Germany Trip

After an unnecessarily confusing and troublesome trip from Oslo to Germany, Heather and I finally met up and made it to our hotel.  Get ready Germany.  I don't know if you can handle the two of us together.

Day One:

I wasn't expecting eggs and bacon for breakfast, and that was probably a good thing because apparently everyone in Europe eats bread for breakfast.

After breakfast Heather and I walked down to a nearby supermarket and bought some stuff to make sandwiches with.  After Norway, I learned my lesson about eating out.  They didn't speak English there but luckily the customer in front of us did and she was very helpful (she found us peanut butter and I was SOOOOO happy that I wasn't going to have to try and stomach Nutella all week).

SIDEBAR:  People in Germany are generally super friendly and tons of people (not employees) have helped us translate between English and German in a kind and friendly attitude.

We also decided it was a good idea to figure out how our rail passes worked so we headed down to the nearest train station with no real plans in mind of where we were going or what we were going to do that day.  After talking to one of the ladies we still didn't really have a clue so we went and found a random train and we were going to hop on it when I realized that the lady at the booth was supposed to activate our rail passes.  So we got to talk to her again.  She kind of had a bad attitude and was a little annoyed with us but she activated our passes and it turns out that riding the trains is a piece of cake.  We figured it out in a snap.

Our first real destination on the trip was Museumsinsel which basically translates as Museum Island.  Guys!  If you didn't feel the full impact of that sentence go back and read it again.  It is an island.  Full of museums.  Could Berlin make my life any easier?  It's not as great as the National Mall in D.C. but still, pretty great right?

The first museum on the list was the Bode Museum which is an Art museum.  I'm not gonna lie, it got old after a few hours.  It did have some really cool pieces though.

After walking around the Bode we worked up quite an appetite so we decided to scope out some food.  We skipped quite a few places and finally ended up at a 60s American diner place.  Before you yell at me, yes we will try some German food and we already did at that place because they served some interesting but tasty things, particularly dipping sauce.

The Museums were calling our names so we went back to Museumsinsel and took some pictures of the national art gallery (we didn't go inside because we were sick of art for the moment) and moved on to the Neues Museum which basically covers history from prehistory to the medieval times.  It also has the famous bust of Nefertiti but we weren't allowed to take pictures of that.  I was going to be sneaky but those guards watched like hawks in that room.

Our legs were hurting pretty bad after that museum so we decided to take a river tour and sit for a while but this massive cathedral was in our way.  Can't go over it.  Can't go around it.  I guess we'll go through it!  The view from the top was great.

At long last we made it to our riverboat and gave our legs their much deserved rest.  The tour was also quite informative and we learned a lot about many of the buildings in Berlin, especially many of the new buildings that were created to replace buildings that were destroyed during World War II.

After the boat tour we met up with our favorite communist Karl Marx, quite by accident I assure you.  I guess there is a statue of him in a random Berlin park?

On our way back home (we were so beat even though it was only 6 or so!) we went a different way to see a little bit more of the city.  We also picked up a few souvenirs and a charger for my computer.

SIDEBAR: Although the $30.00 adapter/converter that I bought in the U.S. has the correct connections, it is too fat to fit in the outlets because they are raised!!!  This was true in Norway as well.  Do not buy the first type of charger if you are traveling internationally because it won't fit and you'll end up buying a new one anyway.  See the black thing between my cream colored adapter and the plug?  That's the extension I had to buy so that my adapter would work.  And if you think you can get away without the extender or a better adapter, you can't.  All the outlets are inset about an inch and there's no way you are getting that bad boy in there!

Phew!  That was a long, productive day.

Day Two:

Checkout was today since our goal is to see as much of Germany as possible.  It sucked having to carry our bags with us everywhere but I was expecting it.

Our first stop was the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island which we hadn’t gotten to the previous day because of our angry, tired legs.  I’m glad we came back because it was definitely my favorite.  Right now it is being renovated so the main entrance is completely blocked off, so we had to go around the back.

The whole theme of the Pergamon is ancient history, particularly Greek, Roman, and Mesopotamian.  The first thing we saw as we entered was the reconstructed Pergamon Temple inside a huge building.  Even though a lot of pieces were missing, it was cool to know that I was walking where Alexander the Great once walked.

The museum also contained a partially reconstructed Roman temple and Umayyad dynasty castle, but the crown jewel of the reconstructions was definitely the legendary Ishtar Gate of Babylon.  It was very impressive and actually made me feel like I was in a bible story. 

The next section was enormous and represented a huge collection of Mesopotamian artifacts.  It was really neat to see the cuneiform tablets and the amazing detail that was put into the tiniest pieces.  There was also this sweet cuneiform box that I really wanted (Dad, are you reading this?).

Upstairs there was a section on the major Muslim dynasties.  I was less interested during this part of the museum but there were some beautiful prayer tablets and rugs.

After the Pergamon we had lunch in the garden outside and decided whether we wanted to go to the National Art Gallery or not.  We decided not.

Instead, Heather’s suitcase decided to break (one of the wheels) so it wouldn’t pull anymore and let me testify, it was heavy.  We finally designed a system to carry the stupid thing but the bag wasn’t designed to be carried that way and it cut my shoulders.

At the main train station where our journey to Aushcwitz would shortly begin, we decided Heather needed a new suitcase and we repacked everything right on the floor of the train station.  Heather was mildly mortified.

We had a little bit more time before our train left so we decided to go and see the Checkpoint Charlie museum.  Unfortunately, I don’t really have a lot of good things to say about this museum.  It was very small and cramped, was an information overload (everything is printed in 4 languages which I realize is a hark back to Cold War times but it means there is hardly any space of wall not covered by words and I felt that it was unnecessary), the audio guides were temporarily unavailable, and we didn’t have enough time to properly tour it.  I realize that the last reason is our fault, but the other reasons add up too.  I would really like to go back with 3 or 4 hours and read everything to really get the full experience and I think I would appreciate it more after that.  We did get to see some interesting ways that people sneaked over from East Berlin and the original hot air balloon from that famous story of the family who ballooned over the wall.

Quite by accident, on our way back from Checkpoint Charlie, we ran into an old train gate in the middle of a park.  It turns out that tracks used to run through there and that was actually one of the major Jewish deportation sites in Berlin.  It was very cool to just stumble upon that.

We finally got back to the main train station and thus began our long journey to Auschwitz which was made a lot more bearable by the appearance of two beautiful Brits who we chatted with until we had to make our first connection a few hours later.  They were around our age and didn’t have much experience with Americans so they asked us just as many questions as we did of them, probably more.  Sorry, but we didn’t get a picture.  I didn’t even think about it.

At the connection we only had about 10 minutes to find our correct station, which had us a little stressed (Heather a lot more than I).  We found the train and ended up getting on 16 cars away from where we were supposed to be.  We tried to go through the train while it was moving (that was an adventure!) but we only made it about four cars before we reached a place where the next car had no inside connection.  We just picked an empty car and when the ticket lady came by she didn’t seem to mind.  Once in the train Heather was able to de-stress a little with some head-out-of-the-window, tongue-lolling fun.

We did get some sleep on the train.  I’m not going to lie, it was very far from the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.  Tomorrow, Auschwitz!

Day Three:

The train ride to Poland (the overnight part) was terrible.  Sleeping on the train was not fun.  Once the sun rose, we did get some nice pictures of rural Poland though.  After arriving in town we tried to get some directions and ended up walking about 1.5 miles.  The Auschwitz Museum was not open yet so we went across the street to a kind of tourist center and mooched their wifi for a bit.  By the way, they had a Dr. Pepper.  Germany and Poland have Dr. Pepper, what’s the deal with Norway? (They also had Mt. Dew by the way).

When Auschwitz opened we headed over there and signed up for a guided tour.  You can walk around unguided if you want to which is probably what I will do the next time I go, but I highly recommend the guided tour.  Our guide was great.  They know a lot of information and many of the guides reside in the nearby town and grew up here their whole lives so Auschwitz is really a part of their history.  The only reason that I would go unguided next time is because there are some places where the guided tour didn’t take us (because of time we couldn’t visit every barrack).

The tour begins at the famous gates of Auschwitz I where the misleading and flat out untrue sign Albrecht Macht Frei marks the entrance to the camp.  I don’t want to type a novel, so I will be leaving good descriptions of all the pictures I put up later, but let me just say that it was quite sobering walking the streets where SS men marched, tortured, experimented on, worked to death, and just plain shot for fun the Jews and others.  

The tour leads through nearly all of the barracks (which are original for the most part but some reconstruction has been done to the inside walls in most of them) which gives the museum a lot of space.  I like this, especially after Checkpoint Charlie which was cramped and crowded.  They have a lot of original artifacts like shoes, combs and brushes, hair, suitcases, etc. of many of the victims housed in these barracks.  Some of them we were not allowed to take pictures of (like the hair for example).

After that we saw where roll was called, the kitchens, where executions took place, and the one crematorium that was in Aushwitz I.  The tour was extremely informative and lasted about 1.5 hours.  My body was begging to be done but I wanted to see Aushwitz II (the actual killing center), so we pressed on.

Auschwitz II is a little bit up the road from Aushwitz I (maybe 5 miles or more) so we took a shuttle with our guide.  Auschwitze II is much larger and it had 4 crematoriums which were all destroyed by the Nazis prior to their abandonment of the camp to try and cover up what had happened there.  Many of the barracks (those made of wood) are also destroyed.  The ruins of the crematoriums, the brick barracks, the railroad tracks, and a modern monument are there for visitors to see.  I was tired by the end of it and sat down for about 2 or 3 hours afterwards at lunch, but it was definitely worth it.  Auschwitz was an amazing experience.

 

We took showers (it was about $3.00) because we were super stinky.  We hadn’t showered in a day and had done two full days of walking around in the hot sun.  Those showers felt great!  Hold on to that positivity because the next 24 hours probably rank in the top 5 worst 24 hours periods that I’ve ever had.  Heather and I have began referring to Poland as The Country That Should Not Be Named.  It’s a tale filled with frustration, desperation, sadness, a few miracles, and an eventual happyish ending.

The first think to go wrong was that we were eating lunch and we heard a huge pop from where Heather’s phone was charging.  We were a little fearful to actually go check to see if her phone died but we did and luckily it was just the charger.  Frustrating, but only slightly.  That was only the beginning.

We walked the long walk back to the train station and it started raining.  Luckily, we got inside before it got bad.  We wanted to buy a ticket on an overnight train that was going to Prague and stopping at that station, but apparently only certain stations can sell international tickets even though the train stops at their station, they can’t sell tickets for it.  Please someone explain this to me.  Anyway, we bought a ticket to head back to Krakow so we could buy the international ticket to Prague.

DISCLAIMER: A LOT OF THESE PROBLEMS WERE BROUGHT UPON OURSELVES AND I REALIZE THAT.  NEVERTHELESS, THEY ARE NO LESS FRUSTRATING.  IN FACT, THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THEY ARE SELF-INFLICTED PROBABLY MAKES IT MORE FRUSTRATING.

We missed the train because the wrong station was printed on the ticket and we weren’t really paying attention to the signs.  I’ll take credit for that one.  So our options at this point became slim.  I won’t take you through our whole decision making process but we eventually decide to take a taxi to Krakow so we can make this train to Prague and not lose a day.  I guess the taxi ride was fun, but it was a lot more expensive that the train (which we already wasted money on if you recall).  Our taxi driver was nice though, even though she didn’t speak much English.

SIDEBAR: NOBODY IN POLAND SPEAKS ENGLISH.  NOBODY.   At least, it seemed that way.

In Krakow (which is the largest station we ever went to.  It’s huge!) we finally made our way over to the place where they sell international tickets thanks to help from a tourist information guy who actually spoke great English (one of two exceptions to my above sidebar).  We were informed by the very mean woman that there were no more trips to Prague that night which were not full. 

Off to the side we discussed our options (which were not looking good) and toyed with the idea of flying from Krakow to Prague, Vienna, or even Nuremberg.  By the way, we didn’t know this at the time but that would have been the overall cheapest, best option.  We decided instead to see if we could get an overnight train to anywhere closer to Germany and hopefully get out of Poland.  The lady said there were no overnight trains to any city but when pressed she got us a train to a different station which did have overnight international trains to Vienna available.  Why couldn’t she just have offered us that in the first place?  Anyway, the thing that made us frustrated was that the train left in 10 minutes at it was on the other side of the huge station.  The lady just took her sweet time about handing us our tickets and I literally sprinted to try and get to the train and hold it while Heather caught up.  We barely made the train and needless to say, Heather and I were not in the greatest spirits.  Then it got worse.

The station we needed to get off at in order to connect to our train to Vienna was called Katowice.  I was paranoid about missing our stop so I had my head out the window for a good 15 or 20 minutes so I wouldn’t miss any of the station signs (It was pitch dark outside so you couldn’t see anything through the train windows).  When the Katowice station came up, we got off along with some other people.  It was the most Podunk station I have ever seen.  Things were falling to pieces, it was heavily graffitied, and on the other side I couldn’t even find any train schedules posted (we found one later).  I was wondering how this could possibly have international trains.  When we couldn’t figure it out, we ventured away from the station a bit to see if we could find someone to help.  Remember that we are in Poland around 11:00 pm at a Podunk station in the middle of a ghetto section of town.  We were definitely scared and all I could think about was that I forget to write a sticky note that says dad gets everything if I die on this trip.  Consider this post that sticky note.  

We saw three people up ahead, alcohol on the ground next them.  I didn’t want to talk to them but I figured I had no choice so I did.  One of the three spoke broken English and he explained that there are 3 Katowice stations and we got off on the first one instead of the third one.  My question is why aren’t the stations labeled differently on the tickets?  How could we possibly have known that there were three stations or which one to take?  With that bad news we headed back up to the station to jump on any train heading the direction we needed to go.  We figured with only two stops nobody would care or check for tickets.  Well, there was only 1 more train scheduled to pass through that station that night at about 11:15 pm.  Our connecting train to Vienna was scheduled for 12:03.  Even if we caught this train, it was possible we wouldn’t make it in time to connect.  Well, it was our best option.  So we waited.  And we waited.  And we waited.  The train never came.  

We waited until 11:30 because we figured by that point we would not be able to make our connection anyway.  A lot of praying was involved at this point for me (Heather had gotten started earlier I later found out).  I didn’t care about the connection to Vienna anymore, just to get out of this station to the central station and we could worry about getting a train in the morning.  The guy we had talked to told us the central station was about 10 kilometers away so walking was out of the question.  Our plan was to find a taxi in a rundown section of town, at practically midnight, in a town we don’t know, where they don’t speak our language.  On top of that it was raining.

Now things start getting better.

I think Heavenly Father finally took pity on our self-inflicted, very painful experience because we were walked and we happened to walk past those same guys we met earlier coming out of a bar in a different part of the town.  I wasn’t even paying attention but the guy who spoke some English stopped us and wondered why we hadn’t caught a train to the central station.  We explained.  He offered us a ride to the station.  I felt a little spike of fear, but I felt like it was going to be okay.  I have no idea what Heather was feeling like.  To make this story slightly shorter, one of the Poles drove us like a crazy person to the central station in about 8 minutes, parked and just left his car in the middle of the drop-off zone out front, and ran with us to our train.  We did show up about 2 minutes late, but the train was still there and it literally left when we stepped on.  Wow.  Another long, overnight train ride with horrible sleeping conditions but Heather and I didn’t even care.  Somehow we weren’t dead, and we were actually on the train we needed to be on and would have to buy another international ticket (those are expensive).  And one of the longest days of my life finally ended somewhere around the Polish border.

 Day Four:

Readers must be thinking by now that I am writing a book about this trip.  Sorry.

Heather and I arrived in Vienna around 6:30 in the morning.  The only thing open was a McDonald’s, so we had that.  They also had free wifi, so I took the opportunity let everyone know we had reached Vienna and get some tips from my dad on what to see since he was there on his mission.  He gave some great suggestions but unfortunately, we weren’t able to do any of them.  By the time we figured out where to buy our international ticket and how to get there, we only had a few hours of time in the city left since we wanted to be gone by about 2:00 pm.  We wasted probably another hour on trains trying to get to the city center until we realized that the only way to get there is by the metro, not the trains.  

When we finally got to the main part of the city we took a bus tour that showed us a lot of the cool, beautiful buildings in Austria.  When that tour was over, we had barely enough time to get back to our departure station before our train to Nuremberg left.  I would like to come back to Austria some day since I feel like I didn’t have enough time there.  I did get some Milka chocolate from a vending machine though.  Hopefully it still tastes okay after the vacation and the planes home are done with it.

Being in Germany again felt so blessedly right.  The stress just sluiced off me because I knew that if I missed a train, I could just get another one a few minutes later and they are all free because of our rail passes.  We found our hotel without much of a problem and showered (we were pretty stinky again after all that running to catch trains).  Since tomorrow is Sunday, not a lot is open, so we will see what tomorrow has in store for us.

On the Vienna train Heather and I watched Zombieland and decided that the rules of Zombieland also apply to foreign countries:

#1 Cardio – If you don’t run, you WILL miss your train (if you are dumb like us and can’t figure things out fast enough or plan ahead)

#2 Double Tap – Always check AT LEAST twice to make sure you have the right ticket and that you are on the correct station.  It helps to check with other people who are also traveling on that same train.

#3 Beware of Bathrooms – In Poland they all cost.  It’s not a lot, but still.

#4 Limber up – There is a lot of walking, so it might be a good idea to stretch a little at the beginning and end of each day.  Also, take care of your feet or you will suffer.

#5 Enjoy the little things – In this case, showers are a little thing that makes a HUGE difference in how you feel and how your day goes.

#6 Always Check the Backseat – The only thing we have accidentally left on a train was a bottle of water and we are hoping to keep it that way.

Day 5:

We had a great night's sleep and decided to sleep in today to rest up from the first half of our trip.  We stayed in bed until about 11:30 or so and it was so nice.

I didn't know we are in Utah but apparently we are because everything is closed on Sunday.  None of the markets were open so we could make some breakfast and a lot of the stores were closed too.  First stop on the list was the whole reason we came to Nuremberg in the first place: The Nuremberg Castle.

After some unsuccessful navigation due to a lack of a city map, we finally found a tourist spot that not only had a city map with points of interest marked on it and almost every street named, but we also found rail/tram/metro/etc map that corresponded with the city map so we could see where every single station was for all forms of public transit.  Plus the guy was also nice enough to highlight the best route to the castle.  The walk to the castle was pretty long and the elevation gain was a lot but eventually we made it there.

On the way to the castle we passed a statue of Albrecht Durer and his house that he lived in.  He is a famous artist.  I didn't much care for it but Heather enjoyed seeing it since she was an art major in college originally.  We also passed a building with a sundial mounted to the side of it.  I thought that was pretty cool.

We finally arrived to the castle and walked around the beautiful grounds.  When we went to go inside we learned that it was closed for construction (Heather was mad) but at least we got some great pictures around the castle!

On the way back we stopped for a bathroom break and to plan out the route for the rest of the day.  Using the maps in unison was a cinch and I wish it was always this easy to travel.

On the way to the first stop I accidentally navigated us to dark blue 6 point of interest instead of light blue 6 points of interest and that was a pain, but we eventually arrived to our destination at the Nazi Rally Grounds in Nuremberg which had been converted to an archives and museum about Nazi Germany and Nuremberg specifically.  All that walking around earlier to the wrong location killed a lot of our time and we were only there for 1 hour before it closed and had to speed through.  We probably saw around 1/2 to 3/4 of it though and it was fantastic.  I loved it and I would love to go back for more sometime if I ever visit Nuremberg again.

Since everything in Nuremberg was closed at this point, we went to the main station to get some tickets for later days and eat.  We decided to try some local food called doner.  It was meat and fries with this sauce and it was very good, and for only 3 euro.

Back at the hotel Heather called her mom, I blogged, and we watched some funny videos before hitting the sack at a decent hour for once, wanting to get another good night's sleep.

Day Six:

We decided to go to Venice for a side trip since there was not much else we wanted to do in Nuremberg.  We ended up booking an awesome hotel for really cheap and spent all day today on the train, arriving around 8:00 pm or so.  After figuring out the way to our hotel with no wifi we finally got there and loved it!  Tomorrow we hit the city. 

Day Seven:

We missed the last morning train to the city (apparently they only run until 9:00, then resume running at about 1:00) so we had to take the hotel shuttle.  This ended up working out great because of the people we met on the shuttle.  We talked to an older British couple who had been in Venice for a few days already and they gave us tips on where to go, what to see, and how to get there in our limited time.  They were very  kind.  As we were getting out of the shuttle one of the other passengers said that he had been listening to our conversation and offered us two vaporetto (water bus) passes that he didn't need anymore and were good all day.  All of this added up to two people who knew exactly where to go and got there for free when we finally got into the city.

The city was simply gorgeous so I'm going to try and do less talking and more showing.  The first step was getting on the vaporetto.

 We saw A LOT of boats, gondolas, vaporettos, etc. on the river.  It was refreshing to be in a city with no cars.  None.  However, it was summer and it was really hot and really humid.  We wanted to take a gondola but it was about 80-100 euros so we thought eh . . . better not.

The main place we saw in Venice was St. Mark's Square which houses a huge market, a cathedral/museum, and a really large tower that I decided to go up in.

We also got some real traditional Italian gelatto which was mostly delicious.

All in all, Heather and I both agreed that Venice was the most beautiful city we have been to (and the hottest).  We would love to go back during Carnival or at night.  Venice, we shall return!

Day Eight:

Today was the most boring day of the trip to write about.  We spent over 10 hours on a train from Italy to Munich.  We sprang for the couchettes (beds) but I think I would have preferred the seats.  Except for the people we met, it was a horrible experience.  

When we arrived in Munich we went straight to our hotel and went to bed.  I only slept for a few hours but Heather slept for 6 hours!  We went down to the supermarket to stock up and made some dinner and watched The Two Towers, extended.  We didn't see a bit of the city.  As our vacation is winding down, we both needed this lazy day to just do nothing.  We are getting tired and the United States is becoming more and more enticing.

Day Nine:

Today we went into the city.  We wanted to get to our hotel in Berlin that night at a reasonable time so we didn't have all day in Munich.  We decided to do a bus tour like we did in Vienna.  We took the long bus tour and got to see a bunch of the city.  We also got to look for a new suitcase for me at the local mall since my zippers busted.

 It was late when we got to Berlin because our train was delayed but we finally got there.  Heather and I both agree that this trip is winding down.  Our bodies are tired, we are tired of nobody speaking English, and we getting tired with each other.  One more day, then back to home sweet home. 

Day Ten: 

We slept in again today since we didn't have a lot planned for the day.  The main attraction was the Brandenburg Gate.  There were a few little things I would have liked to have seen that I didn't get the chance to see but hey, it will give me a reason to go back!

We also decided to go out to dinner that night (Heather's idea) so that Heather could wear the dress that she brought.  The food was good and the price wasn't that bad either.  Thus ends our German vacation.