The incredible Rhine Valley, Rothenburg and Munich

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Hello Family and Friends!

We have loved getting your e-mails, we are glad to know people are reading our travel journal. You'll all be glad to hear that nobody has tried to kill themselves on our trains over the last two weeks :) I guess Germans are more upbeat than Belgians.

We started our German adventure in Cologne (K -- ln) two weeks ago. It was the starting point for our ferry boat ride down the Rhine... or I should say up the Rhine, since it flows from Switzerland to the North Sea. It took me a while to get used to that since in America it seems all rivers flow from North to South. Not to be free advertisment, but I think that was the best week we have had on our trip yet. We passed through many beautiful scenes, vineyards and castles on every cliff. It was so wonderful. We could get off the boat and back on as many times as we wished with the purchase of one ticket. We would have loved to spend a month doing this, but we have a schedule to keep!

All the towns we spent the night at were extremely small, with only a few streets in total, and they were all really charming with cute town centers and pubs. Every window has a huge abundance of brightly colored flowers and the houses are all at least 300 to 400 years old. If anyone wants to have details on our locations each night, we stayed in B\228d Honningen, St. Goar, Braubach, and lastly Bacharach. Each town was set up in a similar fashion, the town streets began on the river banks then a steep cliff rose behind the town to where the prominent castle stood proudly. Among the castles we visited were Marksburg Castle and Rheinfels Castle. We enjoyed exploring the ruins of the castle, there were many long and narrow dark passageways that we could easily get lost in. We saw a theatrical performance in Rheinfels castle, it was a story about the history of the castle... but it was all in German. We had no idea what anyone was saying or singing, but it was all very entertaining. We tried to laugh when everyone else did so we didn't look stupid. One exciting part of the performance was a simulation of a castle seige. They shot fireworks and started to run around like crazy yelling 'Schnell! Schnell!' (Fast! Fast!) They made the crowd try to run for cover. I think the fireworks crew got a little careless, because one stray firework impaled a lady in the chest. It looks like she only had minor burns, but- ouch! Glad she blocked Andy and I by a few feet.

In Bacharach we actually got to stay IN a castle since the Burg Stohfels was converted into a Youth Hostel. The hike to get up about 400 stairs in the mid-day sun with our 30 pound packs was almost enough to make us just roll back down the hill and pay for a hotel, but we made it sweaty and out of breath. While we waited for our rooms to be ready, we were amused at all the other sweaty and exhausted backpackers that also made the incredibly grueling trek. We met a couple of really fun Aussies named Bill and Lina, who we explored the town with, and later closed down the bar at the hostel together.

After the Rhine we went to Rothenburg, which is just a perfect German medieval town. It was partially destroyed in WWII, but the Americans decided not to level it because of it's beauty and history. It has a huge stone wall which encircles the town, you can still walk on most of it. We had a fun time touring the town with the Night Watchman, he provided lots of stories and history for the bargain price of 4 Euros. We really loved Rothenburg, it is a MUST for any German trip even if it is a little touristy.

After Rothenburg we went to stay with a German woman, Daniela, that we had met while traveling in Ireland. Danni had insisted that we stay with her and her parents while we are in Germany. The town they lived in is near N\252remburg, it is called Neunkirchen am Brand. It was a tiny little town, it was a nice place to relax for a few days. She was so excited to have us as visitors, she went all out to make us comfortable. On our second day there it was my birthday, so she got up early to make me a cake. It was really, really good. Lots of calories, just like a good birthday cake should be. While there we visited the ruins of an old German fort, and we went to N\252remburg to have a look around at Hitler's old stomping grounds(Literally!). Many of those huge rallies and marches that you see in photos were taken in N\252remburg. We also walked by the courthouse which tried the Nazi war crimminals. We couldn't get in since it is still used as a court of law during the week. After three days with Danni, we bid a sad farewell and hopped on a train to Munich.

The train ride to Munich left us furious and me in tears because the young and inexperienced train conductor stamped our Eurail passes wrong and effectively made them completely invalid. If anyone has used a Eurail pass, you know that there are very strict rules to follow. They can NOT look tampered with or wrong in any way or they can be torn up. Well, this idiot stamped it wrong and when we were panic stricken and pleading with him to fix it, he scribbled all over it and stamped it again!! This pass cost us over $800 and we had just barely begun to use it. We sweated out the rest of our train ride in a deep depression thinking that we just lost a lot of money. Our only hope was in Munich where we (teary eyed) went up to the train ticket counter and showed the German Eurail worker our messed up passes. He took one look and laughed at what had happened and he immediately corrected the problem by giving us a new pass. Whew! We learned another valuable lesson and we will make sure that future train employees understand the correct way to stamp these passes.

Anyway... on to Munich. I had been here once before in 1998 with my good friend Valerie, so I was looking forward to revisiting a few of my favorite spots. It is such a wonderful town, with shops, cafes and bars everywhere! We spent one day to go to Dachau, one of the most infamous concentration camps in Germany. A few things have changed since I was there last, so it was good to go back and refresh. This time there were audio guides that explained a lot of personal histories of survivors and the bunker was open to the public. This was the most feared place of punishment and solitary confinement, usually those who were sent there didn't make it out.

No visit is complete without a visit to the most famous Beer Hall in the world- the Hofbra\252haus! The first night we were there we shared a both with 5 middle aged German men that had one similar goal: to get completely wasted. Only one spoke any English so there wasn't a lot of conversation at our table. But in the Hofbra\252haus, you don't need to talk much. You just need to clink your huge steins of beer- shout 'Prost!' and chug down the frothy beer. I swear that the same polka bands is there playing the same 5 songs as when I saw them in 1998. They love to play John Denver, 'Country Road, Take Me Home.' The second night we splurged to see the classic Bavarian performance on the third floor. The room was filled with mostly Japanese and Italian group tours, I don't think there was a single German (other than the performers)in the room. At one point I got picked by a performer to go up on stage and dance with ribbons and a Maypole. It was a lot of fun, too bad Andy didn't have the camera with him :)

Today we toured the Royal Residence in Munich, the palace of the Bavarian lineage of Royalty since the 1200's. It was gorgeous with all the richly decorated rooms and grand hallways. I think we liked this Palace even more than Versailles. In 1944-1945 this palace got a lot of damage from Allied bombs, but they have managed to reconstruct the huge building to its former beauty. These crown jewels were quite exceptional too. I would have loved to leave nose prints on the glass that separated me from 1000's of diamonds, but the windows were pressure-sensitive and I was worried about setting off the touchy alarm system.

Well, we were planning to go to Prague next, but I am sure you have all heard that E. Germany and the Czech Republic have suffered huge floods over the past two weeks. We have decided to re-route our E. Europe trip and start in Austria and work our way north to Poland. We are going to skip Prague entirely because it will take them months to recover. We are really disappointed, but we can always make another trip there someday!

Our next stop is Berchesgarten, the vacation home of Hitler located on the German-Austrian border near Salzburg. Then on to Salzburg and Vienna! I can't wait to sing 'The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music' while spinning on a mountain top in Austria!!

By the way... there isn't a CD Rom drive here so we will have to wait a while until we can put some photos up for you.