Ok, here it is... a PLEASANT SURPRISE. (does that count as three? haha)
Well, no offense, my good ol' German friends, but the image I had of Germany was:
Beer, Sausages and Hitler.
Definitely lack of knowledge on my part, sorry :( But now I think Germany is probably one of the best places to live, vacation, and just have a good time!
Every single place I went to was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.
Everybody I met was nice, sweet, and willing to help my foreigner self. (Even if their English wasn't great! I'm always so touched when ppl do that for me!!!)
Food was AWESOME. (coming up in next blog so won't go into detail.)
Everything was FUN FUN FUN!
Trains were COMFORTABLE... Germany's public transportation system isn't famous for nothing!
Wow. When I'm truly amazed, my vocab is reduced to this: Wow. But WOW it really was. I shall call Germany, Ger-WOW-many from now on... ok, I kid, I won't. but Seriously, beautiful country, generous ppl, great food, a wonderful time! Here are the pics for y'all to also want to go!
First, we landed in Munich. Stayed at a cheap Hostel, but clean :)
This was the city square, with a clock that goes off maybe 3 times a day? Pretty crowded, but the thing was cute :) And then, I don't know if we randomly bumped into a fair or some holiday, but there were people EVERYWHERE, with vendors selling food, crafts, clothes, everything!
See this guy here? There was another guy next to him who looked like a real live version of Giuseppe, the GranPa in Pinoccio.... And they were making these little intricate things with micro-thin silver wires! Beautiful craftsmen! (I think it may have been a craftsmen fair, cuz there were carpenters with beautiful beautiful baby cribs, women in national costumes teaching children how to knit, etc!)
There were vendors selling chocolates saying "Ich liebe Dich". The only thing I know how to say in German, so I was happy :) (means I love you.)
This was the beer garden! It was so lively, buzzling, and fun! People were drinking beer from mid-day! Makes me wanna come back in October for the Oktober Fest! I bet the city is PACKED with drunk people! Sounds like fun! These little geese were also crafts selling by this beer garden! It was so much fun!
The other thing that surprised me, is that there were LOTS of people dressed in the german National Costume. Maybe it's a Munich thing, I dunno. I was guessing it's sort of the way Japanese ppl wear "yukata" during the summer... it was just fun!
We then took Advantage of our Eurail Pass, and went on ahead to Salzburg, Austria.
Salzburg is famous for music. Mozart was born here. 'nuff said, huh? My mom, who used to be an Opera singer, had dreamt of coming here her entire life! So the entire time, she kept saying "I want to come here when they have their music festival! they have one every year! I'm coming back! I'm definitely coming back to that one day!"
After walking through someof the CUTEST STREETS where store signs were metalic plates and all original designs (even Zara, or MacDonalds!) we got up to the square :) We then climbed up some narrow streets to find the restaurant that the guide book said was great. (Which I will go into more in my next blog dedicated all to food!) But let me say, the view from the restaurant was amazing! and they didn't even mention it in the guide-book! what a waste!
And here is the view from WAY UP in the castle. This is also where the musical "The Sound of Music" is set. So there were posters of the classic Maria-in-the-field-singing :) loved it!
Day three, we went to the Neuschwanstein Castle.
(try say it three times: Neuschwanstein, Neuschwanstein, Neischwanstein! ...I had trouble even typing it!) It means New-Swan-Stone castle. It used to be on our "Castles of the world" calendar at home, and apparently was the model to Sleeping Beauty's castle... so my mom REALLY wanted to check it out. So we did :) Very good choice, very good choice- unlike milk on a very hot day.
You first arrive in the city of Fussen, and then have to take the bus to the bottom of the mountain this castle is at. There's one smaller, yellow Castle there, which was also beautiful and fun too! (The tour guide shows you hidden passages and stuff!!) THEN you take ANOTHER bus to where the Neuschwanstein Castle lies... and THEN you walk a little bit, to a little bridge where you can see the white castle in it's entirety....like BOOM! but it was sooo worth it! SO WORTH IT! People just stood on the bridge looking at the castle, sighing ~~. I look super happy, cuz a) it was beautiful and b) the wood panels of the bridge had spaces between them, and you can see aaaaall the way down to a water fall!! kinda scary! Tried to keep my head up and look at the view, and not imagine myself falling to my death! haha.
We asked a really friendly guy who even directed us where to stand! (I love it when ppl I ask to take pictures for us take it seriously, cuz I do for other ppl too! hehehe)
From where the first (yellow) Castle is, and from where Neuschwanstein is, you can see a beautiful beaaaautiful lake, so i HAD TO drag my parents there... and this was a breathtaking.... The water was so clear. The sand was so white... When I say "blue is my favorite color" THAT is the color I'm talking about... the clear blue water from this lake. sigh~~
Oh, and this is just a funny fountain I found at the yellow Castle. Since the royalty who lived there were called the Swans, they had Swan motifs everywhere- including the top of the Castle, paintings, bronze statues.... and this was just an old man carrying (what I think looks like two geese but are) swans. :)
The next day, we went to Frankfurt. But after leaving our bags there, we also went to Rothenburg and Wurzburg cuz we didn't want to waste our day, and wanted to take full advantage of our Eurail Pass! I was LOVING the trains though!
So this is Rothenburg! The cutest little town you can imagine. I thought LEIDEN (where I live) looked like the town Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) lived in, but oh no! ROTHENBURG looks like that kind of town! (yeah, I know Beauty and the Beast is set in France, blabla) The whole city was surrounded by the cutest, most movie-like wall. And this town is famous for being "Christmas all year round"
There were several Christmas stores (the biggest, being Kathe Wohlfahrt) and MY GOODNESS was it cute! It was almost a Christmas-themed park! The whole store looked like a town during Christmas- with shelves that looked like houses covered in snow, and in the very back, there was a HUGE Christmas tree! My mom and I were being giddy like children in a candy store! (while my dad rolled his eyes.) They had Christmas tree decorations (like above) cards, candles, candle holders, ornaments, dolls, incense... Good for souvenirs cuz they were cute and tiny <3 style="font-weight: bold;">
The next day, we took it easy in the buzzling city of Frankfurt:
This was in the middle of the city! Can you believe it? Makes me wanna yodel-le-hee-hee~~~ (yeah, it's Swiss, I know, haha. But can't a girl yodel when she wants to?)
Then we walked away from the city area, and found some cute streets, cute bars (which were closed, unfortunately) and looked for the restaurant famous for Apple wines. According to my guide book, Frankfurt is famous for their apple wines, so we had to try! (this is in next blog)
Last (full) day in Germany, we decided to take it slow (we were in Go! Go! Go! mode the entire time, and let me tell you, my parent's aren't getting any younger). We took the train (again) to Rosenberg where the Rhine river cruise begins. We wanted to see the portion of the Rhine that was all a World Heritage site. SPRINKLED with Castles!
Let the journey begin!
We had to wait a while for the boat, so we walked around Rosenberg. This little town was SUPER CUTE too! Sigh. So much better than icecream on a hot day! We promised each other, that no matter how hungry we get on the cruise, we were gonna eat in this town, cuz it was just too cute to be true!
So here are just 2 out of the gazillon pictures I took on the Rhine.
These two were my favorite castles. :)
At the end of the trip, we got off, but there was nothing to do there- I even forgot the name of the place... oops... but found a cute little stand for dogs to also take a break :) cute!
We then got back on the cruise and went UP the river, back to Rosenberg and had dinner there :) The town was even CUTER at night! (I'm gonna hyperventilate from the cuteness).
The last day :(
We had to take the train to Dusseldorf, for the airport. But we stopped by Cologne on the way :) We only had time to take a quick peak in the Cologne Cathedral, and have some coffee.
It was humongo jumbo! And so Intricate! (duh, that's why it's called a CATHEDRAL and not a Church! psssshhhh, dumb Elisa.)
Their stained windows were also beautiful... aren't stained windows always?
Being in Germany felt like going to a brand new mall, where EVERY, SINGLE, STORE is so cute you HAD TO go in every single boutique... but by closing time, you still had 10 more stores you hadn't looked (just glanced at the window-and they're all so cute!) so you're mumbling to yourself, "next time I come to this mall, I'm DEFINITELY going in those stores! DEFINITELY!" That's almost EXACTLY how I felt. Like, "DAMMIT, if only I had another day... no two... a week... a month! NO! my entire life to check out more of this beautiful country, I WOULD"
You were such a pleasant surprise and exceeded all my expectations!
I'm definitely going again!
Iche Liebe Dich, Germany! Ich Liebe Dich!
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