Germany and Austria

Prepare yourself for yet another extremely long story.
Day 1
Let's begin at 2 in the morning on Friday when I woke up to get ready for the airport. I got into my taxi at 3 in the morning. I arrived at the airport at 3:30 in the morning. I had a 6:30 flight, so I was there exactly 3 hours in advance like you're supposed to. Except no one is at the airport at 3:30 in the morning. So I waiting around and read a book and finally checked in, made it through security and settled into my gate. And whoever designed the Edinburgh Airport should be hired for any and all future airports that need designing. Heathrow is a whole other story. Whoever designed that airport should be sued.
I got on my plane from London to Germany and realized that I needed to retract my previous statement about my undying love for British Airways. Luftansa... Those Germans, they know how to make a plane... I was desperately tired and should have been sleeping on the planes, but I have this great book from Aidan that I couldn't put down. "Dead Air" by Iain Banks. I highly recommend it.
I arrived at the Munich Airport and although I don't speak a touch of German, never fear, those Germans, they know how to make an airport that is a piece of cake to navigate. So I followed all the signs for the U-Bahn (like the metro) all through the airport and arrived outside. Except, there was no U-Bahn to be found. BUT there was a Christmas Market that I became hopelessly lost in. Upon reaching the other side, I came out right at the U-Bahn station. Tricky...
I got a ticket for the U-Bahn after a short call to Macy because I had NO idea what to do. I got on and met her in Marienplatz. We got on another 'train' and headed to her house where we chatted and I took a nap (this being about 4 in the afternoon). I got up at 5 and we went back to Marienplatz. We came out of the metro and another Christmas Market!! The first thing I saw was the biggest tree I've ever seen:



We examined the Christmas Market.
And then headed to other parts of the city center.

Where we found Santa.

And another Christmas Market!

We then found an Advent Calendar on the side of a building. These Germans, they take Christmas seriously.
We also came across various historic buildings, as you do.
This is said to be where Hitler started his march.
After a little more perusing, we met up with Macy's friends, Jonathan (Ireland) and Emma (Finland) for dinner and sat discussing the state of the world for a few hours. Macy and I returned to her house and I promptly fell asleep in my sleeping bag and didn't wake up till the next morning.

Day 2
Macy and I woke up and headed out to Olympia Park.
And there was snow!
We passed the BMW building and headed towards Olympia Tower.
We did a little hiking and went to Olympia Stadium.


P.S. The sign says "life danger" in the background.After we had our fill of the park, we hopped back on the U-Bahn and headed for the English Gardens. First we made a pit stop at Macy's school:

Outside the fountain we found these:

They are newspapers written by students who were protesting Hitler and the war and were thrown from the balcony down into the fountain area.

One of the gates of the old city.

After this detour we were off to the English Gardens.

We ate lunch up here and watched people walking their dogs and playing frisbee. We walked over here and found, guess what- another Christmas Market!
As we were heading out, we got a little lost and found ourselves in a very quaint neighborhood I would like to live in.

And then stumbled upon this guy.
After we found him we were oriented again, jumped on the U and headed back to Marienplatz.
We first went in St. Peter's Cathedral.

And then hiked all the way to the top for views of Munich.
The Frauenkirche (which we visited later).

Mace.
Alex.
We made our way down, stopped at another Christmas Market we saw from up top and found a bakery.

And ate Diabetes in a pastry.
Cause, you know, those Germans, they know how to make good sweets.

Exploding sweets, but good nonetheless.

We headed back to the Christmas Market in Marienplatz.

Ordered Kinderpunsch and shopped a little.
Then we stopped by the Haufbrauhaus.
We bought some bratwursts for dinner and headed back to Macy's. See we got to talking during the day about how much we love traveling, but how expensive it is. And Macy says, "actually, there is a Bayern Ticket and it's only 27 Euros for up to 5 people to go to Austria." So I said, LET'S GO!!!
We went home, researched Salzburg and went to bed early.

Day 3
We got up early and caught the train to Salzburg.
We were a little excited about the Alps.
Keep in mind that today is not about Salzburg and the history of the wonderful city. Today is about finding as many places in "The Sound of Music" as we possible can.
So first stop is Mirabell Gardens. The site of "Do-Re-Mi" with the stair and the fountain dances and the tunnel they run through while singing.


After about 70,000 pictures Macy was finally content and we headed into the city.
And stopped at a famous Church... I think St. Andrew's...

Then on to Mozart's birthplace:

We read with Mozart, and then crossed the river to the other side of town.

Once on the other side of the river we found the city center and many churches. First Franziskaner Kirche... and the second I can't remember the name...


City Center.
Next stop: Mozart's House. Wonder if it looked like that when he lived there...

We watched some people play chess and headed up to the cemetery where the flight scenes were filmed in "The Sound of Music."

From there we headed up to the nunnery where "Maria" is filmed.
This is the view from the nunnery.
When we got to the top we both stopped in our tracks.
I forgot about the Alps.

After many pictures and "Oh My God"s we headed to the fortess.
Almost got lost.
The fortress doesn't actually look that defensive. Until you start climbing it and realize that no one in their right mind would try to take it!
This wasn't even the hardest part. We thought about warning these people.
But it was definitely worth it.

And we found the Alps again. And some more photo ops.
And yes, I'm glad you asked, there was a Christmas Market in the Fortress.
We stopped at one more church on the way home.
We took one last look at the city and got back on the train.

We got home, ate some dinner, had a nice long chat and fell asleep.
Day 4
We woke up early and went to the train. I got to the airport, navigated it, got a stamp in my passport and waited for my place. Loved Luftansa again, hated Heathrow maybe more than the last few times and got back to Edinburgh in time for dinner. I had been traveling all day. Liz, Aidan and I ate, caught up about the weekend and I went to sleep early.
I have finals in the next few weeks and then it's Christmas!