Fünfte Tag-The Salt Castle known as Salzburg

Day 5-We started off by enjoying the first class lounge at the Hauptbahnoff to get free drinks and access to a nice bathroom because we had first class train tickets to Salzburg.  Our cabin on the train was empty to us, so the three of us got to all stretch our legs and nap on the train ride.  Davis went to Hannover for some EDM concert, that I could care less about.  The only part that sucked about this train was that it was old, and none of the water closets (bathrooms) near us worked.  Once you get to Salzburg Hbf, it kind of sucks because they are doing construction around the main area.  So we got the tourist zone, got our Salzburg cards, and started off at the Aldstadt (OLD CITY).  The first thing we did was the Hohensalzburg Castle at the top of the hill.  You take a funicular to get up there, because its included in the Salzburg card, and it would be a very tough vertical walk.  This whole fortress was pretty impressive, and it was designed by a previous Archbishop of Salzburg.  We got to see the weapons museum, and other things that used to decorate the fortress interior.  It provides for excellent views of Salzburg, but we did not get to go to the Torture tower, or the Observation tower.  

 We then headed back down to check out some of the churches right next to the funicular.  The Saint Peter’s abbey was alright, but the main thing there is the cemetery, where it also filmed the scene from Sound of Music where they hid from the Nazis.   

The Franziskaner church was ok, it’s just cool to see images of the saint that the beer is from.  The Dom or the Cathedral was the main church of Austria, this church was very nice and detailed in the baroque/rococo style. 

 Then we tried going to the place where the Von Trapp family sang their “so long farewell song” along with many other tourists, but the building was closed.  We then tried finding a place to eat, and ended up at some hotel restaurant with a very exuberant host who was happy to speak English.  I had some gulash and it was whatever.  We did the Residence museum here in Salzburg, which was a neat palace for the ruler of the city, but nothing special because they were never the seat of power.  They had some paintings on the top floor, and the special exhibit was on paintings from an Egypt expedition with Napoleon.  

 After this, we went to Mozart Square to see the statue of Mozart, but it also doubled as the finish line for some marathon in Salzburg.  We also walked to the Mozart Bridge, and then to the Mozart birth house.  They had a lot of documents of Mozart’s work, and some of his personal items, and even four locks of his hair.  We had to get some Mozart Balls, a chocolate specialty of the city that it is famous for.   

We then cruised over to the Mirabell Gardens, since the Mirabell palace was closed to see scenes from the Do Re Mi song from Sound of Music.  From the Pegasus fountain, to the stairs, to the grand foundation, to the dwarf, to the archway, we saw it all.   

Then we went to the Mozart residence house, where he lived after his birth house, and got to see more instruments that he used to compose his works.  Right across the street, was Christian Doppler’s birth house, the dude for the Doppler effect.  We still had a bunch of time to kill before the train, so my mom and dad stopped for some drinks, while I went to go take a picture of the famous Horse tamer. 

After that, we tried finding a place to eat dinner around the train station, but there wasn’t anything good.  So we ended up at last summer’s favorite place, McDonalds! So instead of being #4 like in Italy, the chicken nuggets are the #6. It felt good eating last year’s favorite, and with a coke.  Some crazy homeless dude was being a dick in there, until the manager threatened to call the cops and he scrammed.  It’s funny, because like the middle eastern looking people try to act all gangster and look hip like American wannabes, and hangout at the Mcdonalds thinking they’re some trill shit.  The train station here is under construction, but luckily we had a main line that was finished, but we had to wait for the fast train back to Munich.  The train ride wasn’t bad, and we shared it with some fellow orange county peeps, who had been traveling nonstop it seemed from Zurich to Salzburg to Munich via John Wayne Airport to Bush, to Zurich. 

Vierte Tag

Day 4.  Today we started off by going to the Nymphenburg Palace.  It’s a huge estate, and stretches more than a half a mile wide when you first walk into it.  Just the beginning lake in front of the house is huge.  The palace itself, is decorated nicely in the grand hall, and the other rooms are just ok.  

Filled with paintings and other lavish decorations.  The funny room was a room that the king had decorated with 36 portraits of random “beautiful” women, unlike those ugly royal chicks and their portraits. 

After this we cruised outside to the canal in the back, where it’s like a Versailles-light version.  Then we walked to the Amalienburg, or the hunting lodge of the King.  This whole place was decorated nicely from blue china wall paintings, to hunting pictures, to a giant hall of mirrors, and to another room completely lavished in Japanese and Chinese art.   

We then went to the carriage and porcelain museum after, to look at old the king’s different sleighs, carriages, etc.  Those things are insanely detailed! I can’t speak for the comfort of them, but they are decorated really, really nicely.  Even the baby stroller was really nice looking.   

After this, I left my family to go the Allianz Arena.  The U-bahn here was pretty long and filled with students.  It’s crazy, that it’s like a 1.5 mile walk from the stop for the arena, even though you can see the building.  The Allianz Arena was huge.  I snuck onto an English tour after the English tour was sold out, because I told them I couldn’t speak German, so they let me through. We got to see the field from different angles and test the acoustics, which are loud.  We got to see the Press Room, mixed zone, and the locker rooms.  The locker room is nothing special, but a lot more nice looking than the visitors room. I then spent over 100 euros on Bayern Munich stuff at the store and went to meet my parents at the English garden.   

Once I got there, it was confusing as fuck, to try and follow the map to where they are.  This park is huge, and bigger than Central Park.  Once I did a loop around a monument, and went a couple wrong directions, I made it to the Chinese Tower landmark at the Garden.  This thing is pretty cool, and there is a live German band who plays a song every couple minutes at the top of it.  Germany was playing a Euro 2012 game later that night, so tons of German fans were just chilling there, four hours before the game would be shown at the beer garden.   

After enjoying a nice cold coke, we then cruised around and shopped near the Marienplatz.  We then had the Hofbrauhaus for dinner.  It’s really stuffy in there, but the roasted pork, the pretzel, and the Helles beer were all excellent. After this, I stayed around in the beer garden to watch the Germany game.  It was so packed, that I had to stand near the stairs to the second floor to watch the game. Tons of tourists and locals were there rooting for the Germans, and they went crazy for every goal scored. They won 4-2.  I ended up standing by some Canadians, Australians, and South Africans, so we all spoke English.  They were some cool people, and they bought me a beer.  After that beer, I was tired as hell, and was showing signs of falling asleep at the beer garden. But I made it back to the hotel room, and passed out.  

Dritte Tag. Der Club in Nürnberg

Day 3:  We started off this morning with a train to Nuremburg.  The train ride was pretty short, and it only took a little more than an hour to get there. Then we got to the train station, there was confusion on how to get to the Documentation Center, since the tram is not in service, but the tourist info, showed us the bus to catch. Once we got to the Documentation Center, its connected to the only remaining Nazi architectural building, the Kongresshalle.  The tour of the museum shows the Nazis rise to power, how they made Nuremburg a center for the Nazi Party, then the eventual decline of the Nazi regime.  There was a mix of English, American, and German tourists, and some English peeps were filming a documentary or something.  Some of the highlights of the museum include a picture of all the dead Nazi’s from the Nuremburg trials, being able to look at the Kongresshalle from the exterior, and just all the different pictures from different events.  I tried walking to the Nazi Rally Party grounds, but got confused by a sign, and didn’t make it there.  There is a huge river that you have to get across, that I didn’t find the path too. 

 We then went to the “Aldstadt” or old city of Nuremburg. It’s a city surrounded by castle walls, all cobble stone streets, and uphill.  Once we finally got to the top, or the Kaiserburg (Castle), we were pretty tired. They were are doing work on the interior of the castle, so we could only visit a arms museum, the watch tower, and the well.  The arms museum had some really old armor and stuff from the middle ages, so it was neat to see that. The well tour was funny, since it was all in German, and us and the fellow Americans watching it, had no idea what the guy said, until he said it was 47 meters deep.   

When he splashed water down the well, there was a good delay before you head it reach the water.  We then walked down the main street and ended up at Tucher’s restaurant.  So we had to have the Tucher beer, I prefer the Hefeweizen, and we had to have the famous Nurnburg sausages, six small sausages.

After that, I checked out the St. Sebaldus Church while everyone else went to the Christmas Market to buy the famous gingerbread.  We then met up, and I went to go see the main church, the Church of St. Lawrence.  There’s not many special things here, but they have a display showing all the ruins from WWII bombings.   

Then we ended up at a McDonalds, where they serve bubble tea, and boba balls, that are not tapioca, but other fruits.  I then went to check out the Germanisch National Museum.  It’s a huge museum, and I only had an hour and a half there, so I maybe hit 2/5 main exhibitions. The main one was the Albrecht Durer exhibition, the most famous German painter, who is from Nurnburg.  I saw one of his paintings at the Uffizi last year, and well they had it on loan for this exhibit.  This was apparently the largest exhibition of his work in 40 years in Germany and it won’t happen again in my lifetime, due to their loan agreements.  His paintings were neat, it kind of sucked you couldn’t take pictures, because of the artwork is really neat.  From his self-portraits, to his religious works, to his violent works of the apocalypse.  The exhibit had over 100 pieces of his work, so it was impressive.  I then tried checking out the Scientific instruments and Baroque and Renaissance art wing. The scientific instruments were insanely decorated, so it’s amazing they were actually used. I don’t know German Baroque/Renaissance artists, so I breezed through most of this before I left the museum.   But I was able to sneak one pic of Durer's work of former Holy Roman Emperors Charlemagne and someone else.

We ate dinner at some hotel linked with the famous Andechs monastery, so we could get the Doppelbock beers.  They were strong, delicious, and made us all extremely tired.  I passed out on the train ride back to Munich. 

Nuremburg is a very nice, clean, historical city, but it’s tiring as fuck to walk around.  I’m only bummed I never got to go the Nazi Rally party grounds and see the only remaining infrastructure, where Hitler gave his speeches and all.