97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

Driving into Dresden this evening we noticed that our car odometer almost reads "4,000 kilometers". It feels like we've seen nothing at all, but at the same time like we've been gone forever. I think the "we don't have a home" feeling is starting to sink in, and as freeing as that feels, it's nice to know we do have someplace to eventually return to and call home.

The first time I felt this homesick feeling was the day we arrived in Berlin. It may have been that we had hit the "two weeks away from friends mark", it may have been that we hadn't had much luck with our hotel/pension picks in the past few days, or it could have been that I had been hand washing my underwear for over a week... Anyways, I was missing home. And just then we had the most American day ever. Berlin was FILLED with Dunkin' Donuts, ads for the Blue Man Group and bars that showed American Sports. Since it was Sunday Night Football we found one of those bars and spent the evening - into the weeeee hours of the morning - with American transplants watching the Patriots KICK the Cowboys butts. It wasn't quite the same as sitting on the couch at Spring Hill, but it did the trick. Okay, enough of home, we're sooo glad we're not there

So, the price of oil is at an all-time high and the American dollar is at an all-time low... what can you really buy with 10 bucks in your pocket? Well, we put that to the test tonight in a small grocery store on the outskirts of Dresden. For about 8 Euros (around 10 US dollars) we bought the following: two loaves of fresh bread, one container of cole slaw, two packages of various meats, 10 slices of cheese, one container of this stuff called "Quark" (which we're not really sure what it is, but it's damn good on sandwiches), two bottles of decent red wine, two apples, and a bag of mixed nuts. We're hoping the really reasonable prices will continue as we head into Prague.

Chris did an excellent job of captioning the photos, so I'll let them tell their own story.

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159723112/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Missing and loving you all!!!!!

- Taice and Chris

We left Munich on Wednesday morning and headed off to Dachua to visit the concentration camp there and pay our respects to those who suffered. The weather was sunny and high 70s, but that could not brighten the somberness we felt at Dachua. It's hard to put into words what horrific pictures we saw and what an eerie feeling we had standing in the midst of concentration camp barricks. I (Taice) was too upset to finish the museum part of the exhibit and so, with tears streaming down my face, we left Dachua.

After miles of silence we realized the beautiful landscape ahead of us.....we were on the Romantic Road (Romantische Strasse). We drove straight to Neuschwanstein Castle, which was exactly how they describe it - right out of a fantasy. And of course, the inspiration for the Magic Kingdom. We hiked up the steep path to the outside of the castle and opted to not spend our time touring the inside. The castle was the brainchild of 'Mad' King Ludwig, and the exterior was completed shortly before his death. Most of the interior was never completed and it was opened to visitors only six weeks after he was gone. So, instead we hiked ever higher to Mary's Bridge, which is where Chris took the great shots of the castle (see pics that follow).

On to Oberammagau... I had been to this town when I was younger and had remembered it fondly. But according to the tourbooks it's WAY too touristy. We decided to go anyways. We found a great pension, owned by Anton (who loves stuffed birds and body odor), and headed out to get some dinner. The town had celebrated its own Oktoberfest earlier that day, so most of the townfolk were out drinking beer in the towncenter. We found a cute, but rather quiet, biergarten and had a wonderful meal of weinerschnitzel and kartoffelsalat. After dinner we looked for a rowdier spot and found the main town hotel, which brews its own beers. We settled in at the bar and enjoyed a few drinks to the sounds of the local accordian/guitar duo.

The next day we left early to continue up the Romantische Strasse, stopping for coffee in Augsburg, a long stroll in Dinkelsbuhl, and finally stopping for the night in Rothenburg. We give Dinkelsbuhl 5 stars for its Bavarian charm. What a great little town!!! The travel guides all say to spend the night in Rothenburg and do the Nightwatchman's Tour, which is in English (because no one else does). Well, apparantly every English speaking person traveling to Germany bought a travel guide also. The Tour was our biggest nightmare, crowd-wise. So we skipped the tour, figuring it was a great diversion to get rid of all the obnoxious Americans, and headed to a local biergarten. The place we landed was known for its potato dishes (too bad we had already had a fabulous spaetzle dinner), but we did partake in the apfel strudel and Tucher hefeweizen. YUM. Off to bed.

This morning, after a traditional fruhstuck of meats, cheeses, and breads, we headed to Nuremburg to visit the Nuremburg Rally Grounds. The museum there tries to explain how the Nazi movement came to be, and how their propoganda machine made Hitler into a diety. The grounds were daunting in their current state but it was even more daunting to think of them in their hedey, or how they would have looked had the Natzi plans for them had been allowed to be carried out.

As I write this, we are in Stuttgart - here to see the Mercedes museum. After some car loving, we're off to Luxembourg and then the next three days in Belgium.

Finally, the link to the pics: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159660317/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

All our love,

Taice (and Chris too)!

Chris' Bullets:

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Anyone know of an american sports bar in Gent? I would LOVE to catch the Pats demolition of the Browns or the Sox clinching

What is the german game where 8 men sit around a table and pass out magazines? I think there is some betting involved - I spent awhile trying to figure this one out in Rothenburg last night

I have been having trouble with snoring lately - I have been routinely awoken with requests to 'face out!'.

I don't know if we have mentioned it, but our Kangoo is affixed with a red license plate, and it may be the only in Europe. we think it might mean 'We are american tourists trying to hide behind this french car'. It may be a problem for us once we cross that Italian border. Stay tuned...

I don't think anyone works around here. Nothing leads me to believe they do. Not the afternoon beer drinking, the quiet restaurants in the evening, nor the nonexistent rush hour.

Speaking of rush hour - I am thoroughly enjoying driving the german highways. The trucks stay out of your way, there is no speed limit and I haven't seen a stop sign or an accident in days. I think there is plenty we could learn from this.
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I'll be brief since we walked about 10 miles today and our feet are killing us.
King Ludwig and his family have way too many residences. Our innkeeper (Carol Lenz of Pension Lenz) convinced us this morning that visiting one of the Ludwig's palaces was not enough, we HAD to see them all. So off on the S-Bahn to the bus to the tram to a walk to the U-Bahn to the S-Bahn to a really long walk and we saw most of the things Carol had recommended. Here's what we do know: if you were rich, you had a different coach (carriage, not purse) for every occasion. And it seems there were about 4,865 occasions during the Ludwig's reign. Just when you thought you had seen enough horse bridles, there was a whole other room to see (HAY, have we seen enough horse bridles or what???).

After seeing all the 5 castles that make up the Nymphenburg Palace, we headed to the other side of the city to see the main Residenz. As you can probably tell from the pictures, they were cookoo for Rococo. It was Rococo madness. It was Rococo-nuts. I think my dreams tonight will be guilded in gold. Okay, took that joke too far.

By this time we had spent a solid 6 hours on our feet, so we made our way to the Biergarten inside the beautiful Englischer Gartens, which is the largest city park in Europe. And maybe the only city park complete with a few hundred people drinking beer.

The pics:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159646108/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Our next few days are up in the air, so we may not be checking in too much. We're off to Dachau tomorrow morning and then making our way down the Romantic Road. After that we hope to see some of Rothenberg, Stuttgart, and Trier before heading towards Belgium.

Enjoy the pics and please keep the comments/email coming!!!

XO Taice and Chris

Do you believe in signs? I'm not really sure that I do, but as we boarded our plane from London to Paris, Chris picked up the local morning paper and out fell the Travel section. The section was devoted to what they were calling a "gap year" - highlighting people, couples, and families who took a year off of work and traveled the world. It made me feel like what we were about to embark on was in fact a good decision. I was starting to believe in signs.....

We arrived in Paris at 9:30 AM and after three phone calls to our car rental company we finally were met by Mr. Kalloush (the silent Mr. Kalloush), who drove us to a parking lot to pick up our Kangoo. The car is unbelievable - airplane compartments throughout, great mileage, and the quirkiness of a European sized car. We drove from Paris to Strasbourg that first day (a 5 hour drive on the backroads) and then settled in to our deserted hotel that ended up NOT being in Strasbourg. Instead it was in a small town on the outskirts of the city and nobody spoke a word of English. We found a small bar that was serving pizza and managed to order a bottle of local Gerwetzraminer and a four cheese pizza complete with chevre and other yummy French cheeses. After pushing our jet lag to the limit we called it a night at 8 PM. We survived Day One.

The next morning we hit the road early and drove to Baden-Baden for some hiking in the Black Forest. The city was very posh for a smaller German city, but we had an enjoyable hike up to the Altes Schloss (Old Castle). After the hike we drove 3 more hours to Munich to met Kate Haynes (Chris's old coworker from Forrester). Kate was in the city training with a new company that is based here in Munich. We found Kate in Marienplatz and took off for beers and dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. One too many beers later and I fell down a flight of stairs in the Munich U-Bahn station. OUCH. At least now I know I can tuck and roll..... and come out unscathed.

Fast forward to this morning. We tackled alot today - walking around the city for a few hours, visiting the Deutsche Museum (Science and Technology), lunch in a Biergarten, and then to OKTOBERFEST. Unfortunately we didn't get to the grounds of Oktoberfest until after 5, so it was too crowded for us to get a seat inside the beer tents. We had to settle for a beer on the Carousel-Bar. Thank God it wasn't moving too fast.

So far we've been doing a pretty good job passing as non-Americans. I've been trying out my German and I think I may have fooled 1/2 the people so far

A few observations:

National Auto Pride - we are used to everyone in the US driving cars from all over the world - but from what we have seen so far, French people drive french cars, German people drive german cars and the difference is immediate as you cross the border.

Do not take a Renault Kangoo on the Autobahn and expect to pass anyone - not going to happen.

The German love of order is more apparent than I ever expected - no one even thinks about crossing the street until the the little man turns green, and that Deutsche musuem was the densest, most detailed musuem I have ever been to - picture a room explaining the process of creating car rear-view mirrors. Enormous, extensive and exhausting.

Apparently - the last week of Oktoberfest is when all the italians come to Munich - they are everywhere and observing the contrast between their passionate yelling and flirting to the german's structure and order is quite entertaining.

It is really cool to see how Munichers have held on to their traditions. All people, young and old, don their Dirndls and Liederhosen and hit the town. You would never see a few teenage boys in the US trying to be cool and wearing tight, short, leather pants at the same time.

Well - we'll let the pics tell the rest of the story:http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159639456/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Till next time!