Hello everyone!
As we bring our trip to a close ( our flight leaves in 3 hours), we have had a few more adventures!!
Amsterdam was great, and we arrive in Paris on June 11th around dinner time. We had some trouble finding our hostel, then headed to a great vegetarian restaurant for dinner, and went to the Eiffel Tower for the last time.
Yesterday, we went to Normandy after a bit of a mishap with our supposedly planned tour, but it all worked out in the end. Normandy was awesome to see, although there isn't much of a Canadian memorial, and we were surprised to find out that there hadn't been one at all until 2003. After some difficulty getting home ( a bus driver that never stopped at our stop!), we arrived back in Paris and went back to the same vegetarian restaurant, where Rob ordered a plate of "meat" that was surprisingly delicious.
We are just waiting for our shuttle to the airport... We would have taken the metro, except we found out yesterday that the metro is on strike! A lovely surprise for our last day.
Also, our hostel is digusting and dirty. They lock you out from 11am to 5pm, but obviously do zero cleaning.
See you all when we get home!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Bye Bye, Berlin - Allo Amsterdam!
So here we are in lovely Amsterdam, a beautiful city surrounded by canals, a kind of upgrade from Venice!
We arrived here yesterday after a 7 hour train ride from Berlin, which went by surprisingly fast. Our hostel is clean but sort of sketchy, and both the showers (with practically no water pressure) and the breakfast (stale bread with cheese... and the cheese had been sitting out so long that the edges of it had dried out and hardened). Nonetheless, our room is nice. We opted for a private room, since we are at the end of the trip and are getting sick of sharing a room with strangers.
We ventured out for a walk last night to check out the city. We ate dinner at a yummy Chinese restaurant called Wok to Walk (reminded me of the cooking show Wok with Yan), then strolled around a bit. We grabbed a beer at a local bar, then headed in for the night as the long train ride had us tired out!
This morning we woke up early in search of the Amex office, where we were hoping to cash our last traveler's cheques. Unfortuntely, our travel guide lied to us and we could not find the office, but we stumbled upon another exchange rate that took nearly no commission and gave us a good rate.
Then we strolled over to the Anne Frank Huis. I found this to be one of the more emotional Holocaust memorials. We walked through the jam and meat seasoning factory, above which the Frank family hid from the Nazis. We were also able to go behind the bookcase and through the secret door, up to the Annex, which is where Anne and her family lived. It was a little bigger than we were expecting, but by no means was it large or luxurious. It was really strange to walk through their living quarters and see the postcards that Anne had posted on her wall, or to touch the original kitchen counter where they had prepared the little food that their hosts snuck in for them. Perhaps the most striking part was reading the original information cards from the Nazi files. Each family member had their own card, listing personal information and the names of their family members. Displayed in the same frame were the locations and dates of that person's death. In the background, an interview with Anne Frank's best friend describing her last encounters with Anne played. The museum also displayed Anne's original diary, and an interview with her father, the only family member who survived the Holocaust. All in all, it was a great museum and memorial - in my opinion, one of the best we have seen.
Next, we went to the Van Gogh museum, which was AWESOME. We spent a ton of time looking at the evolution of his work from when he first decided to become an artist, all the way up until his suicide. Surprisingly, his art career lasted only 8 years, and over these 8 years his work really changed. It was a fascinating museum.
We just got back from the Rijksmuseum, which was a little underwhelming after seeing Van Gogh's work. It was cool to see some of Rembrandt's pieces, especially some of the more famous ones, but all in all, the Van Gogh museum topped it.
We are about to head over to the Heineken Brewery for a tour, and will spend the rest of the day exploring the city. Tomorrow, we head back to Paris to round out our adventure with a day trip to Normandy.
We arrived here yesterday after a 7 hour train ride from Berlin, which went by surprisingly fast. Our hostel is clean but sort of sketchy, and both the showers (with practically no water pressure) and the breakfast (stale bread with cheese... and the cheese had been sitting out so long that the edges of it had dried out and hardened). Nonetheless, our room is nice. We opted for a private room, since we are at the end of the trip and are getting sick of sharing a room with strangers.
We ventured out for a walk last night to check out the city. We ate dinner at a yummy Chinese restaurant called Wok to Walk (reminded me of the cooking show Wok with Yan), then strolled around a bit. We grabbed a beer at a local bar, then headed in for the night as the long train ride had us tired out!
This morning we woke up early in search of the Amex office, where we were hoping to cash our last traveler's cheques. Unfortuntely, our travel guide lied to us and we could not find the office, but we stumbled upon another exchange rate that took nearly no commission and gave us a good rate.
Then we strolled over to the Anne Frank Huis. I found this to be one of the more emotional Holocaust memorials. We walked through the jam and meat seasoning factory, above which the Frank family hid from the Nazis. We were also able to go behind the bookcase and through the secret door, up to the Annex, which is where Anne and her family lived. It was a little bigger than we were expecting, but by no means was it large or luxurious. It was really strange to walk through their living quarters and see the postcards that Anne had posted on her wall, or to touch the original kitchen counter where they had prepared the little food that their hosts snuck in for them. Perhaps the most striking part was reading the original information cards from the Nazi files. Each family member had their own card, listing personal information and the names of their family members. Displayed in the same frame were the locations and dates of that person's death. In the background, an interview with Anne Frank's best friend describing her last encounters with Anne played. The museum also displayed Anne's original diary, and an interview with her father, the only family member who survived the Holocaust. All in all, it was a great museum and memorial - in my opinion, one of the best we have seen.
Next, we went to the Van Gogh museum, which was AWESOME. We spent a ton of time looking at the evolution of his work from when he first decided to become an artist, all the way up until his suicide. Surprisingly, his art career lasted only 8 years, and over these 8 years his work really changed. It was a fascinating museum.
We just got back from the Rijksmuseum, which was a little underwhelming after seeing Van Gogh's work. It was cool to see some of Rembrandt's pieces, especially some of the more famous ones, but all in all, the Van Gogh museum topped it.
We are about to head over to the Heineken Brewery for a tour, and will spend the rest of the day exploring the city. Tomorrow, we head back to Paris to round out our adventure with a day trip to Normandy.
Monday, June 8, 2009
What´s good for the goose...
We just got back from the Berlin zoo. Kristen got charged and headbutted by an aggressively hungry goat, and I got bitten by a goose. Worst petting zoo ever!
On another note, we spent yesterday wrapping up our historical examination of Berlin. We visited the wall documentation centre at Bernauer Straße, which allowed us to look from a tower over a preserved section of the death strip. We also read about the initial construction of that sector of the wall, made from the front facades from the neghbourhood houses that had been plowed down and/or boarded up.
We spent the afternoon visiting the Holocaust Museum, directly underneath the controversial memorial site. The museum was extremely moving, as it featured individual accounts of the Holocaust as it was happening and those involved began to realize what fate was waiting for them at the end. Some were letters written from transition camps to family members, and others were even postcards thrown from the train on the way to camps like Auschwitz.
We decided last minute not to spend money on the Red Berlin tour today, as many of our tours have been pretty repetitive, which is how we ended up at the zoo! (ps we saw Knut the famous polar bear). Later today we are planning on renting some bikes and taking a ride to Tiergarten and elsewhere around town. We have pretty much done all there is to do in Berlin at this point, so Amsterdam will be a welcome change tomorrow!
On another note, we spent yesterday wrapping up our historical examination of Berlin. We visited the wall documentation centre at Bernauer Straße, which allowed us to look from a tower over a preserved section of the death strip. We also read about the initial construction of that sector of the wall, made from the front facades from the neghbourhood houses that had been plowed down and/or boarded up.
We spent the afternoon visiting the Holocaust Museum, directly underneath the controversial memorial site. The museum was extremely moving, as it featured individual accounts of the Holocaust as it was happening and those involved began to realize what fate was waiting for them at the end. Some were letters written from transition camps to family members, and others were even postcards thrown from the train on the way to camps like Auschwitz.
We decided last minute not to spend money on the Red Berlin tour today, as many of our tours have been pretty repetitive, which is how we ended up at the zoo! (ps we saw Knut the famous polar bear). Later today we are planning on renting some bikes and taking a ride to Tiergarten and elsewhere around town. We have pretty much done all there is to do in Berlin at this point, so Amsterdam will be a welcome change tomorrow!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Third Reich and the Opera
So where did we leave off.....
Yesterday afternoon, Rob and I took a 4 hour walking tour about Germany during the Third Reich, which was fascinating. We learned about Hitler as a child, and eventually were taken to the bunker where he took his own life (now just a gravel parking lot). We saw the monument that the Soviets made to their fallen soldiers, the Tiergarten (originally royal hunting grounds, then wiped out by WW2). We were also taken to the Jewish part of Berlin, the site of the only successful anti Nazi protest. The most interesting part about this protest is that is was led by women who used pots and pans as their weapons!
In the evening, we went to see Angels and Demons. We needed a bit of a break from walking around, plus we thought it would be a neat movie to see after having been to Rome, where the movie was filmed.
This morning, we slept in a bit then headed over to old East Berlin to meet up with Kimi, a friend of mine from Carleton who is in town for her own European adventure!! We spent some time checking out the East Side Gallery, which is the longest remaining stretch of the wall. It is now a sort of outdoor art gallery. The wall has been recently whitewashed, and the artists who had painted the wall originally were invited back to repaint it, so as we were walking we saw some artists painting the wall. The art is really interesting, and we got some really great photos that we will share with you when we get home.
Our last venture of the day was to see the opera, Un Ballo de Maschera, an Italian opera in German. Due to some unforeseen circumstances at dinner, we were a bit late. When we got to our seats and settled in, we quickly realized that we had no idea what was going on. I cannot really describe what was happening on stage, but somehow we got the idea that the play was set at a hotel and there was some sort of love triangle. Additionally, two people were hanged in the lobby of the hotel... We have no idea how or why it happened, and it seems like none of the actors on the stage did either... Needless to say, we had no idea what was going on.
We left after the 2nd act due to the language barriers, but all in all, I really enjoyed the music. I stopped trying to understand the words and just listened to the emotions in the songs. It still did not help me understand the plot, but at least I enjoyed the work of some talented musicians.
We have no tours planned for tomorrow, but we do plan to see the Holocaust Memorial and the Picasso museum.
Yesterday afternoon, Rob and I took a 4 hour walking tour about Germany during the Third Reich, which was fascinating. We learned about Hitler as a child, and eventually were taken to the bunker where he took his own life (now just a gravel parking lot). We saw the monument that the Soviets made to their fallen soldiers, the Tiergarten (originally royal hunting grounds, then wiped out by WW2). We were also taken to the Jewish part of Berlin, the site of the only successful anti Nazi protest. The most interesting part about this protest is that is was led by women who used pots and pans as their weapons!
In the evening, we went to see Angels and Demons. We needed a bit of a break from walking around, plus we thought it would be a neat movie to see after having been to Rome, where the movie was filmed.
This morning, we slept in a bit then headed over to old East Berlin to meet up with Kimi, a friend of mine from Carleton who is in town for her own European adventure!! We spent some time checking out the East Side Gallery, which is the longest remaining stretch of the wall. It is now a sort of outdoor art gallery. The wall has been recently whitewashed, and the artists who had painted the wall originally were invited back to repaint it, so as we were walking we saw some artists painting the wall. The art is really interesting, and we got some really great photos that we will share with you when we get home.
Our last venture of the day was to see the opera, Un Ballo de Maschera, an Italian opera in German. Due to some unforeseen circumstances at dinner, we were a bit late. When we got to our seats and settled in, we quickly realized that we had no idea what was going on. I cannot really describe what was happening on stage, but somehow we got the idea that the play was set at a hotel and there was some sort of love triangle. Additionally, two people were hanged in the lobby of the hotel... We have no idea how or why it happened, and it seems like none of the actors on the stage did either... Needless to say, we had no idea what was going on.
We left after the 2nd act due to the language barriers, but all in all, I really enjoyed the music. I stopped trying to understand the words and just listened to the emotions in the songs. It still did not help me understand the plot, but at least I enjoyed the work of some talented musicians.
We have no tours planned for tomorrow, but we do plan to see the Holocaust Memorial and the Picasso museum.
Friday, June 5, 2009
From Bavaria to Berlin
So this is now our second full day in Berlin, as we took the overnight train from Munich 2 nights ago. It was much more pleasant than our train to Nice, which had also been comfortable, but cramped. Our more expensive train to Berlin was a 2 person couchette (instead of 6) and actually had a really interesting design. It was set up so that 2 normal chairs faced each other, both window seat, behind a curtain. They had the usual writing tables, etc, but when you want to go to sleep, the chairs fold into each other to form one bed, and another folds down from above. Both actually leave you with abut a foot of headroom even sitting up fully in bed, as compared to the train to Nice, where sitting up was simply not an option. We were even offered tea or coffee in the morning, which although a welcome luxury, was certainly not necessary. As a quick aside, that is how all of the couchettes were, we didn´t pay for first class or anything.
Our hostel is modest but very clean and well run, which is fantastic. Although it is not one of the better known in Berlin, it enjoys many hostel awards from over the past 5 years, which is certainly encouraging. They have a games room, tv, xbox, tons of seating, free access to apple computers and internet, and cheap breakfast (1 Euro for 4 slices of toast, which we split between the two of us this morning). They have also been enormously helpful, in particular a German hippie who looks kind of like Mike Myers with dreadlocks. We have already met some people there, which seems to be the theme of Germany in general, where everyone has been extremely friendly and social. On to the fun stuff!!
So for the more interesting part (since i am sure you could care less how good our hostel toast is) we did another New Europe tour through Sandemans, which as you know from our previous posts is a free tour where the guides operate on tips. Generally it is customary to tip 5-10 Euros anyways, but they absolutely earn it, as everyone we have had so far has been a natrual story teller, weaving together the more commonly known pieces of history with other great little yarns (stories) they have dug up. Highlights from yesterday´s tour included the story of how the Berlin wall came down (which as it turns out, was pretty much by accident!)
We also bought tickets to the opera yesterday, as Berlin has an opera house "for the people" that is meant to be affordable. For the two of us, it was only 12 Euro to go see an opera by Verdi this coming Saturday, which we are definitely excited for! We will probably leave early, since it will be in Italian with german subtitles, but a great experience either way!
Today we are doing the New Berlin Third Reich tour, which will absolutely have some repetition after 2 tours in Munch and 1 already in Berlin (we are pretty much experts from the Franco-Prussian War onwards by now) but hopefully it will include a little bit more depth as well. Another quick aside, we are doing a Red Berlin tour Monday, which should be equally as great.
So from two temporary Berliners, Pröst!
Our hostel is modest but very clean and well run, which is fantastic. Although it is not one of the better known in Berlin, it enjoys many hostel awards from over the past 5 years, which is certainly encouraging. They have a games room, tv, xbox, tons of seating, free access to apple computers and internet, and cheap breakfast (1 Euro for 4 slices of toast, which we split between the two of us this morning). They have also been enormously helpful, in particular a German hippie who looks kind of like Mike Myers with dreadlocks. We have already met some people there, which seems to be the theme of Germany in general, where everyone has been extremely friendly and social. On to the fun stuff!!
So for the more interesting part (since i am sure you could care less how good our hostel toast is) we did another New Europe tour through Sandemans, which as you know from our previous posts is a free tour where the guides operate on tips. Generally it is customary to tip 5-10 Euros anyways, but they absolutely earn it, as everyone we have had so far has been a natrual story teller, weaving together the more commonly known pieces of history with other great little yarns (stories) they have dug up. Highlights from yesterday´s tour included the story of how the Berlin wall came down (which as it turns out, was pretty much by accident!)
We also bought tickets to the opera yesterday, as Berlin has an opera house "for the people" that is meant to be affordable. For the two of us, it was only 12 Euro to go see an opera by Verdi this coming Saturday, which we are definitely excited for! We will probably leave early, since it will be in Italian with german subtitles, but a great experience either way!
Today we are doing the New Berlin Third Reich tour, which will absolutely have some repetition after 2 tours in Munch and 1 already in Berlin (we are pretty much experts from the Franco-Prussian War onwards by now) but hopefully it will include a little bit more depth as well. Another quick aside, we are doing a Red Berlin tour Monday, which should be equally as great.
So from two temporary Berliners, Pröst!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Just a few quick notes...
We spent the day yesterday hanging out at the university in Munich... just laying on the grass like the locals. It was pretty awesome!!
In front of the university, there is a memorial to the White Rose group, which was a group of 7 university students and 1 professor. They handed out anti-Nazi posters at the university; however, since opposing the Nazi movement was illegal, the students would secretly scatter the papers in the hallway of the university, with the hopes that the students would see all the paper on the ground and pick it up to check it out. Eventually, a janitor caught one of the White Rose students doing this, and 6 of the 8 people were convicted of treason and publicly beheaded. The memorial honouring this group is amazing. When you walk past a fountain to the university entrance, you see what looks like paper all over the ground. In reality, it is pieces of marble printed with the original White Rose pamphlet information, set into the ground amongst the cobblestone. It is a really unique monument, and definitely one of my favourites. I will post the pics when I get back, or just go ahead and google it.
Then we spent the rest of afternoon laying on the grass at Olympic Park, which is a beautiful part of Munich. We saw some swans in the lake, who growled at me when I didn´t have any food to give them. Stupid swans.
We ate dinner at the world famous Hofbrau Haus. Rob had a baked potato and I had Bavarian roast beef. Sooooo delicious!!
We took the overnight train to Berlin, which was awesome and I slept the whole way. We are about to go on the New Berlin Free Walking Tour (same company that we did the Munich tours with). We will also be doing a tour about Communist Berlin and the Third Reich, which we are both very excited about.
On a side note, we were talking about people we have met along the way who we miss. Rob and I both agree that we miss ´Peanut Butter´the most. Peanut Butter is a little guy, maybe 15 years old, who went canyoning with us in Interlaken. Sort of an Indian version of Steve Urkel, good ol´PB almost managed to almost hurt himself and nearly take out the group and send us down river on numerous occasions. He was full of enthusiasm and awkwardness. PB, this is for you!!! hahahaha!
In front of the university, there is a memorial to the White Rose group, which was a group of 7 university students and 1 professor. They handed out anti-Nazi posters at the university; however, since opposing the Nazi movement was illegal, the students would secretly scatter the papers in the hallway of the university, with the hopes that the students would see all the paper on the ground and pick it up to check it out. Eventually, a janitor caught one of the White Rose students doing this, and 6 of the 8 people were convicted of treason and publicly beheaded. The memorial honouring this group is amazing. When you walk past a fountain to the university entrance, you see what looks like paper all over the ground. In reality, it is pieces of marble printed with the original White Rose pamphlet information, set into the ground amongst the cobblestone. It is a really unique monument, and definitely one of my favourites. I will post the pics when I get back, or just go ahead and google it.
Then we spent the rest of afternoon laying on the grass at Olympic Park, which is a beautiful part of Munich. We saw some swans in the lake, who growled at me when I didn´t have any food to give them. Stupid swans.
We ate dinner at the world famous Hofbrau Haus. Rob had a baked potato and I had Bavarian roast beef. Sooooo delicious!!
We took the overnight train to Berlin, which was awesome and I slept the whole way. We are about to go on the New Berlin Free Walking Tour (same company that we did the Munich tours with). We will also be doing a tour about Communist Berlin and the Third Reich, which we are both very excited about.
On a side note, we were talking about people we have met along the way who we miss. Rob and I both agree that we miss ´Peanut Butter´the most. Peanut Butter is a little guy, maybe 15 years old, who went canyoning with us in Interlaken. Sort of an Indian version of Steve Urkel, good ol´PB almost managed to almost hurt himself and nearly take out the group and send us down river on numerous occasions. He was full of enthusiasm and awkwardness. PB, this is for you!!! hahahaha!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The best and worst (wurst) of Munich
Yesterday was an eventful day for Rob and I!!
We started the day off by taking a guided tour of the Dachau Memorial, formerly a Nazi concentration camp. Our tour guide was the same dude as before, Matt, and again, he did an outstanding job showing us around.
The experience was definitely memorable. Dachau was the longest running Nazi concentration camp, operating for 12 years or the entire period of the Third Reich. In addition, it has 1 of only 4 remaining gas chambers in Germany.
We were able to walk through the barracks where prisoners lived... and suffice to say, it was amazing how many people they would cram into one room. You thought your college dorm room was small - you should take a look at these barracks! Towards the end of WW2, a room the size of a triple garage housed approximately 500 people, if not more. Even after being in the room, it is almost unbelievable that so many people could live in such cramped quarters.
We were also able to walk through the gas chamber, which was the most striking part of the memorial by far. Most of you already know that the Nazis would tell prisoners that they were going to have a shower, when in reality they were being sent to the gas chambers. While we were standing in the gas chamber, our guide told us to look up at the shower heads on the ceiling. The shower heads were not even operational - they were not attached to any pipes or plumbing, rather the shower head was simply mounted into a sort of upside-down bowl in the ceiling.
We were also able to see the original crematoriums used by the Nazis. The saddest part is that they original started with a small crematorium, where approximately 11 000 people were cremated. However, by the height of the war there were too many people to fit into this first crematorium, so a larger one was built.
Our guide was also amazing at pointing out the memorials that were left to honour those who died. The original barracks are no longer there, however cement foundations have been laid in the original places of the barracks, each with a number reflecting the original barrack´s number. This is so family members and friends can return to the exact location of the barrack where their loved ones were imprisoned.
All in all, Dachau was an amazing experience. Sad, scary, and very depressing, but something that I will remember doing for the rest of my life.
On a lighter note, we took a tour of some of Munich´s best beer halls last night. Our group was awesome, and we ended up meeting a girl who went to Laurier and was in Rob´s program, and also a girl who is studying at Carleton (Go Ravens!). The highlight of our night was meeting a guy who is the spitting image of a guy we all know (name not to be disclosed... hahaha). Rob and I will show you the photos later and you can be the judge. But let´s just say, the lookalike was a great sport and even humoured us by imitating the original. Hilarious.
I also ate my first German bratwurst, and it was delicious. Rob sampled a Dunkel beer (dark beer) from the world-reknowned HofBrau Haus, built in 1589. The best part about the tour is that we learned that German beer, by law, can only have 3 ingredients - hops, water, and wheat OR barley. This is why the beer is so amazing! Good times were had by all!
Today we will be visiting the Olympic Park and also the memorial for the anti-Nazi White Rose movement. Tonight we will catch an overnight train to Berlin where we will spend 5 days learning about even more history!
Doug - you will be thrilled to know that we have decided to head back to Normandy at the end of our trip for a tour of Juno Beach. Sadly, we will get there 6 days after the 65th anniversary, but it will still be amazing. Thanks for sending us the tour info!!
We started the day off by taking a guided tour of the Dachau Memorial, formerly a Nazi concentration camp. Our tour guide was the same dude as before, Matt, and again, he did an outstanding job showing us around.
The experience was definitely memorable. Dachau was the longest running Nazi concentration camp, operating for 12 years or the entire period of the Third Reich. In addition, it has 1 of only 4 remaining gas chambers in Germany.
We were able to walk through the barracks where prisoners lived... and suffice to say, it was amazing how many people they would cram into one room. You thought your college dorm room was small - you should take a look at these barracks! Towards the end of WW2, a room the size of a triple garage housed approximately 500 people, if not more. Even after being in the room, it is almost unbelievable that so many people could live in such cramped quarters.
We were also able to walk through the gas chamber, which was the most striking part of the memorial by far. Most of you already know that the Nazis would tell prisoners that they were going to have a shower, when in reality they were being sent to the gas chambers. While we were standing in the gas chamber, our guide told us to look up at the shower heads on the ceiling. The shower heads were not even operational - they were not attached to any pipes or plumbing, rather the shower head was simply mounted into a sort of upside-down bowl in the ceiling.
We were also able to see the original crematoriums used by the Nazis. The saddest part is that they original started with a small crematorium, where approximately 11 000 people were cremated. However, by the height of the war there were too many people to fit into this first crematorium, so a larger one was built.
Our guide was also amazing at pointing out the memorials that were left to honour those who died. The original barracks are no longer there, however cement foundations have been laid in the original places of the barracks, each with a number reflecting the original barrack´s number. This is so family members and friends can return to the exact location of the barrack where their loved ones were imprisoned.
All in all, Dachau was an amazing experience. Sad, scary, and very depressing, but something that I will remember doing for the rest of my life.
On a lighter note, we took a tour of some of Munich´s best beer halls last night. Our group was awesome, and we ended up meeting a girl who went to Laurier and was in Rob´s program, and also a girl who is studying at Carleton (Go Ravens!). The highlight of our night was meeting a guy who is the spitting image of a guy we all know (name not to be disclosed... hahaha). Rob and I will show you the photos later and you can be the judge. But let´s just say, the lookalike was a great sport and even humoured us by imitating the original. Hilarious.
I also ate my first German bratwurst, and it was delicious. Rob sampled a Dunkel beer (dark beer) from the world-reknowned HofBrau Haus, built in 1589. The best part about the tour is that we learned that German beer, by law, can only have 3 ingredients - hops, water, and wheat OR barley. This is why the beer is so amazing! Good times were had by all!
Today we will be visiting the Olympic Park and also the memorial for the anti-Nazi White Rose movement. Tonight we will catch an overnight train to Berlin where we will spend 5 days learning about even more history!
Doug - you will be thrilled to know that we have decided to head back to Normandy at the end of our trip for a tour of Juno Beach. Sadly, we will get there 6 days after the 65th anniversary, but it will still be amazing. Thanks for sending us the tour info!!
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