Bamberg, Germany

I had heard a lot of good things about Bamberg, and the drive isn't too bad (about an hour) so we went there one Saturday in October.  People really rave about this town, and now I know why!

Almost as soon as we got out of the car, we saw this graffiti. I HAD to take a pic.  Months later, the kids were still talking about this!!!  Shhh!  Don't tell my mom!

 Nat looked so cute here and I love the architecture of the building behind her.  Too cute!

A view down Dominkanerstrasse.  The building to the right (in yellowish on the FAR right side) is the Heller-Trum Brewery (Schlenkerla).  It dates back to the 1300s and brewes Rauchbier.  If you've never tried a Rauchbier, you're in for a REAL treat.  Two words:  Smoked. Sausage.  Yes, it's like you're drinking a liquid sausage.  Todd and I (along with our friends Chip and Dara) tried one years ago at the Brickskeller in Washington, DC.  NEVER AGAIN!

This is the beautiful Bamberg Dom (or Cathedral).  I feel like at any given time, half of Europe is under reconstruction.  There's scaffolding everywhere!  This church was completed in the 1200s, and houses the grave of Pope Clement II.  It also houses the marble tomb of King Henry II (later Saint Henry) and his wife, Queen (and later Saint) Cunigunde. 

 And here they are!

This guy is the Bamberger Reiter, or the Bamberg Horseman.  It's thought that he was modeled after Stephen I, a Hungarian King in the 1100s, but no one knows for sure.  To quote wikipedia, "The Nazi's thought he was a knight who symbolized German perfection, looking toward the east for new lands to conquer."  Except that he's not even looking east, so show's you how much those dumb Nazi's know!  Anyway... it was thought to be a pretty strong Nazi propaganda.  

Once we left the Cathedral, and we headed toward the Rathaus, I saw this!  From 1554!  Please do not drink the water.   (What you can't see on the far right is "Kein trinkwasser.")  Apparently the brewers used to get their water from here, because it was much cleaner (at the time) than the water in the nearby river. 

Water control structure!  Water control structure!  I'm SUCH a floodplain management geek.

Me and the hubs in front of the Bamberg Rathaus (Town Hall) which is on an island in the middle of the river).  It was built in the 1300s. Super cool!

As I was walking along the cobblestone streets of Bamberg, I occasionally saw these small little plaques on the ground.  This was only three of a bunch that I saw.  These are known as Stolperstein's and they are all over Europe.  "Hier wohnte" means "here lived."  To date, there have been more than 53,000 Stolperstein's placed in cobblestone streets all over Europe.  

Meet George Jetta!

I got a new car! I got a new car!

Ok, I was admittedly sad to give my beloved Sally Civic to my niece Madison but after 16 years, it was time to finally get myself a new car.  After all, don't I deserve it!?  

Of course, part of the deal to save some money was that I would have to drive up to Bremerhaven to pick it up and drive it back myself.  No easy task, since the drive was about 6 hours long and Bemerhaven is on the North Sea!  I took the train up there early in the morning on Thursday.

 Sorry for the blurriness of all of these photos.  The windows on the train weren't the best.  Fall along a river in Germany.

I just love the German countryside, dotted with little towns.

 

 A vineyard growing on a hill. 

 

 Beer and a sammy.  No one even judges.  It's just a thing here.

It was a sign! Literally and figuratively!  I saw this big VW sign at one of our stops along the way on the way to Bemerhaven.

I had to get off of the big boy trains in Bremen and switch to a local train, but I had a few minutes so I left the station and checked out this cool carnival.  It looked like so much fun!  Too bad I didn't have time to ride any of the rides!

 

There's a ton of paperwork to be done to pick up your car, and I had just traveled many hours to Bremerhaven.  So imagine my panic when the guy at the counter informs me that I don't have power of attorney and I am not authorized to pick up my car!  WTF.  He said he was okay with me picking up the car, but he couldn't be certain about the customs guys I would encounter down the road in my final stop before heading home.  Had to snap a Colleen-George selfie first.  

So I'm very nervous, but trying not to be obviously so.  The two guys seemed to take forever and of course, I don't speak any German so I have no idea what they are saying.  At one point a truck drives up and I hear one of them mutter "Scheisse" (which is um... the bad word for poop) and I start giggling.  (Because of course the only word I can understand in their conversations would be a curse word, right?!)  Thankfully, the guys stamped my paperwork and sent me on my way! I have no idea what I would have done ha ha!

Finally home, safe and sound in his new driveway.  Welcome to the family, George!

Munich - Part II

We had such a fun time in Munich at Oktoberfest, we decided to go back for Columbus Day weekend to explore the area outside of the beer tents. We arrived on Saturday morning, after the approximately two hour drive.

The Germans mean business when they parallel park.  I am not entirely certain how this person got his car wedged in here!  That or these two nitwits in front of and behind him totally blocked him in.  Funniest thing about these pictures?  We came back a few hours later and the car was totally gone.  The other cars, still in the exact spots.

Of course we need to go eat before we do anything.

 What did we order here?  I dunno.  Some beer.  Some meats. Some cheeses.  Probably some pretzels. 

We walked around the English Garden for a bit, and it was pretty empty and pretty cold outside.  So we stopped for some yummy treats.   You can see Grant looks pretty darn cold.  But there was a playground and other kids here and they really had a good time.

And more beer.  Get ready, because over the next few years, you will probably see a LOT of beer pictures!

Me with the Chinese Tower in the background.

The kids made some friends on the playground and we drank giant beers.  I'd say that was a good day.

Then we walked down by the stream, which is a tributary to the Isar River.  These clowns wanted to be silly!

This was an interesting sign that I saw on one of the businesses in Munich.  There's been a mass exodus of refugees from places like Syria and Iraq and Germany has mostly welcomed them with open arms, including the government.  I have a feeling that will change at some point, of course, but for now, this made me feel good to live in a welcoming country.

The tower at the Deutsches Museum, where we were heading for a little science and technology.

Natalie loves weather like her mommy, and we found this cool weather station outside of the museum!

A certain little boy was STOKED to go into a section of a Lufthansa jet that was in the museum!

There was a fun little children's play area, and Grant had fun climbing on this fire truck.

Then I made him look cute in a guitar.

From there, we went to the world famous Rathaus Glockenspiel on the Marianplatz. The top half of the Glockenspiel tells the story of the marriage of Duke Wilhelm the Fifth (you know, that guy who founded the Hofbrauhaus!)  The bottom half shows a famous dance that was thought to have brought life back to Munich after a terrible plague.

We timed it right and we were able to see the Glockenspiel dances!  The kids thought this was cool.  I think anything is cool that makes them stop fighting for 10-15 minutes.

Here they are, in all their glory.

Afterwards, we went over just off the Marienplatz to the St. Peter's Church.  They house the skeleton of St. Mundita, which was really weird.  But the church itself was really pretty and light.

There's a tower you can climb for a small fee with nice views of Munich!  I think the kids (ie: Natalie) wanted to die. So. Many. Stairs.

Next stop, the world famous Hofbrauhaus!  Yippee!

We were seated with some people from Alaska, ha ha.  They were a lot of fun and we ate and drank with them.  The band walks around and plays for the tables and the kids loved that.

Mmmmmm.  More beer.  It will be amazing if I remember any of the next five years.

HB!  The original!

These are my kids, ages 5 and 8, singing and dancing at the Hofbrahaus in Munich.  Cause we take our kids to the Hofbrahaus.  Scoring points right and left over here.

After our lovely dinner, Todd and the kids headed home and I met up with my friend from Auburn, my sorority sister Carla!  So fun that she was in Munich too.  We had the best time, and even met up with some football players (they wouldn't admit that though ha ha) from the States!  It was nice to have a bourbon drinking buddy for the evening!

The next morning, we ventured out to the Olympic park area.  The Olympic were held in 1972, and were famous for the Munich Massacre where 11 Israeli Olympic atheletes were murdered.  It's interesting because this whole area, to me, is SO Cold War.  Lots of concrete, not a lot of character. 

The kids at the top of the Olympic Tower.  Please note that I am nowhere near the railing there, as my fear of heights had me somewhat paralyzed.

Natalie thought it was crazy that we could all write on this wall. 

They're running out of space on the wall here, so thank goodness Todd is tall enough to do some atmospheric graffiti. 

Happy second birthday to my niece Greta!  I graffitied Munich's Olympic tower for her. Cause I love her THAT much!

A little boy hanging out with a duck at the Olympic Sea.

So there are a ton of squares with handprints of famous people and who did I happen to find among them?  My all time favorite band (read: I'm totally obsessed), R.E.M!  I posted a pic of this on Twitter and tagged Mike Mills and he RETWEETED IT!  I was so excited!  I'm such a music nerd!