An Alpine Adventure

Almost every summer from fourth grade to my freshman year of college, my family and I would travel to Colorado Springs for a long weekend to relax with lots of our extended family in a cabin up in the Rocky Mountains. Half the fun is being with family I haven't seen since the previous year, but the other half of what makes that a fun experience is simply being in the beautiful mountain scenery for a few days. Its tree-covered mountains and beautiful weather are just incredible!

Well, after a weekend in the Swiss Alps, I've realized that the Rockies are just Alpine wannabes. Everything I love about the Colorado scenery is multiplied tenfold in Switzerland. It is absolutely stunning.

This realization began the moment we opened our window shades on the EuroNight train we took from Austria to Switzerland. We'd just had a very long night: our train departed Salzburg at 10:30 pm; we had a three-hour layover in Bischofshofen; and then we managed about five hours of sleep in very cramped beds on our night train. For Hannah, the bed was the perfect length. But I'm 11 inches taller, and those 11 inches translated to a rather uncomfortable night of on-and-off sleeping. Still, the night train was a good experience overall - certainly a convenient way to get from one city to another without wasting much daylight! Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised with a free breakfast on the train, and while we were eating, we worked up the courage to open the shades and let some light into our dark little cave. We were greeted with our first view of the Alps: an impossibly blue lake surrounded by gorgeous, green mountains. And it only got better from there!

One train transfer and a few hours later, we arrived in Interlaken. It's a quaint little town filled with stereotypical Alpine-looking homes, and it sits right at the base of a mountain and in between two lakes. Very picturesque. We walked across town (which only took thirty minutes) to our hostel, The Tent Village. It is exactly what it sounds like: a bunch of tents. Not the camping kind - significantly larger, and more permanent. Each tent is set up on a wooden platform resembling a shipping pallet, and inside are three bunk beds and a power strip to charge electronics. Though it's definitely the strangest place we've stayed so far, we knew what we were getting into, and it actually turned out to be a fine place to stay. We were sufficiently warm at night, and they had decent shower/toilet facilities and free WiFi. What more do you need when you're backpacking?

That afternoon we went back up to the north end of town near the train station, where the nearest mountain lies. As you'd imagine, there are plenty of hiking trails in the area, and this mountain was no exception! The trail we took leads to a great viewing spot near the top of the mountain, but since it was already mid-afternoon, we didn't have time to hike the whole thing. Still, we made it up about half way, and we found several great spots along the way from which to view the town and the lakes it lays between. It was at this point that Hannah pointed out that this geographical feature must give rise to the town's name. We never verified, but we assume Interlaken translates to "between lakes." I know, it seems like a bit of a reach. I really don't know how Hannah came up with that.

After our hike, we walked to a nearby supermarket for a cheap dinner that we ate on a bench at the edge of one of the lakes. It was very windy and cold so close to the lake, so we didn't stay long, but it was still a nice way to enjoy both our dinner and the Swiss scenery!

It is at this point that I would like to digress on the outrageous cost of living in Switzerland. I knew going into it that stuff cost more money there, but I was still shocked. Examples include 11 francs for a burger, fries, and a drink from a little fast food place; 2 francs for a single donut from the grocery store; 6 francs for a simple stuffed bear on a keychain. (One franc is slightly more than a dollar, to give you an idea of the price in American money.) Needless to say we didn't buy any of that stuff. We did our best to stick to the things we thought were priced most reasonably, but that was pretty tough to do. It's like the Swiss think that just because they make fancy knives and watches, they're allowed to stamp the "Swiss-made" label on any of their products, and raise the price accordingly.

Honestly, though, that was the only bad thing I could say about Switzerland. If you think of the ludicrous prices as normal prices that include a tax on viewing the beautiful Alpine scenery, then it's really not so unreasonable. I'd totally pay money to see those gorgeous mountains again in person.

It is with that frame of mind that we embarked on a day trip to Zermatt the following day. It took us three trains and two hours to get there, and we thought that each leg of the journey was covered by our Eurail passes. <Insert buzzer sound> WRONG. Turns out the only way to get to Zermatt is via a private railway company for which a Eurail pass gets you a 25% discount, but not a free ride. So it cost us 54 francs each for a round trip ticket to Zermatt, but it was worth it. Zermatt is home of the Matterhorn, possibly the single best-known Alpine mountain. When we arrived, the Matterhorn was shrouded in clouds, so we decided to go on a little hike and check back later in the afternoon.

Our trek took us to this place called Gorner Gorge, where a wooden pathway takes you over a deep gorge cut out by a small but tumultuous river. We had no idea whether it was actually that beautiful until we entered, so the cost of 4.50 francs per person gave us some pause. After all, we'd just paid an unexpected 54 francs each just to get to this city.

As we were standing there debating whether to go, a middle-aged man sitting nearby asked us where we were from. We told him, and he reciprocated an answer; turns out he was from Sacramento, California, not far from where Hannah lived for a short while about ten years ago! He told us that his wife and daughter had gone through the gorge because it was supposed to be beautiful, but that he stayed behind because he wasn't in great condition for the hike. Then he goes, "Hey! Know what? I'll pay for you two to go!" We politely declined, but he insisted, "Yeah! You guys aren't sure whether to go, so I'll make the decision easy for you!" He handed the worker the money and told us to have a good time. We were stupefied by his spontaneous generosity, and thanked him profusely! I made a fool of myself by offering him a cookie in return,  which he graciously accepted, and then we were on our way!

Even if we had paid the money ourselves, Gorner Gorge would have been totally worth it. We got some awesome views of the river beneath us, and after following the trail into the mountains some more, we found a clear spot that gave us a view of the Matterhorn less covered by clouds. We sat down and munched on some chocolate we'd bought from a local chocolatier in Interlaken that morning, and waited patiently for the clouds to move away. And they did! Finally we got a clear look at the most stunning mountain I've ever seen! Though I'm sure people back in town had a clear view of it as well, it was neat to think that Hannah and I had found our own view of it, one that nobody else shared, at least not at that particular time. It sounds silly, but that added a lot of meaning to our hike through Gorner Gorge, and to the afternoon in general.

That evening we treated ourselves to a fondue dinner at a small restaurant in Zermatt. Actually, it was technically the treat of Hannah's parents, who had generously given us money to use specifically for a nicer dinner amidst all the cheaper, often thrown-together meals on our trip. So thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Warren! It was a delicious meal! We started with a bowl of bouillon soup, made extra delicious because of the Swiss way of eating it:  you toss in chunks of cheese, so that once you take a spoonful of the rich, savory soup, you bite into the delicious, soup-softened cheese. It's revolutionary! And the fondue - man, the fondue. That is some sinfully delicious stuff. It comes with potatoes and bread, neither of which was anything special, but that's okay, because really they're nothing more than a medium to transport the cheese to your mouth in a socially acceptable manner.

Possibly the most memorable aspect of the dinner, though, was that this old man who didn't speak any English (seemingly the owner of the restaurant, or at least we hope so!) came over several times to show us Neanderthals how to properly eat our dinner. For example, we weren't sure what to do with the solid cheese that came with the soup, but he showed us that we needed to break it up and toss it in the soup. And when the fondue arrived, he taught us to twist our skewer precisely ten times over the pot before putting the cheese-covered bread in our mouths. You don't skewer and dip the potatoes, though. You mash them on your plate and then use a separate spoon to ladle the cheese on top of the potatoes. At first I was like, "Who does this guy think he is, helping us eat our food?" But then I realized he's just showing the ignorant Americans how to eat food the Swiss way. And we were quite grateful to him for that! It'll be fun to feel more "in the know" next time we go to an American fondue place, like The Melting Pot.

Despite how long this blog post is, I feel like we hardly spent any time in Switzerland. It's probably best that we're already leaving since we're on a tight budget, but if money wasn't a concern, I would've liked to have stayed there all week! Apart from hikes, which are nice because they're free, there's a whole lot of cool outdoorsy stuff to do, from kayaking to river rafting to bungee jumping. Maybe some day, when I revisit Munich, I'll make a longer stop in Switzerland as well and try some of those more expensive excursions we didn't have the time or money for this weekend.

That being said, it was a fantastic two days in Switzerland. Today begins the final week of our journey, which we'll spend mostly in Paris!

Oh, and the food Austria is famous for? Turns out there's a couple things. First, "Mozart balls" are these truffles that have a pistachio marzipan center, a nougat middle layer, and a dark chocolate shell. They're delicious! But really, somebody needs to upbraid the Austrian Naming Committee, or whoever has authority to the same effect, because they're completely unoriginal in naming every other street, square, and dessert after Mozart. Second - and this one surprised me, because I thought it was a German dish - is Wiener schnitzel. It's actually the national dish of Austria. I know, right? Unfortunately we didn't get to try that because it's made with veal, so it's quite expensive and generally only served at sit-down restaurants, which we haven't been to very often on our trip. But that's okay - just one more thing to add to the itinerary for our future Europe trip that now includes Munich, Switzerland, and Austria. Good thing Hannah and I are planning on becoming independently wealthy.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen Salzburg

Our most recent destination, Salzburg, Austria, has had Jeremiah and I singing songs from the Sound of Music movie for the past two days! Salzburg is well known for this movie and also because it is where Mozart was born and spent his early childhood. So there is a lot of musical history woven into Salzburg that Jeremiah and I definitely enjoyed, among other things!

Our train ride from Munich was beautiful. Hills and green and cute homes, sprawling farms. I am listening to a book on tape (thanks Emily!) so I get to enjoy the scenery as I enjoy a good book. It's perfect! We arrived from Munich in the evening and found our Airbnb home. A very nice, spacious room on the top floor of the man's home, backing right up to beautiful green mountains. Salzburg is more hilly than any place we'd been to so far. The mountains are covered in trees and, while we were there, low hanging clouds. Though we had wished the skies were more clear during our time there, we couldn't complain about the nearly perfect temperature!

Our first day there we decided to do a Hop On Hop Off tour that was audio guided. There were two different audio tracks, the City Information Track and the Sound of Music track. When we first got on the bus we rode the hour loop straight through listening to the city information track. This way we could just get a good view of the city and learn more about it and its history. Then we rode back through listening to the Sound of Music track and jumping on and off the bus at whatever stops looked most interesting. We spent the whole day doing so! We got to see Old Town Salzburg that had this amazing fortress at the top of a hill overlooking the town. We also went into a couple of gorgeous churches, passed by Mozart's birthplace and home, and went in and out of shops. We opted out of going into Mozart's homes and decided it was enough for us to just say that we saw them! We made a quick stop at the castle where the patio and lake scenes are filmed. You can only get a look at this castle from across a lake because it is not open to the public. Another stop was at Hellbrunn Castle where the Sound of Music Pavillion is located. I was very excited about seeing this Pavillion for some reason... Too bad we couldn't run around on the benches inside it! We took a few pictures there and wandered around the castle grounds and park. As always, beautifully green! I am not getting sick of this green at all! We also made a stop at Nonnberg Abbey and were able to go inside and heard the nuns singing and praying. Really cool experience! Also, of course got a picture of the gate where the children come asking for Maria! 

Our final stop was at Mirabell Gardens. These gardens are where many of the scenes from the "Do-Re-Mi" song were shot. Jeremiah and I had a great time remembering the scenes and trying to recreate parts of the song. Subsequently, we took many pictures! I loved the tour and being able to learn both about the city, about the movie, and about the actual Von Trapp family. I think the most interesting fact I learned was that in the movie at the very end where they were hiking across the mountain on their escape, if the actual Von Trapp family had tried to escape this way they would have eventually run into Hitler's summer villa which is located up in those mountains! The actual family just got on a train to Italy! If you haven't, I would suggest learning more about the actual Von Trapp family, it's interesting to see what, from the movie, is true and what is not. Anyway, we had a really great day living out the movie and exploring Salzburg.

On our second day in Salzburg, we started out heading for the Old Town area again. On our way there we ran into this huge market! There were endless booths of cheese, fruits, vegetables, meats, breads, and flowers. It was amazing. I wanted to by all of the fruit, it looked so good. After wandering through it for a bit, Jeremiah and I thought, why not get our lunch from here? So, we tried to be confident in making our purchases like the locals and found some salami, a baguette, a hunk of Parmesano Reggiano cheese, and a 1/2 kilogram of cherries. All of it was fresh and absolutely delicious! We found a spot on the Salzach river and enjoyed our fresh purchases. Turns out it was enough for dinner too! That may have been my favorite meal so far, probably partially because it was so fun to purchase from the market. Most of the day we just spent walking around the city, we walked halfway up to the fortress on the hill to get a nice view of the city, around the parks, across Mozart's foot bridge (everything is named after Mozart), and sat for a couple of hours in the park just reading and enjoying the day. I love these slower paced days where we can just stop and enjoy the city and its beauty. 

Tonight we are going to experience our first (and only) overnight train on our way to Interlaken, Switzerland! Wish us luck! 

München on Sausage and Beer

When you ask me to remember Munich - or, as the Germans spell it, München - several years down the road, two images will pop into my mind:  a one-liter glass of beer and a BMW. Normally the association of those two things would be considered pernicious, not to mention illegal, but ironically, those seem to be the two greatest points of pride for the residents of that city. And rightly so! Munich is home to both a BMW automotive assembly plant and the Hofbräuhaus - the largest beer hall in the world. Those were two of my favorite parts of our three nights in Munich, but I suppose I'll start over chronologically and tell you more about them in due course.

Our first morning we decided to head to the former Nazi concentration camp, now museum and memorial site, at Dachau. It was only a fifteen-minute ride away on the S Bahn, and on the train, we met a traveler from New Zealand named Bevan. He was quite a friendly guy, also heading to Dachau, and traveling alone, so Hannah and I let him tag along with us when we visited the concentration camp. As we walked around, he told us a lot about New Zealand and what it was like to live there, and I think he convinced Hannah and I that we want to visit that country too! Hopefully we get the chance to some day.

It was really incredible to walk through the concentration camp, imagining it as it was during WWII. Apparently Dachau was the only camp to exist for all twelve years of the Nazi regime, and it was also considered the be a "model" camp on which others were based; so, as you can imagine, the conditions there were dreadful. We got to walk through the partially reconstructed barracks, the jailhouse, even the crematoriums and a gas chamber disguised as a shower room. It was all really interesting, but equally sobering to imagine the horrors people faced when they lived - and died - there.

We were at Dachau until almost 3 pm, but with the remainder of the afternoon, we decided to visit the BMW museum that's attached to the assembly plant. Unfortunately touring the assembly plant is so popular that you have to book it at least nine months in advance, which Hannah and I didn't do. I really regret it, but with any luck, I'll be able to come back to Munich some day and finally experience it!

The museum alone was fantastic. It shows how their cars, motorcycles, and aircraft engines have developed over the past 90 years, and displays a lot of really sweet vehicles along the way. Though I wouldn't call myself a "car guy," it was still really cool to visit as a mechanical engineering student. I wish they'd went into more detail on their actual engineering developments, but I suppose I'd probably need to tour the assembly plant for that sort of thing. So, to reiterate in the words of a destructive, macho robot from the future:  I'll be back!

Hannah makes a nice car model, doesn't she?

After that, we went to the world famous Hofbräuhaus for dinner. The pronunciation of that word is still a subject of debate between Hannah and me. She thinks it's "hoff-bruh-house," I think it's "hoff-brow-house," and our tour guide from the second day pronounces it "hoff-broi-house." Regardless of how you pronounce it, there's no debating the fact that it serves HUGE beers. When I originally heard it was the largest beer hall in the world, I took that to mean that it was the largest hall that served beer. After visiting it, however, I think it means it's the hall that serves the largest beers in the world. We're talking one-liter glasses large enough for your shih tzu to drown in. As daunting as that sounded to two alcohol novices, we each ordered one of those ginormous beers. I finished mine, and Hannah gave hers a noble effort! Actually, who am I kidding, there's nothing noble about a one-liter glass of beer! To add to the picture, the hall itself has live music in the form of a brass band that plays the sort of thing you picture drunken Germans swaying and waving their beers to. Though the food itself wasn't anything spectacular, it was definitely a memorable and enjoyable experience!

The next morning we went on another Sandeman tour (the same company from our awesome tour in Berlin). True to the form of the first, this was another humorous and informative tour that took us to a handful of key historic points in Munich. We saw the figurines move in the glockenspiel at Neues Rathaus, heard some interesting back stories about Peterskirche, learned about authentic Bavarian clothing styles, and also visited Residen München, Viktualienmarkt, Hofbräuhaus, the Bavarian Opera House, and a few other places. Best of all, it was free except for our tip to the tour guide! Future Europe travelers, take note:  Sandeman's free walking tours are a must! It makes everything a lot more meaningful when you can hear about the significance of everything you see from a resident of the city who speaks your own language.

That afternoon we spent a couple hours in the Englischer Garten, which is just a large, pretty park near the center of the city. Through the center of the garden runs a small river, and where it enters the garden, you can find people literally surfing on the turbulence created by some well-placed barriers under the water! We had a nice time strolling through the rich green scenery, just chatting and enjoying the cloudy, cool weather. Afterward we went back to Viktualienmarkt and had a delicious falafel pita for dinner. Then the clouds finally opened up, so we headed back to the hostel to keep dry and relax for the rest of the evening.

We capped off our stay in Munich the next morning with a trip to Nymphenburg Palace, which was the home to the Royal Family that ruled Germany for about 800 years until the start of the First World War. Though large, it was rather plain from the outside; but inside, it was quite ornate and interesting, so we spent about an hour walking through the rooms. The most interesting was a room that contained thirty-some portraits of different women, all of whom were mistresses to King Ludwig I. The King would go out in the town "collecting beauty," meaning he'd pick a pretty girl and take her back to his palace to "paint her portrait." Yeah. Yuck.

The backyard of the palace is a giant garden, so we spent another hour roaming through it until it was time to head back to catch our train to Salzburg.

And just like that, our week in Germany was over! It went by quite quickly, and I have to say, I don't think I gained as much weight as I thought I would. This is largely due to the fact that the pretzels here were completely underwhelming. Turns out Wetzel's Pretzels is not representative of an authentic German pretzel; the real things are nowhere near as soft, buttery, and salty. I know - tragic. But the beer was great, and all the sausage I had was outstanding, so still a successful seven days from a culinary perspective!

I'm not sure what food Austria is known for, but I'm determined to find that out in the next 48 hours. I'll keep you posted.

... Also, I promise I'm not THAT focused on food here in Europe. Though it seems to be 90% of what I talk about, it's really only about 85% of a country's culture. So I'm only slightly inflating its significance. Right?

The East and West, the Ups and Downs, of Berlin

Well, Berlin started off to be quite the interesting experience! We were supposed to be staying in an Airbnb place that had great reviews, but I hadn't heard from the host in quite awhile so I was getting suspicious. When we reached Berlin and got into wifi, there was still no contact from her and I looked back at her reviews and they were all great until the most recent one that said the host cancelled on her the day before! At this point I was beginning to worry, but we went to the address anyway. At the address, there was no one there with the host's name... Okay at this point, I was beginning to panic. Jeremiah remained calm and we walked around the area for awhile, sent the host an email (never heard back), attempted (and failed) to figure out how to use a pay phone in German, and by the time 9 pm rolled around, I was simply done and we just decided to stay in a nearby hostel. It turned out that the hostel was quite inexpensive and very nice! Also, with my mom's help, she was able to call Airbnb for us and get us a full refund. So while it may seem like my awesome, positive view on Airbnb is now changed because of this experience, you would be wrong! They were very helpful and understanding with helping us deal with the issue and even gave us a $75 coupon to use toward a future Airbnb stay! So, it all worked out despite a stressful beginning. And we found gelato afterward to make up for the stress... 

Our first day in Berlin started with a walk through the Tiergarten which is really a massive park right in the middle of the city. It was beautiful and green (which so far it seems that much of Germany is), but unfortunately terrible for both of our allergies. Jeremiah has always had an issue with bad allergies, but this was the worst I've ever experienced. Let's just say, we had to buy quite a few more of those little packs of tissues and blew through them. Quite literally. But we pushed through the day and went on a free walking tour of Berlin. Our guide was from the U.S. and he was an excellent, informative guide. We visited and learned a lot about the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews (Holocaust Memorial), the former location of the Fuhrer's bunker, part of the Berlin Wall, and Checkpoint Charlie, among other sights. Something interesting about Berlin is that the history, compared to the other cities we've been visiting, is very recent. That makes sense considering it pretty much had to be rebuilt after the World Wars! But just to see the remnants of what happened during World War II and the Cold War in particular were really fascinating. We both kept commenting on how mind boggling it was that the Berlin Wall was up until 1989! That's so recent! Another thing, that our tour guide pointed out, was that he admires how much Germany accepts their past mistakes. So many terrible things happened there, but now they have these memorials to remember what they were once like. Consequently, many of the sights were free, we figured, to show as many people as possible what had happened in the past so as not to repeat it in the future. 

After our tour we went back to the part of the Berlin Wall that we had briefly visited which was located right next to the "Topography of Terror" Museum. This is the former location of the SS headquarters where they also had a prison underground to keep and torture their major political opponents. They now have remnants of that prison and a museum building on top that has information on the SS, Hitler, and the Holocaust. The purpose of the museum was to try to give a better understanding of how Hitler became such a big influence and movement in Germany and much of Europe. We ended our long day of walking and touring by trying a food apparently well-known in Germany called Currywurst. It is a Bratwurst cut into small pieces, covered in ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder. I was a skeptic, but it was actually quite delicious.

Our second full day in Berlin we visited the two other remaining parts of the Berlin Wall. Each very unique, one covered in graffiti, and the other more of a memorial sight that had remnants of the inner wall and many of the traps and obstacles that were set up between the walls. We hadn't realized before coming to Berlin that it wasn't just one wall. Originally it was just barbed wire, but eventually it became the big well-known wall, an inner wall, guard towers, a patrol rode, and traps in between the two walls. Wow. All to keep its citizens from going into West Berlin. That day we also went into the new dome of the Reichstag and into the museum underneath the Holocaust Memorial. It was definitely a slower paced day than the day before and it was a short day as well. My allergies had turned into a full-blown cold so I was exhausted and Jeremiah was a trooper so we were back in the hostel early and I got 11 hours of sleep that night! I felt better the next day thankfully. I also learned that Jeremiah is a very good caretaker! 

We had originally planned to stay in Berlin for four nights, but since our Airbnb fell through we decided to book our hostel for only three nights and to make a trip to Kassel, Germany. Kassel is a smaller town Southwest of Berlin that is actually the hometown of my great grandma! Jeremiah and I thought it would be interesting to see the town she came from since we were close enough and to give us a little family history! Plus we were able to use our $75 Airbnb coupon to stay there essentially for free! First of all we ended up staying with the nicest lady, Anne, who picked us up from the train station and everything. We stayed in her basement that had it's own kitchen that she stocked with food specifically for us (she told us this, we didn't just assume), and she let us use her washing machine which was much needed. She claimed to speak very little English, but Jeremiah and I were definitely impressed with her English. She's visiting the U.S. including the Grand Canyon in October so we also showed her some pictures of our Havasupai hike to show her some of the beauty in AZ! 

After we settled in we set out to explore the town. It was pretty cool to think that I was potentially walking on the same streets or at least the same areas (as it has probably changed a lot) that my great grandma did when she was really young, around 1920! I wonder if my great grandchildren will someday walk the streets of a potentially very different Mesa, Arizona and think about where I walked and grew up. It's an interesting thought...

We basically hiked (it was a long, steep walk) up to this Herkules monument which was really amazing. Unfortunately it was undergoing some construction so it wasn't quite as spectacular as it probably could have been, but the view made up for it. It sat at the top of a hill overlooking the whole city which was, again, beautifully green. Every so often the monument has a water feature that is on that is basically a huge staircase with water descending it which I'm sure is amazing, but that wasn't running while we were there either. Our host said it is very busy when the water feature was on so it's not quite so enjoyable. That made us feel a bit better! We made our way down the hill stopping at different landmarks: a waterfall, and two different castles. The castles looked like they were out of storybooks. One in particular was very old and literally looked like it could've been the set of a Disney movie! 

The next day we rode the train to the specific suburb where my great grandma was from, Rothenditmold. We just stopped by really, because we didn't have any specifics like an address or anything, but we can still say we were right there! We also visited the city center that had an antique market sale in the street (I bought a purse which I'm very excited about), the Orangerie park, and walked along the Fulda River. It was a really nice short stop in Kassel. Jeremiah and I were both glad that we decided to stop by, because it gave us an idea of where a part of my family came from and it was a slower paced, more restful day and a half. 

So despite the rocky beginning to our time in Germany, it turned out to be a great time. So far I am loving Germany. Favorite country so far? Maybe... At the end of our trip we'll let you know our favorites, if that's possible! Jeremiah and I keep commenting that throughout our trip (and life) that just when it seems like something bad has happened or is happening, God makes something good out of it! He has a reason for everything! We're still trying to figure out the good in our terrible allergies right now though... 

Staying in Germany, Munich here we come!