The Hills are Alive!

This past weekend I was able to take a train ride over to the Munich are and meet/hang out with distant relatives (somehow, someway we are related if you go back to like 1500 or something!). I had a lot of fun with Wilhem and Angelika. They were excellent hosts and it's so cool to tour the city and surrounding area with locals who can speak the primary language! I experienced local cuisine from Munich beer to pretzels to sausage to cheese; by the end of the trip I was definitely craving a crispy colorful salad that's for sure!

I arrived in Munich via Deutsche Bahn, taking the I.C.E train that travels at 200+ km/hr making stops only at major stations so it only took about 3-4 hours to get into Munich. I made it on and off the train no problem and can honestly say taking a train is pretty cool! ;) I met Wilhem at the main lobby, dropped off my luggage in his car, and went right into walking around Munich. We ate at the famous Augustiner, which is one of the oldest restaurant and breweries in Munich dating back to the 1300's. Munich, well Bavaria in general, cuisine is know for two things: brezel and weisswurst. Wilhem had told me this in an earlier conversation and I told him that at some point during this weekend I had to try both of these things. Of course he remembered and so that's what we had for lunch. It was great, he ordered me the house beer (which was surprisingly good!) and the sausage. Pretzels were already out on the table calling my name! After we ordered, our waiter brought us a small ceramic pot filled with deliciously spicy sweet mustard to eat with both the pretzels and sausage. Shortly, our sausage came in a larger ceramic pot. These sausages are boiled and then served in pot with hot water to keep warm and served two at a time. To eat these sausages you have to removed the casing, I just followed Wilhem's lead: split in half and peel of the casing using a fork and knife, cut, and dunk in mustard. It was a delicious lunch.

The Augustiner Beer Hall and Restaurant: home of delicious pretzels, sausage, and beer!

mmmm...yum-mo!

The weisswurst in the warm water, waiting to be eaten.

Split in half, casing about to be removed. It looks boring but it was good!

After eating lunch, we walked all over the city. From looking inside churches, to seeing what is left of the old city wall, climbing up the steps of Alter Peter to take a 360 degree tour view of the city, more churches, a walk through a cool store full of fresh fruit, veggies, meats, cheeses, coffee, wine (reminded me of the German version of the Fresh Market), and ending by getting an afternoon cup of coffee. Okay, okay, juice for me!

One of Several Churches in Munich

The 'new' city hall - still several decades old but extremely impressive. 

City Hall in the Marienplatz. I unfortunately didn't not get to see the people dancing on the building store front. They only move at two times apparently: 11 and 3.

remnants of the original city wall

View One of Munich from the top of Alter Peter

View Two of Munich

View 3

View Four. I think was the direction you can see the Alps... if it was a clearer day

City Hall from above

This is another central building in the city. This is were they would have large parties are parades after winning a battle or war. You can see the soldier there in the middle and the two bavarian lions flanking him...I'm standing in the large central square where thousands of people can gather to join in the celebrations.

Part of another catholic church in the city. If you look back at the last high top picture of Munich you can see the whole church behind City Hall.

The Rotunda inside the church.

This is the ceiling of the mall where we had our afternoon drinks. I just thought the hanging lights and plants was a pretty cool decoration so I snapped a quick picture. 

After completely the city tour, we drove north into Oberschleissheim. We drove by Olympic Village (now just a bunch of normal everyday apartments, didn't get any pictures), BMW headquarters, and onto the Appold's home. I didn't even think to get a picture of the offices at BMW but they have a really cool building - it's 4 cylinders that make up the whole building and black just like a 4 cylinder engine. It was kinda cool! I'll get a chance to take a picture probably again in a month hopefully so stay tuned. Not much happened the rest of the evening. We had fresh brot to dip in kase fondue, a salad, yellow peppers and pickles. It was kinda weird combination of foods but tasted good! :) No pictures of this dinner either...

Saturday morning I awoke to a crisp, frosty, but sunny day. I got my run in really quick (gotta keep up the training for the 1/2 marathon you know!) and then had a breakfast of bread, various cheese, jams, yogurt and juice. I then got the chance to go with Helmi to their local butcher. While I didn't understand the conversation, it was so much fun to see the fresh meat and the lines of people out getting all the meat they needed for the next week. I wish we had butcher shops back home, it felt so quaint and European to go out and do that! After getting what they needed for the next week, they took me southeast into Austria to visit Salzburg and get up close and personal with the Alps. I took so many pictures of the Alps but they were so pretty and I couldn't help myself! When we got to Salzburg it was late morning, we stopped in a cafe so they could get an espresso and they wouldn't not let me order anything so I had a glass of OJ. We then walked over the pedestrian bridge and into Salzburg and the city center. We made it just in time to catch the end of their market. Then because I was with some 'locals', we went in a couple stores I normally wouldn't have know about including a salt shop. They sold all kinds of salt rocks, bath salts, and kitchen salts - rightly so as we were in Salzburg after all. I enjoyed looking all all the different kitchen salts. We proceeded to walk around the city. We ate lunch in another really old restaurant that was built directly into the side of a mountain. Helmi and I traversed up to the fortress overlooking the city (phew, it was a hard climb up too!), saw a couple more churches, and then rejoined Angelika to travel south back into Germany and into the Alps. This was my favorite part of the trip, to climb up into the mountains: feeling the air get cleaner and cooler, breath taking views, seeing the snow piled up around you and on the trees, and the general peace and serenity by getting away from all the people milling around the stores and city streets. We ended our drive by stopping for the usual afternoon drink and enjoyed a great view, refreshing drink, and a yummy apple pastry! 

**warning, here comes just a brief sample of all the pictures I took this day!**

Crisp Morning Run - see that beautiful sun coming up and little clouds in the sky.

Where the Appold's live.

On the Autobahn, headed to Salzburg and the Alps (see them out there on the horizon?!)

Walking bridge over the Salzach River to get to Altstadt

Welcome to Salzburg!

Salzburg on the banks of the Salzach River. There were all these locks on the bridge; couples or best friends buy locks and put them on this chain link friends to symbolize their relationship is locked forever! 

The Altstadt (Old Town) Market and a couple big blocks of cheese

I was treated to a Austria original bon-bon: Mozartkugeln. A pistachio hugged in chocolate nugget,  encircled in mascarpone, finally encircled in a hard chocolate shell. Delicious. 

My wonderful hosts: Wilhem and Angelika

Goulash: my lunch for the day, it was okay. Let's just say I won't order it again. 

The restaurant: St. Peter's restaurant. Built directly into the mountain side. 

Inside St. Peter's Cathedral

Inside the Fortness. Remember the picture of Salzburg a few pictures above?? (go ahead, look to refresh your memory...) Helmi and I climbed up to this place on foot, forgoing the cable car ride, to walk around inside the gate and see the view from the balconies. This is a picture of the castle inside the fortress. There is like a whole mini city within the fortress walls.

Looking North onto the city of Salzburg through the window of the canons that once defended this city.

One of several fortress watch towers.

Looking South from one of the balconies. Isn't that a gorgeous view?!?

One of my favorite pictures taken from onto of the balconies looking onto southern Salzburg and the beautiful snow capped Alps.

Inside the main cathedral in Salzburg. It was gorgeous inside with all sorts of biblical scenes painted on the walls and ceilings. Plus, check out that organ - are you impressed David?! 

One of the shopping streets.

Mozart was born here!

After leaving the city, we headed south back into Germany and climbed up via Rossfeld to get onto Panaramastrasse (Panarama Street) to take in the gorgeous views. This is a view at about 1000 m high.

Here we are at about 1300 meters. Sun shining nice and bright. Can see the tiny little bump on top of the mountain just to the left of the two sun rays pointing down? That's the Eagle's Nest: one of Hitler's Hideaways. This is about as close as I got, the rode up to this hideout is closed in the winter due to snowfall.

A snowball made of fresh, Alpine snow. :)

Just an average afternoon...you know?!? 

Looking South at 1600 m; this is the highest we made it along in our adventure that day.

Pretty cool huh?! This is the view that to the left from the picture above. Panaramastrasse is curving around the mountain side. 

Stopping for afternoon coffee. I tried skiwasser: mineral water (with gas) and elderberry juice syrup for a nice refreshingly sweet taste. Plus, the owners convinced us to get apple strudel too!

View from our table as we sipped our beverages. Can you spot the Eagle's Nest here?

Watzmann Mountain Massive: the third tallest mountain in Germany. It has three main sections. (1) The tallest is Watzmann Peak, located all the way to the left and has three peaks Hocheck (2651 m), Mittelspitze (Middle Peak, 2,713m) and Südspitze (South Peak, 2,712m). (2) Watzmannfrau (Watzmann Wife) is the peak all the way to the left and is 2307 m high. (3) In between these two peaks lies the Watzmannkinder (Watzmann Children); five small peaks lying in the shadows of mom and dad. ;)

On Saturday evening, we spent the evening Skyping with my parents to begin planning their trip in a few weeks (yeah!) and with my grandpa and Aunt Patrice. I was a little miffed that my Dad had to postpone talking to his only daughter living all the way across the ocean to finish watching the Spartan's basketball game, but I filled the time by borrowing Angelika's dirndl. Sunday was cold, rainy, and cloudy. So we finished up the itinerary plans and returned to Munich to walk around the Museum of Modern Art - man, modern art is weird! - eat lunch, and then it was time for me to get back on the train and return back to Landstuhl (just in time to catch the Spartan's beat those Buckeye's and win the B1G Tournament! Go Green :) ). 

In the German dress, dancing around, being silly. 

Had to get a picture in front of the Appold crest before leaving to head back home. 

The Oberschleissheim Palace

Castle grounds...see a dreary, rainy Sunday. No real sign of spring yet here in Munich, hopefully this will look much different in a month!

 Thanks for traveling and reading with me. I love you all. xoxo

Luxembourg & Trier

Bonjour mon amie!

This weekend I had originally planned to travel to Madrid, Spain but due to a series of unfortunate events I had to abandon my previous plans, airfare, hotel rooms, etc. Okay, not really so many eventS as much as a single thorn in my side. I am only allowed to travel within a 600 mile radius of Kaiserslautern, Germany before needing to take leave to travel. Unfortunately because I am considered a deployed person I am not authorized to take leave. While it turns out that Madrid is way outside my radius and unfortunately I was not aware of this policy when I made my travel plans. But luckily for me a fellow Air Force physician had this weekend free and was looking for something to do this past weekend as well. Funny story: Laura is actually stationed at Langley but had only started working there for a couple months before she got sent here. So between her short time there and the fact that she works two floors above me in the Internal Medicine clinic, I had never met or even heard of her. It's a small Air Force world I guess. We finally found some places in Europe that neither she or I had seen and headed out Friday for Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and then Trier, Germany.

It was such a fun weekend and I'm so glad it worked out that she happened to have the same weekend free and needed someone to travel with (God is so good!). Rather then type a whole bunch of words and then post a few pictures, I'm going to share more pictures and type with the pictures. We'll see how this goes...

On a side note, I've reached the 90 day mark already! Time is flying by here. I'm so excited for the next couple months and have a few more exciting travels and things to do before I head home stay tuned. For now though, come travel with me to Luxembourg and Trier. :)

Luxembourg doesn't really have a dramatic sky line and there's not really a place to step back and get a view of the city like some of my previous photos. The picture above was a view off to our left as we were walking up Roosevelt Ave into the city center or old town. We arrived in Luxembourg around 5:00 pm on Friday, checked into our hotel and then walked about a 1/4 mile into the heart of Old Town to the main tourist information center. Once got there right before  it closed and got some good information of a self-guided walking tour along with tips on how to take the bus and then the walking path to the a US Military Memorial and Cemetery. We proceeded to walk around the main parts of the City and then tried to locate a restaurant that we had read about in a tour book. We easily found the restaurant but it looked really dark inside and there was no one sitting at the tables. Now, it's very common for European restaurants to be kinda dead around what an American would consider normal eating times but it wasn't that early so we were a little confused. We just figured it was closed, so we quickly ditched that street because every place looked closed and went into one of the main city squares. 

We were pleasantly surprised/dumbfounded to turn the corner and see a very elegant Pizza Hut Bistro and Chi Chi's!! You can't find an open Chi-Chi's in the US so for all y'all who like Chi-Chi's just hop on a plane to Luxembourg to get your fill. It was so bizarre. My blog would not be complete if I didn't have a couple food picture right? We found a great place right next door to Chi Chi's: le Bistro de l'Entracte. It's cut off from the above pictures because I was mainly getting a picture of the American chain restaurants.

 Started out with a nice glass of Syrah and were then treated to an appetizer salad on the house. It was so cool - we had shots of salad! :)

 This was a great pizza. I had Spanish Pizza complete with crispy delicious crust, yummy tomato sauce, salami, peppers, onions, and salad. Yes, I was a little confused about the salad when I ordered it, thinking oh they probably meant spinach but then this was served in front of me. Instead of spinach, I literally had a salad of fresh arugula on top of my pizza and it was SOOOO good. Definitely a new addition to my pizza's.

Coolest pizza cutter/knife ever!

Plus, to make it even better, I got to eat it with the help of this awesome pizza knife. If anyone has any ideas on where to get a set of these let me know. I want some. They are so cool.

After eating we walked around a little bit more of downtown, stopped of at a cool little bar for another drink and then went back to our hotel. We thought with all our walking around the town finding a restaurant and the bar we had pretty much seen most of the city that the walking tour wouldn't really be all that exciting. We were wrong, there was a lot more to the city that we would have missed.









 Luxembourg City has several sections to his town, the portion that we walked around Friday night is set up on top of large old stone wall fortifications. There is a 'valley below this walls for which several bridges connect to the other parts of the city. Because of this it's pretty hilly moving as you navigate over and under walls and bridges and various parts of the city. It's going to be fun running my half there in May! Anyway, our tour started right outside the visitor center. It was a drizzly, cloudy day so my pictures aren't great, but in the main square of course was another wonderful farmer's market full of fresh produce, flowers, cheese, and meat. I want to live in a city that has a big market like this...

In the middle of the square is a statue of William the Second, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. He was a central figure in the history of this country and city. Just outside of this square is the Palace of the Dukes.

The Place

Just a random street in Luxembourg to help you get the idea of what it was like here.

 From the town square we moved out to the outskirts of Old Town, saw a statue and monument to fallen soldiers in WWI and WWII. This monument is topped with the Gelle Fra aka the Golden Women aka Nike the goddess of victory. Who knows if  you'll find this as funny as Laura and I but on the descriptive sign of the memorial, Nike, disappeared one year in the early eighties and then suddenly re-appeared a couple years later. That's it, no words on it just that she disappeared and then reappeared one year. I mean how does a large golden statue suddenly disappear??

These next two pictures are located to the east of the city center and over looks a town/suburb called Grund, Luxembourg. In the distance is the more modern and business part of town and the Kirschburg district. We didn't make it over there. I'll be staying in that area for the race so I will be able to check that part out.

We continued to walk down the street along the bend and came to what our tour pamphlet describes as the most elegant European balcony. It was elegant even on a cloudy, rainy, winter day! I bet it's really nice in the spring/summer/fall when the plants are actively alive.

 So this picture is in the same location but I wanted to get a good angle of what is the Bock Promontory and the Bock Casemates. These casemates are a whole cave and tunnel system created within the walls of the cities original fortifications. They used them as a hiding place and shelter during WWII. How cool is that. The don't open until March, so I missed being able to go in them by just a few days. Again, something I can come back to in May. (For those of you who aren't aware I signed up with a few co-workers to run the cities 1/2 marathon in May; just prior to leaving Europe. Training is currently underway ;) )

 Just to give you an idea of how high up the city walls are! I felt like I was almost in Gondor! hahah :)

So after looking out onto the city from above we wound our way down to the lower city and into the valley. We walked down rue de Large. The next pictures are of a little tunnel/arch just at the top of the street and then a view looking up what we just walked down. 

 This is the Viaduct Bridge, and what we walked over earlier that morning and Friday evening to get into the city and the tourist info center. It is comprised of 24 little arches and was built in I believe the 1860's. I am standing in the Petrusse Valley and about 100 yards away is another set of casemates called the Petrusse Casemates (they weren't open either...)

 This is the New Bridge or Adolphe Bridge (because it is Adophle Street). It was built from 1900-1903. That building in the distance is the same one as the very first picture I have; the bank museum. The WW memorial and Gelle Fra is on the left side of the bridge.

That's Luxembourg in a nutshell. You could see most of the city/highlights in one day as this walk just took us the morning. It was fun; can't wait to come back in the spring to see the plants blooming and hopefully the beautiful sun. 

We were able to catch a bus and take a short trip outside the city to see the US Luxembourg Cemetery and US Memorial. This memorial is home to 5000+ graves of US soldiers including General Patton. I thought it was odd for him to be buried here overseas, but confirmed that he really was buried here (complications from a bad car accident in Germany in 1945). 

Entrance to Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial

Small Chapel just inside entrance

Instagram Filtered photo of just a small sample of the graves. 

In the midst of the cemetery looking back at the chapel.

We left Luxembourg shortly after and headed back to Germany. Once in Trier we quickly found our hotel and then caught a bus to a local winery for a brief tour (in German, supposed to be translated by some of others on the tour who didn't do a good job because they waited so log before translating and forgot a large amount of what she said. It was okay because I have been on other tours and heard the same sort of thing. Germans make wine the same way American's do!) We went into the restaurant next and tried several different Riesling's.

Riesling Rose; surprisingly delicious

 We got back to downtown, hunted down a delicious place to eat and went to bed. I was so hungry that I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of my food. Sorry! On Sunday we got up and explored Trier. This cities claim to fame is that it is the oldest, Roman developed town north of the Alps. We went to the local amphitheater ruins, bath house ruins, and famous Porta Nigra. Afterwards indulging in cool, creamy, luscious gelato (again, so excited to eat it that I didn't bother getting a picture. I'm sure I'll have some of that again though ;) ). 

Oh, I forgot to mention we also walked by the famous churches in Trier. The one on the left is very large and one of the oldest.

Trier Amphitheater. Once home to Roman Gladiator games; it could hold 20,000 people. The stands are no longer present, apparently the Monks took them to build their homes. Crazy monks. 

Looking out the South entrance from the arena floor.

To live or to die? If I were Caesar...of course to live!  

Inside the cellar/basement. It was cold, dark, damp...can't even imagine living down here if you were a gladiator. It would have been miserable!

Stairs up to the arena. Stair way to light and freedom!

This is one of the main entrances into the theater. In July and August, Trier has a big festival in which they reenact Roman customs including events here at the amphitheater. There are horses but no lions...

The Roman Bath house is mostly in ruins. The main entrance is still standing and pictured here.  Back in it's day it stood at 98 feet high, this structure is only 62 feet high. Can you imagine another set of arches on top of that??

This is picture looks out on the rest of the bath house. The entrance structure is looked to the left in this picture. Underneath this field is a large hallway system that you can climb down and walk around in. I'm not sure what was the point of these halls because they don't lead to any rooms or anything. Just off to my left and behind the entrance was a large network of scaffolding and construction equipment. I can only imagine and guess that they are trying to reconstruct the bath house, but who knows?

Looking up at the bath house's grand entrance architecture. 

The infamous Porta Nigra, aka the Black Gate. Sadly no orcs, hobbits, elfs or better yet Aragorn leading men into battle. ;)

Looking down the Main Street into Trier. Our hotel was about 1/4-1/2 mile down the road. Do you see the white awning coming off the building on the right about half way down the street? That my friends is Colchera, home of excellent gelato! 

Looking out of the window of the Gate onto Trier's Cathedral

Trier. 

Inside the Gate, just hanging out. Man...my hair is getting loong.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Happy March 1st day - don't you just feel spring in the air? It's been so beautiful here; mostly sunny in the 50's and I'm seeing buds on the trees during my morning runs. I'm so excited February is over and can't wait for my exciting trips in March and even better April!! Stay tuned. Love you all and missing you like crazy!