Day 13: Munich /Freising

Wednesday morning, our last full day in Germany. I woke up and was hungry, a little bit hungover and Leighann was much more hungover than I. I realized that we had next to no cash and I got up and walked out the door to grab us some breakfast and coffee. I walked about a block to the only bank machine within visible distance and that machine was out of order. I spent the next hour wandering the streets of Munich before I finally found an ING bank machine. I took out enough cash to last us the next day or so and grabbed coffee, gatorade, croissants and juice.

I walked back to our hotel room and we packed up and checked out of our hotel room. We had hoped to see more of downtown Munich but realized our hotel for the last night was in Freising about 45 minutes north of the city. When we first planned our trip we really had no concept as to how far away the airport and downtown Munich were nor did we really have any concept as to how easy it was to get from downtown Munich to the airport. So on the suggestion of a friend, we decided our last night in Munich we'd spend very close to the airport so the next morning we did not have to wake up super early in order to get to the airport. In hindsight we would have most definitely been better off staying 2 nights at the English Garden Marriott as I'm a bit distrusting of bus station lockers, the continuity of having the same hotel room in the same city for mulitple days is huge for a traveller. We had debated checking into our hotel in Freising and then coming back down to Munich but knowing we wanted to get to the Airport for 8:30 AM the next day and we'd want to get up for 6AM we thought by the time we got back downtown it'd be close to 4 PM so we instead decided to check in, grab some lunch in the village and then wander around do some souvenir shopping before coming back to the hotel for a nice final evening meal. We had also decided that our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the train station so we'd be better of just paying the 11 Euro fee to grab the Airport shuttle directly from the Freising Marriott.

The Freising Marriott was nice, but it was kind of dated. It had the feel of a WWII Bavarian Inn. The tvs were not flat panels. We checked in and then found an outdoor cafe. Munich being only a few hours from the Italian border has quite a bit of Italian influences so we found an Italian Cafe to have lunch. Our server actually turned out to be a man of Middle Eastern descent from Mississauga who had recently moved to Freising to help out his brother. We ordered a pizza and of course beer- Freising has the world's oldest brewery, Weihenstephanner founded in the 11th Century. We had debated checking it out but didn't have the patience to sit through a lengthy tour. We wandered around the local shops, again I noticed the prevalence of Jack Wolfskin's the German version of Mountain Equipment Co-Op. We went into the German equivalent of the K-Mart, I was really tempted to buy a 10 Euro bottle of Jagermeister but didn't think it'd survive in my luggage. Instead we bought a couple bags of World Cup M&M's (red black and gold) and a few other souvenirs/useful items. We wandered around the streets of what is really quite a lovely little village before heading back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel and changed into some nice clothes, by now it was close to 6 PM we decided to go down to the hotel restaurant and have our last supper in Germany. I wanted spargel but I also wanted the grill platter, I basically ended up ordering 2 meals and both came with massive portions of potatoes neither of which I ate. Again a lot of Bavarian food is seemingly fatty, but it's all organic, no steroids or any genetic modifications so really all quite tasty.

After a large supper we wanted to walk it off so we headed back into town to see if we could find a place to get some coffee and dessert. We found a cafe but the woman only spoke German and Italian, luckily there was a server there who spoke English we enjoyed an espresso before wandering back to our hotel room. We packed up and then walked downstairs to the hotel pool to enjoy a sauna and a swim. We went back to our room and enjoyed a fairly quiet evening again amused by episodes of South Park in German and ads for "Rage Against the Machine Metallica undt Justin Bieber".

Day 12: Munich by Bike

Tuesday after the long weekend we got up early walked to the Bonn station and caught an 8:15 ICE train to Munich. After 6 hrs of beautiful scenery along the Rhein  and along what is referred to as the romantic road we arrived back in Munich our starting point.

This time rather than stay in the southern end of town we were staying in a 4 star Marriott more centrally located near the English Garden. The English garden is a large urban park, 7 1/2 times larger than Central Park and actually modelled after Central Park. We checked in and realized if we hurried we could make it down to the Hofbrauhaus and join a Mike's Bike's Tour of the city.

We hopped on the U-Bahn and made our way back down to Marienplatz. Mike's Bike's run half and full day tours of Munich as well as Neuschwanstein Castle, a 2 hr drive South West of Munich. Our tour guides appeared to be all American College students or party animal types and our tour group consisted of mostly Americans, but also a few Brits, Kiwis and Canadians. We were given 3 speed cruiser bikes each with unique names. It'd been a while since I'd been on a bike, these bikes were pretty easy to ride, but I didn't really feel comfortable sitting down, the seat felt way too far back. Still much quicker than walking. Also on our tour was a Fromer's guy or at least that's where he said he was from. Mike's Bikes tours are apparently the number 1 tour operator in Munich and when you think that for approximately 20 Euros a person you get a 4 hr bike tour of the friendliest bike city in Europe  including a 1 hr stop at the Beer Garden in the English Garden, you can see the appeal.

My favourite part of the trip was definitely the English Garden. We rode through the Nudist meadow, fortunately we did not see the man they call Tripod who makes a habit of chasing down cyclists. After a stop in the Beer Garden for a litre stein of beer and more currywurst we made our way to the edge of the park to see the surfers. Yes, surfers. There is a pretty strong current that flows under a bridge, years ago an American came up with the idea of putting a block of wood to split the current in two thus creating a wave people could surf on. It was subsequently replaced with a wave shaped concrete block along the river bed. It is really bizarre to see in the middle of the city a group of wetsuit clad individuals lining up to catch a wave.

The sun started to hang low around 7:30 PM and cast a beautiful golden light on the many churches and statues around Munich. Our tour finished up around 8 PM and since we were around the corner we decided to try hitting the Hofbrauhaus one more time.

We sat down at a table shared with a young Newlywed American couple. He was an American Military man stationed on a base at Nuremburg which is just an hour North of Munich and she was over from the States to visit. For a 2nd time I was asked if I was from California this time because of my Raiders cap. We drank and listened to the world renowned Oompapa band. 2 hrs and 5 litre steins combined between us and we were feeling pretty tipsy. We wandered to the U-Bahn and made our way back to the Marriott.

Day 11: A Really Quite Fantastic Witt Monday in Bonn

After a late Sunday night at the world hockey championships in Cologne, we slept until about noon. The 24th of May is also a long weekend in Germany, technically a religious Holiday it is supposed to be 50 days after Easter so Jeramy was available to show us around town. It was looking to be a nice sunny day so we decided to go out for breakfast and again enjoyed a traditional German breakfast of fresh bread, meats and cheeses. We were slightly hung over and had no clear plans for the day. Jeramy wanted to show us the Older part of town or the Alstadt so after breakfast we made arrangements to meet up with one of Jeramy's very good friends Alessio for coffee. Alessio is a foodie and runs a catering business as more of a hobby than a money making venture, he has a fantastic blog called the Recipe Taster.

After coffee Jeramy wanted to take us back towards Cologne, but I pointed out it was almost 3 PM and had been 3+ hours since breakfast and we were starting to get a little hungry again, so Jeramy and Alessio decided they should take us to a very popular Middle Eastern restaurant. I ordered a doner plate with salad and of course a tall glass of hefeweizen. Towards the end of lunch I mentioned I had not actually had "kaffe undt kuchen" the German equivalent of tea time so we made plans to walk around for a bit after lunch before grabbing some cake and coffee at an outdoor cafe. When I write this it sounds like we did nothing all day, but as Alessio might say "it was really quite fantastic".

After Kaffe undt Kuchen we had been out travelling from outdoor cafe to cafe we decided to head back to Jeramy's to do a bit of laundry and pack up for our early morning train back to Munich. Jeramy suggested we go to a local "American Style" Cocktail bar. The bar was what I'd describe as the German perception of the American bar, lots of stainless steel and neon signs. Unlike beer, cocktails, wines and spirits are quite expensive in Germany. This bar had a massive selection of your classic cocktails plus some unique. My facourite was the 'St. Pauli Killer'. Very similar to a Zombie, just massive like 4 shots of alcohol. We sat on the patio for several hours talking and joking. The bar was really quiet and it was somewhat chilly. After several hours we decided we should get back to Jeramy's as we knew we had a 6 hr train ride the next day back to Munich.

Day 10: Cologne: Stuck on Replay

The day I had been looking forward to for months had finally arrived, the 2010 IIHF World Championships. When I purchased the tickets back in February my hope had been to see Canada play in the Gold Medal game, ideally against the Russians. As the NHL playoffs progressed and the Devils, Capitals and then the Penguins and Red Wings had been eliminated I knew the Russian team would be stacked with Kovalchuk, Ovechkin, Semin, Kharlamov, Malkin, Datsyuk and even if the young Canadian team managed to make it to this point they would be in tough. The Day prior the Germans hopes of a Gold Medal had been squandered with a tight 1-0 loss to the Russians. However, the Germans still had a shot at the Bronze Medal and would be facing a very talented Swedish team who had lost to the Czechs.

 After an early breakfast we took the regional train about 30 minutes to Cologne. Leighann and I weren't quite sure where the Lanxess Arena was so we rode the train an extra stop and walked over towards the box office to check out the arena. We noticed a number of booths set up for Skoda the lead sponsr, a beer garden, a merchandise tent. Leighann suggested we try getting bronze medal tickets for the Germany game, but she also wanted to check out the famous Cathedral and the Chocolate museum and I thought the tickets might be quite expensive. We walked across the bridge  and we noticed a peculiar custom where couples would inscribe a lock and then lock it to the fence alongside the railway bridge. The fence itself has become a bit of a tourist attraction and hundreds of people were milling about looking at all the names of couples my favourite was Herr and Frau Schmau.

Across the bridge we came across a sobering reminder of the terrible past. There was a Memorial set up showing all the photos where available of men, women and children transported across the bridge to Concentration Camps during the regime.

We wandered towards the famous Cathedral Dom a n mpressive twin spire cathedral. This is the biggest tourist attraction next to Carnival in Cologne. We went inside and wandered inside the Church for awhile, this was the one thing Leighann wanted to see in Cologne.

We exited the church and Jeramy informed us she had to leave to take care of painting an old apartment. She showed us the direction of the Chocolate Museum but it was a full 5 hours before the Gold Medal game. I didn't think we could kill 5 hours looking at Chocolate so I suggested we walk back to the arena and see if there were any cheap tickets available for the earlier Bronze Medal game. There was a decent crowd but nothing spectacular so we decided to see if there were any tickets at the box office. Luckily there were plenty of seats and they were 2 for 1, so for less than the cost of a single gold medal ticket game we got into the Bronze Medal game. We enjoyed a beer, outside and got these cute collectible Dinosaur cups. Well there was 2 Euro Pfand or deposit you could return the cup to get your deposit back but Leighann decided we needed to collect two full sets of 3 dinosaur cups (goalie, ref and skater). We noticed Skoda had hired a very Brunoesque spokesperson, we didn't think he was very happy to be there he didn't seem to like hockey very much.

4PM rolled around, game time and we were very happy to get inside having spent a good 4 hrs walking around on a hot bright day the darkness of the arena was quite welcome. We noticed that for 6.5 Euro we could get a litre container of beer, it to came with a 2 Euro pfand but the cups weren't as nice so after each beer we'd return for our deposit back.

The Bronze medal game was very entertaining, it is European hockey so not much hitting although the Germans were actually quite aggressive on the forecheck, The 1st period the Swedes scored on kind of a soft goal and what music do you think the IIHF thinks is representative of Sweden, Mama Mia of course. I'd actually wondered about this, earlier in the tournament I'd noticed whenever Canada scored they'd play Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams. Every stoppage they would play the IIHF theme song "Stuck on Replay" by Scooter which features a heavy sample of On My Way by Steve Winwood, it's quite catchy. My recollection of the exact order of things gets a bit foggy the rest of the game. The German goaltender a Blackhawks AHL farmhand was outstanding, the Germans eventually tied up the game in the 2nd. In the third the Swedes went ahead and put in an empty netter. The most odd thing was with less than a second remaining and a faceoff in their own end up by 2 goals the Swedes called a timeout. The only rationale I could think of was for a group hug. The Germans stood up after the game and gave their team a standing ovation. A great performance for the host nation.

We had to vacate the arena inbetween games and Leighann sought to complete her collection of cups. We ran into a few Canadians, who were approximately 5% of the crowd. We made friends with a drunken Russian who didn't understand why he couldn't refill his 1L jug outside of the arena. He told me his KHL team was coached by Nik the Stik Borschevsky of Maple Leafs 1993 Game 7 vs. Detroit OT hero fame and he also used a racial slur to describe former goalie Ray Emery. We were glad when he left.

We re-entered the arena and the jubilant happy laid back mood that existed for the Swedes and Germans was gone. We found ourselves in a section sandwiched between Russian and Czech fans. Seated next to us were people who claimed to be from Toronto but when asked specifically where they were from they said Thornhill as it turns out they were both York students who had flown into Cologne just a few days earlier. The York students turned to a group of yellow and blue clad fans in the row behind us and asked if they were Germans. I laughed. The York students told us they were cheering for the Russians as they had befriended them earlier and the Russians were going to take them out drinking after the game. I suggested that might not be such a good idea since by the looks of most Russian fans everyone had already had plenty to drink and these two kids were lightweights. The York guys quickly changed their mind as to who they wanted to win when the Czechs scored just seconds into the game. In between periods they started chatting up the Czech fans and engaged in what I refer to as "poking the bear" when they asked a Russian fan which hurts more losing the Olympics or losing the World Championships to which the angry Russian answered "both".

The game was one of the fastest paced I think I've ever seen the puck movement was crisp and fast, but there was no hitting. Thomas Vokoun played outstanding for the Czechs and late in the 2nd they went up 2-0. You could just see the Russian fans hearts just sink. Having not lost a single game in the past two world championships it would be devastating to them and equally as sweet for the Czechs to beat the Russians.

As Canadians we always thought of the Soviet block hockey nations as one monolithic block and we sort of hated them all, post Communism we just sort of began to view all Europeans the same. The last twenty years or so we have seen plenty of big strong, physical mean European players come to the NHL and a flourishing of skilled finesse Canadians so I think it's safe to say that players adapt to the style of hockey that will allow them to hold jobs in the NHL.

The 3rd period progressed and the Russians were turned back time after time, finally late in the period they made it 2-1. However it was a bit too late and the Czechs were able to hang on to win. It was actually quite an amazing thing to witness, the underdog Czechs had pulled off the upset, a bunch of unknown Czech players had defeated a Russian team stacked with 14 returning Olympic players and some of the top NHL scorers. Never having been live at a high level Championship it was something, even if it wasn't the Canadians I was very glad that the Russians had been defeated.

Leighann and I made our way back to Bonn for the night with that damn Scooter song still in my head.

Day 9: Drachenfels /Beethoven's Big Concrete 3-D Head

Saturday morning we got up and enjoyed a traditional German breakfast of sliced meats, cheeses and fresh rolls. Jeramy was gracious enough to let us do a load of laundry and suggested she was going to take us to a nearby castle ruins. This was particularly exciting because Leighann had desperately wanted to go to Neuschwanstein Castle and when we had initially planned our trip we had allocated a day, but when we realized the Monday was Pentecost or Wit Monday a German holiday and the train schedule was severely limited we opted to cut that day out of our trip.

We hopped on a regional train and about half an hour later we were at the ruins. The ruins are situated high atop a hill near the Rhine. Realizing that there wasn't much up top except for a very expensive touristy restaurant we decided to grab some lunch at an outdoor cafe. After my 2nd tasting of currywurst during our trip and a pint of hefeweizen we walked up the hillside towards the ruins.

There is actually a tram which takes you up the hill, but we decided to walk the 40 plus minutes to reach the top. There are actually many things up the side of the hill. Apparently Drachenfels is the legendary location for where Siegfried slayed a Dragon as told in Wagner's 19th Century opera. There is a Castle about a third of the way up the hill which was under renovations as well as a Reptile museum and several beer gardens. Along the way there are several look out points where you can see the river below. Finally we reached the top, a good trek we spent about half an hour looking out over the city. Jeramy tells us that during the summer there is a river festival and massive fireworks displays take place. The top of Drachenfels is apparently a very popular place during the fireworks for obvious reasons.

We walked back down the hill and decided to take the 5 PM ferry back to Bonn. The ferry was spectacular we sat in chairs on the upper deck, I sipped on my Fransikaner Hefeweizen and Jeramy and Leighann drank Radlers (half lemondade half beer). The ferry had this slide and at the bottom a rocking horse like you might see in playgrounds. We watched several near disasters, I imagined the children getting off the slide as a particularly rambunctious child swung wildly on her horsey, I had these visions of either the kids getting off the slide getting cracked by the jockey or the jockey getting thrown from her horse. I thought you'd never see this on a ferry in North America the 1st time some kid cracked their head open the parents would file a lawsuit and the slide and horse would be removed from the ferry. I notice this general attitude in Germany and Jeramy confirms that basically if you do something stupid and you get hurt it's your own damn fault.

We arrive back in Bonn at the Ferry dock and decide to walk to the famous Beethoven statue. We walk along the bank of the Rhein and along the way we walk by a docked party boat blaring it's "raining men" the deck of the boat is packed with men dancing, yep a gay cruise we look to our left and sitting along the benches are Nuns reading scripture, I wondered whether the Nuns timed their readings on purpose. It was probably just a strange coincidence.

 


 We find the statue and at first I am like what is up with that it looks kind of strange, but then when you look at the statue straight on you realize that it's 3-D. It makes for a pretty cool picture it almost looks like it's been computer enhanced, but no 3-D glasses required.

We headed back to Jeramy's and along the way back we realize that people seem to be setting up TV sets on cafe streets and I realize that tonight is the Champions League Final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich. Munich is about 500 KM away from Bonn, but still the Soccer fans in Bonn are clearly behind  the German powerhouse. We decide to go out to eat and the outdoor cafes are packed with fans. We grabbed some dinner at a local Vietnamese buffett and decided to call it an early evening as a fay out in the Sun and the long hike had exhausted us, plus we knew we had a big day ahead of us at the World Hockey Championships in Cologne.

Day 8: Bonnsch-Spiel

We left Hamburg early loading up on our Franzbruchens and hopped on an IC train headed to Bonn. We arrived at about 3:30 and debated leaving our luggage in a locker but the train station was probably the sketchiest we had seen our entire trip. Wanting to get a town map we followed signs to the local tourist information centre which actually also happened to be Beethoven's house. I was reminded that Bonn was the birth place of Beethoven and I wasn't entirely sure but seemed to recall the Amazing Race making a stop over in Bonn several years back. I got a map of the town plus a regional train schedule.

We were to meet up with my friend Jeramy around 7 PM so we had three plus hours to kill. We had a google map printout with the address of Jeramy's flat and when we found the Starbucks we knew we were close. We made arrangements to meet near the Starbucks around 7 PM, after struggling to explain to a Barista that I wanted real cream in my coffee and not a cafe misto or whipped cream we made our way to a local internet cafe to check our email. Finally 7 PM rolled around and we met up with Jeramy. Jeramy and I became friends working in a call centre for "Mr. Suspenders" who motivated callers by offering them spins on the wheel with prizes varying from chocolate bars to an extra half hours pay. I eventually quit and was a bit surprised when Jeramy called me unexpectedly a year later. We went for coffee and kept in touch our friendship was largely based on a shared sense of humour.

Jeramy graciously offered us her King size bed for the duration of our stay she would stay upstairs in her spare room. She made us a Fillipino Chicken dish and basmati rice for dinner we had our first taste of wine our entire trip . Having a bit of energy Jeramy took us out to a local Bonn beerhouse. Cologne is famous for it's Kolsch beer, in response to the Kolsch the beer hall we went to served a beer called the Bonnsch it is a light yellow colour, similar to Hoegarden in flavour and it is frequently served in an ergonomicly shaped glass as shown above. The server and his method for tracking our alcohol consumption was I thought pretty efficient. Basically the bar serves 1 type of beer the Bonsch in .3 litre glasses. Every time you order the server would just mark on a coaster based upon your seat how much you had drank. It was pretty efficient and the guy served the entire bar no one was ever left wanting a beer, just phenomenal.

After a long days travel and a few drinks we decided to call it a night.

Day 7: Old Town Hamburg

Having toured around the fringes of Hamburg on our 1st day we wanted to spend our last day in in Hamburg exploring the river Elbe and Old Town Hamburg.

First thing we wanted to do was try a Hamburg delicacy the Franzbrötchen. I was informed by a native Hamburger that the Franzbrötchen could only be found around Hamburg and if I travelled 30KM outside no one would know what I was talking about. The best way to describe this is it's like a flat deep fried soft bread like sweet cinnamon bun. Really quite good, I find a cinnabon to be a bit much and is often to thick and dry once you have eaten the top coat off, the Franzbrötchen does not suffer from this problem.


The second tip we received was a day ticket from the Hamburg transit system would allow us to hop on Ferry 62 about an hour cruise on a pleasant Ferry boat along the Elbe river. After a pleasant hour along the river we decided to explore the Old Town. We travelled 3 stops north to the Central Train station and then found an Fish restaurant. We sat outside, it was slightly overcast and there was a bit of rain but it was still pleasant. Unlike Toronto just about every cafe or restaurant has outdoor seating. We ordered some fish cakes with potato salad and of course beer. After lunch we wandered around the Alster a small man made lake in the Old Town. I was reminded of Hamburgs socialist connections when I wandered by a small statue of Che Guevara. The city is quite beautiful, but after a few hours we were kind of tired so we decided to head back to Altona to relax a bit before an early dinner.

For dinner we wanted to go someplace local in the St.Pauli/Altona area and oddly enough decided to try out a Mexican restaurant. It was more than just a restaurant it had giant cocktails and a strange world menu that included Chinese, German and American dishes as well. We ordered Nacho Chips as an appetizer and noticed that the chips were really thin rice chips rather than your traditional corn tortilla chips and rather than melting grated cheese they just gave us the squeeze cheese one might get at 7-11 or at a baseball game, bizarre yet not bad. We ate dinner and the Swiss-German IIHF quarterfinal was on. Everywhere I went I noticed that the Germans had the German hockey games on. Of course my interest in the tournament was that I had tickets to the Gold Medal match in Sunday on the 23rd in Cologne and I mainly wanted to get updates on the Canada vs. Russia quarterfinal game occuring at the same time. In between periods they showed highlights of the Russians scoring multiple goals and I knew my chances of seeing Canada in the Gold Medal game were almost nil.

We went back to the hostel, (again really more of an Ikea furnished bed and breakfast) and watched the remainder of the Germany vs. Switzerland match and I have to say it was a bit moving. The crowd was as enthusiastic as any Canadian crowd. With less than a second left there was an icing call, the Germans and Tissot the after game award sponsors weren't aware and started celebrating and Tissot rolled out the carpet at centre ice. The last fraction of a second had to be played and 4 guys had to run out to furl up the carpet. I think the Swiss realized they were losing their best chance to play for a medal ever  and the frustration led to one of the strangest brawls I think I've ever seen in International hockey (next of course to the 1986 Soviet-Canadian world junior brawl in Russia). The puck was dropped and the Germans again started celebrating. The Swiss and Germans started tussling and  a Swiss player was cut and bleeding profusely, Swiss players got into it with the German bench it was utter chaos. After the teams were separated and the post game awards were held the German national anthem was played and the German head coach Uwe Krupp was in tears on the bench. The fans stood on their feet and cheered and the fans copied the Canadian Olympic Gold medal team each taking turns skating the German flag up and down the ice. To win and make it to the Semi-Finals on home ice was perhaps the countries greatest hockey accomplishment. It's be comparable to the Canadian Rugby team advancing to the Semi-Finals of the Rugby World Cup, I would have compared this to some Soccer World Cup accomplishment but the Germans are actually in the World Championships every year just always near the bottom.

Knowing we had an early train to Bonn the next day we decided to call it an early night.

Day 6: Hamburg:The Northern Wind is a Pirate!

We left Berlin around noon and hopped on a train to Hamburg, a North German city, the 2nd most populous in Germany and the 2nd largest port in Europe. Located on the River Elbe which runs into the North Sea it is often referred to as the gateway to the World. It has a distinct maritime feel. I was told by both of my Canadian friends living in Germany that if there was any other city they would like to live in Germany it would be Hamburg. We had already made plans to make this one of our stops but it wasn't until an episode of this past seasons Amazing Race made a stop there that I actually got excited. When booking accomodation I chose to pick a hostel to the West of the downtown core in a district known as Altona. Altona was at one point a separate city and both towns have been historical fishing rivals. Altona borders St. Pauli a working class neighborhood perhaps most famous for it's fishing, it's red light district known as the Reeperbahn, giving the Beatles their first taste of success outside of the UK and it's football club St. Pauli FC. St. Pauli FC is celebrating it's 100th anniversary in 2010, as it says on their T-Shirts "disestablished since 1910". The team plays in the German 2nd division and the fans are fiercely loyal. In the mid 80's the team adopted the Pirate imagery, a historical connection with the city which did in fact have it's share of Pirates that operated out of the area. The players are involved in a number of social causes throughout the community and they are seen as a socialist team by some, according to a friend of mine living in Munich they are considered to be a bit of a joke by much of the league.  The team has struggled financially and are heavily dependent on sponsorship by Astra Beer and the genrosity of fans. T Shirts sold with the word RETTER or saviour can be seen all througout the city. If I could compare St. Pauli fans to any other fans or their attitude to any other team I'd definitely have to say they would be like Oakland Raider fans both in outlandish dress and behaviour, St. Pauli has been described as league "Raiders". 

When we got off the train to our first bit of sun the entire trip. Munich had been cold and wet and Berlin had been overcast. The first thing I noticed were tattooed, pierced unwashed green and pink ripped clothes wearing youths. They reminded me of the squeegee kids you see in Toronto who are basically all from Quebec. We walked to our hostel the Schanzenstern Altona and it seemed quite a bit of grafitti. When we got to our hostel we were pleasantly surprised the building was this bright yellow freshly painted building at least 5 stories. Our room had a nice king size bed with twin comforters and bedding. There was a wardrobe a table a flat screen tv with cable and a nice big three piece bathroom all for less than 70 Euro a night. Really this wasn't a hostel, more of a small bed and breakfast: Immediately after checking in I wanted to do 3 of the things I'd seen on the Amazing Race. Find the Haifisch bar in the Fish Market Area, check out the Reeperbahn and find Beatles Platz.

The Haifisch bar is a local Maritime themed bar, on the episode of the Amazing Race the teams had to down a massive boot of beer called the Nordenwind  and then ring a bell when they completed it to get their clue. Those who can finish the boot just get their next pint free. They don't seem to actually offer this as a regular drink it seems to be one of these special challenges that is intended to generate buzz for an establishment. We had lunch and I had my first taste of Currywurst otherwise known as Andy Ling's worst nightmare it is sausage smothered in curried ketchup accompanied by pommes frites. I had meant to try it in Berlin but just never got a chance. It is quite tasty and the Pomme Frites are actually really crispy and fresh. Moving on we wanted to find the Reeperbahn is a notorious red light district which has many strip clubs as well as bars and night clubs. At night even the street would be packed with people including prostitutes. We went mid afternoon and it was pretty much empty. We stopped and had a drink in a bar and noticed that the club the Beatles got their first big break in Hamburg, the Star Room had been turned into a strip club. We watched a tour group walk down the alleyway where the bar was located and then quickly walk back the other direction. St.Pauli and the Reeperbahn is the most policed neighborhood in all of Hamburg in the most policed city in all of Germany. They were omnipresent but never intrusive. The entire time we were in Germany I felt extremely safe, as safe or safer than in Toronto. The only sort of unnerving thing is the streets are not well lit, this is due largely to a general German attitude of conservation.

After we walked to the end of the strip and found Beatles platz which is essentially these aluminum silhouette cutouts of John, Paul, George Ringo/Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe. It was an interesting contrast. After several hours of walking we noted it was almost 8 PM and decided to head back to our hostel before thinking about dinner.

One thing that sort of confused me is it doesn't start to get dark here until around 9 PM right now. We discussed what we wanted for dinner and before we knew it was almost 10 PM. We tried going to one of the listed locations in our travel book but noted it had actually closed we settled for a kind of strange bar that melded German and British pubs. There was a large menu on the inside which read "Spargelkarte" or Asparagus menu. I had some spargel in Munich but didn't realize it was such a big deal. Turns out it is a really popular food and the Asparagus is massive. It doesn't look like the tiny green things we eat in Canada, rather they are these massive phallic like plants. I've only had spargel once, I think my last supper in Munich will involve some form of spargel.

We got home after midnight and noted that late night German tv is basically all soft core porn. The only English language programming I found was Celebrity Championship wrestling basically recycled reality tv stars and former child stars like Danny Bonaduce and Todd Bridges are trained by Hulk Hogan, Brutus the Barber Beefcake, Jerry Saggs of the Nasty Boys. Very amusing.

One more full day in Hamburg. Having done the fringes our hope is to get out on the river and get a tour around the Alster, basically a man made lake in the Old Town.

Day 5 East Berlin

On Tuesday our last full day in Berlin we set out to tour the Eastern part of Berlin. It's been almost 20 years since reunification and I wanted to get a feel for what it might have been like for the unfortunate ones stuck on the Eastern side. Berlin is a massive city I am told 3 times the size of Paris and a population of over 5 million. It is not a grid city like Toronto but a ring city. We dedicded to basically start from our hostel and then walk one of these rings all the way around the Eastern side of Berlin. For about three hours we walked along Karl Marx Allee. The Allee was originally called Frankfurt Tor but in the 1950´s the Soviet Communist Party wanted to give a present to their dear leader so the street was renamed Stalin Allee and renovations were adding grand ornate street lamps and widening the street. It stretches for several kilometers and you can look off into the horizon and see no end of the street. It is massive and clearly designed to make one feel insignificant. This would have been the street they would march troops and drive tanks down during May Day parades. Literally overnight in 1961 as part of East German De-Stalinization the street signs were taken down and the street was renamed Karl Marx Allee. I noticed the simplicity of many of the apartment buildings, clearly built in the post war era. Unlike the Western part of Berlin where you have 200 plus year old buildings still standing, these aprtments were modestly built probably in the 1960's. There were plaques about every hundred metres or so and one of them made mention of extensive renovations done to these buildings in the 90's. Many had fallen into horrible disrepair due to years of neglect. Now there are limited shops some small discotheques, some cafes like the Mockba Cafe but not much else. There are these massive islands in the middle of the allee and all of the grass is about knee high, either a deliberate attempt to discourage jaywalking or city workers are just too lazy to do so.

After following the street to it's end we headed south west crossed over a bridge and headed towards the river Spree. Over the bridge we walked past the relatively new O2 arena which is pretty impressive. Down by the river there is a large stretch of wall which has not been torn down which artists from all over the world have painted murals around the theme of the wall. Some are quite moving, some are just strange. I think the one I found the most moving was the curriculum vitae, in which an artist painted the year and then marked the people murdered trying to cross over with a pink rose.

While this was all very moving, I was realizing that there wasn't much commerce in the area as most merchants closed up shop leaving a sort of commercial ghost town. I had to find a bathroom so we walked as fast as we could to the East Train station. I tried to go into McDonald's but they didn't even have washrooms available to their customers without a pass code. I had smacked my head on the door on my way in and had I smacked it any harder I might have split my eyebrow open. No bruising but it did sort of take my mind off the dilamma for awhile. Finally we found the public pay toilet and it is a bit ridiculous, public toilets run anywhere from for .5 € to .8 € you drop the change in and go through the eingang or entrance. The problem is the eingang is also the ausgang so if there is a huge lineup of people there needs to be some sort of cooperation between people entering and exiting. I had a problem with this in the Hamburg train station where my change came flying out of the machine and as I went to pick up the change on the floor a guy exited meaning I had to put more money in luckily the attendant saw what happened or at least saw how frustrated I was and let me in through the service door, but I am getting ahead of myself here.
  We were now very hungry and tired so we wanted something familiar so we thought perhaps of going back to the Irish pub to see some Canadian IIHF hockey on tv. We stopped in and ordered a burger and fries and were not very impressed when we got the food and the burgers were these tiny little patties on these supercheap grocery store buns with crinklecut fries. I realize that yes it's an Irish pub in Germany tring to make American food, but I'm certain I could do better than that myself. The main reason ex Pat types go to places like this is it's nice not having to pay to go the washroom and it is comforting to speak your native language. The place is no doubt packed during soccer and rugby matches.

The pub had been playing the Germany vs. Slovakia IIHF game but did not get the Canada vs. Czech game being played at the same time. I went back to the hostel hoping to perhaps watch some of the game through the TSN streaming feed but all the machines were in use, 2 kids were watching the German hockey game. I asked them for the Canada score and the kid was like "Canada eh!" and gave me the thumbs up. I wasn't sure whether he was mocking me or not. Later he came over and started asking me what's wrong with Canada, I couldn't really tell him as I hadn't seen any games while I had been there. He was actually very cool and he wasn't mocking me I think, he just wanted to practice his English a bit. He said there are a lot of Brits who pass through but they all speak a lot of slang and speak very fast so it's very difficult to understand them. I could only nod my head and agree. I had been somewhat conscious that people were going to figure out very quickly I wasn't British and just assume I was American which I don't really have a problem with per se. The only Americans we have run into our entire trip have been 2 guys travelling on their own who were both soft spoken and not at all obnoxious and a 30 something year old University professor from San Francisco travelling to a job interview. In fact the most obnoxious people I have encountered the entire trip were two privilged Canadian girls, who seemed to have just finished 1st year University and were backpacking around Europe. They made no effort to be friendly with anyone else staying in the hostel and were very rude to the hostel employees, made no attempt whatsoever to use any simple German courtesies. They sat at their table all night gossiping about girls they hated in highschool, they each had a bag of beer they had brought in which yes may have been a little cheaper than buying from the hostel but was kind of obnoxious and I'm sure very warm. We are also pretty sure they were running some kind of scam to steal potato chips, the kind of thing drunk bored people do because they think it makes them badasses.

The hostel saved us a lot of money vs. staying in a hotel. It had it's drawbacks namely the noise. Although we are much older than most of the people staying there it reminded me a little bit of dormitory life- the good and the bad side. Leighann and I spent the rest of the evening relaxing knowing we would be catching a 12 PM train the next day to Hamburg.

Day 4 Berlin: The Gate, The Wall, Checkpoint Charlie

On Monday we had the intention of getting up early and getting to the Reichstag building (pictured above), but both of us were still quite exhausted from the flight and a long train ride from Munich the previous day. We got up late and had the breakfast the hostel was serving which was quite a deal at 3,50 € included bread, cheese, granola, yogurt, coffee and juice. By the time we finally got out the door it was early afternoon.Our hostel was centrally located in the Mitte district not far from Fredricshcain a terndy entertainment district which had it's heyday in the 1920's and very close to the Unter Den Linden. What appealed to me most about Berlin was the wall and it's collapse and secondarily I was interested in WWII events really the periods of 1933-1945 and 1961-1990 although just small portion of Berlin's history are almost impossible to ignore and for me growing up in the 80's at the peak of Cold War and Nuclear war rhetoric (Star Wars, Rocky IV, and the post nuclear war movies like the Testament) it was something I just had to see. We headed straight towards the Brandenburg Gates, meant to symbolize the military power of the Prussian and German state when the boundaries of Berlin were redrwan post WWII the gate stood just behind the Russian sector. We approached the street and there were of course throngs of tourists. There were also some other strange sites, I saw an American Indian and a Horse drawn carriage coach driver in some sort of bizarre argument, there was a guy giving Trabi tours, the tiny Eastern European car that some East Germans had to wait 15 years to get. The most bizarre site were a trio one dressed as a Soviet Soldier, a costumed Bear with a tiara (the Baer is on the Berlin flag and the german word for Behr sounds much like Berlin) and a man dressed as an American soldier only with thick green face and body paint so he looked like a plastic Army man. We walked through and around the gate and if felt a little strange. We walked over towards the Reichstag and due to the late hour it was jam packed. There is a small monument of these stones that look like some kind of weird bike rack dedicated to the murdered politicians who opposed Hitler. There was a group of tourists from a South Eastern region of the world who were on a tour and almost as if the tour guide had instructed them to they all walked up and started kicking these stones. Leighann and I were like this is supposed to be a memorial and these tourists were treating it like they were buying a new car and had to kick the tires.

 We decided to walk back around towards Wilhelm Strasse where the former Gestappo headquarters and later the German Secret Polic headquarters were to check out the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" (2nd photo), I'm only putting it in quotes because that is literally what it said. The Memorial was constructed in 2005 and is a bit unusual, it is a graded square almost like a shallow wading pool without the water and it has rows and rows of stalages, giant blocks that create a maze it's meant to be symbollic I guess but some people, despite instructions actually took the maze idea literally and would run around chasing one another.

We decided to head down to Wilhelmstrasse where much of the Nazi Party headquarters in Berlin were located also where a portion of the wall museum is located. We walked along these billboards which documented the various escape attempts and those who died trying to cross over. A new Berlin Wall Memorial is under construction set to be completed in 2011. We walked all the way over towards Checkpoint Charlie the infamous checkpoint between the American and Soviet sectors. It is now kind of kitschy for 1 Euro. We almost got run over trying to cross the street as there aren't any traffic signs on the corner, I thought that perhaps this is kind of appropriate. Actually throughout our stay in Berlin we had some difficulties with pedestrian crossings in Berlin as the street lights aren't always visible and are two stage crossings that go from green to red instantly.

We circled back and went to the exhibition the Topgraphy of Terror, which documents with photos and letters and billboards the rise of the Nazis and the institutions that were developed. It is a lot of reading and is really intense, I spent about 4 hours slowly working my way through this exhibit. What is truly chilling is the constant calculated and changing  manipulation  and constant tinkering of the people. Perhaps the two most interesting photos to me were one of a German rally where everyone is saluting Hitler except for one man it is truly something to look at, that truly requires some bravery. The 2nd photo was a group photo of the SS members in the early days at a meeting in Bavaria. It looks like one of those Stanley Cup photos or something out of animal house. In the front row two guys are lying around the SS shield like it's the Stanley Cup, guys in the 2nd row hold up Steins of beer like a bunch of frat boys. I thought I'm sure a lot of these guys joined up because it was like a social club to them or their buddies were rushing the SS. I'm not suggesting the SS were harmless or that Frats are Fascist organizations, merely that there are a lot of very mundane or banal reasons people just go along with things or join organizations not everyone holds true to the ideals. By the time I was done viewing this exhibtion it was nearly 8 PM we were both hungry sowe headed back to the hostel to relax.

We decided for a nice dinner and wanted something other than German food. We walked up Oranieburger Strasse to find a place to eat. We kept seeing these women milling about and we didn't quite get what they were because they look like the kind of girls you see at trade shows or the girls on the street who try to get you to try some new energy drink. On our way back from dinner we noticed they had fanny packs on and we clued in that the street that ran behind our hostel was some kind of prositution district. I must say though the thought didn't occur to me as they didn't look like crack whores at all. I was later told that they are in fact unionized which wouldn´t surprise me.

We went back to the hostel and had a few drinks downstairs in the lounge, it's a younger crowd but it's kind of nice sort of like being at a casual bar where the drinks are cheap except you don't have to worry about going home you just have to make it upstairs. We discussed how we were going to spend Tuesday our last full day in Berlin and I suggested we see what life was like on the East side of Berlin.

Day 3: Berlin Don't Panic

Day 3, Sunday we got up and checked out made our way to the Munich train station. We were going to use our 1st class 5 day rail pass for the 1st time and I was sort of clueless as to what I had to do. We'd made reservations on the Friday we arrived for a Sunday 920 train. We had assigned seating. When we got on the train I was a bit taken aback by how busy it was and the seats didn't seem very special. What happened is either the DB train attendant we made the reservations with didn't realize we had a 1st class pass or that train was all booked up.

The train rolled out on time and made stops in Inglestadt, Nuremburg and Leipzig. The ticket collector bore a remarkable resemblence to the German SS Inspector in Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark and having seen way too many WWII films with scenes on trains I was a bit nervous. I tried to sleep still a bit tired from the previous night but was difficult. 6 hrs later we rolled into Berlin.

It took us a half an hour but we finally found our Hostel, the Heart of Gold Hostel. It's based on the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and is built like a giant spaceship. It's kind of noisy reminds me of my days in a University dorm, but it's cheap and clean and they have internet access, a cheap breakfast a 24 hr bar and located centrally not far from the Brandenburg gate and all the other touristy things.

We opt to go to a local Irish bar Oscar Wildes, needing a break from Bavrian food. It's nothing special but somewhat comforting. Later we walk to another backpackers hostel caleld Belushis that has a bar that shows NHL games, we watch a bit of the 1st period of the Sharks and Hawks game and then head back to the hostel It's quite rowdy a number of Brits mostly University age. We have a few drinks and then head to bed. We head to bed intending to get up early and get in all the must see Berlin stuff on Monday.

Day 2: Munich: Ein, Svei, Drei, Fir, Funf Mass Bitte!

Day 2 of our trip and I woke up early. We went down and grabbed some breakfast from the buffet, really nice but also expensive 14€ each. Leighann was complaining about a stiff neck and a headache. We didn't bring any acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Leighann wasn't feeling great so I told her she should go back to sleep for a few hours and I´d try to grab her some painkillers. Her headache seemed to be the pressing issue so she really wanted Tylenol.

I left the hotel to look for some Tylenol, I went into the REWE grocery store next day and sort of got sidetracked. The store didn´t carry any drugs but did have three aisles of German beer. I wasn't sure if I had a bottle opener in the room so I got that along with some American gum. I realized perhaps I had to go to the Apotheke, the German pharmacy which is marked by a big red A. There was almost nothing in front of the counter. When I asked for Tylenol the Pharmacist seemed confused she asked me to write it down. She typed something in her computer and then told me that you needed a prescription for Acetaminophen, I was a little shocked but then it kicked in we are in the hometown of Bayer Aspirin so it sort of made sense. I later read that there is this mysterious wind that is blamed for bad moods.

I returned to our hotel and gave Leighann the German ibuprofen which according to her is really harsh. She started to feel better and then we made our way back to the downtown area. I phoned Bob and he confirmed he'd meet us at Marienplatz. Leighann and I took the U line and then wandered around the area for a while through an open air market, grabbing a coffee which is really good here being so close to the Italian border. We went into some German stores like SportScheck, as one would expect a lot of Adidas and a lot of soccer gear. We ended up at another open air festival stage and the signs said "Gospel Train". We could see kids dancing and the band on stage was playing the standard Christian classics, really badly. I started to understand why David Hasselhof is so popular in Germany. We made our way back to Bob and walked to a nearby Bierhall called Augustine. The beer there isn't exported outside of Bavaria and looked like a lager. We ordered a round of Masses all around, a litre stein and some traditional Bavarian cuisine, I ordered a half ham hock. Bob and I talked for a long time about old times and he explained some of the local customs. Bob explained to me that this weekend was like the Ascension of Christ 40 days after Easter, I am not religious I sort of thought man must not have been a direct flight or maybe he was delayed by ash cloud. I was reminded that Bavaria is the Catholic region and the pope is German.

In many German Bierhalls everyone just sits at a big table. We noticed many groups come and go as well we noticed Bayern Munich supporters fill up the hall. When I got up to go to the bathroom, I didn't have any problems, they left a neat orderly channel for people to get by. Every 10 minutes or so they would cheer as Bayern put goal after goal in on Bremen. Weird but the game was meaningless as Bayern Munich had clicnhed the league title the week prior and there are no playoffs for this season anytime soon.

Washrooms, there are pay toilets in Germany but I didn't see any in Munich, rather they have an attendant who stands in the hallway and you more or less tip them anywhere between ,20 € and ,50€ according to Bob. It's a tradeoff since you don´t really tip and if you just remember to keep your change in your pocket it's never an issue. The coins in Europe are crazy they have the equivalent of 1,2,5,10,20,50 cent pieces and 1€ and 2€ coins and they all look the same like Dave and Busters game tokens.

Several bachelor parties rolled through including a group of British university students, they mentioned flights out of the UK were disrupted by volcanic ash but to my knowledge none of the Air Canada flights from Toronto to Munich have been effected at all. We finally left at around 10PM and said goodbye to Bob-O promising to meet up in a few weeks when he's in Toronto for business.

We walked home and I picked up several other beers at the gas station just to try including a radler, it's a lemonade shandy 1-1 beer and lemonade quite refreshing I'd imagine on a summers day. The end of our 1st tour of Munich one more to come at the end of our trip. Off to Berlin for 3 days on Sunday morning...

Day 1: München

We flew out of Pearson on Thursday night, my 1st flight ever and honestly I was a little nervous. The seats were smaller than I thought they would be and even though it is a 767 still felt pretty narrow. I avoided caffeine or alcohol not wanting to be edgy or have some kind of weird reaction at 37,000 feet, also didn't want to get up multiple times in flight. The flight was ok we had some turbulence until we reached our cruising altitude. I started to watch the Hangover but they had to restart the touch screen entertainment system multiple times. I watched Sherlock Holmes and fell asleep for about an hour total. Dinner was ok, just really small.Our flight was finally about to pull into Munich Airport at 10 AM local time Friday, my first landing I was tracking the flight on the in flight information system and noted that we were getting further away, logically I was like ok the plane is geting ready for approach and had to turn around. My seat was on the aisle near the wing so I actually didn't see anything the entire flight except clouds. The guy in the window seat across the aisle from me makes some comment like something is wrong with the wing, I'm of course a bit freaked. Of course nothing is wrong, the plane lands just fine the sounds are just normal for landing the guy was either a moron or just being a jerk. We landed and it took about an hour to get through customs get our luggage.

It took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to use the transit machine. There are no turnstiles and no collectors. I thought perhaps Munich was like the Budapest honour system, as depicted in the film Kontrol, where passengers despise the Transit enforcement agents and no one pays. On the other hand I thought perhaps this is one of those cliche German thing. The stereotype about orderliness is well true, fines for "Blackriding" are an automatic 40€ fine and Bavarians as I learned are very orderly everyone lines up to get on trains and no one dares trying to jump on. Suburban os S Trains (like GO Trains) run from the same station as regular U Bahn trains. The transit system has multiple lines at least 6 U Bahn lines and the fare system works on a fare zone system, basically for short trips it´s 1 ticket and you have to cancel it yourself, for longer single trips it's more, they have a variety of passes we opted for one that allowed us to ride the entire system all day for 18,80 Euro, because a single trip into the city alone is close to 9 € each. We got off at the Hauptbahnhoff the Central Train Station and got all turned around. We wandered for about 20 minutes before we figured out where we were. We walked by a club called BOOBS which Leighann and I both thought was awesome. Finally after walking for about an hr with heavy packs we found our Hotel in the South end of the City's downtown core, The Hotel Drag Princess Elizabethin, a 3 star place we found on priceline.com for $60 USD a night a steal. The hotel room was great had some early 20th century Bavarian charm but was also very modern with smart lights and a nice big comfy bed.

We unpacked and then wandered around the corner to the Paulaner Brewhaus, one of the larger local breweries in Munich. I ordered a Stein of Paulaner Hefe Weizen along with a plate of mutant asparagus, potatoes in hollandaise sauce and schnitzel. We walked back through the neighborhood noticing all the local restaurants, the Thai, Japanese and an Indian Restaurant called Sheree Punjab all had Paulaner signs.One of the 1st things we noticed about Munich were the bike paths. The sidewaalks are really wide and the streets somewhat narrow. In actuality about half the sidewalk is actually a dedicated bikepath. It turns out Munich is one of the most bike friendly cities in Europe. The second thing we noticed is the drinking age is 16 for beer. We were in the brewhaus and saw these kids who were at most 17 ordering beer. I thought shouldn't they be in school.

We took the U Bahn North from Goetheplatz to Marienplatz. Marienplatz is basically the City Centre, it has the Rathaus, the old City hall, a glockenspiel a large clock tower, a couple fountains. It is what you think of when you think of Bavaria. Trying to take advantage of our Transit Daypass we took the U line to the There was a huge stage and people were walking around with beer and the band was playing what sounded to me a lot like Lisa Gerrard from the Gladiator soundtrack. At this point we had not yet had dinner. We attempted to get into the HOFBrauhaus, Munich's most famous bierhall but being some kind of holiday, and both a local and tourist favourite it was packed. Leighann and I opted for a Bratwurst and a Hacker Pschorr Hell beer from an outdorr vendor. The Bratwurst was actually more of a slab of sausage meat cooked with a crusty roll. It was quite good. The beer I thought was going to be a Hefeweizen but I believe was just a lager of some sort. We sat outside and drank our beer watching of orange clad Germans. We weren't exactly sure but it seemed apparent there is no laws about open containers of alcohol this was later confirmed. We sat at some outdoor tables and realized that it had to be close to the 0 celsius mark and there was quite a wind, it was probably as cold as it´d been all winter in Toronto. I had hoped to meet up with Bob my old highschool buddy, but he called me about 9 PM and regretted he couldn´t make it because he said he had been out the last 2 nights and was really suffering. We did however make plans to meet up on Saturday. Funny that Bob lives in Bavaria, I just now recalled the summer of 1994 a group of us would play marathon Shadowrun Roleplaying Game Sessions in the 2nd floor classrooms at Innis College. Shadowrun is like Cyberpunk meets Lord of the Rings. One of the most memorable scenarios was centred around an Old Bavarian Mountain Castle, Bob's character was coming up the mountain when Evil hemchmen nailed the tram car he was in with an RPG and Bob pulled off an imprbable escape, which involved some "inspired" dice rolling.

Leighann and I made our way back to the hotel with hopes to get in more sightseeing the next day. I found it hard to get to sleep, my mind was still thinking about all the details of the trip a combination of jet lag, lack of sleep. I finally dozed off about 3 AM local time the end of what to me seemed like 1 day but in actuality like being up 36 hrs with only about 1 hr sleep. I wasn't too worried about getting in all the sights as we fly out of Munich on Thursday the 27th and we planned to spend 2 days at the end of our trip doing anything we missed the 1st two jetlagged days.

Off to the Land of Beer and Sauerkraut

I am leaving for the airport in just a few minutes for a 2 week vacation in Germany. We are flying direct from Pearson into Munich. I am a bit nervous because I've never actually flown so I am not quite sure what to expect. I am very excited to spend two weeks in the land of beer.

Our trip is as follows:
Thursday May 13th 8 PM Fly Out of Pearson

Friday May 14th 10 AM Arrive in Munich staying in the Cities south end about 1.5 km from the Hbf or central train station.

Sunday May 16th Train to Munich where we will be staying in the Heart of Gold Hostel, no not a Neil Young themed hostel but based on the Douglas Adam's Sci Fi Comedy Classic Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Wed May 19th and Thursday May 20th Hamburg. We are staying near the St. Pauli District home to St. Pauli FC. Hamburg is Europe's 2nd largest port. I particularly want to see this city as it was featured in a great Culinary kitchen featured at TIFF called Soul Kitchen.

Friday May 21st-Monday May 24th. Bonn/ Cologne. Neighboring cities just a 25 minute commuter train apart. My friend Jeramy lives in Bonn. We have tickets to the IIHF World Hockey Championships gold medal game, hoping Canada's 4-1 loss to the Swiss was just an anomaly and hope they will advance to the final. Leighann really wants to see the Cathedral in Cologne.

Tuesday May 25th Neuschwanstein Castle (Cinderella's castle) in the PM before returning to Munich in the evening this time we are staying near the English Garden a giant park in the middle of Munich.

Wednesday May 26th Our last full day in Munich.

Thursday May 27th return to Toronto in the early morning.

I hope to be able to get to an internet cafe or get access at least a couple times to post some photos.

Tschuss!