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So, the title of this entry should really be entitled "Mom's Visit to Germany" but alas, I don't believe that I can name it that, so it'll just have to remain "Munich".
OK, so I got a little worried that mom and Ryan wouldn't actually make it to Germany b/c I totally thought mom was going to chicken out, but she didn't. So I got up really early on the morning of the 14th so that I could be AT the airport and AT their gate just in case their plane got in early...I ended up waiting for about 2 hrs fro them to arrive, but that was ok, I didn't mind. Then I was waiting for them to come out of the doors, and then they did. At first i didn't even recognize Ryan, he just looked so different then when I last saw him around Christmas, and mom had also cut her hair, so that too was different. Well, when I finally realized that they had come out, I got really excited (cried a little, not gonna lie) and we left to go to the train station to get back to Mainz. Of course, since they were all hyped up and all about getting to Germany, they both said they weren't tired, but by the time we hit Mainz, I knew they were at least a little tired. Anyways, I had found out from Monica on the ride back from Amsterdam that the Hostel didn't allow people to check -in until 2pm, so when we got back to Mainz, I went ahead and got mom and Ryan to buy their bus tickets for the week and then we went back to my room. From there we went out to explore Mainz, well we ate first at Subway and then went exploring. Of course mom pitched a fit about the whole expensive Subway thing, but then I just had to tell her that that's the way it is and that to eat cheap you can't eat fast food....which is what Subway is.... Anyways, after eating at Subway (from which I abstained) we went around and saw some of the sights of Mainz, namely the Cathedral, St. Stephan's, the Rathaus, and other such things. However, not long after my official tour began, the fatigue of being up for multiple hours hit them and they wanted to head back to my room to get their stuff and then go to the hostel. I completely understand the whole fatigue thing, so I said cool and we went back to get their stuff and then made our trek over to Weisenau to get to the Hostel.
When we got to the Hostel, I told my mom that I was just going to ask the man if he spoke English so that she could get everything information-wise for herself and wouldn't have to rely on me to ask around and ask for things and then call me in the middle of the night b/c she thought she couldn't talk to the man. Well, this was a good plan....in theory but like most good plans, it didn't pan out that way. He said he spoke English, but it was much worse than my German, so I just switched over and took it from there. It all turned out fine though, we got the key and got my mom settled, and I even retained my patience long enough to ask the man all of the questions my mother had....regardless of whether or not I thought they were redundant or anything. So, then we moved up to the room and got everything situated. After that, we went down the street to the Rewe and got them some water and stuff so that they wouldn't die of thirst or anything (though I still don't understand why my mother didn't just refill her bottles since she was using the Crystal Light packs anyways....). After getting all of that in order, we went back to town to try to get some food. I decided to go to Cafe Extrablatt since I figured that that would be the best place to go. OMG! BIG MISTAKE!!! I didn't realize that my mother got irritable the more she got tired (though I should have b/c that's how I am) and when the waitress came I asked her if there was a WC in the restaurant. Well, the waitress didn't understand me b/c I should've said toilette, and I guess that pissed my mom off, b/c when the next waitress came over, she snapped, "Do you speak English!" However, this was a different waitress, and then my mom felt bad for snapping and I felt embarrassed b/c of the way she was acting. So, we finally finished our food...which amounted to me getting fries, then we left and I gave them directions to get back to Weisenau on their own, and told my mom to call me when she got back to the hostel. The next day, I had planned to go to Bacharah, so I told them to be prepared to climb a mountain to go see a castle and to meet me the following morning at the train station around 9am.
The next morning, I met Mom and Ryan at the Hauptbahnhof and we hopped a train to Bacharach beginning our first day of travel in Germany! When we got to Bacharach, I think mom and Ryan were a little disenchanted b/c they had this big idea of Germany being completely quaint and having all Half-timbered houses, but they didn't know that the train station isn't necessarily in the middle of town, but I didn't tell them that. So then, we began our ascent to the castle in the hill overlooking Bacharach. So here comes the funny part, on the way up mom says, "Man, I didn't know we were going to be climbing a mountain"
and I said, "What do you mean you didn't know, what part of 'We're climbing a mountain to the castle' wasn't clear?
to which she replied, "Well, yeah, but I didn't know it was a REAL mountain!" So that was kinda funny. I also realized how much better shape I'm in now b/c I was able to keep up more to Ryan's pace, which made me feel better. Anyways, upon our arrival at the Summit, they both realized how good it was that we decided to go to the castle b/c it gave a breath-taking view of the valley below. Also, this was their first castle EVER and we thoroughly explored it. Then, on the way down, we took a cool path which was really steep, and it gave Ryan an adventure. At the bottom, we saw the cute Pension with the cool sayings and stuff and the river. I think by this time, Mom and Ryan were thoroughly impressed. After seeing these things, we walked down to the town, which is ALL Fachwerk! However, this is where my mother's downfall approached; she found a souvenir shop. This temptation with which I am familiar, is hard to resist, and eventually she caved, and we went in to the shop. Well, once we were inside, it was like it was the day after Christmas sale, and everyone was trying to find something cheap....except we were the only people in the store and my mother seemed to be buying EVERYTHING in sight. Well, she set her eye on getting a Hummel figurine, which is fine, except she, like me, puts way too much thought into what she's buying before she buys it. The woman who worked at the shop spoke English, but my mother speaks really fast. So finally I ended up just translating for her b/c she couldn't decide on the Hummel figurine she wanted and the woman helping was getting confused. Anyways, when we went to pay, the lady told me thank you for speaking in German and she gave us an extra 10% off of our purchases she said b/c I spoke to her in German. GO ME!!!
So, after we left Bacharach, we went to St. Goar, which is like 5 more minutes up the Rhein river. Had I been with some of my friends, I probably would have walked, but since I was with mom and Ryan, we just hopped back on the train and went to St. Goar. There isn't really much in St. Goar except for Burg Rheinfels, which is the largest and most extensive castle ruins along the Rhein. We had a little difficulty figuring out where exactly the damn castle was, but we finally found it and decided to go ahead in and explore around. This, i think was probably the most fun for Ryan. He just kinda took off and was exploring around going into the cold caverns and walking around the castle walls. It was really cool for me too. We took a lot of pictures, and then we decided to go back to catch the 5 pm train so that we could go and eat dinner with Ann that night. When we finally got back to Mainz, it was about 6:30 pm and we headed straight to Pomp to meet Ann. Dinner was great, and afterwards, Mom and Ryan took the bus back to the Hostel and we agreed to meet the following day to go to Heidelberg since I read online that the Castle was open 7 days a week, and since nothing else is open o Sundays, I thought Heidelberg would be a nice trip.
On Sunday, we met at the train station in the morning and went to Heidelberg. However, the weather wasn't really the most pleasant, and it rained on the way there. We got lucky though when we arrived in Heidelberg b/c the rain had stopped and it was relatively nice out. We went out and caught a bus (after a minor tiff b/c I didn't want to ask for directions) and headed to the Castle. I don't think Mom was anticipating a really steep climb to the castle, even though I told her that it was really steep. But she did fine, and didn't even really have to stop for a rest. Ryan, on the other hand, booked it to the top and was waiting for us by the time we got there. We paid to get in and took some good pictures throughout the castel. Mom opted not to do the tour since I had done it before, and it really wasn't that great, since the most interesting thing to me was the large barrel of wine, and you didn't have to take the tour to go ahead and see that. So we skipped ahead and went to go see the barrel of wine. When they finally say how large it really was, they were both AMAZED!! That thing is HUGE, lemme tell you. So I told them to go ahead and go to the top and I would go and take their picture from the bottom. After this, we had a minor accident with an exploding banana and then went back out to view the castle gardens. The gardens, since it's obviously NOT spring, weren't in bloom or anything, but you get a really nice view of the valley from them. So we took some more pictures and then decided to leave the castle and go to the town. This however was when disaster struck. It began to rain, and because of that, mom decided she wanted to go home. So we came back relatively early and I made us all dinner in my room. After eating, I walked them out to the bus stop and we agreed to meet the next morning early to go to Anke's parents' house in Schwäbisch Hall.....it was going to be a 4hr ride, so we left around 7am in order to get there around 11. Mom wasn't happy at such a long ride, but it was necessary or it would be too expensive.
So the next day we met early at the train station and caught the train to Schwäbisch Hall. The train ride itself was pretty uneventful but mom did get nervous as we were going through the tunnels. I still don't understand this because, well, I just don't. Anyways, when we arrived at the train station, mom told me that I had to go up and greet Rainer first b/c she was nervous or something. But, I was ok with that b/c they're both really nice people and I didn't mind. So I went up and said hi and then mom chimed in, and everything ended up being fine. So then we got in the car and we went to their house and met up with Anne. We then sat and talked for a few minutes before they told us that they were going to take us out to lunch at this good restaurant that they go to all the time. We got there and it was a very nice lunch. We just kinda sat around and talked and stuff. When we were done with that, Anne and Rainer told us that they were going to take us down to the town and look around. We did the same type tour I did when I was there the last time i.e. we went to the Michaelskirche and the Rathaus and the other big buildings. It was really cool the second time around too. Anyways, in the church, Ryan and I climbed the tower and he got really excited about that since he'd never done anything like that before in the States. Then, after exploring for a bit, we went back to their house and habe dessert....which was Schwärzwaldkirschtorte.....OMG, it was amazing. Then we had to leave and Anne gave us some pretzels to take with us. When we got back on the train to come home mom said that she was glad that she came b/c it was really fun and she really liked Anke's Parents. We finally arrived back in Mainz around 9:30 or so and we agreed to mee the next morning to go to Cologne. I figured we could hit both Cologne and Koblenz in one day, so that's what we did.
OK, so the next day, which was Tuesday I believe, we got up early, met at the train station per usual, and went on our merry way to Cologne. We mainly went here b/c Ryan so enjoyed climbing the tower on the Michaelskirche that I thought it would be cool for him to climb the tower in Cologne....and he kept asking to do so. Also, the Cologne tower is the second tallest church tower in the world, so I figured that's something for him to tell people when he gets back home. Anyways, we got on the train and went to Cologne. Of course, as luck would have it, it was a BEAUTIFUL day in Cologne, something that I didn't not suspect would happen mainly because EVERY time I've been to cologne, it's been overcast and just not a generally sunny day. Anyways, so we get there and take the Mandatory photos of the church after exiting the train station and then we procees to go inside. We make the usual rounds around the ambulatory and the choir, see the Three King's Relics, and then just muse over the total beauty of this magnificent church. After doing so for a relatively long period of time, we decided to head towards the back and go ahead and make the climb up to the top. I told Mom I thought she could do it, and I also told her she needed to get over this claustrophobia thing b/c when was she EVER going to climb a cathedral tower again? So she sucked it up and began the ascent. It was fine at first, but then she got a little winded and I think that brought out the fear. So I told her just to calm down and that if she needed to stop (the tower has 509 steps) we could just stop and take a break. This, I think, calmed her down a bit, and after resting, she was fine and continued the climb. The Belfry though, gave her a little trouble. It's rather narrow and she got nervous, but we just stepped out of the way, let the other people pass, and then ocntinued our climb. We finally made it to the top where mom called dad to tell him she made it, but then she made me take the pictures b/c she said she was nervous and the camera kept shaking. I told her that there were two ways down and so she wound't be nervous of the people coming up the narrow staircase, but on the way down, some idiot with his kid was coming up the wrong way!! WHAT A MORON!!! Anyways, he had to squeeze past mom and pressed on her stomach which hurt I think, and then made her a little more nervous. However, she didn't freak out or anything and we made it back to ground level in one piece. After descending the cathedral tower, we walked on over to the Lindt Chocolate Museum and looked around in there for a bit. It was really fun, but mom and Ryan didn't think it was as interesting as I thought it was. I guess we just have different tastes in "fun". Then afterwards we went and caught the train and went to Koblenz. When we arrived in Koblenz, I went ahead and bought our tickets to Munich for the following day. It was SOO expensive! €416! Can you believe that! Anyways, after that, we walked down by the river and saw the Duke's Palace and the Deutsches Eck. It was here that mom decided that she just HAD to poop, and we had to rush to find a bathroom. We finally found one, but we had to eat dinner at this place in order to use the bathroom, so we did. It was a nice meal, and by the time we left, we were full and ready to go back to Mainz. ONce we arrived, we went back to our respective rooms and got ready for the big day the next day....going to Munich and Dachau!!!
I've decided I'm going to skip the Dachau portion of this blog b/c I think it deserves an entry of its own. Ergo, I'm going straight to Munich. We got back from Dachau around 1pm and just got back on the train and went to Marienplatz where we saw the Frauenkirche, the Glockenspiel, and the Rathaus. We then walked through the Alte Hof and finally into the Hofbräuhaus! I really wanted to go in and have a beer, which is exactly what we did...well I did. We sat down and asked someone to order, but he said he wans't the waiter for our table, so we had to wait. Finally I got to order. Mom got a coke and Apfelstrudel, and I got a beer. Well, the beer was 1 LITER!!! HUGE!!! And so we all took turns drinking from it (thank God I'm legal here) and then I finished it. Mom was all worried I was going to get drunk, but I didn't. I guess this means I have a high tolerance....not sure. Anyways, after the Hofbräuhaus, I wanted to go to the Olympiapark, but mom didn't want to be on the Subway anymore, so we had to skip that.....Party Poopers!! We then went back to the train station and caught our train back home. Once back in Mainz we decided to sleep in the next day, which I totally did, and when they called, I was still asleep! Anyways, on Thursday we really didn't do anything. We went to the store for Ryan and I to turn in our bottles, and then came back to my room where we looked at pictures and ate dinner I fixed. Mom then said that this was her favorite part of the trip.....weird, I know.
So, Friday was the day they left, but this of course couldn't go off without some sort of problem. First, we found out that it was a holiday and that the buses weren't running on schedule. Thank God, however, that one came by and picked mom and Ryan up b/c I didn't know how they were going to Walk from Weisenau...and then catch the plane, NO WAY!! Anyways, we finally all get to the station, and then we miss the train (I blame this on Ryan and Mom b/c I told them to get on the train at track 4a....and then didn't). So then we had to wait for a later train. In any event, we made it to the airport on time, and everything was ok.
All in all, I'd say we had a blast during mom's visit!!! And now I miss her....
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