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  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 28

    Auer Dult

    October 16, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    This was our last day in Munich. It was very chilly but we still enjoyed the city. The first pic is of one of the old gateways into the city. As you walk through, you enter the pedestrian shopping area which is about 3/4 of a mile long. It’s actually been disappointing to see that Germany is losing its uniqueness and you see American stores and things everywhere.
    Pic 2 is a fun view of the Frauenkirche that I showed you yesterday. Pic 3 is of the Bavarian courthouse.
    In the afternoon we went to the Auer Dult. It’s a housewares market and also a carnival for the kids. It takes place 3 times a year. I remember going there so was excited when I saw an ad for it! The rest of the pics are from there. As you can see, they sell everything imaginable. It was fun just to wander around.
    Our month long vacation has come to an end. Thanks for hanging in there with me as I journaled our travels. It’s been a good mixture of memories, vacation and seeing special family and friends. But I must admit, now we are ready to come home!!

    Highlight of the day: one more day in Munich!    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 27

    Downtown Munich

    October 15, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    In Munich we got around with public transportation. A bus right outside our Airbnb took us to a nearby underground station and we took the “UBahn” into town. The first pic is of the long, steep escalator you take to get out of the UBahn station downtown and a pic of the train (pic2).
    As you step out of the station into the center of town you immediately see the New Rathaus, the new town hall(pic 3). A closeup shows you basically the big music box that moves and the characters dance, every hour. (Pic 4). A huge tourist attraction. Then if you turn around you’ll see pic 5, the Old Rathaus.
    Pic 6 is the opera house, pic 7 is the Frauenkirche. It’s the church with 2 towers in the background. It’s hard to get a clear pic of it because it’s in the middle of town.
    Pics 8 & 9 are a couple things you’ll see as you walk around.
    Pics 10-16 are my favorite church in Munich! Theatinerkirche! Last time I visited it was covered in scaffolding because they were renovating the outside. It was so fun to see it uncovered! It was built from 1663-1690 and was a gesture of thanks for the birth of the long awaited child who was heir to the Bavarian crown. It’s built in the baroque style and is heavily ornamented but, because it is all white inside, it’s not so overwhelming like a lot of European churches. I think that’s why I like it. It’s a calming breath of fresh air to sit inside, and take in the beauty of the church.
    In the evening we were invited to a concert with our friend Dagmar. (Pic 17)The concert was in a concert hall of a castle in the middle of town (pic 18). We listened to Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem. I’m not normally a classical music fan but it was wonderful as the music filled the hall. One of the choirs was on both sides of the balcony, trumpets sounded from the balcony and onstage was a second choir, full orchestra and 4 soloists. Afterwards we went to a Weinkellar nearby for a glass of wine and some cheese to snack on before we had to say goodbye to our friend.

    Highlight of the day: seeing the Theatinerkirche    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 26

    Muenchen

    October 14, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    This morning we drove from Davor’s sister’s home to Munich, our 6th and final stop of our vacation!
    Munich holds a special place in our hearts because 2 weeks after we got married, we moved here so Davor could finish his master’s degree at the Technical University. We lived here for 1 1/2 years.
    As you drive into town you see the 1972 Olympic grounds. I still think it’s an interesting structure (pic 1). Then we drove by our first apartment. The building still looked good after 44 years! We were on the 9th floor of this high rise. (Pics 2&3) Our first Christmas we had a “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree! It got so dry that we didn’t want to carry it down the hallway and into the elevator to take it to the garbage. Needles would have been everywhere! Our solution… late at night, we made sure no one was walking by, and we threw it from the balcony to the ground. Then we hurried down to pick it up!
    We’ve been getting tired of the German food so today we found a wonderful Italian restaurant. It was yummy (pic 4)!!
    Then we drove by Schloss Nymphenburg. We used to ride our bikes behind the Schloss in the gardens and there was a shepherd there with his sheep. (Pic 5)
    For dinner we visited a dear friend, Dagmar. She worked with the YFU program and helped to pick
    Davor to come to the US as an exchange student!
    (Pic 6) As they say… the rest is history!

    Highlight of the day: Being in Muenchen!!!!    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 25

    Walhalla

    October 13, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Davor started the day by helping his sister pick quitten from the tree in her garden. He had to use a long pole that had a claw and basket attached to it. The claw to pick the quitten and then it was supposed to be caught in the basket. (Pic 1)That didn’t often happen and they would fall to the ground, but they are big, and hard so you had to be careful not to get hit!! (Pic 2) “Quitten” are quince and Davor’s sister makes jelly out of them but mixes in other fruit.
    Then we went to the Walhalla, the German Hall of Fame and honors distinguished people in German history. It is modeled on the Parthenon in Athens.
    As you can see in pic 3 the Walhalla was built high above the Danube River (pics 4-6). Crown Prince Ludwig 1 of Bavaria conceived the idea of the Walhalla in 1807 (pic 7). Pics 8-11 are of the inside of the Walhalla, there are about 100 busts of famous Germans and they are still adding more.
    Pic 12 is in memory of those who stood up against the injustice, violence and terror of the Nazi era.
    We enjoyed lunch in a nearby restaurant with a nice garden (pic 13).
    We visited Davor’s mom a third time. (Pic 14)

    Highlight of the day: the view of the Danube River from the Walhalla.    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 24

    Life in Germany

    October 12, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    It’s been a lazy, dreary day. We thought it was gonna get sunny and warm in the afternoon but it didn’t. We did our wash in the morning and went out for Kaffeezeit, coffee and dessert, in the afternoon. (The attached pic!)
    We have been in Germany for for about 10 days now. We’ve only been speaking German even tho everyone we’ve visited knows English. It’s been fun for me to see how quickly I was able to jump into German. I always say I can speak it fluently, but not grammatically correct! I’m even dreaming in German now! Sometimes Davor and I have trouble remembering some words in English!
    In a German home, you always close the doors to the rooms. I always feel like saying, “ And behind door nr 2 is… the bathroom! And behind door nr 3 is…your bedroom!” Also they don’t heat all the rooms so I feel like I’ve been cold a lot! Most people only have a washer and they hang their clothes to dry. Bath towels are stiff!!
    In some ways Germans seem more advanced than us, you pay with Apple Pay everywhere, cash isn’t so common. But yet we’ve only experienced self checkout at one grocery store and you can’t pay for gas at the pump, you have to go inside.
    Germans are very good, polite drivers and they
    follow all the rules. They don’t run a yellow light. Sometimes on the autobahn there is no speed limit but everyone knows to only use the left lane for passing. It’s been really fun for me to observe all of this. We have driven as fast as 100 mph on the autobahn!
    It’s been fun to step into a different culture, but yet be very familiar with it too!!    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 23

    Special German experiences

    October 11, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Davor and spent a few hours walking around the old town, enjoying the historic buildings and doing a little shopping. In Europe you have to learn to always look up! You never know what treasures you’ll find. Pics 1-7 are some of them! Mid afternoon we sat down at a little cafe for coffee and had a view of city hall (pic 8). I was excited to find my favorite bakery item at this cafe. It’s called “mandelhoernchen”. It is in the shape of a horn and has marzipan inside and almonds on the outside.
    We went back to Maja & Erhard’s and then the 4 of us went out for a fun dinner. We went to a neighboring village and ate at the restaurant for the locals, Landgastof Geser. We walked in and it was their monthly night for pop up music! Several people(including the owner), played accordion, there was a bass and a tuba. What you would call typical German beer hall music played the whole evening! What a fun atmosphere.
    I wish I had known how special the next thing that happened was and I would have taken a picture… they brought out a wooden keg(unusual these days), a man put on an apron and several stood by and he hammered the tap into the keg! Beer splattered! We were nearby but didn’t get wet! Then about 6 employees held out glasses as they tapped out all the foam from the keg, it took awhile! Finally the beer flowed and they emptied the keg into glasses. It was a special beer called bock which is a really dark beer. They only tap it once a year, usually in October. Because Maja and Erhard are regulars at this Gasthof, the owner knows them. We were lucky and he gave us each a glass of this special beer and then sat down and talked to us! The last pic is of my Wiener schnitzel with bratkartoffeln! What a fun evening!

    Highlight of the day: seeing a beer keg tapped    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 22

    Regensburg

    October 10, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    We spent the day wandering around downtown Regensburg. Regensburg is a well preserved medieval town. Erhard is very into history so he is quite the tour guide!
    Regensburg is well known for the Stone Bridge built in the 12th century (pic 1) Pic 2 is the archway at one end of the bridge leading into the old town. Pic 3 is an old wurst restaurant nearby, along the Danube River.
    We didn’t eat there, but instead crossed the stone bridge and had a wonderful lunch in a beer garden (pics 4-6). We’ve been fortunate and have been able to eat more than half of our meals outside, often in beer gardens! Pic 7 is the view we had from the beer garden looking across the Danube at the old town.
    Pic 8 is of Porta Praetoria, these are stone remnants of a former gateway built in 179 AD and once leading into a Roman military camp.
    Pics 9-13 are of St Peters Cathedral, also known as Regensburger Dom, rebuilt in 1273 in high gothic style. It was built the same time as Notre Dame in Paris. The organ was added later, in pic 13 you can see that it is suspended from the ceiling!
    We ended the day with a visit with our niece, Bettina and her kids, Marlene and Benjamin. We played mini golf and then had pizza together!

    Highlight of the day: mini golf with Bettina, Marlene and Benjamin    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 21

    A Visit with Mutti

    October 9, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    It was a dreary day so we didn’t do a whole lot. The first 5 pics are of Maja and Erhard’s home and garden.
    In the afternoon we visited Davor’s mom. She is
    89 yrs old and lives in an assisted living apartment.
    She hadn’t seen Davor for 6 years and the tears flowed when she saw him. We were pleasantly surprised that she looked so good. We had a nice visit showing her photos of our family and catching up. (Pics 6-8)

    Highlight of the day: a nice visit with Davor’s mom, “Mutti”    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    1
    Day 20

    Alteglofsheim

    October 8, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We arrived at Davor’s sister, Maja’s home last evening. They live in Alteglofsheim, a suburb of Regensburg. We were warmly greeted by Maja and her husband, Erhard. We hadn’t seen them in 6 years so Maja was VERY excited to see her brother.
    This morning a wonderful, typical German breakfast greeted us, pic #1. We had a relaxed, “gemuetlich” breakfast with Maja & Erhard.
    Today was Election Day here(always on Sundays) so Davor went with Erhard to vote and then they visited a sale for used hobby trains (Erhard’s hobby). It was a cloudy and cool day so Maja and I stayed home and visited.
    Around 4 we all went to a cafe for “Kaffeezeit”, coffee time, which also includes dessert! Pics 2 and 3 are of the garden behind the cafe where we enjoyed our warm drinks and cake (pics 4&5). I had a raspberry torte, it was yummy!
    On the way home we drove by a nearby castle,
    pic 7.

    Highlight of the day: German breakfast!    Read more

  • 2023 Croatia/Germany
    Day 19

    Nuremberg

    October 7, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Today we drove to Nuremberg. The first pic is of the train station. We then visited the Nazi Party Rally grounds where the military would parade in front of Hitler. It’s been very interesting to see how the German people openly discuss the Nazi time period and want to be sure that people understand it, so something so horrible never happens again.
    I really wanted to visit the courtroom where the Nuremberg trials took place. We had an English speaking guide who really helped us understand how the trials happened. Pic 2 is of the courthouse. This courthouse was chosen because it was in the American sector of Germany and it was one of the few courthouses still standing after the war. Nuremberg was heavily bombed but because the courthouse wasn’t in the middle of the city, it escaped. The last reason Nuremberg was chosen for the trials was because a jail was attached to the courthouse. They didn’t want to transport the 23 defendants and maybe have them escape. They had to walk from the jail directly to the courtroom. Pic 6 is of the inside of the courtroom. It isn’t very big. There were 23 defendants, each with 2 attorneys, there were translators, stenographers, reporters, people filming the whole trial, 2 judges from each of the 4 allied countries, Russia, England, France and the US and the prosecutor was from the US Supreme Court. During the first meeting of the judges, the Russians said, “They’re all guilty, let’s just kill them”. The English and French agreed but the American judges said, “No, we have to look at the evidence and hold a trial”. The trial lasted 11 months. 12 defendants were found guilty and were hanged shortly thereafter. 7 went to prison, 3 were found not guilty but when tried in the German courts they were found guilty, and one committed suicide with a cyanide pill his attorney gave him.
    After the courthouse we needed to do something “lighter” so we went to an area of town that has a lot of crafts. Pic 3 is of the entrance into the old town where these shops were. Pic 4 is of the area. Pic 5 is lunchtime! 6 little bratwurst, and potato salad. Simple but yummy. At the end of the day Olivia caught a train back to Bayreuth and Davor and I continued our trip to the Regensburg area to visit his sister and brother in law.

    Highlight of the day: Visiting courtroom 600 where the Nuremberg Trials took place    Read more

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