As I learned, but did not know before our trip, Venice is known as Venezia in Italy. This is something I don't understand. Why does the entire world not use the same names for places. Where did the word Germany or German come from and why can't everyone around the globe call this country I am living in Deutschland where they speak Deutsch? I just don't get it.
While in Venezia we did a lot of walking around. Neither of us are that into doing the typical tourist routes by going to museum after museum followed by churches and paying way to much for admissions to everything. We figure seeing things from the outside is good enough and just being there and trying to embrace the area is what means the most to us. And to use our money instead to eat our way through where we are as I think you might have gathered from my last post we did. And it was great!
On Wednesday when we headed out we just started walking. We didn't know where, we just went. It turned out where we were staying was close to Rialto where the famous Rialto bridge is. If you have already looked at Ryan's blog (or if not your should ryanforbes.blogspot.com) the time lapse photo he posted was when we were standing on the Rialto Bridge Wednesday night. We stumbled upon the market area with many vendors selling fresh fruit and veggies and then another area with lots of seafood vendors. Oh how I wish I lived in Venice for the day and could buy all these wonderful things to take home and prepare a scrumptious meal.
From Rialto we took a waterbus to the outer island of Murano. Murano is known for their blown glass and as soon as we got off the bus there were people pointing us in the direction of a glass studio offering a free demonstration. Of course these people's real goal was to get us to visit their shop and purchase their glass. Ryan and I listened to the short spiel saw the glass artists at work walked through the store and left. During our time on Murano we saw more glass than I've ever seen in my entire life. Store after store after store packed full of very beautiful pieces, but everything was extremely expensive. We did not bring any home with us. We also went into a church while we were here. Venice has churches everywhere. Actually all of Europe has churches everywhere. I personally do not like when they charge admission to enter a church. I believe God's house should be free for anyone to enter no matter if they are coming in to worship the Lord or to admire the history or art within the walls. I have no problem donating, but I don't want a house of God to become one more place on a map that you have to pay to go inside. What I was going to say about the church on Murano and really every church is that I love being inside a building where I know people have been worshiping the same God that I do for hundreds of years. Walking on the same stone tiles on the floor. Looking to the ceiling and often seeing masterpieces displayed above our head. I honestly have not gotten tired of walking into churches everywhere we have been because each time feels like a spiritual experience for me and I hope during the time I am here each I will continue to feel the spirit in each one I come across.
From Murano we headed to San Marco which is where the Piazza is along with the Bascillica of St. Marco and the Bell Tower. Although it would have been cool we did not want to pay the 8 euro to go up the bell tower (next time maybe). We did walk through the Bascillica which was quite a sight. The Piazza is just an open square. This is the area where Ryan posted a picture covered with water. That photo is from the Thursday morning when the water came up from high tide and everyone walked on the raised walk ways. While we were around San Marcon on Wednesday we had wondered what the platforms all over were for, but though maybe they were left from the Carnival festivities a few weeks ago because during the day they aren't all hooked together. We loved looking at all the art that vendors displayed along the waterfront each depicting Venice in their own ways using various mediums. It was wonderful.
We spent a long time trying to find the location of a film that was supposed to educate us on the history of Venice. When we finally found it we learned that instead of being every hour as the flier we had advertised they only were playing it at 6. And that did not fit our plan for dinner. So now we will just need to research on our own. Which we have yet to do. At this point we headed back to get ready for dinner, but on our way we stumbled upon the venue of the concerts and opera we had been handed fliers for. This is when we decided we wanted to come back at 8:30 for the Vivaldi Four Seasons concert, but as I mentioned did not make it because dinner was so long. But that is okay because if I did not emphasize enough before dinner was SO good!
And I believe that brings me to the end of our day. I want to share about Thursday because it includes my favorite part of the whole trip, but I need to do so in a new post because I need to get to bed so I have energy for cleaning rooms tomorrow. I promise I will keep writing though. Hopefully this gives people something to read in the mean time.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Venice
Surprise! Ryan and I went to Venice on our weekend (reminder: that is Wednesday and Thursday). It felt like it was too long since we had traveled and began discussing where we could go. Venice was a last minute decision. We did the little bit of planning that we did on Monday night and left directly from work on Tuesday. Tuesday turned out to be a short day for each of us at work and we were on the road out of town a little before 3. Venice is five hours away, so we looked at it just like when we would drive from Oregon to Bellingham for a weekend. It was so great to get out of the mountains, but the drive through them was beautiful. We saw probably more castles than I could count on both hands up on cliffs along the road. We also saw oh so many vineyards. But these vines had been here for much longer than the the oldest I've seen in Oregon. They looked like tree trunks they were so thick.
Parking on Venice (an island for those who may not know) is very expensive, so we parked in Mestre and took the 7 minute train ride onto Venice. When we arrived and walked out of the train station what we saw was a truly spectacular view. In front of us was the grand canal lit up with the passing of boats and a couple very nice and I'm sure expensive hotels across the water. It was the most perfect "welcome to Venice" I could ever imagine receiving and made me so glad we arrived at night. Although I've also decided arriving places at night can make things more difficult and confusing, but it just adds to the adventure.
We bought "Rolling Venice" cards which got us unlimited water bus transportation for up to three days. That was great and ended up saving us a lot of money. Everything in Venice is a boat. The buses are boats, the taxis are boats, the police vehicles are boats, even the ambulances are boats. It was awesome! It was so wonderful to finally be near water all the time. Ryan and I have both missed water since being in Garmisch. I could totally see Ryan living in Venice with a boat and driving all over the canals with it.
I am not sure how to break up our trip. I feel like I could do it in so many different ways. I think for now I'll start with the food. It was absolutely fabulous. Being an island off the eat coast of Italy Venice is known for seafood. The night we arrived we were pretty hungry, so even though it was late we went in search of dinner after we settled into our rooms. We found a cute little restaurant just around the corner from where we were staying. It looked deserted from the front, but once we walked in there were several tables of people in the back room. I thought it odd they sat people in the back of the restaurant instead of the front where passers by would be able to notice and possibly be intrigued to come in. Now many people know I love food and others may know I especially love seafood, so Venice and I got along very well. This first night I had Tagliolini, a pasta that is flat like fettuccine, but much narrower and sort of reminded me of a cross between a wheat and a rice noodle in texture. With the pasta there was a crab sauce. I was a little leery of a crab sauce because often in the State they are creamy and don't taste like crab. I have made a personal conclusion that cream totally kills the flavor of seafood when you pair them and they do not belong together. Back to my dinner... it was fantastico! The flavor of the crab came through so strong and the noodles where magnifico! Oh I was in love with Venician food this first night. The next day breakfast consisted of a lot of bread products and coffee. It was included where we were staying. Throughout Wednesday we had gelato three times. Although the 3rd time it was sandwiched between two biscuit cookies. And I'll add we shared every time we did not each have our own. Ryan had his first piece of pizza in Italy on a side street off the Piazza. I might have had a bite, or two.
Dinner... ahh the memory of such a delicious meal. I loved that on the menu there was a fish course. I think we should always have a fish course. Since we were in Venice though Ryan and I both had seafood in each of our courses, except dessert. Please feel free not to read this if you are not into food details like I am. My antipasti was boiled octopus sliced incredibly thin in a single layer on my plat drizzled with olive oil with a nice hunk of lemon on the side for me to squeeze. It was oh so good. Ryan had scampi mixed wtih a ton of onions and a slab of white grilled polenta. Also very good. We shared everything but especially our first courses because we both could not decide on just one. Ryan had tagliolini with spider crab not unlike what I had on Tuesday night, but different and equally as good. I had spaghetti with a marinara sauce and mixed seafood including scallops, squid, shrimp, mussels, and clams. Both our first courses probably could have filled us for a meal, I was surprised how large they were, but we were done yet. My Fish Course was grilled tuna with "rocketsauce." I don't know what that was, but it was green and it was good. The tuna was cooked perfect and left extremely rare. Ryan's fish course was actually probably my least favorite part of dinner and I almost ordered that. It was angel fish with balsamic vinegar, but really didn't taste like vinegar, so Ryan added more. And we shared a slice of Tiramisu for dessert because we were in Italy for the first time and I decided we needed it. We also had a nice Cabernet/ Malbec red wine. From Italy of course and only about an hour from Venice. We were planning to go to a concert after dinner of Mozart's Four Seasons, but dinner was a bit over two hours long and when we were leaving the concert had already started and it would have taken a it still to get over to it. Instead we wandered the streets of Venice which were a bit quieter. We came across a Crepe vendor, so we shared a crepe. It had sugar, cinnamon, and grand marnier. They seriously have alcohol everywhere and use it in everything in Europe. You can buy liquor in the gas station. I actually didn't love the crepe because she put so much alcohol on it, I bet there was at least a full shot. Next time nutella and banana I think. And as we headed back to find our beds there was a fruit juice bar open and handing out samples. But all the fresh fruit juice was then turned into fruity alcoholic drinks (like I said alcohol everywhere, but don't worry about us). We shared a glass of sangria, which was delicious and I don't think actually had a ton of the wine in it.
I'll have to post about Thursday morning later, which does include a little food. We did have breakfast again where we stayed. And for lunch, our last Italian meal we had pizza from a place it seemed all the school kids went to eat and hang out after school, I think because it was so cheap. After the pizza we also shared one last gelato. I miss it already.
That sums up our food consumption. It was so good. I highly recommed tagliolini if anyone can find it in the States. We looked at the German groceries today and weren't able to. I knew we should have bought some while we were there, but we didn't. Bummer, we'll have to go back. ;)
It is late and I do have to get up for work, so I'm going to lay down the computer for the night. I have more to share that hopefully I can finish, or at least work on tomorrow. I still need to catch everyone up on our last weekend. We went snowboarding the first day and to Innsbruck, Austria on the second. And then there are other things I'd like to post on too. Sometimes during the day I think of titles for blog posts, but we seem to stay pretty busy and in down time usually catch up on missed episodes of the Bachelor (which will free up time after it ends next week), One Tree Hill, Ryan and 24 and now I've been trying to work on my German with Rosetta Stone that I get to use online for free from the military. So I apologize for not posting for so long, but if I can get to it in the next day or two I might give you enough to keep your reading for the next week or two. For now, goodnight.
Parking on Venice (an island for those who may not know) is very expensive, so we parked in Mestre and took the 7 minute train ride onto Venice. When we arrived and walked out of the train station what we saw was a truly spectacular view. In front of us was the grand canal lit up with the passing of boats and a couple very nice and I'm sure expensive hotels across the water. It was the most perfect "welcome to Venice" I could ever imagine receiving and made me so glad we arrived at night. Although I've also decided arriving places at night can make things more difficult and confusing, but it just adds to the adventure.
We bought "Rolling Venice" cards which got us unlimited water bus transportation for up to three days. That was great and ended up saving us a lot of money. Everything in Venice is a boat. The buses are boats, the taxis are boats, the police vehicles are boats, even the ambulances are boats. It was awesome! It was so wonderful to finally be near water all the time. Ryan and I have both missed water since being in Garmisch. I could totally see Ryan living in Venice with a boat and driving all over the canals with it.
I am not sure how to break up our trip. I feel like I could do it in so many different ways. I think for now I'll start with the food. It was absolutely fabulous. Being an island off the eat coast of Italy Venice is known for seafood. The night we arrived we were pretty hungry, so even though it was late we went in search of dinner after we settled into our rooms. We found a cute little restaurant just around the corner from where we were staying. It looked deserted from the front, but once we walked in there were several tables of people in the back room. I thought it odd they sat people in the back of the restaurant instead of the front where passers by would be able to notice and possibly be intrigued to come in. Now many people know I love food and others may know I especially love seafood, so Venice and I got along very well. This first night I had Tagliolini, a pasta that is flat like fettuccine, but much narrower and sort of reminded me of a cross between a wheat and a rice noodle in texture. With the pasta there was a crab sauce. I was a little leery of a crab sauce because often in the State they are creamy and don't taste like crab. I have made a personal conclusion that cream totally kills the flavor of seafood when you pair them and they do not belong together. Back to my dinner... it was fantastico! The flavor of the crab came through so strong and the noodles where magnifico! Oh I was in love with Venician food this first night. The next day breakfast consisted of a lot of bread products and coffee. It was included where we were staying. Throughout Wednesday we had gelato three times. Although the 3rd time it was sandwiched between two biscuit cookies. And I'll add we shared every time we did not each have our own. Ryan had his first piece of pizza in Italy on a side street off the Piazza. I might have had a bite, or two.
Dinner... ahh the memory of such a delicious meal. I loved that on the menu there was a fish course. I think we should always have a fish course. Since we were in Venice though Ryan and I both had seafood in each of our courses, except dessert. Please feel free not to read this if you are not into food details like I am. My antipasti was boiled octopus sliced incredibly thin in a single layer on my plat drizzled with olive oil with a nice hunk of lemon on the side for me to squeeze. It was oh so good. Ryan had scampi mixed wtih a ton of onions and a slab of white grilled polenta. Also very good. We shared everything but especially our first courses because we both could not decide on just one. Ryan had tagliolini with spider crab not unlike what I had on Tuesday night, but different and equally as good. I had spaghetti with a marinara sauce and mixed seafood including scallops, squid, shrimp, mussels, and clams. Both our first courses probably could have filled us for a meal, I was surprised how large they were, but we were done yet. My Fish Course was grilled tuna with "rocketsauce." I don't know what that was, but it was green and it was good. The tuna was cooked perfect and left extremely rare. Ryan's fish course was actually probably my least favorite part of dinner and I almost ordered that. It was angel fish with balsamic vinegar, but really didn't taste like vinegar, so Ryan added more. And we shared a slice of Tiramisu for dessert because we were in Italy for the first time and I decided we needed it. We also had a nice Cabernet/ Malbec red wine. From Italy of course and only about an hour from Venice. We were planning to go to a concert after dinner of Mozart's Four Seasons, but dinner was a bit over two hours long and when we were leaving the concert had already started and it would have taken a it still to get over to it. Instead we wandered the streets of Venice which were a bit quieter. We came across a Crepe vendor, so we shared a crepe. It had sugar, cinnamon, and grand marnier. They seriously have alcohol everywhere and use it in everything in Europe. You can buy liquor in the gas station. I actually didn't love the crepe because she put so much alcohol on it, I bet there was at least a full shot. Next time nutella and banana I think. And as we headed back to find our beds there was a fruit juice bar open and handing out samples. But all the fresh fruit juice was then turned into fruity alcoholic drinks (like I said alcohol everywhere, but don't worry about us). We shared a glass of sangria, which was delicious and I don't think actually had a ton of the wine in it.
I'll have to post about Thursday morning later, which does include a little food. We did have breakfast again where we stayed. And for lunch, our last Italian meal we had pizza from a place it seemed all the school kids went to eat and hang out after school, I think because it was so cheap. After the pizza we also shared one last gelato. I miss it already.
That sums up our food consumption. It was so good. I highly recommed tagliolini if anyone can find it in the States. We looked at the German groceries today and weren't able to. I knew we should have bought some while we were there, but we didn't. Bummer, we'll have to go back. ;)
It is late and I do have to get up for work, so I'm going to lay down the computer for the night. I have more to share that hopefully I can finish, or at least work on tomorrow. I still need to catch everyone up on our last weekend. We went snowboarding the first day and to Innsbruck, Austria on the second. And then there are other things I'd like to post on too. Sometimes during the day I think of titles for blog posts, but we seem to stay pretty busy and in down time usually catch up on missed episodes of the Bachelor (which will free up time after it ends next week), One Tree Hill, Ryan and 24 and now I've been trying to work on my German with Rosetta Stone that I get to use online for free from the military. So I apologize for not posting for so long, but if I can get to it in the next day or two I might give you enough to keep your reading for the next week or two. For now, goodnight.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
60 Years Later...
Today is my Grandma's and Grandpa's 60 Wedding Anniversary. I am so excited for them and so proud to be a part of the legacy they started so many years ago. When I spoke with my Grandma on the phone early today I told her it seemed like yesterday to me that we had a big party for their 50th anniversary. Doing the math that would have been when I was 12 years old. That is hard for me to believe. I love my Grandparents SO much and I only hope that I can someday have a marriage that lasts as long as theirs. When I said to my Grandpa today, "I hope you are going to do something special for Grandma today because I think she deserves it." His sweet response was, "well I KNOW that she deserves it." This was after he told me he thought he would get her some flowers today. :)
To my wonderful Grandparents- I love you SO MUCH!
To my wonderful Grandparents- I love you SO MUCH!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Finally our weekend!
This week was a doozie (not sure how to spell that word). We are not always the best at what day it is all the time because Friday has become our Monday and Wednesday Thursday has become our weekend, making Tuesday our Friday. Every Sunday we can expect to be run ragged, but this weekend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all tough.
We have come to the conclusion that it is best to get in and out of a stayover in 15-20 minutes and in and out of a due out in 45 minutes to an hour. Of course suits always take longer than the standard double queen room. Friday I had 4 due outs and about 10 stayovers. This felt like a lot being my first day back after doing nothing all weekend, my weekend that is.
Last Wednesday I literally spent all day in bed. I was exhausted after my first full week of work not to mention last Tuesday night was a multi birthday/ going away party for a ton of people at a bar/casino/restaurant called "Peaches" in the marianplatz (downtown/ town sqaure) and we didn't get back to the Abrams until about 2am (this is WAY late for me). You may hear about Peaches frequently while we are here, but hopefully not too much because it isn't that great. I actually think it is a fairly typical trashy bar EXCEPT on Monday nights they have half off pizza and so that is good for us. We went this Monday and I had pizza with tuna and onions and no cheese and then used their spray olive oil and balsamic all over it. I may have blogged about our first pizza night there too. It is pretty good pizza, but they now have a menu with four pizzas that are not half off and it says "California Pizza Kitchen" on it. That makes me wonder if they buy those pizzas frozen and then just heat and serve and therefore don't have a huge margin, but seriously that would be disappointing. Another good night is Tuesday, which was the night of the party. Tuesday is "dollar night" where we can buy certain drinks such as beer and gluwein (hot wine) in US dollars which makes it a much better deal obviously. So my beer and gluwein came to $11 instead of 11 euro, which is great for my bank account. And in the winter Peaches has a wooden shed-hut-house thing attached to their normal building. This area was not all yuck and trashy bar vibe like inside, it was just chill. So once we went in there I actually had a very enjoyable evening. There was a bunch of Russians who were on a ski holiday and they really liked us and said if we come to Moscow we can stay with them. I'm not sure what the chance of us making it that far east is, but it is fun to be meeting people from all over the world.
Gosh that was a bit of a side track from the craziness at work, back to that. Saturday my due outs were bumped up to six. Friday I felt a bit in slowmotion, but Saturday I kicked it into gear and cruised through. I was done a little after our afternoon break at three. I also got my eyebrows waxed in the hotel spa on my 3:00 break and feel much better looking at myself in the mirror now (they had become a forest). And the girl who did my waxing is from Portland. That was cool. So Saturday wore me out, but I still felt went better than Friday. And my leader who was checking my rooms Saturday said I was doing a very good job and thanked me for that because it made his job easier. That of course made me feel good.
Then came Sunday. Dun-dun-dun!I might get redundant every week, but Sunday is seriously out of this world insane. Nearly the entire place checks out. This week was no different, but it was our first Sunday with a full section. I had 14 rooms and 11 were due outs. On these busy days they also have people just there for bed help. This is nice, but also means you sometimes have to wait for them and not finish your room or choose to forgo the help and do it yourself. I've gotten pretty good at beds and can do them in about 5 minutes when I am really pushing. This is the thing that really builds up a sweat. By the end of Sunday I equated to Ryan that the way my body felt was the same way I recall feeling after a hard (and they were all hard) hill workout. I just wanted to flop on the floor for an hour or two in the lobby of Wheeler. Yet I did not do that.
Ryan and I have started working out here. Now that he has a car we go the the gym in the same complex as the resort everyday after work. Before we didn't want to have to walk home when it was dark and even colder than normal, but it has been good to get back to the gym. The first day we went I sort of had a break down because I realized I've never really worked out without a purpose. Even for the few weeks I got back into it in September/October last year it was for the bike ride Steph and I did. Before that everything was for track and I was told what type of working out to do. So being in a foreign gym with no direction surrounded by huge military guys (who smells SO AWFUL) I felt very lost, a feeling I've never experienced in a gym before. So now Ryan tells me what to do everyday. I just do whatever he does, so maybe I'll come back with a huge upper body. Actually all we've done so far is upper body, so I'm making him to lower body now because that has always been what I'm better at and I think it will be good for him. :) We also discovered that the gym has an awful basketball court. We went to shoot around after a workout and the ball barely wants to bounce back to us the floor is so poor. It looks like a beautiful full court with some stands and everything, but man alive the floor is in terrible shape. Oh well.
I think this brings me to today. Day #1 of our weekend. And it looks like Ryan and I will continue to have Wednesday and Thursday weekends. We are thinking of planning another trip and requesting two weekends to be combined and then work 10 days straight. This may about kill us, but we feel we really need a minimum of four days to have the travel time necessary to make it somewhere and then explore. And in housekeeping to get a chunk of time off we hear we must request it far in advance. We would love to figure out a time (before June) when it would work to go to to Vienna, Prague, Poland (to see Sonya), and then back to Bavaria via Berlin. Obviously for this we would need a large chunk of time and I believe we'd need to take some annual leave. Renee and Laura want to come I think too, so I hope they'd let four of us out of the department at once. We'll just have to see what happens. It would be great to go somewhere warm now because traveling is tougher in the cold, but again it is hard to ask for time off on short notice in housekeeping, so for now weekends are spent close by.
Today we went to Murnau. For anyone who does not know Murnau is where I had pursued working before I even knew about this job. The Alpenhof Murnau is a very nice hotel owned by the same couple who owns Sun Mountain Lodge where I worked in the summer of 2008. At Sun Mountain I feel that all the employees are aware of the Alpenhof. We even had a picture of the hotel next to the elevator with a plaque explaining it's existence. Today as we were arriving to Murnau Ryan and I saw the sign for the Alpenhof, so we decided to stop and ask for a tour of the place. To my complete surprise the women we spoke to there had never heard of Sun Mountain and were not aware that the Haub's owned a resort in the States. They were still very kind and obliged our request for a tour. It was a beautiful place, but VERY expensive so don't expect for me to put anyone up there if they come to visit. :) I can definitely understand why my inability to speak the language would preclude me from working there because the people we spoke to spoke okay English, but it was somewhat difficult to communicate with them in fluid conversation.
After our tour we headed into town. It was so cute. Because it has been warmer over the last week some snow has melted and we could see the cobble stone streets. Everything was very quaint. We found the Karg Brauerei and had a beer and a meal there. The waitress did not speak any English which was the first time we have experience that. I think it was good though and it makes me want to learn German that much more because I feel like it will show I respect where I am and that I am not taking the people for granted just because many know a little English. After about 5 minutes of studying a German menu the waitress did bring us English printed menus whcih made ordering much more simple. We've learned that German restaurants, not dissimilar to American restaurants, serve very large portions, so typically Ryan and I share a meal and leave fully satisfied without spending too much money. Although then we headed to the Bakerei across the street and indulged in several delicious sweet treats. I would say this was our favorite bakerei thus far, but there are an endless amount left for us to try. We walked up the street briefly and found a cute home/gift store where I picked up a little something. The woman there was so nice and when none of my credit or debit cards would process she accepted all the euros Ryan and I had for the item which was just shy of the total amount. That was so nice of her. Ryan and I went to the bank to try and figure out why there have been places our cards have not worked and apparently in Europe they use EC card instead of debit cards and that there are some places that won't run debit cards or even VISA cards. So much for VISA is accepted everywhere. So now we are thinking of looking into starting a checking account with a local bank so as not to have this issue along with the 1% we get charge even by our bank on post where our direct deposit is set up to. We were not told that we'd be charged this percentage and assumed we would not be since the bank is located in Germany, but it unfortunately is an American bank. So from now on I'll try to use my VISA from home because then I get 1% cash back every year that will negate the percentage I am charged. But again setting up a local account would also mean we would not have this international charge applied.
When we got back from Murnau we went to the complex with the PX for Ryan to get a gas card, this is also where we went to the bank, and we went to the Thrift store that is super cheap and only opened for a few hours a couple days a week. Ryan's big purchase, which was $10 was for a TV. I bought a skirt, which is too big. But I bought a belt, so it looks cute to wear the skirt high and then belt the middle. Each item was $1. WHAT A DEAL!!! I also bought five travel books on different countries, well once is about all of Europe. The total for them was $2.75. I don't care that they are out dated because I feel like everything in Europe is so old it will be the same in a book from 2010 as in a book from 1999. I'd say it was a great trip to the Thrift store and money well spent, but only our travels will tell if the information is helpful. Hopefully we will get to go somewhere exciting soonish.
Tomorrow night is Faushing. It is sort of like Carnival or Mardi Gras. I think the whole thing has to do with going crazy and more or less sinning as much as possible before lent starts. Although I think it would be sort of interesting to see what this is like culturally speaking neither Ryan or I feel like having to find a costume or crazy outfit to wear. We also don't want to be out late when we have to work the next day and we wouldn't plan to partake in the "craziness" of the night so we figure it probably wouldn't be that great anyway. And there is always next year since we'll be here then still. I also told Ryan that since most people probably won't remember anything from the night we could just tell people who ask that we went, but don't remember it and then they'd be like, "oh yeah me neither but it was so fun." We won't really do that, but I think it is ironic that people are all excited to go and will be all excited they went, but won't remember much anyway. Have a mentioned living here is what I would assume life at a State school would have been like, if you catch my drift.
I feel bad a wrapping up my blog entries, sort of like phone calls. I'm sure my Dad and Stephanie will resonate with that. :) But I'm actually out of things to talk about from our last week, so until we do something to report on I'm done.
We have come to the conclusion that it is best to get in and out of a stayover in 15-20 minutes and in and out of a due out in 45 minutes to an hour. Of course suits always take longer than the standard double queen room. Friday I had 4 due outs and about 10 stayovers. This felt like a lot being my first day back after doing nothing all weekend, my weekend that is.
Last Wednesday I literally spent all day in bed. I was exhausted after my first full week of work not to mention last Tuesday night was a multi birthday/ going away party for a ton of people at a bar/casino/restaurant called "Peaches" in the marianplatz (downtown/ town sqaure) and we didn't get back to the Abrams until about 2am (this is WAY late for me). You may hear about Peaches frequently while we are here, but hopefully not too much because it isn't that great. I actually think it is a fairly typical trashy bar EXCEPT on Monday nights they have half off pizza and so that is good for us. We went this Monday and I had pizza with tuna and onions and no cheese and then used their spray olive oil and balsamic all over it. I may have blogged about our first pizza night there too. It is pretty good pizza, but they now have a menu with four pizzas that are not half off and it says "California Pizza Kitchen" on it. That makes me wonder if they buy those pizzas frozen and then just heat and serve and therefore don't have a huge margin, but seriously that would be disappointing. Another good night is Tuesday, which was the night of the party. Tuesday is "dollar night" where we can buy certain drinks such as beer and gluwein (hot wine) in US dollars which makes it a much better deal obviously. So my beer and gluwein came to $11 instead of 11 euro, which is great for my bank account. And in the winter Peaches has a wooden shed-hut-house thing attached to their normal building. This area was not all yuck and trashy bar vibe like inside, it was just chill. So once we went in there I actually had a very enjoyable evening. There was a bunch of Russians who were on a ski holiday and they really liked us and said if we come to Moscow we can stay with them. I'm not sure what the chance of us making it that far east is, but it is fun to be meeting people from all over the world.
Gosh that was a bit of a side track from the craziness at work, back to that. Saturday my due outs were bumped up to six. Friday I felt a bit in slowmotion, but Saturday I kicked it into gear and cruised through. I was done a little after our afternoon break at three. I also got my eyebrows waxed in the hotel spa on my 3:00 break and feel much better looking at myself in the mirror now (they had become a forest). And the girl who did my waxing is from Portland. That was cool. So Saturday wore me out, but I still felt went better than Friday. And my leader who was checking my rooms Saturday said I was doing a very good job and thanked me for that because it made his job easier. That of course made me feel good.
Then came Sunday. Dun-dun-dun!I might get redundant every week, but Sunday is seriously out of this world insane. Nearly the entire place checks out. This week was no different, but it was our first Sunday with a full section. I had 14 rooms and 11 were due outs. On these busy days they also have people just there for bed help. This is nice, but also means you sometimes have to wait for them and not finish your room or choose to forgo the help and do it yourself. I've gotten pretty good at beds and can do them in about 5 minutes when I am really pushing. This is the thing that really builds up a sweat. By the end of Sunday I equated to Ryan that the way my body felt was the same way I recall feeling after a hard (and they were all hard) hill workout. I just wanted to flop on the floor for an hour or two in the lobby of Wheeler. Yet I did not do that.
Ryan and I have started working out here. Now that he has a car we go the the gym in the same complex as the resort everyday after work. Before we didn't want to have to walk home when it was dark and even colder than normal, but it has been good to get back to the gym. The first day we went I sort of had a break down because I realized I've never really worked out without a purpose. Even for the few weeks I got back into it in September/October last year it was for the bike ride Steph and I did. Before that everything was for track and I was told what type of working out to do. So being in a foreign gym with no direction surrounded by huge military guys (who smells SO AWFUL) I felt very lost, a feeling I've never experienced in a gym before. So now Ryan tells me what to do everyday. I just do whatever he does, so maybe I'll come back with a huge upper body. Actually all we've done so far is upper body, so I'm making him to lower body now because that has always been what I'm better at and I think it will be good for him. :) We also discovered that the gym has an awful basketball court. We went to shoot around after a workout and the ball barely wants to bounce back to us the floor is so poor. It looks like a beautiful full court with some stands and everything, but man alive the floor is in terrible shape. Oh well.
I think this brings me to today. Day #1 of our weekend. And it looks like Ryan and I will continue to have Wednesday and Thursday weekends. We are thinking of planning another trip and requesting two weekends to be combined and then work 10 days straight. This may about kill us, but we feel we really need a minimum of four days to have the travel time necessary to make it somewhere and then explore. And in housekeeping to get a chunk of time off we hear we must request it far in advance. We would love to figure out a time (before June) when it would work to go to to Vienna, Prague, Poland (to see Sonya), and then back to Bavaria via Berlin. Obviously for this we would need a large chunk of time and I believe we'd need to take some annual leave. Renee and Laura want to come I think too, so I hope they'd let four of us out of the department at once. We'll just have to see what happens. It would be great to go somewhere warm now because traveling is tougher in the cold, but again it is hard to ask for time off on short notice in housekeeping, so for now weekends are spent close by.
Today we went to Murnau. For anyone who does not know Murnau is where I had pursued working before I even knew about this job. The Alpenhof Murnau is a very nice hotel owned by the same couple who owns Sun Mountain Lodge where I worked in the summer of 2008. At Sun Mountain I feel that all the employees are aware of the Alpenhof. We even had a picture of the hotel next to the elevator with a plaque explaining it's existence. Today as we were arriving to Murnau Ryan and I saw the sign for the Alpenhof, so we decided to stop and ask for a tour of the place. To my complete surprise the women we spoke to there had never heard of Sun Mountain and were not aware that the Haub's owned a resort in the States. They were still very kind and obliged our request for a tour. It was a beautiful place, but VERY expensive so don't expect for me to put anyone up there if they come to visit. :) I can definitely understand why my inability to speak the language would preclude me from working there because the people we spoke to spoke okay English, but it was somewhat difficult to communicate with them in fluid conversation.
After our tour we headed into town. It was so cute. Because it has been warmer over the last week some snow has melted and we could see the cobble stone streets. Everything was very quaint. We found the Karg Brauerei and had a beer and a meal there. The waitress did not speak any English which was the first time we have experience that. I think it was good though and it makes me want to learn German that much more because I feel like it will show I respect where I am and that I am not taking the people for granted just because many know a little English. After about 5 minutes of studying a German menu the waitress did bring us English printed menus whcih made ordering much more simple. We've learned that German restaurants, not dissimilar to American restaurants, serve very large portions, so typically Ryan and I share a meal and leave fully satisfied without spending too much money. Although then we headed to the Bakerei across the street and indulged in several delicious sweet treats. I would say this was our favorite bakerei thus far, but there are an endless amount left for us to try. We walked up the street briefly and found a cute home/gift store where I picked up a little something. The woman there was so nice and when none of my credit or debit cards would process she accepted all the euros Ryan and I had for the item which was just shy of the total amount. That was so nice of her. Ryan and I went to the bank to try and figure out why there have been places our cards have not worked and apparently in Europe they use EC card instead of debit cards and that there are some places that won't run debit cards or even VISA cards. So much for VISA is accepted everywhere. So now we are thinking of looking into starting a checking account with a local bank so as not to have this issue along with the 1% we get charge even by our bank on post where our direct deposit is set up to. We were not told that we'd be charged this percentage and assumed we would not be since the bank is located in Germany, but it unfortunately is an American bank. So from now on I'll try to use my VISA from home because then I get 1% cash back every year that will negate the percentage I am charged. But again setting up a local account would also mean we would not have this international charge applied.
When we got back from Murnau we went to the complex with the PX for Ryan to get a gas card, this is also where we went to the bank, and we went to the Thrift store that is super cheap and only opened for a few hours a couple days a week. Ryan's big purchase, which was $10 was for a TV. I bought a skirt, which is too big. But I bought a belt, so it looks cute to wear the skirt high and then belt the middle. Each item was $1. WHAT A DEAL!!! I also bought five travel books on different countries, well once is about all of Europe. The total for them was $2.75. I don't care that they are out dated because I feel like everything in Europe is so old it will be the same in a book from 2010 as in a book from 1999. I'd say it was a great trip to the Thrift store and money well spent, but only our travels will tell if the information is helpful. Hopefully we will get to go somewhere exciting soonish.
Tomorrow night is Faushing. It is sort of like Carnival or Mardi Gras. I think the whole thing has to do with going crazy and more or less sinning as much as possible before lent starts. Although I think it would be sort of interesting to see what this is like culturally speaking neither Ryan or I feel like having to find a costume or crazy outfit to wear. We also don't want to be out late when we have to work the next day and we wouldn't plan to partake in the "craziness" of the night so we figure it probably wouldn't be that great anyway. And there is always next year since we'll be here then still. I also told Ryan that since most people probably won't remember anything from the night we could just tell people who ask that we went, but don't remember it and then they'd be like, "oh yeah me neither but it was so fun." We won't really do that, but I think it is ironic that people are all excited to go and will be all excited they went, but won't remember much anyway. Have a mentioned living here is what I would assume life at a State school would have been like, if you catch my drift.
I feel bad a wrapping up my blog entries, sort of like phone calls. I'm sure my Dad and Stephanie will resonate with that. :) But I'm actually out of things to talk about from our last week, so until we do something to report on I'm done.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Picture
It just took about 5 minutes to load this first picture. I'm going to have to figure something out to make it faster because I have so many pictures I'd like to share with everyone.
This is my wonderful uniform. Not too bad eh? The black thing attached to one of my buttons it where I attach my card to open all the rooms. I love that thing! :)
The other pictures are my room with my roommate Sarah on our couch, my hallway, and our hallways kitchen. Also the guard area we have to pass through when we enter and leave the Abrams. Trust me NO ONE will ever get in to where we live who should not be there. Sometimes they hesitate to let us is. It is very strict security.
Ryan and I are heading in to town to run errands before our Employee Salute party thing at 2:30. Once a month all employees are invited, but since it our first one I think we get something free and all us newbies will be introduced. There should be light food stuffs and we both are into free food, so I guess it is worth it to go to work on our day off.
This is my wonderful uniform. Not too bad eh? The black thing attached to one of my buttons it where I attach my card to open all the rooms. I love that thing! :)
The other pictures are my room with my roommate Sarah on our couch, my hallway, and our hallways kitchen. Also the guard area we have to pass through when we enter and leave the Abrams. Trust me NO ONE will ever get in to where we live who should not be there. Sometimes they hesitate to let us is. It is very strict security.
Ryan and I are heading in to town to run errands before our Employee Salute party thing at 2:30. Once a month all employees are invited, but since it our first one I think we get something free and all us newbies will be introduced. There should be light food stuffs and we both are into free food, so I guess it is worth it to go to work on our day off.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Salzburg
Salz means salt in Deutsch. So basically Salzburg is the city of salt. If I paid more attention I could tell you why, but the few things I heard while there didn't stick in the old noggin I guess. I'm sure wikipedia could enlighten anyone curious enough to look it up.
So Thursday morning we had to be out of the hostel by 10 to get our 5 euro a piece deposit back, so trust be we were out of there by 10. Then we headed to old town. On the way we stopped at a bakerei that was pretty full of customers, always a good sign, for breakfast. Ryan got a filled doughnut thing and something else. And because he wanted two things I succumbed to my eye's desires and also chose two pastries. More or less we ate dessert (times 2) for breakfast and I felt sick like I ate a double dose of dessert for breakfast after I finished.
Following "breakfast" we headed for Dom. Wowza! Absolutely astonishing. Dom is so big. Probably two of the Frauenkirche in München. As many cathedrals seem to be Dom was split into sections and when you looked up the ceiling seemed to be domed above each section. Sorry if I am not painting a good visual. And on each of these doms were incredibly detailed paintings. The whole place was beautiful. Downstairs, the crypt had apparently caved in many many years ago and it was only recently that it has been reopened for visitors. They have an art show on display that was rather weird with candles illuminating little skeleton shapes that had larger shadows of themselves displayed on the wall. I did love down there though the colored glass they used in the doors and windows of a very small room that was a mini chapel with several rows of pews and an alter at the front. It was beautiful and very peaceful (other than the young children on a field trip).
After Dom we headed toward the castle on the hill without knowing for sure how to make it up there. On the way we came across a watermill that apparently has been in operation for a long time (again if I paid better attention I could give you better facts) and is used to create electricity to run a wheat mill (I think) that the monks (maybe) use in the bakerei. Hmmmm, not a great explanation of what we saw, but at the time I thought what they had going on was pretty cool. Then we turned a slight right through a gate and were in a old cemetery that was between two churches. We saw A LOT of churches. Although we have yet to go to a museum I think I would get quickly museumed out, but I can't imagine (at this point anyway) of being churched out. They are just so beautiful and to know that people have been worshiping the same God that I do for hundreds of thousands of years within the same walls I am confined in is an incredibly enlightening experience. I love it! I hope to continue to visit churches everywhere I travel. And I doubt I'll find a town without a church at it's center.
As we continued toward the castle we just followed a group of people we figured were headed in the same direction. Unfortunately the tram to the top is not in operation from January 18th to February 5th. Maybe the uphill climb was good for us. At least it worked different muscles than all the other walking we do ALL THE TIME. So eventually, out of breath and a little sweaty, we made it to the ticket booth. Our ticket was all inclusive too, so it would have included the tram if it had been open. Oh well. The way up gave us a chance to enjoy the beautiful view over the city. Once through the gate we continued walking up and eventually were inside the castle walls. It was fun to explore although it was very cold all day. Inside part of the castle we found out that our ticket entitled us to a audio-guided tour that was great to hear (we've done a lot of reading on most places) about the history of the castle. Once again I can't actually recount the information I heard. This is probably why I have never been a good test taker. I remember the things that a teacher wouldn't want to hear about on a test such as what I ate for breakfast. Towards the end of the audio-guided tour we went to the top of the tower on the roof. Unfortunately we weren't up their very long and the wind picked up, so bad that we all headed straight back down. While we were up there though it was a phenomenal view of all of Salzburg and I did get a few pictures. I apologize for not having pictures up of anything, but they will never load. I might have better luck in the morning, but I haven't been waking up with any time to spare if I am going to get to work on time. There was also a HUGE museum (with lots of things to read) inside another part of the castle. By the end we were just walking through rooms to check them off without spending hardly any time looking at things.
On our admission ticket to the castle we saw that we could get 20% off at the Stiegel Brauhaus. I think Brauhaus is brew house, as in brewery. Stiegel is an Austrian company and very old. It took us awhile, but we finally found it. I knew we were headed in the right direction because I started smelling hops at least 4 blocks away. Our ticket included a tour (which was just us escorting ourselves through a huge multilevel museum and A TON of reading), 3 (which turned into 4) beer samples which were actually 6-8 ounces each, and a free gift (the choice between a Stiegl glass or a beer, we each chose the beer). It was really interesting ready about how they were making beer when they first opened. It was quite a process and when the beer was finally made it had a very short shelf life (a day of two usually). The beer was almost all really good. There were only a couple that were too hoppy for me. They had a special one for the month that was really dark and super chocolatey. I finally felt like I tasted some diversity in beer because for the most part when you go out it is dark or light, that's it. They also gave us these cracker things that were delicious and made us realize we were hungary, so we ordered a meal to share. It said smoked trout, but we were still surprised to see and entire fish, skin and head in tact, delivered to our table on a cutting board. I have a picture I'll upload when I can. But I loved every bite.
When we left Stiegl it was time to catch our train, so we walked the long haul back to the hauptbahnhof to find a train to take us to München. We had to wait an hour and once we headed up to the platform we were told o go to a different platform, so we did. Finally a train arrived that everyone seemed to be boarding, so we did too even though it was headed to Frielassing. If you read my last post Frielassing is where we accidentally got off on the way to Salzburg. And when we reached Frielassing everyone got off, so we got off. Thanks to a nice German man who could speak some English we found out the train that should have been coming through to take us the rest of the way to München was not and we'd have to wait another hour for the next train. But because we had just been in Frielassing the night before we knew there was a Norma (a grocery chain) across the street, so we headed over to get some drinks and a snack. Isn't it crazy how if we hadn't accidentally gotten off there we would have had no idea where the town even was or that there was a Norma near the station. Finally our train did come. We made it to München no problem and just made it in time for a train back to Garmisch without having a layover at all. When we finally got back it was about 11:30 or 23:30 since we are adjusting to military time. And folks that it were our first adventure comes to an end.
Friday we slept in, did laundry, never left the Abrams once and tried to prepare for going back to work after a four day weekend.
So Thursday morning we had to be out of the hostel by 10 to get our 5 euro a piece deposit back, so trust be we were out of there by 10. Then we headed to old town. On the way we stopped at a bakerei that was pretty full of customers, always a good sign, for breakfast. Ryan got a filled doughnut thing and something else. And because he wanted two things I succumbed to my eye's desires and also chose two pastries. More or less we ate dessert (times 2) for breakfast and I felt sick like I ate a double dose of dessert for breakfast after I finished.
Following "breakfast" we headed for Dom. Wowza! Absolutely astonishing. Dom is so big. Probably two of the Frauenkirche in München. As many cathedrals seem to be Dom was split into sections and when you looked up the ceiling seemed to be domed above each section. Sorry if I am not painting a good visual. And on each of these doms were incredibly detailed paintings. The whole place was beautiful. Downstairs, the crypt had apparently caved in many many years ago and it was only recently that it has been reopened for visitors. They have an art show on display that was rather weird with candles illuminating little skeleton shapes that had larger shadows of themselves displayed on the wall. I did love down there though the colored glass they used in the doors and windows of a very small room that was a mini chapel with several rows of pews and an alter at the front. It was beautiful and very peaceful (other than the young children on a field trip).
After Dom we headed toward the castle on the hill without knowing for sure how to make it up there. On the way we came across a watermill that apparently has been in operation for a long time (again if I paid better attention I could give you better facts) and is used to create electricity to run a wheat mill (I think) that the monks (maybe) use in the bakerei. Hmmmm, not a great explanation of what we saw, but at the time I thought what they had going on was pretty cool. Then we turned a slight right through a gate and were in a old cemetery that was between two churches. We saw A LOT of churches. Although we have yet to go to a museum I think I would get quickly museumed out, but I can't imagine (at this point anyway) of being churched out. They are just so beautiful and to know that people have been worshiping the same God that I do for hundreds of thousands of years within the same walls I am confined in is an incredibly enlightening experience. I love it! I hope to continue to visit churches everywhere I travel. And I doubt I'll find a town without a church at it's center.
As we continued toward the castle we just followed a group of people we figured were headed in the same direction. Unfortunately the tram to the top is not in operation from January 18th to February 5th. Maybe the uphill climb was good for us. At least it worked different muscles than all the other walking we do ALL THE TIME. So eventually, out of breath and a little sweaty, we made it to the ticket booth. Our ticket was all inclusive too, so it would have included the tram if it had been open. Oh well. The way up gave us a chance to enjoy the beautiful view over the city. Once through the gate we continued walking up and eventually were inside the castle walls. It was fun to explore although it was very cold all day. Inside part of the castle we found out that our ticket entitled us to a audio-guided tour that was great to hear (we've done a lot of reading on most places) about the history of the castle. Once again I can't actually recount the information I heard. This is probably why I have never been a good test taker. I remember the things that a teacher wouldn't want to hear about on a test such as what I ate for breakfast. Towards the end of the audio-guided tour we went to the top of the tower on the roof. Unfortunately we weren't up their very long and the wind picked up, so bad that we all headed straight back down. While we were up there though it was a phenomenal view of all of Salzburg and I did get a few pictures. I apologize for not having pictures up of anything, but they will never load. I might have better luck in the morning, but I haven't been waking up with any time to spare if I am going to get to work on time. There was also a HUGE museum (with lots of things to read) inside another part of the castle. By the end we were just walking through rooms to check them off without spending hardly any time looking at things.
On our admission ticket to the castle we saw that we could get 20% off at the Stiegel Brauhaus. I think Brauhaus is brew house, as in brewery. Stiegel is an Austrian company and very old. It took us awhile, but we finally found it. I knew we were headed in the right direction because I started smelling hops at least 4 blocks away. Our ticket included a tour (which was just us escorting ourselves through a huge multilevel museum and A TON of reading), 3 (which turned into 4) beer samples which were actually 6-8 ounces each, and a free gift (the choice between a Stiegl glass or a beer, we each chose the beer). It was really interesting ready about how they were making beer when they first opened. It was quite a process and when the beer was finally made it had a very short shelf life (a day of two usually). The beer was almost all really good. There were only a couple that were too hoppy for me. They had a special one for the month that was really dark and super chocolatey. I finally felt like I tasted some diversity in beer because for the most part when you go out it is dark or light, that's it. They also gave us these cracker things that were delicious and made us realize we were hungary, so we ordered a meal to share. It said smoked trout, but we were still surprised to see and entire fish, skin and head in tact, delivered to our table on a cutting board. I have a picture I'll upload when I can. But I loved every bite.
When we left Stiegl it was time to catch our train, so we walked the long haul back to the hauptbahnhof to find a train to take us to München. We had to wait an hour and once we headed up to the platform we were told o go to a different platform, so we did. Finally a train arrived that everyone seemed to be boarding, so we did too even though it was headed to Frielassing. If you read my last post Frielassing is where we accidentally got off on the way to Salzburg. And when we reached Frielassing everyone got off, so we got off. Thanks to a nice German man who could speak some English we found out the train that should have been coming through to take us the rest of the way to München was not and we'd have to wait another hour for the next train. But because we had just been in Frielassing the night before we knew there was a Norma (a grocery chain) across the street, so we headed over to get some drinks and a snack. Isn't it crazy how if we hadn't accidentally gotten off there we would have had no idea where the town even was or that there was a Norma near the station. Finally our train did come. We made it to München no problem and just made it in time for a train back to Garmisch without having a layover at all. When we finally got back it was about 11:30 or 23:30 since we are adjusting to military time. And folks that it were our first adventure comes to an end.
Friday we slept in, did laundry, never left the Abrams once and tried to prepare for going back to work after a four day weekend.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sulzberg
While we were on the train on Tuesday night and the ticket puncher came by he asked us where we were going. We answered Salzburg and he told us the train was not going there. I was sure it was and got out my train schedule and pointed to Sulzberg. Then he nodded and moved on. So we arrived in Reutte in Trivol and transfer to our next train. We fell asleep on the train and woke up about 15 minutes before Sulzberg. At our stop we exited the train as a young man stepped on board. We seemed to be in the middle of no where and were surprised because we were under the impression that Salzburg/ Sulzberg was a fairly large city. There may have been a moment of panic that surged through me as I watched the train continue on down the track, but knowing that Ryan and I were together and that I had complete faith that God was protecting us made that feeling very brief. We found a sign that pointed down a dark road that read Sulzberg 2 km, so off we went. We passed homes some completely dark and some with only a few lights on as people prepared for bed. It crossed each Ryan and my minds that we may end up knocking on a strangers door or taking refuge in a barn for the night. After this experience I honestly feel like I know what Mary and Joseph felt like when they were alone and looking for a place to stay the night baby Jesus was born. I can't think of anything else that better describes what I was feeling. But the whole time I had faith we would be fine and even thought back to the way God took care of Michelle when she was in need along her journey through Europe.
We finally arrived in town and found everything to be closed. As we continued on we saw lights, as we peered in the windows we found a restaurant still with people in it. We went in and were able to ask in English for the nearest hostel. They did not either know what that meant or there was not a hostel in the area. So I begged for anywhere they knew of we could spend the night. The man we were speaking with turned to a young woman, spoke to her in German and then she put on a jacket and motioned to us to follow her. She led us out the side door of the restaurant and to a separate building out back, up a couple flights of stairs and opened a room with a key. Apparently this restaurant was also a hotel. Praise God we had a place to stay. And for a very reasonable price we also got breakfast included in the morning. The room was very nice too with a flat screen tv and a bathroom. I found a map in the room and had a look at it. I found Salzburg, which was spelled with an 'a' and indicated to be that we may not have reached the destination we intended to. I was not even sure were Sulzberg was. We were relieved just to have found a place to sleep and very tired, soon we were fast asleep.
The next morning I finally found Sulzberg on the map and yes in deed we were on the western side of Bavaria and very far from Salzburg. We had agreed to be back in the restaurant at 10 for breakfast, so after we were ready for the day we headed down. We both asked for coffee, which was some of the best coffee I have ever had. Then they sat down on our table a cutting board full of fabulous looking salami, prosciutto, ham, and dill Havarti. With a garnish of lettuce, cucumber, and tomato. Although I do not each these animal products I can still recognize good quality and these were. We also received a basket full of what appeared to be an entire loaf of wheat bread with small packets of jam, jelly, and nutella. We were quite impressed that this spread only cost us 6 euro for the two of us combined.
After we finished eating we asked for an recommendations on things to see or do in Sulzberg. We learned that Sulzberg was a very small town with little to offer tourists except some castle ruins further up the road. So off we headed in search of what we now refer to as "our castle." It was a bit of a walk (but that is all we do anymore is walk), and we dredged through quite a lot of snow, but finally reached the ruins. It was awesome! We scaled the side of the castle to get in after finding the main gate locked. Took a lot of pictures and explored as much as we could, but finally decided we would need to crawl under the locked front gate to see more. So Ryan and I can now say we broke into a castle. How cool is that? :) Unfortunately there was no way to break into the tallest tower to climb to the very top, but maybe someday we will return to Sulzberg int he summer and be able to go all the way up. Although then they'll expect us to pay.
After the castle we headed back to the train station. We decided to continue going West to the end of the line in Kempten and see if we could find any cheap tickets out of Germany. So Trish, without even meaning to go there we did. We didn't know anything about the town though, which is why we didn't stay and explore there. I'll have to look more into it and then maybe we can go back and find some family history for Ryan to appreciate as I did in München.
In Kempten the man helping us said it would be about 300 euro to go anywhere except Salzburg, so we decided to actually go to our original destination. I am still not sure why it would have been so expensive to go to Switzerland even though we seemed very close, but whatever. We just bought another Bayern ticket. We had an hour before our train left, so we got treats at the bakerei a the station. I have a weakness and it is the bakerei's that you pass every third store. Oh my gosh! Ryan had some sort of a twisted cinnamon role thing with hazelnuts on top. I had a filled doughnut, not typically my first choice, but this had a chili on top and it made me curious enough to try it. She said it was filled with pudding, but that turned out to taste just like chocolate mousse and with the spice of the chili and the smoothness of the mouse it was fabulous. MMMMmmmmmmmmm!
Then I saw a sign for internet and thought is might be wise to get directions to our hostel we knew of through a co-worker. We had directions and headed off to the train feeling satisfied from our treats and prepared for when we arrived in Salzburg.
We had a great compartment on the train that had six seats and a door to close it off from the hallway. Ryan thought it was like Harry Potter. I read most of the way. I am really getting into Dirk's book. Anyone who likes mysteries should look up "The College" by Dirk Barram. He was one of my business professors at Fox. When our stop came be got off and started following the directions we had from the internet. After awhile we were not able to find the street we needed. Probably after 15 minutes of walking we saw an open Hertz rental car place with people inside so we stopped for directions. Guess what we learned here? We were not even in Austria! We were still in Germany in a town called Freilassing. Oh my gosh how did we get off the train to early. Apparently the reader board was a bit to fast when it said nächstes halte(next stop) Salzburg because we hadn't stopped in Freilassing yet. But thankfully we were being looked out for again and the couple in the Hertz returning a car was from Salzburg and offered us a ride, it was only 10 minutes away. So instead of arriving by train we arrived by car thanks to a nice lady and her dog Maxi.
We easily found our hostel and had a great 6 bed room with lockers and a sink for only 18 euro each. For some reason I felt like we should go out since I knew our adventure would be ending soon, so I thought it would be great to go get dessert. As we were walking and I realized how cold it was I did not know what made me think that, but eventually we came across a cute wine bar. We shared a much to large slice of flourless chocolate cake and a glass of Austrian wine. The cake was rich and heavy and more than I had wanted (I was originally thinking more of apfel strudel) and although I liked the wine on it's own I thought it was an awful pairing with the chocolate and I had asked for a recommendation of what would go nicely. Sometime the language barrier gets tiring. After that we headed right back to YoHO hostel and fell asleep fast.
I forgot a part of the trip from Kempten to Salzburg. We had an hour layover between trains in München. I had been recommended a place from someone I worked at at the athletic club and I'm pretty sure it was Augustiner and place also recommended in Ryan's book. So I figured that if we ran there and ran back we would be able to grab dinner in that hour. We made it and I'm so glad because I had the best dunkel bier I've had yet and incredible potato salad that I globbed deli mustard on top of and ate inside a roll. They didn't have much "Emily friendly" food, but what I found I thoroughly enjoyed. Ryan had wieners and potato salad. He was less impressed with the salad, and wished he'd gotten the other sausages instead of his which were pretty much just four skinny hot dogs, but agreed with me on the quality of bier.
So that was our Wednesday. Ryan and I both LOVED Sulzberg and are SO glad we went there evn though it was an accident. I'll try again to do pictures, but they never want to load. With so many people in this building the internet isn't always the best. But eventually I'll get them. And I've got one more day to tell you about too.
We finally arrived in town and found everything to be closed. As we continued on we saw lights, as we peered in the windows we found a restaurant still with people in it. We went in and were able to ask in English for the nearest hostel. They did not either know what that meant or there was not a hostel in the area. So I begged for anywhere they knew of we could spend the night. The man we were speaking with turned to a young woman, spoke to her in German and then she put on a jacket and motioned to us to follow her. She led us out the side door of the restaurant and to a separate building out back, up a couple flights of stairs and opened a room with a key. Apparently this restaurant was also a hotel. Praise God we had a place to stay. And for a very reasonable price we also got breakfast included in the morning. The room was very nice too with a flat screen tv and a bathroom. I found a map in the room and had a look at it. I found Salzburg, which was spelled with an 'a' and indicated to be that we may not have reached the destination we intended to. I was not even sure were Sulzberg was. We were relieved just to have found a place to sleep and very tired, soon we were fast asleep.
The next morning I finally found Sulzberg on the map and yes in deed we were on the western side of Bavaria and very far from Salzburg. We had agreed to be back in the restaurant at 10 for breakfast, so after we were ready for the day we headed down. We both asked for coffee, which was some of the best coffee I have ever had. Then they sat down on our table a cutting board full of fabulous looking salami, prosciutto, ham, and dill Havarti. With a garnish of lettuce, cucumber, and tomato. Although I do not each these animal products I can still recognize good quality and these were. We also received a basket full of what appeared to be an entire loaf of wheat bread with small packets of jam, jelly, and nutella. We were quite impressed that this spread only cost us 6 euro for the two of us combined.
After we finished eating we asked for an recommendations on things to see or do in Sulzberg. We learned that Sulzberg was a very small town with little to offer tourists except some castle ruins further up the road. So off we headed in search of what we now refer to as "our castle." It was a bit of a walk (but that is all we do anymore is walk), and we dredged through quite a lot of snow, but finally reached the ruins. It was awesome! We scaled the side of the castle to get in after finding the main gate locked. Took a lot of pictures and explored as much as we could, but finally decided we would need to crawl under the locked front gate to see more. So Ryan and I can now say we broke into a castle. How cool is that? :) Unfortunately there was no way to break into the tallest tower to climb to the very top, but maybe someday we will return to Sulzberg int he summer and be able to go all the way up. Although then they'll expect us to pay.
After the castle we headed back to the train station. We decided to continue going West to the end of the line in Kempten and see if we could find any cheap tickets out of Germany. So Trish, without even meaning to go there we did. We didn't know anything about the town though, which is why we didn't stay and explore there. I'll have to look more into it and then maybe we can go back and find some family history for Ryan to appreciate as I did in München.
In Kempten the man helping us said it would be about 300 euro to go anywhere except Salzburg, so we decided to actually go to our original destination. I am still not sure why it would have been so expensive to go to Switzerland even though we seemed very close, but whatever. We just bought another Bayern ticket. We had an hour before our train left, so we got treats at the bakerei a the station. I have a weakness and it is the bakerei's that you pass every third store. Oh my gosh! Ryan had some sort of a twisted cinnamon role thing with hazelnuts on top. I had a filled doughnut, not typically my first choice, but this had a chili on top and it made me curious enough to try it. She said it was filled with pudding, but that turned out to taste just like chocolate mousse and with the spice of the chili and the smoothness of the mouse it was fabulous. MMMMmmmmmmmmm!
Then I saw a sign for internet and thought is might be wise to get directions to our hostel we knew of through a co-worker. We had directions and headed off to the train feeling satisfied from our treats and prepared for when we arrived in Salzburg.
We had a great compartment on the train that had six seats and a door to close it off from the hallway. Ryan thought it was like Harry Potter. I read most of the way. I am really getting into Dirk's book. Anyone who likes mysteries should look up "The College" by Dirk Barram. He was one of my business professors at Fox. When our stop came be got off and started following the directions we had from the internet. After awhile we were not able to find the street we needed. Probably after 15 minutes of walking we saw an open Hertz rental car place with people inside so we stopped for directions. Guess what we learned here? We were not even in Austria! We were still in Germany in a town called Freilassing. Oh my gosh how did we get off the train to early. Apparently the reader board was a bit to fast when it said nächstes halte(next stop) Salzburg because we hadn't stopped in Freilassing yet. But thankfully we were being looked out for again and the couple in the Hertz returning a car was from Salzburg and offered us a ride, it was only 10 minutes away. So instead of arriving by train we arrived by car thanks to a nice lady and her dog Maxi.
We easily found our hostel and had a great 6 bed room with lockers and a sink for only 18 euro each. For some reason I felt like we should go out since I knew our adventure would be ending soon, so I thought it would be great to go get dessert. As we were walking and I realized how cold it was I did not know what made me think that, but eventually we came across a cute wine bar. We shared a much to large slice of flourless chocolate cake and a glass of Austrian wine. The cake was rich and heavy and more than I had wanted (I was originally thinking more of apfel strudel) and although I liked the wine on it's own I thought it was an awful pairing with the chocolate and I had asked for a recommendation of what would go nicely. Sometime the language barrier gets tiring. After that we headed right back to YoHO hostel and fell asleep fast.
I forgot a part of the trip from Kempten to Salzburg. We had an hour layover between trains in München. I had been recommended a place from someone I worked at at the athletic club and I'm pretty sure it was Augustiner and place also recommended in Ryan's book. So I figured that if we ran there and ran back we would be able to grab dinner in that hour. We made it and I'm so glad because I had the best dunkel bier I've had yet and incredible potato salad that I globbed deli mustard on top of and ate inside a roll. They didn't have much "Emily friendly" food, but what I found I thoroughly enjoyed. Ryan had wieners and potato salad. He was less impressed with the salad, and wished he'd gotten the other sausages instead of his which were pretty much just four skinny hot dogs, but agreed with me on the quality of bier.
So that was our Wednesday. Ryan and I both LOVED Sulzberg and are SO glad we went there evn though it was an accident. I'll try again to do pictures, but they never want to load. With so many people in this building the internet isn't always the best. But eventually I'll get them. And I've got one more day to tell you about too.
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