Eiffel Tower

First stop in Paris? Climbing the Eiffel Tower, of course! I say climbing, because I took the 600+ steps to the 2nd floor. I am honestly not as fit as I would like to be. It was a lot of effort! In my defence, the line for the steps was only about 10 people, and it is cheaper than the elevator. The line for the elevator would have been about 1km winding in and around the four pillars at the bottom; so there are a lot people who are lazier and/or less fit than me. The trick is to take the stairs to the 2nd floor and then buy a ticket to the top from there (this is what I did and I waited in line for less than 5 minutes in total!) It was definitely worth all the effort – the view was amazing!! Oh, and they don't check tickets on the way down – so I caught the elevator all the way :)

Neuschwanstein Castle

After missing the train yesterday, today I decided to do a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle is 2 hours away from Munich and is only 5km from Austria (as the crow flies). It is at the beginning of the German side of the Bavarian Alps. It is absolutely beautiful – inside and out! The inside tour was a little disappointing – the inside is spectacular, but the tour only takes you through about 10 rooms. Plus you are not allowed to take photos inside – which, of course, meant that I only took about 20 :) We also did some hiking around the castle through some river rapids and forests. To summarise, if you are in Munich and can afford the time, absolutely go to the castle – but I wouldn't make a special trip to Munich for it!

Hofbräuhaus

I couldn't go to Munich without having a 1 litre beer. After a long day of walking and walking, Allison (an American girl I had met on my walking tour) and I decided to go to the famous Hofbräuhaus for some dinner and a beer. We ordered an obscene amount food; potato salad (Germany style – with no mayo, white vinegar based sauce instead), bread basket (with 4 different types of bread including soft pretzel), and then 'an HB Original Sausage platter' with three different types of German Sausage, a knuckle of pork (with potato dumplings, of course). Finally we had this delicious apple flavoured (almost French toast pieces) dessert that I can't remember the name of. To drink I had a 1 litre HB original – and yes I did manage to finish it!
Side note – there were three Korean girls sitting next to us and they shared a knuckle of pork between them. Now I know why Australia and America are the fattest countries – but it was so worth it :)

Welcome to Munich – Dachau

On my first day in Munich I was supposed to be getting up at 6.30am to catch an early morning train with Rachel, Lily and David to see Neuschwanstein Castle. My alarm failed to wake me; I woke up at 7.40am (5 minutes before my train left!). I didn't waste the day.  I decided to do a walking tour of Munich in the morning and a tour of Dachau Concentration Camp in the afternoon. The walking tour was nothing special, but the
tour of Dachau – wow!  I couldn't say it was the favourite thing I have done on this trip so far; it would be inappropriate to label a memorial to a concentration camp in a positive light. But, I can say it is the place that I am most glad I visited. The vast majority of the memorial is original and they have only added cabinets showcasing the torture methods and describing the 'systems' that the Nazi's used. I honestly had no idea about just how horrible Nazi concentration camps were – and I think only those who were there when it was in 'operation' ever will really know.

Goodbye Kolpinghaus

I strongly believe that a place is only as good as the people who live in it. Fortunately, the people who I live with on the 5th floor of Kolpinghaus are great to live with. We have Rachel, Lily, Andrea, Laura, myself, Daniel and Jarrod living on that floor who are attending Development Finance – exactly half of the floor. There are four people on the floor who are working for the German Post Office delivering mail over the summer – two Bulgarian girls (Dani and Vessela – apologies if this is spelt incorrectly) and two Polish guys (Maciej and Adam). And then there is Michael; the craziest German I have ever met – always up for a beer and going out. We are all on a tight budget so our nights mostly consist of cooking dinner (generally someone cooks for everyone – for example the other night I cooked German Bratwurst on sourdough with salad and camembert cheese); and then a beer around the tables in the kitchen room and maybe walking out to a nearby pub. I have had a great time and I am so fortunate to have met such nice, welcoming people!

Palmengarten

Monday afternoon was a perfect 25 degrees and sunshine – perfect time to go and explore Frankfurt's famous Palmengarten. The plants were absolutely extraordinary; from cactus to rainforests and everything in between. There were so many different varieties of the plants that I had never seen before. The most interesting was a tree with thorns (like roses have) up its trunk, but my favourite area was the beautiful rose garden. I had an amazing afternoon with Rachel, Lily and David (pictured above).

Kloster Eberbach

This ministry located in the Rheingau region was founded about 1,000 years ago and was used as the set for the 1986 film "The Name of the Rose". Although I have never seen that movie, the guided wine tour (which featured a glass of 6 different types of Riesling) was amazing.  The buildings were so incredible, some are almost completely original, only receiving minor maintenance in the last 1,000 years! The room pictured above is actually an optical illusion – the floor is on a slope and at the end of the hall it is a half metre higher than the other end. This combined with the shortening pillars (the roof is level) gives the appearance that it is longer than it actually is.