Paris to salzburg by B

We took a night train from Paris to Munich and it was quite a ride. It's about 10 1/2 hours and while we booked a couchette with beds they are deffinately not the comfiest kind of beds, especially if your 6 ft tall. Needless to say by the time we hit Munich I had gotten a grand total of about 3 hrs of not great sleep. It was cool though because we met this other couple from PA that was traveling around Europe as well we got to talking and found out that he had just proposed to her under the eiffel tower in Paris; how exciting! We checked in to our hostel in Munich and since we couldn't get in our room till 2 we decided to go see the first of the Nazi concentration camps in Dachau, Germany. It was an amazing musuem and exhibit and a very sobering place. I believe very strongly that these places should always be remembered and taught to children and our childrens children so that this kind of atrocity will never be repeated again. Some people I think blame God for the worst things that have happened in human history, but the truth of the matter is that God was not behind these torturings and killings, we were.

That night we got ahold of one of my friends from high school who lives in Munich and had a couple of 1 liter beers together at the augustiner beer hall. The next day we went to the englischer gardens and watched a bunch of people surfing in the middle of the park on a quickly flowing river. Surfers have such ingenuity when it comes to finding waves. The gardens were beautiful and the food in the park was delisioso! We came back and saw that they had been setting up some booths on the streets for what we know is ascension day. There were tons of booths and we thought they wouldn't be open until they day we left but they opened that night and some of them had food others had games some were Protestant others catholic it was amazing to see these two faiths come together in this way! We tried lots and lots of food it was all so yummshis. The thing that really impressed me though was munich's kicking music scene, they had tons of musicians lining the streets playing regae and folk and almost all in English great stuff! All the people were really happy and upbeat, the festival in a whole was a major highlight of my vacation thus far.

The next day we went to slazburg Austria this train ride from Munich to Salzburg was great! The scenary was absolutely gorgeous and when we got to Salzburg the scenary there did not disapoint. Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart and where he spent some of his time, so we went to see the house where he lived. It is pretty amazing to think that such a young boy could compose such amazing things! Salzburg was an amazing place all in all and they too had some kind of music fest which was also great. Good old Bavaria and there music scene who would have thought? And the food here was incredible so much so that we went out to eat at the same place every single night! I am pretty sure I have never had a better restaurant experience and I think I tried everything on the menu good stuff!!! The only negative about this city was the weather it was chilly like 38 degrees chilly and a little rainy but it made it very nice to be inside enjoying great food.

Day31: Munich

5/12
We started off the morning by getting over to marienplatz to watch the glockenspiel do it's thing. Tons of people were waiting for it. Not so promptly at 11ish (a dude has to start it) it began. It was slow but pretty cute. The best part was the joust.


After, we tried to find the hofbrauhaus because B wanted to look at it. Passed some cute little streets along the way.





Then we headed the long way to Englischer Gardens. The city was closing off streets and setting up booths for Ascention Day so it was a busy walk. Traffic and detours everywhere. We finally made it and found some surfers. The water was ice. Crazy to find in the middle of the city. Later on a little kid was doing it and he was good.


Strolled into the Englischer Gardens.








Had some lunch at the beergarten near the Chinese tower.





Right before we had lunch, we ran into the couple that we met from the night train. Small world. They told us they had hiked this tower earlier for a euro each and that it had great views. So, after lunch, we headed for it. The climb up was ridiculous. Too many steps and you could see down through them so i had weak knees. The view was incredible even though I was glued to the inner wall.





Marienplatz


We climbed back down and saw that all the prepping for the festival was complete and booths were open. Grabbed a steaksemmel - yum YUM!


We walked up the streets and down and found lots of realllllllly good bands/musicians playing for the huge crowds. This reggae band was incredible.


The festival realy kicked off when the night set in. The streets were packed.





When we were chowing down on some fresh fried desserts we got from a booth, we ran into the couple from the train again. In the mess of thousands of people, it really was a small world. We chatted about our days and all the good food we've all tried, candles were being passed around. All of a sudden, it was quiet, lighted candles held up, everyone faced a main stage a block away and they all just started singing in perfect unison. Everyone. It was something magical.

Then it was over like that. The crowds dissipated and just crowds around performers remained who were great as usual. This band really went all out in their performance - having the crowd like sparklers.


Then back to the hostel where we did laundry until 2 am. Small sacrifice for clean clothes.