Brenda's Visit & GERMANY!!!

Hey Everyone! Hope all is well back home! Keep me updated--miss you all!


For the past 10 days, Brenda was here visiting, and I definitely kept her busy.  Last weekend we went to Dublin, Monday I showed her around Galway, Tuesday she went to the Cliffs, and Wednesday she went to Connemara.  She particularly enjoyed the Cliffs, which is great, seeing as it's quite a beauty!


Tuesday night we headed into Galway.  Brenda and I ate dinner at McDanaugh's fish in chips (pretty famous round these parts).  She had fish and chips while I had sausage and chips, since I don't like seafood.  While eating, we met a creeper named Paul who was from Belfast.  He had the hots for Bren and pulled up a seat making some friendly conversation until he saw her ring and found out she was married--he quickly scadattled.  Afterwards, Brenda and I met up with Katie and Jess at the Quays Pub for some traditional music and some drinks.  Brenda loved Guiness and Bulmers--she said it tasted like a wine spritzer.

On Wednesday Brenda went to Connemara.  We then ate lasagna AND apple salad at Jessica's--SO GOOD. We also packed and hit the sack early since we were departing for the bus station at 6:30.  We took a bus to the Dublin airport and then our flight left for Frankfurt-Hahn at 11:15ish.  We got into the airport and picked up our rental car and headed towards Heidelberg.  We found our hostel (pretty sketchy), parked, and headed towards Altstadt (the old city).  Altstadt was full of pedestrian streets with lots of shops.  It's a university town, so there were a lot of students as well.  We passed a few churches along the way until we reached the Heidelberg Schloss (castle in German).  By the time we got up the 308 steps, the castle was "closed" so you couldn't go inside.  However, you could still roam around the castle and through the numerous courtyards.  It was soooo pretty, and it overlooked the town :)  It was by far my most favorite castle I have been to.

After the castle, we headed back into town and grabbed some Subway and a Schneeball.  Schneeballen are translated as "snow balls", and they consist of fried pie crust dipped in various sweets--ours was dipped in dark choclate.  It was pretty good, but not something I'd get everyday.  We went back to the hostel for an early night's rest and departed for Rothenburg ob der Tauber early next morning.  Along the way we stopped at the Schwetzigen Schloss, which is famous for its gardens.  Unfortunately, it was super expensive, and the castle itself was under a lot of rennovation, so we didn't go in.  The Heidelberg Schloss was muchhh prettier anyways :)


We arrived in Rothenburg (which is a super old, preserved walled medieval village) around 11 and wandered through town attempting to find our Gasthaus (guesthouse...room for rent).  As we were looking, we passed St. Jakob's Church.  I decided to go in, and upstairs is a fantastic wood carving from the 1400's--apparently it's Germany's best! 

We ended up in the Marktplatz, which is the town square.  The old Rathaus, Christmas stores, the tourist information, and many other little shops are located here.  We asked the info desk where the guest house was, and she directed us towards the right direction.  We checked in and dropped some stuff off, and then headed to find lunch.  We stopped at a little Imbiss, and I held a conversation in German.  Let me just tell you, one of the most exciting parts of Germany was putting the little bit of German I know to good use!  I could actually understand some of what people were saying too!  Brenda didn't care for everything being in German, but I enjoyed it.  Anyways, I ordered our food in German, and for dessert I got Apfelstrudel (soooo delicious!).  We then did some shopping and went into a few Christmas stores.  I got most of my souveniers in Rothenburg, thank goodness, as Munich was super expensive.


Throughout the day we saw the medieval wall, spires, a couple of neat little churches, moats!, castle gates, and a few cute little parks with great overlooks!

We got dinner at a litte cafe and headed back to our room for some sleep.  We couldn't get the door unlocked, so Brenda flagged down another guest, and on the first try, it opened--we looked like idiots, but at least we got in!  We departed early and headed towards the Romantic Road, which is Germany's most scenic route, passing through more than a dozen cute little towns.  My favorite stop was Dinkelsbuhl!  It reminded me a lot of Rothenburg, just a little bit more modern.  We walked around, passing through the Obst und Gemusemarkt and then to a bakery, where I got the most delisious pastry I have ever had--it was basically an apple danish, just 10x better.

After stopping in Dinkelsbuhl, we took the Romantic Road to Augsburg, and hopped on the Autobahn to Munich.  We got into our hostel around 11 am, parked, and headed towards town. We stumbled upon a beautiful fountain and a gate, which was the entrance to Altstadt (all the cool sections of cities are called this, because they are the older sections of town).  Our first stop was St. Michael's Church.  I didn't know what to expect since the enitre outside was under rennovation.  But nonetheless, we went in, and it was beautiful!

Next, we went to the Frauenkirche, which was a Catholic Cathedral.  You may be thinking, "ugh, another church", but this was no ordinary church--Pope Benedict served as Archbishop here before he was Pope, so pretty significant.  Here, the church spires were the highest towers in the city.  We went up one of the spires and had a 360 degree view of the city. Breathtaking (but Brenda would argue otherwise).

Next, we finally made it to the Marienplazt, the town square.  Again, I'm going to use the word beautiful to describe this.  My favorite building on the planet is located here--the Neues Rathaus, which is the new town all.  BEAUTIFUL!!!

The old townhouse, along with many shops and cafes were in Marienplatz as well.  After that we headed to the Virkualiensmarkt, which is an extremely large open air market selling everything from meats to crafts.  I got a sandwich, ice cream, and a few little woodland creatures :)  There was also a large Maypole which brought me back to the days of Hillside Elementary and May Day.  Anyways, the may pole signified what goods were being sold at the market.

Next stop was St. Peter's Church, which is one of the oldest buildings in Munich--very pretty :)

After that we walked around some more and headed towards the Residenz (home of the Wittlebachs) and towards the Englischer Garten, two times bigger than NYC's Central Park.  Along the way we encountered a gigantic protest against the use of nuclear power.  It was huge and took over the Residenz.  We broke our way through the crowds and headed towards the park.

We meandered back through town towards the Hofbrauhaus for some dinner and beer.  We ordered meatloaf, and forgot that meatloaf in Germany is more like Spam--Brenda had encountered this at lunch.  But we did get some delicious German potato salad and pretzels :)  I ordered a litre beer for kicks and giggles, and it was so huge I had to use 2 hands to lift it...slightly embarrassing.

After the Hofbrauhaus we made our way back to the hostel, where there was almost a smackdown.  A girl from North Korea, who didn't know English stole Brenda's bed, which was a bottom bunk.  We had marked the beds that they were ours when we first arrived.  Anyways, after much yelling and interpretating, things got straightened out, and they switched beds.  But, it was so noisey that we didn't sleep anyways.  We left early Sunday morning for the airport.


All in all it was a great trip.  I LOVED Germany, and had a blast.  On the other hand, Brenda didn't care for it as much...but it was definitely my favorite country I've been too.  I hope to go again really soon, and visit Fussen and the castle there, which inspired Disney's princess castles. 


I'm using this week to catch up on some schoolwork before Katie, James, and I (possibly Michelle too) leave for the Dingle Penninsula and the Ring of Kerry.


Update soon!
Christy