After the trip thoughts - packing

So I decided I wanted to keep posting for a little bit on some of the tips and tricks we learned, and what we did that worked or didn't ... when we were preparing for our trip I scoured the internet for blogs from "normal" people for their packing tips, especially for packing light in small carry on backpacks for those budget airlines.

For the 2 people that read this who aren't my family, I thought I'd share about our packing. 

I packed in a 38 liter Gregory Jade pack. EasyJet's carry on requirement was 50x40x20cm, just barely under the "normal" carry on size we are used to in the U.S. The other issue is that they only allow 1 bag per person. Not 1 bag and a purse, but ONE BAG. And they checked. So when packing, I had to be sure everything fit in my backpack, but that it also had room to squish my purse in it last minute before boarding. The plus with a backpack - they were a little more lenient if they saw you carrying a reasonable sized backpack. They didn't question us, but we did see people with slightly larger, more packed out backpacks get stopped and checked for size.

 The above photo shows my full backpack, with the outfit I wore on the plane - heaviest/bulkiest clothing. It worked well to carry my coats over my arm, if I needed a little extra room in my bag.

 These pictures detail everything I packed for our 3 week trip. Our trip was in the fall, and the weather was much colder than expected, so I was very happy with all the layers I brought.

Clothing:
2 tanktops
2 t-shirts (quick dry)
1 longsleeved t-shirt
1 sweater
1 warmer baselayer
1 flannel
1 pair Lululemon cropped tights
1 pair shorts
1 skirt
1 pair of skinny-ish jeans
1 pair hiking pants
3 short smartwool socks
1 long smartwool sock
4 pairs quick dry undies
1 sports bra
1 regular bra
2 scarves
1 hat
1 pair gloves
1 belt
*All of this, I fit into 2 small packing cubes. ROLL all of your clothes, as tightly as possible. Those packing cubes can hold more than you think, and when packing in a backpack are invaluable. You don't want to have to take out all of your clothes one item at a time when finding something at the bottom of your bag.

Shoes:
Keen low hikers
Born leather boots
Toms (wore twice)
Chacos (wore once)

Jackets:
1 rain jacket
1 warmer fleece jacket
1 lightweight down jacket

Extras:
1 pack towel (helpful for squeezing out extra water from clothes when doing laundry)
1 travel-sized brush
glasses case, glasses
1 quart-sized bag of liquids (including packets of Woolite for doing laundry in the sink, and 1 pair of extra contacts! With all the trains/planes, my contacts dried out super fast!)
1 small makeup bag (necessities only!)
1 necklace, 1 extra pair of earrings
travel sized package of face wipes (a MUST for waking up after a night train...)
1 small bag of electronics (phone charger, camera charger + batteries, multi-country plug adapter)
camera
Kindle
Small purse
(I did not bring the water bottle shown)

Jeff brought our travel clothesline (which didn't really work), extra chargers, the iPad, the Surface, which we were going to use to offload pics onto (which didn't work), and his own clothing, etc.

Things I would have packed differently:
Underwear - definitely a must to have quick-dry undies, but would have been nice to have 1 or 2 cotton pairs for variety
Pants - would have liked one more pair of pants, jeans or otherwise, but space-wise, might have been hard to fit.
Shoes - didn't wear Toms or Chacos like I thought - our hostel showers were spotless, since we were in private rooms, and it was much colder than we planned, so another pair of nicer walking shoes would have been nice.

Overall, all 4 of us were happy with what we brought, and maybe would only change a couple things about what we packed. We had to get creative with mixing and matching... we were sick of our clothes by the end of our trip, but so glad we packed light!!

Photo Time

Sifting through all of the photos! This is going to take a while... so thankful for this amazing trip and amazing friends to have shared it with. We tried hard to write down as much as we could as we went, and to take as many pictures as possible, but it's so hard to capture everything we did. So many things packed into our 3 week trip. I'll keep posting for a while on here just so we can remember different parts of our trip, and to add some extra tips that we learned while we traveled. :) 

Us at the Old Man of Storr, on Isle of Skye

We made it home!

Spotty internet made it so that I couldn't post until now - but we're finally home!

We had a rainy drive from our B&B in Portree through Oban, along Loch Ness and into Inverness. Beautiful though - it was nice to see the different countryside once on the mainland vs. what we had been seeing on the islands. There were actually some fall colors in the trees on the mainland!! :) We all felt like we kind of had been missing out on fall, as most of Europe was "behind" in terms of the trees changing colors. Plus, we felt we had missed out on true "Scottish" weather, as it was gloriously sunny the whole time we were there.

We had our last EasyJet flight from Inverness to London, and were happy to leave those small, slow, budget flights behind us. London's airport experience was excellent - we flew into Gatwick, and then had to transfer to Heathrow for our flight into Reykjavik. We grabbed a taxi, and we FLEW down the highway. Glad we paid a little extra for this convenience, instead of trying to figure out the buses, or otherwise. At this point in our trip, we were done trying to figure out and coordinate more public transport options. Our taxi driver even solved the mystery of what the little mini "coffee cup" symbol was on our rental car dash - apparently, it's a function that will flash a signal at you if you start to get tired and drift on the road. :)

We had several hours to kill in London, but not enough to get into the main city, so we became familiar with the airport... otherwise known as we got very familiar with the Tin Goose Bar for a few hours.

We finally made it to Reykjavik, but landed at 11:30pm at night. Thanks to the tips from the awesome lady at the Icelandair check-in desk in Heathrow, we found out we couldn't sleep in the airport as planned, and ended up booking a last-minute hostel during one of our free 45-minute windows of wifi before our flight. We also found out how to book a bus ticket from the airport to the main town of Reykjavik (1 hr bus ride) ahead of time... so we finally ended up in Reykjavik at 12:30am. Then we asked this burly Icelandic guy in the bus station how to get to our hostel... and wandered the streets for a while wondering if he gave us bad directions. We ended up at our hostel, to find the door locked, and after ringing the bell a few times, the sleepy guy on duty showed up. A few more hilarious incidents later, we were able to crash for a few hours. Woke up the next morning, and took a speedy tour on crappy bikes through the town of Reykjavik (mine had minimal brakes and couldn't shift above 3rd gear). Rode along the waterfront, rode to the local municipal pool, that had a variety of different pools, hot tubs, all geothermally heated, and a crazy fun waterslide that a nice couple at our B&B on Skye told us about. Much cheaper than the Blue Lagoon, and way easier to get to - plus a little more fun! Amy and I had an adventure in the locker room getting told by a no-nonsense Icelandic woman to "get naked" as it's a rule all across Iceland to strip and wash completely before entering any of their pools - since they are all natural (chlorine-free) you have to get completely clean before you use them. Makes sense, but was quite the experience!! After our super fast and EXPENSIVE experience in Iceland, we made it back to the airport, and got on our long flight back home.

Pizza was ordered, and good local beer was had (there was a sad lack of good beer everywhere except for Germany) ... and we all fell asleep by 8:00pm watching Skyfall. Sad for our trip to end, and for our dear friends to go home, but we will have memories for a lifetime! 

From Islay to Skye

Haven't written in a bit because we have been adventuring as usual! we took the 4 hour ferry from Isle of Islay to Oban, on the mainland of Scotland. It was a beautiful ride, super windy and felt like classic Scotland. Everyone has been telling us the nice weather we have had is rather unusual so it was nice to feel the "real" weather a little bit. We stopped in at Oban Distillery, of course, and then headed up the coast to Skye. We got in late-ish to our B&B and Peter greeted us saying "I thought I was expecting French people!" Because of our last name. :)
We are in the cutest little B&B on the harbor at Portree. Excellent full Scottish breakfasts every morning. Our hosts have been super helpful in suggestions for our day trips.
Yesterday we made it to Talisker Distillery, #10! We took in the gorgeous scenery, got a little lost in the hills, literally, and enjoyed walking through the town. We also did a short hike to the Fairy Pools (aka waterfalls) which were beautiful. The clearest water I have ever seen, in a series of waterfalls through a small valley, with sheep grazing at the foot of the mountain. :)
Today we went and hiked up to the Old Man of Storr, among the sheep! Some of those sheep were braver than me with how high they were climbing. Gorgeous hike, cant wait to share pictures! Got lost again trying to find another hike, found Kilt Rock, another waterfall this time shooting over a cliff into the sea. Had a picnic by another harbor town, found a brewery (more on their lackluster beer later) and then came back early to pack :(
Was up to the guys to figure out how to get all their Scotch in our bags for the trip home...
Tomorrow we drive to the Inverness airport, fly to London, then to Iceland for 17 hrs. Then from Iceland home. Probably wont have WiFi in between, but who knows. We get home Sunday eve!

Bunnahabhain is a fun name, but Bruichladdich is better.

What a day! We enjoyed a lovely breakfast here at the B&B, full Scottish country breakfast with eggs, potato cake, beans, bacon and sausage, coffee, tea, OJ and toast. Kept us fueled for our morning of exploration.
We drive to the wildlife sanctuary and saw the thousands of Barnacle Geese who have come down from Iceland. Never have seen that many birds at once. Was quite the experience to hear them and see them take off when startled...there is a Golden Eagle that likes to dive into them and Jeff and James saw him startle he geese a few times but I didn't catch it. We walked out to a hide closer to the Loch they were all on, and the hide overlooked a cow pasture and the cows came straight up to the windows of the hide. It was super fun and relaxing. Beautiful skies and weather again! Drove through the countryside, seeing the other side of the Island, toward the Atlantic. Gorgeous blue ocean, ended up near a sandy beach! Grabbed some lunch from a distillery's cafe and picnicked beside the water. Gorgeous. Then I got a chance to drive so the guys could enjoy their Scotch freely. Easier on the small one lane roads, eased into it before we made into some bigger towns, but it is really quite easy on this island. Never-ending stunning views ... Learning a lot about the scotch whiskies, finding several new favorites. At Bruichladdich Distillery, Jeff decided on a type of Scotch to get, and he got to fill his own bottle straight from the cask! So exciting. Then we stopped by the Islay Woolen Mill, the smallest textile mill in all of Britain. We met the owner, and he showed us around, from his old spinning machines, to the weavers. He makes all the wool tartans for the distilleries on the island (they each have their own) and has made wool items for 17 movies, including Braveheart. I found my wool blanket! He grabbed it from upstairs and stuck a label on just for us. Now enjoying our last evening on Islay, before our 4 hour ferry journey to Oban and drive up to Isle of Skye tomorrow. I left out details of some of the other distilleries we have gone to, because we officially hit all 8 on the island in these 2 days! Big check off Jeff's bucket list.

Bunnahabhain and other fun things

We are officially in the hills of Scotland. After an early call this morning, and a confusing boarding (backing onto) of the ferry, we arrived on the Isle of Islay. Drove around and saw lots of sheep, some new birds and some fun small small teeny tiny villages, we ended up at our first distillery, which happened to be Bowemore, the first distillery on the island! We enjoyed generous complimentary tasters, except for James who was our DD for most of the day. We enjoyed the accents and listened to Gaelic radio without understanding a word of the DJ. Next stop, Laguvulin, and we got an amazing tour from Marjorie. Got to see and smell the varying stages of the whisky distilling process, and learn how they smoke the malt with peat from the island. We can see the peat bogs as we drive along, and smell it burning in the distilleries and some homes use it in their fireplaces too.
Next stop Laphroig, Jeff's favorite. We tasted some, and got to hike out to "his" plot of land as he is a "Friend of Laphroig" and they mark out his 1x1 square foot plot, then we got to wear boots and go tromp through the peat bog to place a little mini American flag. Jeff was skipping with excitement through this, as he had been waiting to do this for 3 years. Stopped in quickly at Ardbeg and did a small tasting, then went back to Bowemore as it had our favorite scotch from today that we aren't able to get in the States.
Today's weather was unusually beautiful, all the locals are telling us how strange it is to see blue sky and sunshine. We have certainly enjoyed it, as the drives through the fields and along the water have been amazing.
Staying at a cute little cottage B&B, and about to head to dinner where our B&B owner phoned his friend to get us a reservation!
Dinner was amazing! The only dinner place nearby that is worth it, at another hotel. They have a restaurant and bar, and this tiny place has over 250 malt whiskies available. Adorable and full of character, we enjoyed some local scallops and lamb and venison. Chatted with an older couple from England and they told us about the flock of 30,000 geese that came down on the North wind from Iceland last week, and we will go look for them on the nature preserve at the north end of the island tomorrow, find some more distilleries, hop over to the Isle of Jura with 150 people and 5000 deer. :)
Oh, and this eve James and Jeff were sheepdogs and herded the famililys sheep towards me in their field so I got to see them hysterically running and bleating and jumping all over the place. I got my sheep pictures!

Bruises, castles and Lochs

I have 9 bruises on my legs and counting. Each one larger than a quarter. And one larger than ... A piece of toast? I fell up the stairs in Bordeaux. I'm only sharing this because all of the bruises are showing up now and hurting! HA! Too much bumping around on trains and planes and with luggage.
We had an absolutely gorgeous drive through the Scottish countryside today. Mountains, rolling hills, fields, sheep, fuzzy cows, clouds, blue sky, lochs shimmering in the sun... Lovely. Jeff is getting the hang of driving over here so todays drive was even a little relaxing! Made it to the castle, Stonefield Castle, just in time to hike around their small island before sundown. Saw jellyfish, tons of shells and beautiful sunset on the water as we hiked. Had an incredible meal in the restaurant. We splurged on a fancy meal here, and so worth it! Tried some new scotch of course in the "lounge" before dinner. Up early tomorrow to catch the ferry to the Isle of Islay (pronounced Isla) and excited to stay in one place for a couple days. :)

To Paris and beyond...

Whew.
Spent a lovely morning at Mont St Michel, the abbey on top of a granite island. It also was used as a prison and a fortress back in the day, but now is an abbey and a small community of monks and nuns live there, sharing their space for contemplation, work and worship with thousands of tourists a day. Jeff and I took a tour- it was beautiful!
Then we had a quick picnic on the ramparts above the water, and caught a bus to catch our trains to Paris. Took all day, but we got into Paris at night and got to see the Eiffel tower sparkling and lit up! It started sparkling just as we walked up! Our hotel was 2 blocks from the park. We found a cute cafe and enjoyed some Parisian classics, and wine from the Bordeaux region we had just come from.
The next day we walked through most pf the main part of the city. Arc de Triumph, the Louvre from a distance, alone the Seine river, and saw lots of other landmarks I don't know how to spell and don't have time to look up right now.
Then we caught our flight in the nick of time into Edinburgh, got a nice car upgrade and got acquainted with driving on the other side of the car and the road, and arrived at our hostel. Getting ready for a tour this morning of the Royal Mile. :)
Thanks again to Starbucks for free WiFi.

Mont St Michel

Today was a crazy day of travel on.the France train system. Finally here on.North coast.of.France, Mont St Michel. We woke up super early and James' uncle took us to the train station and helped us make reservations...except they booked us on later trains, and because the reservation counter didn't.open till.7 and.our train didn't leave till 706, we missed our first.train. long day, and we were supposed to.be picked up by the hostel guy at one train station and we ended up.changing our route and.arrival.time, but we ran into a nice Columbian couple who let us use their phone.to call the place, and they came and picked us up at a later time. Phew. The couple that runs this place is from Britain and they have an amazing 230 year old house they have turned into a B&B. They were so welcoming today, and we met a few other people staying here at the local English pub. This area has been heavily influenced by the British, and there are a lot of people from the UK here. Amazing night at the cute local pub meeting people here from France, and Germans hiking the coastal trail, a Brazilian staying at our B&B.
Pics later... Will have a few busy days with travels in between cities, so not sure.how much we will post but we had a great time with James' family and are enjoying our continued adventures! :)

End of Switzerland and France

This picture is Jeff enjoying the Swiss newspaper. We left Switzerland on Tuesday early a.m., so we joined the commuters on the trains. Interesting to see the contrast from central/eastern-German Switzerland to western-French Switzerland. As soon as we got to Bern and Geneva, everything was in French.
We had such an amazing time in Switzerland, we were having a hard time leaving. We talked about coming back with our kids someday. this trip has opened our eyes to so many different things, especially cultural differences and things we need to appreciate more that we take for granted or are unaware of in the US. More on that later. But after our amazing time there, we were not expecting anything to be as wonderful.
We just had our last night with James' aunt and uncle and kids. We have had such a great time being.with their family, sharing amazing French meals, conversation, seeing the French countryside and soaking up more history than I thought possible. More observations to come maybe tomorrow, since we will be on the train allllll.day on the way up north to Mont St Michel. We have been in Perigeux, which is 2 hrs outside of Bordeaux, so have to travel all the way to the North of France. Whew. But can't wait for the adventures ahead! Can't believe this is all still happening! Life changing experiences every day.
More to come. :)

when in Switzerland...

...do as the Swiss do. As epic as possible.
Woke up early this morning to catch a bus down to Trummelbach Falles. These are 10 separate falls INSIDE the mountains, which drain the Eiger, Jungfrau and Monch - this one spot drains them all. We took a lift halfway up, then climbed stairs the rest of the way. Absolutely astounding how much the water has carved away at the rock, and how it swirls inside the mountain. We were the first ones up today!
Next we conquered the Via Ferrata... A 4 hour cliff walk. I'll spare my mom the details but it was a life changing experience! Wow.
And after this, we took the cable car up to Schiltorn, the viewpoint for the Eiger, Jungfrau, Monch, and the rest of the Alps. We went through super thick clouds to arrive above them for crystal clear views. There are trails out in the mountains, so we were able to hike out a short ways to get even more amazing views of this gorgeous creation. A nice shop lady let us buy beers and drink them out on the deck 15 mins before closing. Mountain top experience!
Finished the day with delicious fondue made with local.cheese. a splurge for our last night here! Wish we could.stay longer! So much more we would love to do...

Swiss Alps

Today we woke up with the plan to go up to see the Jungfrau and other mountains, including the Eiger. We grabbed our (expensive) tickets for the trains up, and headed off! We were quickly swarmed by Asian tour groups, from the main Lauterbrunnen train station and up at the resort villages above the valley. Wow.
The trains took us up up up the sides of the mountains, and through cute little villages, and then THROUGh the mountain. Crazy! There were viewpoints along the way, the first was totally clouded in, but the second was crystal clear! Ahhh! We saw the blueish glaciers and jagged peaks jutting against the blue skies. Gorgeous. Up up up we went still, and ended up above the clouds! Words can't describe. So gorgeous. We stood in awe of the gorgeous mountains, snapped some pics, and toured the ice palace! We then found our way to get out onto.the glacier. And we were able to walk 1.5 km up to a mountain hut that had food. We earned our beer and meat/cheese, as well as met a lovely couple from the UK who gave us suggestions for that portion of our trip. It started snowing while we were there, so we hiked back down in the snow....what an experience!
Had a slow evening...walked up to the Staubach  waterfall and through town, still being serenaded by the church bells and cow bells. Love love love this town.
Tomorrow's a full day! Here are just a couple pics...camera is having trouble uploading, so these are from Jeff's phone. :)

Crazy travel ... But finally in Switzerland!

Boarded our train out of Munich at 2245. The train was full of people who fully enjoyed Oktoberfest... So glad we had first class tickets with our rail pass so we didn't have to deal with too many of them. Some make it up into 1st class anyway, and the conductor doesn't want to get in fights so they don't enforce the rules that late. Apparently Switzerland doesnt like trains running too often. at night so we didn't have too many options. Jeff snoozed while.I stayed awake to keep an eye on our stuff and listen for our stop. Got to charge our devices though! Sooo tired.
Got to Salzburg to catch a train that would take us to Zurich, obvious we are now in another country. Different dialects, cannabis green tea in a can, different Oktoberfest outfits... :)
Waited for an hour in the freezing cold, and then we were lucky to get beds on the night train into Zurich (although catching this at 2am!) Our bunk mate wasn't super excited to have us join her that late. Slept in our clothes, and arrived via 3 transfers in Interlaken, Switzerland by 930 this a.m. phew.
Our rail passes get us 25% off the Swiss rail system, so had to pay to get our train to Lauterbrunnen. I felt my stress melting away as we drove away from the cities and saw more trees, cows, fields and lakes. Once here, seeing the giant cliffs, huge mountains peeking above the clouds, even in the rain, was SO glad to get here. Showed up at 10 and couldnt check.in to hotel till 2 so stowed bags in lockers, and walked through the town. Started drying and clearing some. We were super sweaty and gross after our bike ride yesterday and being up all might. So we figured why not, let's walk the valley. So walked to the other end of the valley 1 1/2 hrs, through beautiful countryside, next to cows with their tinkling bells, gorgeous river, countless waterfalls, basejumpers, flowers, adorable homes and barns. Magical. Can't think of any other way to describe it. Took bus back, and wandered around some more, getting some snacks from store, and then were able to check into hotel. finally got cleaned up, rested, enjoyed some local cheese (made when cows go up higher into alps in the spring) and wine, then took a nap before a light dinner in the hotel restaurant. Looks like they offer quite a bit of local vegetables and local game, but we could only do soup tonight... Maybe tomorrow! Again...in bed by 845...we feel old!

Munich Day 3

Woke up lateish but grabbed a train to go see the Neuschwanstein castle in Fussen. Got there and were all tired and a little cranky, but the bike shop was kind enouh to open just for us, so we rented bikes to ride up to the castle instead of being stuck standing on the bus like we had been standing on the train for the last 2 hours. Best decision ever. cleared up our bad moods! So beautiful riding on "romantic road" through the trees, seeing fall colors, over an almost turquoise blue river, seeing wedding photos being taken, catching glimpses of the castle through the trees, and hearing the tinkle of cow bells across the fields. Gorgeous.
Long ride or walk up to castle in muggy weather, all wearing jeans, finally arrived. was cool to see the castle, and James, Jeff and Michelle walked across Mary's Bridge to see caslte from.different vantage point. Climbed up high onto trail to see away from other people. Gorgeous. Grabbed some beer from the market to enjoy on train on way home, after a fun but tiring and stressful day.
On the way back, train stopped in between stops, and an announcement was made in German, and we noticed people start to get upset and frustrated. A medical incident happened ahead on the tracks so all trains were stopped until further notice. (we had worked hard to time our day to get back for our train leaving for Zurich at 630...) We all had to get off the train, and they said there would be busses. We ran to the taxi stop and asked someone if they could help.us. we were in the middle of nowhere so there was only 1 taxi, and some jerk.wanted to get to Oktoberfest so he left in it. We saw the train start moving, and RAN. Got on, for a short bit, then were told to get off again because they were sending busses. Nope. Then stood and waited. Then "herd mentality" kicked in and people tried getting on random buses. we tried to get a cab, but people kept stealing them from other people who called them. Finally, trains started moving again and we RAN again to catch one going to Munich. Whew. Definitely missed our train, but we remembered about our travel insurance that will cover cost of our hotel. Went to travel center and talked with a really nice guy who helped us find the most tolerable train out of Munich late at night that woukd allow us to get on a night train and try to get beds for a few hours...but have to.go through Salzburg on our way to Switzerland. Got to have dinner with J&A and one last German Bier before leaving Germany!
Internet has been hard to come by so hard to post pics. Writing on phone, but pics are on camera. No free WiFi other than Starbucks.

Munich Oktoberfest

Went to bed at 830 last night, all slept soundly until 7 this a.m.
Met people last night who told us to get there at 9, so we did. Paid way to much for a quick and not so convenient coffee and breakfast,
As we were walking to Oktoberfest, saw people drinking on street, as is legal, at young ages, also legal (age 16)
Randomly picked the tent with shortest line and coolest.people outside (augustiner). Ended up finding a table with 3 nice looking German girls. Was their first time at Oktoberfest too. Had great time, practicing German, learning about them, their families, boyfriends, culture, Bavarian culture. Kersten, Ramona, annika. Kersten was 28 like michelle and James , Ramona was 18! Met cute old couple married 55 years. They were all surprised we were married already (so young).
Lots of singing, beer drinking, flirting between all the girls/boys. Stayed until early afternoon, then went on ferris wheel, saw whole city, alps, fair grounds, stood in crazy line, more like a clump of hundreds of people.
At Starbucks for our quick email.checks, found out about passing my test!
We wanted to.celebrate, but all.almost fell asleep, but we went to dinner at Mexican restaurant. Ha! But, it had freshest food we have had in days.
In bed by 830 again. Whew.

Munich

Was eerie sleeping on.the train. Kept waking up and sounded like a scary movie. But we survived!
Get to Munich tired and sweaty and sore.
After stowing bags in lockers, Caught train to Dachau concentration camp, an emotional experience. So glad we did this, but was hard to see.
After we took the train back, found our cute hotel! Pleasantly surprised with how close to.the main city center, and how cute it was!
The Guys got to enjoy beers downstairs with Gunter, hotel owner and manager, hear about his Ferrari.
Walked around, since so close to everything. saw st Michael's cathedral, other churches, the famous Glockenspiel, got to watch it chime!
Decided to brave the touristy Hofbrauhaus for dinner ... Great decision. Met a nice guy from Israel, and some other people from Germany, heard some tips about Oktoberfest for tomorrow...
Walked home. Bed by 830! Wiped out!

Berlin day 2

Sleep number 7000, extra starch. That was James' description of our firm hostel beds and sheets.
There was a cute antique store next to pur hostel, full of old dishes and linens.
We walked through a beautiful park to get to a former Nazi-era building, tallest still standing in Berlin (much of the area has been rebuilt after bombing and ww2), now it is a US Air Force Base.
Walked thru fun districts, similar to San Francisco and Queen Anne,.old buildings, cute shopping.
We were walking along trying to find a book store for James, when we were told to stop, and.cross.the street. A movie was being filmed, so we stopped to watch... And all of a sudden we saw Vince Vaughn! After we watched a short scene, James yelled "yeah, Vince." Everyone but Vince looked over at us. Ha! We stole some sneaky photos on James' camera that we were told not to take!
On our bike tour, our guide had told.us to check out the Turkish market, which we did today. It was such a fun experience. So much culture, amazing displays of food, wares, and apparently no photos allpwed, oops! A nice man told me kindly that I was supposed to ask each merchant if I could take a photo. Now I know why some of.them looked at me funny... But it was beautiful.
In two days in Berlin, we walked over 25 miles, plus our 8 mile bike ride. we are all exhausted.
We went back to the Memorial to murdered Jews of europe museum, very touching and moving experience.
Walked through Brandenburg gate again, this time there was construction. So much changes in one day in this city!
Walked by the American embassy, and Jeff and James asked if they could go in, out of curiosity. An appointment is required.
We found a Biergarten afterwards to process the memorial/museum, and enjoyed schnitzel, currywurst, apple strudel, Bier, practicing our German, and discussing politics and culture! Wow.
Walked thru Grocery store to get snacks and bier for the night train. Always fun to find new things to try!
Oh, and we always needed to make sure we had .50 or 1 Euro on hand to use the bathroom. Mainly in train station, but on most public places too, unless you were eating somewhere.
Our first Night train. Sat for a while talking, waited for tickets to.get checked.and.drank beer and ate cheese, crakcers salami. A little crowded, woke up stinky and sweaty after walking all day and sleeping in a hot train. Now we are in Munich!
Photos: Turkish market