Vienna

Whew. That was the craziest day of train travel we've had thus far. We got on a private train that was still covered by our EuroRail pass, but not first class like we are on other trains. We got all settled and had to move. Then we're chugging along and Jackson realizes the train we are on is going to the wrong station in the opposite side of town. Agh! Thankfully, we have wifi. We get on and realize that if we get off at the next stop and wait 12 minutes we'll get on the proper train. We do that and ride for about 20 minutes into Vienna. Then we have to find a local train to get us from that station to the one by our hotel. We managed to do all of this and not bicker a single time. All said and done we spent about 3 hours making a 2.5 hour trip, but such is life! 

Luckily our hotel was right outside of the train station and it had gotten late enough that we were able to check right in. Score! We got cleaned up and then headed into the city. 

We walked all over this city just taking in the beauty of all the old buildings. They are also huge on flowers here and the smells are amazing. 

I read my guidebook but I still don't know what most of the places that we saw are, sadly. We could have done a tour but that isn't our style. 

St. Stephan's Cathedral

A big crowd!

Inside

Amazing.

Another section of the Cathedral

WE FINALLY SAW A SCHNAUZER

Gorgeous streets

Loved this

Fancy.

The horses entering the palace

Palace's courtyard

The view from the palace's "backyard"

A rose garden

Jackson stopping to smell the roses

City Hall! 

I guess weddings here would be fancy!

We loved this church

Ice cream is like a religion here
YUM

Every place here is just a little hectic
Jackson is in that mass buying a bottle
of water!

The view from our room

Jackson lighting up the night

Doesn't this look creepy?!

We got this for Case Mauck.
I cannot wait to see him in it!

We had a nice day seeing the city and will do some additional exploring tomorrow! 

Munich to Salzburg to Berchtesgaden

Do you ever make plans and then later wish you wouldn't have? Us, too. As we prepared for bed on Friday night we looked up the train schedule for the next morning's trip to Prague and saw it was a 6 hour ride. When planning this trip from home 6 hours must not have seemed too daunting. It was, though. We decided (after flipping a coin) to forgo our night in Prague (6 hour train there, 4 hour train to our next destination the very next afternoon) and instead head back to Salzburg to the hotel we loved and hit Berchtesgaden. The ride from Munich to Salzburg was only 1.5 hours and the bus from Salzburg to Berchtesgaden was only 45 minutes. Score! It was decided and we went to bed excited about the next day's adventure. 

Then, around 4 a.m. the loudest alarm you've ever heard went off in our room. Jackson woke up, yelled something unintelligible (making me think there was an intruder in the room) and freaked out. I rolled over, turned on the lights and stared at him. He was already half dressed and headed for the door. I was still recovering from being awakened from a dead sleep thinking there was an intruder. (This is all hilarious to me now!) It was, of course, a fire alarm. After about 7 minutes of it going off we decided that maybe it wasn't fake and we shouldn't just hang in the room. I dressed and we took the stairs from the 5th floor (with a bum knee that was SCREAMING from these efforts) to get outside. It turns out we were the only guests not already outside. Whoops. :) 

4 a.m. fire alarm fun!

German fire trucks look a little different

It was, of course, a false alarm. The whole ordeal took about an hour and was more annoying than anything else. We went back to sleep for a bit longer than we'd planned and then got on the train for Salzburg.

QUIT BEING SO HANDSOME!

We were able to get to the hotel, drop off luggage and get on the bus in about 20 minutes. You'll never understand quite what an accomplishment that is until you've backpacked in Europe. Trust me, it was amazing.

We decided to have a little picnic once we got to Berchtesgaden (which, by the way, is just a lovely German national park tucked along the Austria border which has mountains, rivers, lakes, ice caves, ski runs, you name it) so we stopped at the neighborhood Lidl grocery store (thank goodness Jackson's cousin works for them so we knew what it was!) to get food.

Our visit to Lidl!

The view from our picnic

Mid-bite

We scored buns, ham, cheese, chips and waters for under €6! That's an incredibly inexpensive lunch in these parts! The view was amazing and our food picks hit the spot! Lovely! 

Any dam questions?! :) Get it?!

We then grabbed a final bus into the area of the national park where Lake Königssee was. It was a gorgeous area!


Town.

Cute companion

Jackson exploring

I just love trees.

I cannot deal with all the pretty in this photo.

Petefish.

Lake Königssee 

JACKSON CHEATING ON MACKENZIE!

He is freezing, rocks are cutting his feet and
our backpack just fell in the lake...
SMILE!

Recovering from the previous photo
HA!!!

Lovely.

This view did not get old!

Naturally, Jackson wished to continue hiking.

As you can see, we spent the afternoon hiking around the lake. It was the most beautiful day and the most beautiful place. We would have stayed there forever. 

Bus stop beauty

hand-crafted sign from a German dude

Part of the fun was the bus ride to and from Berchtesgaden. The bus drivers here are such characters and the scenery is just amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed the ride back (sitting in the front seat, of course) to Salzburg. We got to the hotel we loved so much to find we'd been again upgraded to a suite and had chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne awaiting us. Guys, I could get used to this treatment! Ha! :) They'd even placed our luggage in our room already. If you're ever in Salzburg do stay at the Pitter Crowne Plaza. We loved it there! 

We got cleaned up from hiking and headed to town for dinner. The hotel recommended a different area to explore so we headed that way. They knew what they were talking about yet again. It was a lovely area of shops and restaurants we'd not seen before and really enjoyed. 

 

Salzburg's restaurant district

Restaurant district again

I was tired of German food (sausage, schnitzel) so we opted for Italian! It was a great choice. We dined outside and it was lovely minus the couple smoking next to us.

Note: the Europeans have not gotten the memo that smoking is disgusting. I bet 80% of the people here still smoke. They smoke everywhere, too. Only the trains and hotel rooms we've booked are non-smoking. Everything else is seemingly fair game. I swear it has made it nearly impossible for my lungs to heal from this monster Euro cold I caught. 

"pizza bread"

TEA!!! ICE!!!

My iced tea came out with ice and tea and lemons in it. This doesn't seem amazing, but it is. Our entire meal was very good and quite authentic. Jackson's pasta dish was the best tasting pasta I've ever had. The sausage he managed to add didn't impress me, though. ;)

People kept thinking the trip to Austria was our
trip to Australia so this shirt was funny to us!

After dinner we walked through old town again to burn off some of the carbs we'd just consumed. It was cooling off so the streets weren't as crowded. It was lovely.  We finally decided to stroll back to the Pitter for the evening. Since it had cooled down a trip to the sauna sounded nice so we went to the 6th floor sauna overlooking the alps and enjoyed 15 minutes of heat. It was the perfect way to end an absolutely wonderful day. 

As we snuggled into bed Jackson caught the big soccer match everyone here had been excited about and we got to watched the very end. That part was actually worth watching (penalty kicks to win the equivalent of the Super Bowl)! 

Once that was over we were officially exhausted and slept like rocks until about  9 a.m. local time (a really big deal for Jackson who never sleeps in)! 

This morning we have a quick 2.5 hour trip to Vienna (I'm blogging from the train with wifi- hooray!) and then we are there until our flight Tuesday morning! Jackson's elation at finding a McDonald's at our train station this morning was hilarious to me. It was our first visit to the Golden Arches this trip and while it was pricey (around €20), it was good! 

 

Happy meal!

We hope to do some exploring of the city today and possibly go to the mountains outside the city again tomorrow. It kind of depends on the Euro cold. I'm currently that person on a train coughing her lungs up with people looking terrified of catching what she's got! I hate it, but I will not let a nagging cough ruin my European exploring opportunities!! 

Dachau

Thursday night proved to be a long one as the air conditioning in our hotel room went out and I came down with the European monster cold. I'm talking sky high fever and coughs like a smoker of 90 years. It was a looooong night. We had to rearrange our day to accommodate an extra morning nap for me once I'd gotten some medicine and fresh orange juice in my system. 

I'm fruity!

I swear by this juice. We finally got around and headed for Garmisch to get into the mountains. We got to the train only to learn it was canceled due to a tree falling on the tracks! Ugh! Good thing we didn't go earlier or we'd have been trapped in the mountain town overnight without a hotel booked! (Note: our American was showing as we thought "if a tree falls, move it right away" alas the Europeans take their time getting these things accomplished.)

Fancy cab!

Jackson has been amazed at the Mercedes taxis all over the Munich area. 

Once our mountain dreams were dashed, we decided to go to a concentration camp memorial some Facebook friends had suggested we visit. It was a moving, moving place. It was so eery to be in a place that was once a place of certain torture and death. We stood in rooms were people were stripped and shaved and just treated like things instead of fellow humans. We read all about the things that happened in this camp with shock and disgust. Over and over again we wondered how this could have happened.

The entrance no one wanted to see. 

This building is now a museum

The actual intake area.

These trees have seen the best and the absolute worst of mankind.

I was kind of obsessed with the trees. You'll see that in coming photos.

Jackson taking it all in with disgust. 

This ditch was where prisoners went to be purposely shot to end their misery. 

The guard tower 

Where the barracks once stood

Trees.

Info on the trees

Sleeping quarters

A sculpture meant to memorialize all who experience the
horrors of this camp

We left Dachau and headed back to Munich. It was an easy train trip and before long we were back in our room getting ready for a dinner out. 

The walk to dinner proved interesting. We took a little different route than we had previously and the characters around us were sketchy to put it kindly. We didn't feel super safe so it was a very quick .75 mile walk--bum knee and all! 

I get to spend my life with this handsome dude. #Winning

We went to a restaurant that we'd read had the best cordon bleu in the city and we were not let down! Jackson had the original cordon bleu which noted that it was spicy, but didn't mention how spicy. I took one bite and almost died. Imagine a breaded tenderloin stuffed with ham, cheese and spiciest buffalo sauce you've ever eaten. Needless to say, his mouth was on fire! An older German couple seated next to us got such a kick out of him. They kept saying, "look at the American struggle with this schnitzel!!" I was cracking up. I finally convinced him to stop eating it and work on my schnitzel which wasn't spicy! Whew. I knew I'd hear about heartburn later if he didn't quit eating his order soon!! After dinner we took a different, safer route home and called it a night. Something about the walk to the restaurant convinced us that staying in our room was the best option for the evening! Bummer. We will not be returning to Munich until they get some of their issues figured out. It was a dirty city where we just didn't feel safe. Bummer! 

Before and After
(he helped on mine quite a bit!)