I love the German countryside. Munich, up to Berlin. Tramping up the mountain to Mad King Lugwig's fairy tale castle, then back down the pathways in the woods. Visiting the town squares and the museums, just trying to take in all the eye candy. Green, green fields populated with big eyed cows blinking back at you. The buildings maybe a bit worn...but the streets and public transportation are CLEAN! Fantastic food and friendly people. Open air markets selling eveything from brats to kirsh tortes. Bread to die for! Finding a giraffe staring back at you in the middle of a town from the bus window, completely out of context in the middle of a major downtown area. Finding a new experience in a MacDonald's...beer and fries anyone? Yes, they sell beer in German MacDonalds. Watching the Glockenspiel chime the hour in the Munich square....along with the four churches that ring their bells in order before it does...like a countdown to the mechanical dancers and rooster that perform on the Glockenspiel. Discovering a love for EXCELLENT beer and local wine..which I have never liked before. Comparing the offices in Potsdam of Stalin, Churchill, and Truman. Finding out the little one upmanship played about those offices and how it fell flat for Stalin, during those meetings. Since I'm an old Missouri girl that went to school right across from Harry S Truman's house, I really did get a snicker going on there in Potsdam. Watching street performers ply their trade to earn a living (talented and very inventive). Paying tribute to the people who experienced suffering and bitter persecution at Dachau...walking that path from the entry gate to that final indignity of their lives. That realigns one's perspective on alot of things! Crossing at Check-point Charlie in Berlin without all the former visa's etc being required. Staying at the Grand Hotel on the East German side of Berlin...and trying to figure out where they hid all the mics in the room at one time. Comparing horrible communist buildings to the decandent Imperial ones they were trying to replace....and being replaced by restorations themselves. Finding absoultely lovely teenagers that would step up and help lost, confused foreiners find out how to work the subway token machine. LOL!
Okay, have I run on to excess? LOVED that trip!
