Germany Summary

After we decided to cancel the Morocco portion of our trip, we had an extra week in Europe (if you don't know why we cancelled Morocco, click here).  So, what to do with that week?  After much discussion, we decided to go north to Germany.  Since the Foxes were headed to Munich after Zermatt, we made reservations at a youth hostel and joined them on the daylong train ride. 

On arrival in Munich (pronounced 'myoon-chin'), we said good bye to the Foxes.  We had no guidebooks nor maps nor any travel knowledge of the city or country, which was a first for us on our round the world trip.  We didn't even know even know how to get to the hostel.  So we did what any self respecting Hawaiian family would do: we stopped for some 'comfort food' at a sushi shop while we figured it out.  We learned that our hostel was about 25 minutes away by subway and then a 10 minute walk after that.  This was fine except that it was pouring rain.  Needless to say, we arrived at the hostel very wet. 

The hostel had been built for the 1972 Olympics, was large and serviceable.  Like Zermatt, it had two bunk beds in the room, with a table and chairs, two sinks and closets.  The toilet and showers were across the hall.  We slept well that night and the next morning stayed in the room to work on journals, scrapbooks and postcards.  There were some travel brochures in the lobby and we found the one from Mike's Bike Tours to be very interesting and funny.  It contained practical information about the city and answered questions like “Why do German’s drink so much beer?”  Based on this, we went out  in the afternoon and booked a tour for the following day.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the Marianplatz area of the city.  While shopping we broke down and bought a German cuckoo clock (and had it shipped home).  Todd claimed that he couldn't help buy it as he had good memories of cuckoo clocks from his childhood.  We had dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus beer garden.  We all ordered different forms of bratwurst or sausage and sauerkraut or mashed potatoes.  Cheryl and Todd made the mistake of ordering their large size of beer - it came in a mug the size of a pitcher - and we could not finish them.

The next day we hooked up with Mike's for a full day tour to Neuschwanstein Castle, which is south of Munich.  This is the castle that Disney used as the inspiration for Cinderella's castle.  It was also featured in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  After two hours on the bus, we met our guide Brad and about of 20 of us hopped on bikes for a ride through the countryside near the castle.  After that we had a lovely lunch (more bratwurst and beer) and hiked though the woods to the castle.  The castle tour itself lasted about an hour and then it was back on the bus for the return trip to Munich.  Mike's had it figured out, showing movies and providing drinks for the way home.  Brad even performed card tricks to keep us entertained at one point during the day, which Lauren and Katie loved.

After such a great day at the castle, we decided to try Mike's Munich city bike tour for the next day.  Despite thunder, lightning and pouring rain we had a fabulous time.  We stopped halfway through the ride to dry off at a beer garden (it was getting to be a pattern) and some of our fellow riders overindulged, which made the ride home very entertaining.  That evening we went to the Hofbrauhaus again (what did I say?) and had another great meal and the smaller size beer.

The next day we worked on the website and journals and did our laundry at the hostel.  We then went to an Internet café until it was time to catch our overnight train to Amsterdam.  We liked Munich and felt like we just scratched the surface in terms of sightseeing and activities.  The bike tours of the city was a great overview and good exercise as well.