Just arrived in London and I have a moment to access the Internet, so I thought that I would write up what I can remember of the last week and by clicking on the links you can join me virtually. :)
On Monday the 11th I arrived very drowsily in
Munich international airport after having spent the previous 12 hours on a plane to cramped to sleep a wink (the amount of flying I will be doing, I better work on that...). Just a quick note, I might get the days a little confused
Munich was a blur, to much happening at once, I had a great time and have Sonja, my little sister, to thank for that ;)
It was great to see my sister again, after not having seen her for 4 months. My parents' plane arrived an hour later and we set out, little did I know what plans had been made.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (not entirely sure what happened when but I might straighten it out once things become clearer again :)):
- Feldherrnhalle
- Hofgarten
- Residenz
- Schatzkammer der Residenz - The treasury has some pretty amazing old stuff in it. I was a little surprised to find "Reliquien" (bits of holy dead people).
- Englisher Garten - This is a park that is apparently slightly larger than Central Park.
- Friedens Engel
- Königs Platz
- Theresienwiese - This is where the "October Fest" happens, pretty much big and open... probably a little more interesting once the beer starts flowing :)
- Ruhmeshalle und Bavaria - Went all the way to the top of the Bavaria statue, again this probably better when there are throngs of people living it up below.
- Nymphenburg Schloss (Amalienburg, Badenburg, Pagodenburg, Magdalenenklause, Marstall Museum + Porzellan) - This is a beautiful "summer residence" with a huge garden. There are 4 mini castles(houses really) scattered in the garden. A horse carriage/sled museum which reminds my sister of Narnia and I would have to agree :)
- Munchner Bus Tour
- Frauenkirche
- Marienplatz + Glockenspiel
- Viktualienmarkt - I could not believe how busy the market was on a week day. Went to a store near the market where they sold red bananas, I should have bought some! :)
- BMW Welt - This is an exchibition of all of BMWs latest cars and technologies with a few hands-on demonstrations. The building is pretty striking. I did not go to the museum because of a lack of time, I am sure would have been awesome as well.
- Olympia Park - Venue of the 1972 Olympics still quite busy, lots of people blade, walk, swim and run here. The hills in the park were made from World War 2 rubble.
- Olympia Turm - Ride up to a height of 200m for a great view of Munich, the lift takes you up at 7m/s.
Friday:
Rented car, drove to
Schloss Neuschwanstein. An amazing place, in the most picturesque setting. Not only did Ludwig II have the first telephone in Bavaria, he also had a flushing toilet, air based central heating and an battery powered reading lamp!! Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos inside the castle because of copyright reasons. Needless to say everything inside is very ornate decorated in carved wood panels or wall-sized paintings depicting scenes from Wagner's operas (Ludwig II was a big fan :)). We missed out on
Linderhof palace because of confused misleading "Navi" (read GPS). It lead us north almost back to Munich instead of through the Austria which would have been quick. Alas, I will have to go back :) While returning the car to the rental place in Munich I went through two orange lights which might result in me being ticketed. In South Africa orange means "go faster", I guess in Germany it means "stop".Oh well, still a pretty good average, one day two tickets. At night we went to go see Angels and Demons in an english cinema and although the movie was probably good, I did not enjoy it all that much. Significant parts also seem to have been changed to make it fit onto the big-screen.
Saturday:
The
German Museum is an enormous and magnificent museum, if only we had been able to go there during school a lot more people would have enjoyed physics :) There are tons of experiments to every conceivable field of study beautifully laid out. I was amazed; huge models of ships planes and actual satellites. It is definitely worth a visit but would require more than a day to do it justice. I will visit the science museum here in London to see how the two compare :) The museum was followed by dinner at
Hofbräuhaus, then relaxing evening at home watching mentalist.
Sunday:
Train ride to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to meet the mother of an old school friend. Lunch at a cafeteria at Lautersee near Mittenwald with a fantastic view of the Alps. Then train ride back to an excellent home cooked meal. (My sister will make someone very happy one day :)) Getting ready for the next mornings flight and watching
Dollhouse.
That's all for now, I must be more diligent in jotting down all the things that I do when I actually do them. And I need to take more photos. Oh and #1 traveller tip, keep some plasters in your hand-luggage :)
Having said that, I only spent time in the old town, Quebec City is the fourth oldest city in Canada having recently celebrated its 400th year of existence and it has some amazing history and buildings. It was founded on July 3 1608 by Samuel de Champlain (champlain was also the wifi password and I thought they had misspelled champagne until I walked the streets :)). The city walls apparently are the last remaining city walls in America north of Mexico, and for this the old town was declared a world heritage site in 1985. I walked along the city walls which are lined with cannons and the whole trip takes just over an hour to complete. Most of my photos were taken from the walls. The walk also takes you past the Chateau Frontenac which is a hotel "the most photographed hotel in the world", it dominates the Quebecan skyline. It is quite pleasant walking around, the only thing that spoils it is that the entire city was built on a hill and going along the streets often times means going up and down a hill. This was only really a problem (or proper workout) when I was carrying all my luggage to the top, a 15 minute uphill walk. 
The only other thing I tried while I was there, was poutine which is basically a bowl of chips served with cheese curd and gravy. I was told that it was traditional (this seems to be the excuse for quite a few things) and I absolutely had to try it. Well the cheese squeaks when you chew it, but other than that, it is not the most revolting thing I have eaten. It looks quite horrible and i must confess that I did not complete mine as it had way to much gravy on for my liking and I could feel my arteries constricting,so I only ate the chips that had survived the drowning. Incidentally my meal looked almost identical to the Wikipedia picture.
