These pretzels are making me thirsty!
More and more rain in Vienna led to a quite couple of days, but I forced myself to get out and went with a couple from South London to the Opera. Carmen was being put on and standing tickets were only €2! After an hour of waiting in line I had the privilage of standing for another 3 to watch the show, haha. It was definitely worth it though; however, I was more impressed with the symphony then with the singing and acting. It was nice to be able to recognize a lot of the songs, and they even had an English translation of what was going on. Actually being able to follow along with what was going on and what the songs are about makes for a much more interesting show.
Leaving Vienna I back-tracked to Salzburg. I pretty much saw the whole city that afternoon, so I spent the next few days exploring the surrounding area (also, I watched The Sound of Music for the first, second and third time as it was played every night in the hostel).
First I went to the Ice Caves in Werfen (the largest in the world). It was a rainy day, but I figured what better way to spend a wet day outside than to spend it hiking around a rocky mountain side and climbing through a -5C cave...
The cave was really cool (pun intended), but photography was pretty much impossible because we were walking around by candlelight and the massive sheets/formations of ice would look pretty pathetic in a picture anyway - you really have to see it first hand to appreciate the size.
Next place on the list was Berchtesgaden (if you have seen Band of Brothers this may be ring a bell - it is the site of Hitler's Eagles Nest). I crossed into the German Alps and signed up for the afternoon tour but was informed that the Eagles Nest was closed due to the freak snow storm that they got the previous week (hence, all the rain that we had in Austria). They were still running the tour of the Nazi residences and bunkers throughout the Obersalzburg, so I decided to do that. Hitler (with Eva Braun), Goebbels, Göring, Bormann and Speer all had permanent estates in this area with an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers running throughout the mountain. Most of the buildings had been bombed and removed since the war, but there were a few still there, and a section of the bunker has been opened to allow visitors to walk through. It is unbelievable to think that much of the Nazi movement was established from that very area. Even Mein Kampf (Vol. II) was written here. From the side of the mountain we were able to see the Eagles Nest, but I found out that Hitler never really used it at all. He only visited it 14 times - it was a 50th birthday present from his staff. The engineering of the construction in the area was the most impressive aspect. I wish I could go into all of the details, but I don't want to bore you at this point, as I want you to actually finish reading this post.
Moving north the next day I settled in Munich for a few days. This city is amazing. I ran into a guy I had originally met in Vienna a few days before, as well as a few girls from Manchester that I recognized from Salzburg. We spent the next few days touring Munich, checking out the Oktoberfest grounds, attending a free beer tasting, had a few nights at the Beer Hall then finished on the last day with a tour of the former concentration camp in Dachau. I could have used a few more days in Munich, but I will be back at the end of the month for Oktoberfest. I don't really count on having all that much time to sight-see at that point though. I have already had my fair share of pretzels and wurst, but think I will be able to handle a couple more days...
I am currently in Aachen (just outside of Köln/Cologne), staying with my parents former exchange student, Benny. It is amazing to sleep in a real bed, have a home cooked meal and hace all the luxuries of home at my disposal. Having clean clothes for the end of my trip is going to be great, although it is still just the same 3 old shirts that I rotate day to day. I got a chance to see what life is like here a bit and am apparently playing a game of Texas Hold'em tonight, so things aren't too different from home!
Tomorrow I am off to Cologne for a couple of nights before 4 in Berlin, 1 in Dresden, 2 in Nuremburg and 2 in Munich. I spent the afternoon trying to find a place to stay in the south of Germany that is close to the airport that I am flying out of, but so far have had little luck. The airport is closed from 23:00-05:00 and it says that they do not allow people to sleep in the terminal. It may end up being a very cold few hours wandering the streets, but am still hopeful something will work out.
I probably won't have a chance to put up another post until I get back to Dublin in 2 weeks, but have put more pictures up on Facebook.
Hope all is well,
Trevor
Leaving Vienna I back-tracked to Salzburg. I pretty much saw the whole city that afternoon, so I spent the next few days exploring the surrounding area (also, I watched The Sound of Music for the first, second and third time as it was played every night in the hostel).
First I went to the Ice Caves in Werfen (the largest in the world). It was a rainy day, but I figured what better way to spend a wet day outside than to spend it hiking around a rocky mountain side and climbing through a -5C cave...
The cave was really cool (pun intended), but photography was pretty much impossible because we were walking around by candlelight and the massive sheets/formations of ice would look pretty pathetic in a picture anyway - you really have to see it first hand to appreciate the size.
Next place on the list was Berchtesgaden (if you have seen Band of Brothers this may be ring a bell - it is the site of Hitler's Eagles Nest). I crossed into the German Alps and signed up for the afternoon tour but was informed that the Eagles Nest was closed due to the freak snow storm that they got the previous week (hence, all the rain that we had in Austria). They were still running the tour of the Nazi residences and bunkers throughout the Obersalzburg, so I decided to do that. Hitler (with Eva Braun), Goebbels, Göring, Bormann and Speer all had permanent estates in this area with an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers running throughout the mountain. Most of the buildings had been bombed and removed since the war, but there were a few still there, and a section of the bunker has been opened to allow visitors to walk through. It is unbelievable to think that much of the Nazi movement was established from that very area. Even Mein Kampf (Vol. II) was written here. From the side of the mountain we were able to see the Eagles Nest, but I found out that Hitler never really used it at all. He only visited it 14 times - it was a 50th birthday present from his staff. The engineering of the construction in the area was the most impressive aspect. I wish I could go into all of the details, but I don't want to bore you at this point, as I want you to actually finish reading this post.
Moving north the next day I settled in Munich for a few days. This city is amazing. I ran into a guy I had originally met in Vienna a few days before, as well as a few girls from Manchester that I recognized from Salzburg. We spent the next few days touring Munich, checking out the Oktoberfest grounds, attending a free beer tasting, had a few nights at the Beer Hall then finished on the last day with a tour of the former concentration camp in Dachau. I could have used a few more days in Munich, but I will be back at the end of the month for Oktoberfest. I don't really count on having all that much time to sight-see at that point though. I have already had my fair share of pretzels and wurst, but think I will be able to handle a couple more days...
I am currently in Aachen (just outside of Köln/Cologne), staying with my parents former exchange student, Benny. It is amazing to sleep in a real bed, have a home cooked meal and hace all the luxuries of home at my disposal. Having clean clothes for the end of my trip is going to be great, although it is still just the same 3 old shirts that I rotate day to day. I got a chance to see what life is like here a bit and am apparently playing a game of Texas Hold'em tonight, so things aren't too different from home!
Tomorrow I am off to Cologne for a couple of nights before 4 in Berlin, 1 in Dresden, 2 in Nuremburg and 2 in Munich. I spent the afternoon trying to find a place to stay in the south of Germany that is close to the airport that I am flying out of, but so far have had little luck. The airport is closed from 23:00-05:00 and it says that they do not allow people to sleep in the terminal. It may end up being a very cold few hours wandering the streets, but am still hopeful something will work out.
I probably won't have a chance to put up another post until I get back to Dublin in 2 weeks, but have put more pictures up on Facebook.
Hope all is well,
Trevor
posted by Trevor Schofield at 4:13 p.m.
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