Nürnberg, München, und Pfingsten

Nuremberg

"Go to Munich," they said. "You will love it," they said. Nuremberg is a better city. It is about the size of Milwaukee and a lot smaller than Munich, but the Old Town(Historic District) is by far the better one.

To get to Nuremberg, My host brother and I used the "Mitfahrzentrale"because tickets with Deutsche Bahn were 70 euros a piece, and the Mitfahrzentrale was only 30 per person. Mitfahrzentrale is like craigslist for hitchhikers. You call up someone going to the same city of you and meet up somewhere and ride together. Before the experience, I was a little skeptic, but now I would recommend this to everyone.

In Nuremberg, we stayed with my Host Uncle. When we arrived, his girlfriend asked us if we had brought wandering shoes because the next day we were going to walk a beer wandering trail. The beer wander was the favorite thing we did. We woke up at nine, and then took the train a good half-hour to 45 minutes north from the city. The trail took you too five different breweries, and you receive a stamp when you bought a beer. When you collected all four stamps, you could buy a mug from the tour for 2 or 4 euros (I don't remember exactly, but it was cheap.) The trail was 18 km. (~9mi.)

On the second the second day, we went to the Adidas headquarters because the girlfriend from my Host Uncle worked there. I learned that reebok is actually owned by Adidas. After the HQ, we went to see Nuremberg during the daytime. My host uncle lives on the north side, where "the berg" is. The Berg is an old castle or fort on the north side of the city wall. We ended up walking the wall. The top of the wall was actually a park with trees and gardens, not what I expected.

The top of the wall is the the left and "the berg" with the old town are below.

Munich


We went to Munich on the same day as the FC Bayern München vs. Chelsea Champions League game. The city was packed with Bayern fans. The vibe of the city was great. My friend from the US surprised me on the platform when the train pulled up, one of the best memories from Munich.

Our first stop was the Olympic Park. On the way to the Olympic Park is across the street from the BMW HQ, so that was our real first stop. After we went to the top of the Olympic Tower. Later that day, the stadium in the back, was filled with people for public viewing of the soccer game. The Olympic Park was nice, but I was more excited for our next stop, Marienplatz. The bear was loose on the Marienplatz. All the Bayern fans had taken over the square, so that you could barely walk through.

After seeing the two city halls, the old city hall is my favorite.










We saw the Frauenkirche, but the church and frauenplatz were under construction, so that is was ugly. The Theatinerkirche was a lot nicer inside and out. It was weird seeing things I learned out in my German class.

After the Theatinerkirche, we walked north to the Englischer Garten. We watched the surfers at the south end for a good 20 minutes. Then we walked a little bit north through the naked people between surfing and the botanic garden. I didn't take too many pictures of the Englischer Garten because I wasn't sure if there would be a naked person in them. I saw the Chinesischer tower, but I was not able to get to the second floor, like a German teacher I know. Afterwards, we found a bar and just relaxed in the beautiful sun.

when we got back to the train station, People had already taken over there too. There was a wall of police to make sure no one started rioting around the moving trains. Our train pulled in with standing room only for the people getting out. We boarded and all you could smell was piss, B.O., and beer. the place was trashed and about 100 degrees fahrenheit.

The garden below is not actually the Englischer Garten but the Hofgarten.

Pfingsten

Pfingsten is a church holiday that no one knows why it is celebrated anymore, but no one complains. All I know, is that when I think of Pfingsten, I think of the street in Northbrook. For Pfingsten weekend, we get Monday and Tuesday off from school. My friends and I went on a bike trip for Pfingsten my friend's grandma. My friends grandma lives on a farm somewhere northeast of where I live in "Arsch der Welt." We spent the weekend camping in the back of the farm. That was great weekend. I am the brownest out of my friends, but Petra is still tanner. I believe I need to go New Jersey mom to beat her this summer.