Day 4 : July 5 - Back to Munich

Klagenfurt, Austria to Munich Germany ~4hours + 1.5 hours

The day after IM Austria, we headed back to Munich. We were going to go to Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria on the way, but we decided that was too long to drive, which proved ironic later as we had some directional difficulties around Munich and drove just as long as if we had gone to Neuschwanstein! Total bummer.

We grabbed some gas and groceries for breakfast and snacks and we hit the road back to Germany. It was lightly raining for a lot of the drive, so we didn't miss much by being in the car. The drive back was beautiful despite the weather and it really wasn't a bad drive. It was quite a quick 4 hours and then we got all messed up around Munich. The next 1.5 were not pretty. We finally gave up and returned the car to the airport and took the S-bahn (commuter train) into Munich. That was pretty funny since we kept having groups of middle-school aged boys coming on and off and they were lounging on the floor and playing card games. I am a total non-germophobe and even I thought it was a little disgusting! They were having fun though.

Little towns nestled in the mountains

Fog hanging on the mountains

There were castles all along the road

In Germany we saw tons of solar panels on private homes and farms

We checked out the Hauptbahnhof train station so we'd know where to go in the morning and then we walked about 5 minutes to our hotel. It was on a super busy street, but I thought that the hotel itself was very nice, especially considering the price and location. After we got straightened out and cleaned up, we headed out into Munich.

We hit up an internet cafe, got a plug converter for a 3-pronged American plug and then did some sight-seeing. We walked to the Marienplatz, a famous old square in Munich where they have the Altes Rathaus (Old Cityhall) and the Glockenspiel (clock). It has been turned into a shopping area and it was cool to see the stores situated in such old buildings. Even though it was a Monday night, the whole area was very busy. Lots of people were shopping and others were taking pictures and everyone was having fun.

Walking towards Marienplatz

All the old buildings now house shops and cafes

Altes Rathaus

Glockenspiel

After we checked out the Marienplatz, we went around the corner to the Hofbrauhaus, a restaurant recommended to us by some friends who had been to Munich in the past. It is a traditional German beer house and it is most famous for being part of Bavaria's famous Oktoberfest. It seemed very touristy, but worth it nonetheless. We ate on the ground floor where there are long family style tables, so you end up sitting with other parties. We sat with two American women and a young daughter who were visiting Europe with one of the women's French husband and with a young European couple, a Trinidadian guy who lives in the UK and a German girl who studied in the UK. We had beers, of course. Janda got the Hofbrauhus traditional one liter beer and I got a half a liter wheat beer. Janda also got a traditional meal, sausage and sauerkraut and I got spatzle, sort of like a German macaroni and cheese. It was super good, better than American mac and cheese. We hung out there talking for about 3 hours and then headed back to our hotel to try to get some sleep before our early morning train to Paris.

The Hofbrauhaus




Marienplatz at night

Day 3 : July 4 - Ironman Austria

Klagenfurt, Austria

On Ironman Sunday, we got up bright and early to meet Kat and Jeff at the swim at 6:30. Janda hopped out to find them while I parked the car. There were cars parked everywhere, but I was able to snag a spot in the parking lot/field. I caught up with them and Janda and I watched as they did their warmup swims. They pointed out the swim course, Janda gave some last minute advice and then they hit the water for the swim start. It was crazy- everyone is walking slowly into the water and then a canon and fireworks go off to start the swim.

Finishing up the warmup swim

The start!

The Ironman was at a public beach resort, so we were able to grab breakfast from the concession stand and then find a spot to watch the bike out. Somehow even though we watched the whole bike out we managed to miss Kat and Jeff. Janda doesn't have as much experience spectating as I do (I'm practically pro!) and he was worried that something happened and they didn't get on the bike. Since I have missed Janda going by in the past, I figured that we just missed them. Janda was worried, but luckily nothing bad happened and we saw them both at the bike turnaround. After that Janda and I tried to go find some lunch. There wasn't a lot available and what we could find was all meat dishes. Janda had a chicken patty kind of thing and I had a cheeseburger that was totally the wrong color and consistency! While we were eating, it started to pour buckets. Luckily it was short lived and we headed out to the run course.

Jeff at the turnaround

Kat at the turnaround

We found a spot on a little uphill where the runners come under a bridge. B/c it's a double loop course, the runners went by that spot 4 times. After seeing Kat and Jeff go by, we checked out the winner's finish and then looked for another good spot. We found a great spot by the lake and saw Jeff go by. We missed Kat again, and Janda was worried again, but it turned out that Kat was running faster than expected and we missed her b/c we were too late. We jumped in the lake for a dip b/c it was intensely hot and then found a spot closer to the finish. We missed Jeff's finish, but saw/heard Kat's finish and found Jeff. The both did awesome and it was so much fun to watch IM Austria. It was super spectator friendly, with double loop courses, the crowds were crazy and there was a party atmosphere the whole day long!

Anxious coach!


Heading towards the 2nd loop


Running Loop 1 off the bike


Cooling off in the Worthersee


Janda at the Worthersee


Just after Kat's finish

After the finish, Janda and I headed to a little pizza place for dinner and we were in bed way before the midnight fireworks to commemerate the end of IM Austria!

Day 2 : July 3 - Drive to Austria

Munich, Germany to Berchtesgaden, Germany ~ 2 hours

Berchtesgaden, Germany to Klagenfurt, Austria ~3.5 hours

On Day 2, we woke up bright and early and ready to go. We went downstairs to have breakfast and it was a real German buffet- several kinds of meat and cheese, in addition to typical breakfast fare of cereal, eggs and pastries. It was one of the best breakfasts we had on the whole trip and it was only 2.5 euros per person! After breakfast we started on the road to Berchtesgaden, the home of Eagle's Nest and Hitler's mountain retreat.

For the first half of the trip we were on the Autobahn, which is German for highway, where of course, there is no speed limit. I was a bit tentative about driving on the Autobahn b/c the woman at the rental car place at the airport had said that people will go up to 300kph! I don't think that we saw anybody going that fast, but as I was going around 130kph (80mph), we were definitely getting blown by. We then got onto the Deutchesalpenstrasse, which means the road that goes through the German Alps. It was a narrow and winding road that went up and down through the mountains and afforded us all kinds of scenic views.

On the Deustchesalpenstrasse- looks like Heidi!

Berchtesgaden was a quaint town snuggled in a valley at the foot of a chain of mountains. We went up into the town, did a little emailing and then started heading up to Obersalzberg, where Hitler had his summer home and where his associates built him the Eagle's Nest, a feat of engineering on the top of one of the highest peaks above Berchtesgaden. We drove up the steepest and windy-est roads of the day to get to Dokumentation Obersalzberg. There we visited a museum that documents how the terrible events of World War 2 came about. It was built on the footprint of Hitler's summer home (the Berghof) that the American soldiers destroyed at the end of World War 2.

City centre - Berchtesgaden

Dokumentation Obersalzberg - Museum

After we went through the museum in a hurried fashion- Janda had the audio guide (which was 2 hours long!) and me translating what I could, we headed up to the bus station to get our tickets for the bus ride up to the Kehlsteinhaus - Eagle's Nest. We boarded a bus and headed up the mountain road. The buses go up and down in groups of 6 and the road is only 1 bus-width wide, so buses going down have to pull over into a parking spot and let the buses going up go by. Then you get past the tall trees and see that there is no railing, no shoulder, no nothing between the bus and the steep slope down to the bottom of the valley. I honestly couldn't look out the window very much as it felt like I would just fall out of the bus and down the mountain!

We got to the parking area and booked our bus back down. It was very busy up top, so we ended up having to stay almost an hour more than we had planned. In the end it was just as well b/c there was a lot to see. First you walk down a cool, damp tunnel and into a little foyer to wait for an elevator. The elevator goes up through the mountain and brings you right into the middle of Eagle's Nest, which today is a restaurant. They built this elaborate system during the war b/c Hitler was afraid of heights and this way you wouldn't have to see how high you were going. It only partially worked b/c Hitler only visited Eagle's Nest 13 times.

Once out of the elevator, we were free to hike around a bit up top. We didn't go to the actual peak as that looked seriously dangerous, but we went pretty far up the mountain and enjoyed the views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. After traipsing around on the top of the mountain for a while, we headed back down to the bus stop via the footpath. Once we got back to the car, it was time to go to Austria to meet Kat and Jeff for dinner.

Tunnel that leads to elevator

Eagle's nest on Kehlstein Peak

Janda climbing through the rocks as we go higher up the mountain

The view of the valley to the right

The view of the valley to the left

The peak of Kelhstein behind Janda in the distance. Looks like pure rock climbing to me!


Janda and I at the top

Walking down the footpath

We kept going on the backroad that we took into Berchtesgaden and then turned onto the tiniest road imaginable. I actually thought that we were on someone's driveway. We happened upon a car at one time and we had to pull off the road! We finally reached the end of the road, on the other side of the hill, and we realized that we were in Austria! No passport stamp for that one! The road to Klagenfurt was beautiful, with lots of tunnels cut through the mountains, villages up one the mountains and a bridge across the edge of on of the mountains. We didn't make very good time however, b/c there was some sort of accident. At one point the traffic was completely stopped for so long that everyone got out of their cars! After that, I got used to driving with no speed limit and pinned it at 140-150kph to try to make dinner. We would have had a chance except that after all that we got lost on the way to Kat and Jeff's hotel. Or to be more specific, we drove right by it twice before I caught a glimpse of the extremely unique design of the back and realized what we had done. So, no dinner with Kat and Jeff, but we did get to catch up with them before we went to dinner.

Traffic sucks everywhere! Note the tunnel that we're stuck at. We went through about 8 of them on the road to Klagenfurt- the longest one was nearly 5 miles long!

After we left them, we checked into our hotel and then went to downtown Klagenfurt. Even though it was Saturday night, we couldn't find much open and ended up eating at McDonald's! After that we hit the sack since we had to get up early to meet Kat and Jeff at IM Austria.

Day 1 : July 2 - Layover in Dublin, Ireland

Boston to Dublin ~ 5.5 hours
Dublin to Munich ~ 2.5 hours

Janda and I just returned from our European honeymoon yesterday afternoon. We spent time in Ireland, Germany, Austria and France. It was an awesome vacation and we really packed it in and got to see so much, but we both agree- It's great to be home! Here's the recap of what we did.

We left Thursday evening and flew to Dublin on an overnight flight. The transatlantic flights are pretty cool in that you get your own TV screen with movies, games and TV shows. We both watched a movie or two and played some Battleship. Since we were arriving in Dublin at 5:30am local time, we did try to get some sleep, but we had no luck. I think that I got less than a half and hour and that Janda got less than an hour. Before we knew it, the plane had landed and we each had the first stamps in our new passports.

Around 7 we took a bus into Dublin. It was actually pretty crazy b/c it was a double decker bus and we sat right over the driver. Interesting point of view! We drove by the Spire of Dublin on our way into downtown. I have no idea what it's significance is, but it is very modern looking. We got off the bus at 7:30ish and starting walking around. We were totally underdressed for Dublin weather and thus we were a little bit uncomfortable all day, especially when you take into consideration that we had our jam-packed carry-ons with us! Nonetheless, we tried to make the best of it since it was better than sitting in the airport for 12 hours.

We headed towards the tourist area of Dublin, along the river. Once things finally started opening, we got breakfast at a cute little cafe on the river to start our day. This was also the point at which Janda realized that the coffee he was going to be drinking for the next two weeks wasn't quite the coffee that he's used to at home. Two big differences, not as strong- way more milk and not as big- regular coffees were sold in espresso-sized cups!

After breakfast we went across the pedestrian bridge to the other side of the river to do a little sight-seeing. We saw the Temple Bar neighborhood, which was extremely cute with brightly colored buildings and flower boxes in every window. We made it up to Dublin Castle and took a break to hang out in the courtyard and gardens. Next we went to see St. Patrick's Cathedral. After we walked back through the Temple Bar area, we headed over the the Docklands to see the Famine Memorial. After walking around the Docklands, we were both cold and tired, so we went to the train station for a little nap. Then we caught the bus back to the airport and grabbed lunch/dinner at Burger King. Our flight was delayed, but we finally made in to Munich around quarter of 9. We got another stamp on our passport, got our rental car (a cute red VW) and headed to the hotel. We got there with a minimal amount of problems, even though it was dark and settled in for a good night's sleep after only an hour the night before.

Driving by the Spire on our double decker bus

Looking downriver from our breakfast joint

The pedestrian bridge

Temple Bar

Dublin Castle


Janda relaxing in the Dublin Castle gardens

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The Famine Memorial

Fiesta Forever

It was Fiesta weekend in Gloucester and we enjoyed it. We had 3 cook-outs, watched the greasy pole twice, saw most of the fireworks and of course, shared a fried dough!

I totally agree, those announcers are too loud!


Playing on the beach


Falling off the pole

Fireworks

Fiesta

Last night between rain storms I went down to Fiesta. This year the Ferris Wheel is right on the beach, so I wish that it had been a little lighter out to see the view better. We got off just as it started raining again and managed to mostly stay out of the downpour that ensued!

Me on the Ferris wheel

Fiesta with downtown and City Hall in the background

Fried dough, the best part of Fiesta

View of the Ferris wheel while walking back to the car on the Boulevard

Sunsets on the River

It seems like every night we have a spectacular sunset to watch on the river.

Earlier this month after a storm

This weekend

Last moments of sun Sunday night