast, we packed our bags and checked out around 11:00 am.  We had them stow our bags behind the front desk for us, since our flight wasn't until later in the afternoon.  We walked the short walk to Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens for one last time and then walked to find somewhere for lunch.  We decided on a pub near Portobello Market.  We finished writing some post cards to our family while we waited for our lunch to arrive.  Laura liked her chicken sandwich - mostly because of the delicious spicy mustard on it, I think.  I didn't like my steak sandwich at all though.  It was really bland and the steak was very chewy.  At lunch, we talked about how even though our hotel room wasn't very big, it was plenty big for what we needed it to be and in a great central location.  It was very clean and had a good breakfast to start each day.  We thought it was funny they still had a real key for us to get into our room instead of the access cards.  We had to drop it off and pick it up from the front desk each time we came and went.

After lunch, we headed to a nearby pharmacy to get some toiletries we had already started to run out of.  We dropped off the postcards at the post office, grabbed our bags from the hotel storage room and headed for the airport for our flight to Paris.  We got through security with about an hour before our flight, but found that they hadn't assigned our gate yet.  Heathrow is a huge airport and we didn't even know what terminal we'd be flying out of yet.  Finally, 10 minutes before our flight was supposed to take off, they put our gate up on the monitors.  Fortunately, it wasn't far from where we were waiting.  We ran to our gate, only to wait about 15 more minutes before they started letting us board.

We arrived in Paris-Orly airport about an hour later, only to find that it was very difficult to figure out how to get on the right train to our hotel.  I had looked up directions from the airport to our hotel before we left, but got the directions from Charles DeGaulle and we instead flew into Orly - so those were of no use.  This was the first of many cities with a language barrier we had encountered so far and we weren't quite ready for it yet.  After talking to two different information desks, we finally boarded a bus to a train station terminal closer to the city.  Trying to figure out what stop to get off was a challenge.  When we arrived at the train station, we had trouble figuring out what train tickets to buy from the kiosk, so we went to the ticket window.  The first agent didn't speak any english and instead just pointed us to the second agent.  He helped us get the right tickets.  We headed through the gates only to find it confusing which gate to go to for our train.  We stopped a fellow traveler who pointed us in the right direction.  Once on the train, it was just a few stops before we got off and our hotel was just a couple blocks from there.  We checked in and then headed to a nearby cafe for dinner.  We were still unsure what the dollar to Euro exchange rate was, since we had been using pounds in London so far.  I thought it was 1.5 Euros for each dollar, so I thought our 30 Euro dinner with wine and beer was pretty reasonable - only $20!  However, the next day, I double-checked to find that it was 1.5 dollars to each Euro, so our meal was actually $45 instead - not quite as good of a deal!  The cafe was neat though and we sat at a table outside on the sidewalk.  Our hotel (and cafe) were very close to the Eiffel Tower.  We could see it from our table and at 10 pm, it lit up and started sparkling!  After dinner, we walked to the park of the Eiffel Tower to get a better look.  We were surprised to see people drinking wine, beer and champagne outside.  Then I noticed a sign with a picture on it, saying no alcohol allowed - apparently, they just look the other way, since there were plenty of police in the area.  We headed home shortly after since we were both exhausted.  Our Paris room was a little smaller than our small London room, but was still plenty big for what we needed.  Being close to the Eiffel Tower was a huge perk!

May 26th, 2011 - London

This morning, we woke up and headed downstairs in our hotel for our breakfast.  Breakfast is included in the price of our hotel room, so we are sure to have it every morning!  Usually, I have a bowl of crunchy honey flakes and fruit or a hard boiled egg and Mark would have cereal and a bagette or croissant or something.  We have to refill our drink glasses multiple times because they are so tiny.  The coffee in London is terrible (even at Starbucks).  I guess that is why everyone drinks tea.

After breakfast, we head out to find Portobella Market.  It's a neat market Mark heard about from the internet and travel channel.  We walked and walked and couldn't exactly find it.  We came across what we thought was it, but all the stores were closed.  Mark had read that we needed to get there by 8 am.  It was sort of a dreary morning and it was a little after 9 when we found the street.  We think it may have opened at 8am on the weekends, and 10 am on weekdays.  We decided to keep walking and head to Harrod's and the free Natural History Museum we had read about.

It started to rain on our way to the underground, so we popped in a tourist shop and bought an "I Love London" umbrella, stamps for all our postcards and Mark let me buy three new pashmina's.  I was very excited.  I picked yellow, gray and turquoise.  They were 3 for 5 pounds - much cheaper than in the US.  About the only thing cheaper in London than in the US!

We got to Harrod's just before 10 am, when it opened.  We took a tourist pic outside and they unlocked the doors to open.  There were people standing outside waiting to be let in.  We looked briefly through cosmetics and then went upstairs to look at clothes.  We passed the shoes and Mark sat while I looked at some of the most expensive shoes I have every seen.  They had Jimmy Choo's there.  I was too scared to pick them up even.  We left right after that.  I felt very out of place there and it wasn't much fun looking at things you can never buy and never probably want to buy.

We headed on to the Natural History Museum.  There was a large line but it moved very fast.  The ouside of the building was beautiful.  A lot of intricate detail.  One of the kinds thought all museums should be free, so not only was the museum an old castle, it was also free.

We looked at the dinosaurs and human biology exhibits.  It was very interesting and the exhibits were huge and very hands on.  Mark and I actually got separated for a few minutes in the human biology exhibit.  I was very nervous and panicky.  We discussed a plan in case we ever got separated from each other (no cell phones with us).  After about 15 minutes of being separated from each other, we would go to the entrance of wherever we were.  After waiting there for another 30 minutes or so, we would head back to the hotel.  We decided on going back to the hotel because sometimes some of the places we were at didn't have obvious entrances and sometimes Mark and I think very different than the other one and may not be at what we think is the same entrance.  We also decided that I would stay in one place and Mark would walk around looking for me.

After the museum, we decided to head towards the Ritz to have tea.  Our tour guide from the bus tour said there was a very good tea place right next to the Ritz called "something Valerie".  He said afternoon tea at the Ritz was 40 pounds/person!  Yikes!  We took the underground to the station nearest the Ritz and found a nearby pub for lunch.  We never should have gone there, because it wasn't very good and we had tea, scones and a milkshake at our afternoon tea.

We had lunch and went on to find Patisserie Valerie, which ended up being a chain and was in many different parts of London, so we actually didn't need to go all the way to the Ritz.  It was ok though, because we didn't have much planned for the afternoon.  I ordered peach mango tea and two scones with clotted cream.  Mark got a milkshake.  It was his second milkshake in London and both were liquid, like chocolate milk (that is about our only complaint for London!).  I shared a scone with Mark.  You put butter, then jam and then clotted cream on it.  It is wonderful!  I tried litle sections with apricot, boysenberry, and strawberry jam!

After tea, we went to the hotel.  Since it was rainy, we grabbed our laundry and walked a block to a laundromat to do it.  It only took about 45 minutes, but costs 3 pounds/load and 1 pound to dry.  We did two loads.  I accidentally put 4 pounds in the machine and it wouldn't give us our extra pound back, so we ended up paying 9 pounds to do our laundry!  Approximately $15 - expensive laundry!

It was pouring down rain so we relaxed in our hotel room with our window open listening to the sounds of London.  The town doesn't stop even when it rains.

We got ready and planned to meet Amanda Hawrylic (my friend from high school) for dinner and drinks.  She told us to meet her just outside the Oxford Circus tube stop at 6:30 on the corner of little Argyle St. by a street vendor that either sold pancakes or corn.  Sounded simple, but it wasn't.  There was a little Argyle St and an Argyle St.  Also all the vendors were closed, so we couldn't tell what each one even sold.  There were two different corners she could have been talking about, so Mark stood on one and I walked around in a square to the other one.  Mark was on the lookout for her, even thought he had never met her!  Luckily, I found her at the other corner!  We went back to get Mark.  She wanted to take us to a restaurant called Dim Sum, which we had seen but were hesitant to try.  There was another restaurant that was indian food.  We were also too scared to try that was well, so she took us to one that had a little bit of everything.  It was perfect.  We drank, ate and chatted the night away.  It was nice to catch up with her!

Mark was annoyed about the way the two of us planned to meet.  He said this is what happens when girls plan something.  He thought it was silly we were meeting at a moveable vendor and not a permanent store.

Here are somethings that are different in London:

• They drive on the opposite side of the road
• Steering wheels are on the opposite side as well
• Strollers are called buggys
• Bars are called pubs
• Apartments are called flats
• The subway is called the underground or tube
• French fries are called chips
• Vacation is called holiday instead. 

May 25th, 2011 - London

Day tour day!  We had to wake up at 6:45 today to get ready for our day trip on a coach bus to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge.  The coach bus picked us up at our hotel and took us to a main depot where we loaded the bus we'd ride for the rest of the day.  Our tour guide was very informative and pointed out lots of neat things on our way out of London.  Then it was about an hour to Windsor Castle.  We got to walk all through the state apartments, St. George's chapel and throughout the outdoor portion of the castle.  Lots of neat artwork inside and it was still decorated just as it had been several centuries earlier.  St. George's was very similar to Westminster Abbey inside.  We had to hurry through the last part because our tour bus was leaving.  We grabbed a sandwich on our way back to the bus for the ride to Bath.

The ancient Roman Baths didn't disappoint.  They were truly remarkable.  Stepping back nearly 2000 years to see the hot spring bath was amazing.  It is still in very similar condition to how it was back when the ancient Romans used it.  Then we walked through the really neat town of Bath, grabbed coffee for Laura and had a milkshake for me (don't ever buy milkshakes in London - they are pretty much shaken chocolate milk) and then back on the bus again to head to Stonehenge. Laura loved the town of Bath.  That was her favorite part of the day.  We talked about possibly spending a night or two there when we come back to London. 

Next stop - Stonehenge - 5000 years old.  We had both seen lots of pictures, but it was really interesting to see it in person and listen to how the 5+ ton rocks came from more than 150 miles away and 20 ton rocks from more than 20 miles away.  Listening to the theories on what they believe it was used for really made you wonder what made them go through all that trouble to build it.  Unfortunately, in the 1700's, tourists were allowed to chip off parts of the stones for souvenirs, but plenty still remains of them.

It was 8 pm before our tour returned to London.  We can't believe we've seen so much in so little time - but still so much more to see!

May 24th, 2011 - London

We ate breakfast at the hotel and then took the tube to the Tower of London.  It was amazing to see and even more amazing hearing all the tales from our Beefeater tour guide.  Lots of beheadings, torture and war.  Then we stopped and had lunch at a local pub/cafe.  Laura had to use the WC (water closet) - it was miniature - she had to straddle the toilet just to shut the door!  Then we toured the National Gallery museum for free - it was neat, but we just aren't art people.  Afterwards, we walked out to Trafalgar Square and watched a street performer on a huge (7 feet tall) unicycle.  Then we people watched for a while on the side of the fountain.  After we left there, while looking for a Starbucks (surprise!) we came across Benjamin Franklin's house.  Then we took the tube home to change for Wicked Musical.  This time we already have our tickets and know where we are supposed to go!  We went to Victoria a little early and stood outside a pub for a drink.  The musical was very well done and we both enjoyed it.  Then we headed home to sleep after a very long, full day.