Bavarian Weekend

This past week has been a busy one. Last Wednesday, our friend Keri arrived from Vancouver for a three-week visit. We welcomed her with a traditional cheese fondue dinner, and after showing Keri around Konstanz on Thursday, we hopped on the train Friday and spent the weekend in Bavaria. We spent Friday and Saturday night in Münich, and made trips to Dachau Concentration Camp on Saturday afternoon and the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein at the foot of the German Alps on Sunday.

Münich was a lot of fun. It's a great city with lots to do. On Friday night we walked around the city center, through Marienplatz with its famous "Rathaus", or City Hall. After that, we went to the world-famous Hofbräuhaus for some giant beers and traditional Bavarian food. Check out the giant pretzel and pork knuckle! It was cool to be in the most famous beer hall in the world. Hofbräuhaus was founded in the late 1500s, and has seen a lot of history, including early rallies of the Nazi Party in the early 1920s.

On Saturday morning we checked out a little more of the city, including the Frauenkirche Cathedral and the Viktualienmarkt public market before heading out to Dachau. Dachau was kind of surreal. It was hard to fathom the atrocities that were committed on the very spot we were standing. We saw a lot of the expected horrible images of what went on in the camp, as well as recreations of the prisoners' barracks and the original creamatoriums, gas chamber, and entrances to the camp. It was an interesting, valuable experience, but not something we'd probably want to see again.

Saturday night back in Münich we went out for a nice Indian dinner at a restaurant we'd discovered our last trip to Münich for Oktoberfest, and off to a Paulaner Beer Hall for a nice hefeweizen before calling it a night.

With daylight savings time beginning Sunday morning, and an already early wake up call to catch our train to Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, we were quite tired but still looking forward to seeing these famous castles. The trip consisted of a two-hour train ride to the small town of Füssen, and then a short bus ride to the town of Hohenschwangau below the castles.

The castles Schloss Hohenschwangau (Castle of the High Swan Country) and Schloss Neuschwanstein (Castle New Swan Stone) were property of the Royal Family of Bavaria. Hohenschwangau was built in the early 1800s, and King Ludwig II commissioned Neuschwanstein to be built, starting in 1869. Building of the castle continued until 1888, when Ludwig was declared insane and died under mysterious circumstances the very next day. Over the course of building, Ludwig had not only built one of the most amazing castles in the world, but also racked up a huge debt to finance it; a debt that, according to our tour guide, took the Bavarian Royal family over 40 years to pay off.

While the castles were quite impressive, definitely the most extravagant that we've seen, our day was hampered a little bit by a surprising late March snowstorm, which nullified the beautiful views that help make these castles so famous. Still, the insides of the castles, especially Neuschwanstein, still made the trip worthwhile. Even though the castle was only 1/3 finished, the rooms that were finished were amazing. From marble columns, to intricately carved beds and chairs, to mosaic floors with over two million tiles, to an artificial cave built into a passageway between two rooms, you can see why this castle was the inspiration for Disney's famous castle logo, and also how it completely bankrupted the Bavarian royal family. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed inside either castle, so we can't share any with you.

We're now back in Konstanz. After learning the ropes of riding the rails with a quick trip to Zürich yesterday, Keri headed off to Milan and Venice this morning for a quick trip of Northern Italy.

We're looking a taking a short weekend trip this weekend, maybe to Lugano or Lake Como, and we've booked a trip to Paris over Easter Weekend. Easter weekend coincides with Erin's 30th birthday, and we've decided to celebrate it in style by checking out a show at the Moulin Rouge. Should be lots of fun.

Cougar Attack!

After our recent trip to Bolzano, we've spent the last week and half taking it easy. Other than Tim taking a trip to Münich yesterday for a lacrosse game (an incredibly low scoring 3-2 loss -- surely due to Tim's amazing defensive play), we've been mostly around the house. Spring weather is finally starting to arrive, so today we took the opportunity to walk around town, checking out the lakefront, having a coffee and (for Tim) the first of what is sure to be many delicious ice cream cones of the year.

The big news with us here is an impending cougar attack. Our good friend Keri, known to us affectionately as "Keri Cougar", is arriving on the 25th for a 3-week visit. While we don't have an itinerary set as of yet, this is Keri's first trip to Europe, so she is hoping to do a lot of travel. In addition to some local sites, we are expecting to take a few longer trips, with places like Paris and Münich (along with nearby sites like the Dachau Concentration Camp and Neuschwanstein Castle) being high on the list. We're very much looking forward to Keri's vist, and we hope that our small one-bedroom apartment isn't too small for the three of us!

Bolzano and Völs am Schlern, Italy

Last weekend, we were invited to come out to Northern Italy by our friends Scott and Nina. Scott is an Australian from my German class, and Nina is his Italian girlfriend. Nina's family has a holiday house in the mountains just outside of Bolzano ("Bozen" in German), so we spent a few days there. I never knew this until recently, but a large part of northern Italy is German speaking, so this region is very different from the parts of Italy we've been to. It's still very German/Austrian, but with a definite Italian flavour.

First we arrived in Bolzano, and toured the city. It was very pretty, and we were lucky to have a nice, warm sunny day when we arrived. The city is surrounded by mountains, and has a nice big downtown full of nice shops, cafés, restaurants, and well dressed Italians.

We then went to the holiday house. The location of the house is fantastic. You walk out onto the patio and you are looking right at the Schlern, a huge mountain peak. We spent the next couple of days hiking, tobogganing (on a wooden death trap where Erin refused to steer or use the brakes), sampling the local cuisine (speck and knüdel) and on Monday, some snowboarding. It was just the second time snowboarding for Erin, and my first, so we spent as much time on our asses as we did on our feet, but it was still fun to give it shot. More pictures from the weekend are below.

Karnival in Konstanz

The end of February is Karnival time in much of southern Germany. This marked my first, and Erin's third Karnival experience. The locals here go all out for it. All day street parties, elaborate costumes, and of course, lots of drinking. For at least a week, the whole town is taken over by Karnival. We had a great time going out with friends on Schmutzige Dünstig ("Dirty Thursday") and watching the parade on Sunday. Here are a few pictures.