Munich's Englischer Gartens as a postcard

The Englischer Gartens in Munich were originally built by the royal family for their own exclusive use, but now they are open to the public and are a perfect place to go for a walk, a bike ride, or a swim.  I loved them so much when we went through on my bike tour, that when I came back to Munich for a longer visit, I spent an entire day just hanging out at the park.

Top left: There are actually waterfalls you can play in in the middle of the park.  There are also signs warning you will possibly die by doing so, but, you know....

Top right: Chilling at my spot by the man-made river through the park.  

Bottom right:  It's basically like the Lazy Miami at King's Island.  Except frigid.  I'm not even kidding -- people use it to chill their beers in the middle of the sweltering Munich summer.

Bottom left: Just a pig.  A pig who think's he is hot stuff.  Sexy pig pose.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein is supposedly where Walt Disney got the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland.  More exciting -- to me at least -- is that it is the castle is where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang landed.  You know, when they get into the castle designed as wind up dolls?  No?  Ok, here, look at my pretty pictures on the hike to the castle.

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Overall Berlin was one of my favorite stops: rich history, interesting people, great beer (and not-so-great-but-definitely-intriguing flavored beer), tremendous amounts of food, a thriving arts scene...

Top left: yes I drank beer.  Quite a bit of it actually!
Top middle: my 3 euro meal that was some sort of falafel-asian food thing.  But delicious
Top right: If you squint you can see the Berlin Wall ending on the left of the picture, beyond the bikes, and facing what starts a long line of crazy offers like hot air balloon rides in a balloon that looks like a globe, currywursts, painted cars, museums, art displays and...
Bottom left: an artificial beach.  Just down the road from the wall and from Checkpoint Charlie
Bottom middle: Raspberry flavored beer.  Apparently when the French arrived many moons ago, they didn't like the taste of beer so they added fruit flavoring.  I don't like it.
Bottom right: Just another example of random art work in Berlin

As President Kennedy said after the wall went up:

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

Berlin - the sad side part two - the communists

Poor Berlin.  After all the destruction the Nazi's brought upon their city, the Berliners had more to come.  The Berlin wall was not originally stone, but merely barbed wire rolled out without warning in the middle of the night, with soldiers posted all along.  People woke up to go to work or school or return home to family members and found that they were now permanently separated.  Loved ones ripped from your arms while you were sleeping, and you had no idea until the next day.

Now on the east side of the wall you couldn't get near it.  There were guards with orders to shoot on site, and plenty of other traps and smaller walls.  But on the western side, the sad and angry people painted messages they had to hope that one day their loved ones on the other side might get to see.

Berlin - the sad side part one - the Nazis

I took a day trip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp while I was in Berlin and deliberately did not take many pictures.  How exactly does one pose next to the barracks where human beings wasted away in hot crowded dorms?  But there were a few things that particularly struck me and I wanted to share.

Berlin - Historical love of my life, part 2

Being a city of such historical depth, Berlin is filled to the max with memorials of different types.  Given my lack of historical knowledge of basically anything, I love it.  It teaches me on all the topics the American school system failed to even mention.  /mini-rant

Berlin - Historical love of my life

My plan of attack on all new cities has become to take the local free tour, so my first day in Berlin I did just that.  
Berlin is full of crazy history that happened during the lifetime of people still living today, even during my own lifetime!  The politics behind everything really reminded me that we cannot afford to sit by and wait for change: if you do wait, you will not like the change that comes.

Willkommen in München!!!!!

I took the train from Zagreb to Munich today.  First class baby!  (Because I am an old woman so I don't qualify for 2nd class passes)

I had the entire compartment to myself: six seats and they all could lie flat.  After spending the last couple nights in a stifling hostel with seven guys, one of whom sounds like he is actually sawing logs when he snores: this air conditioned compartment was heaven.

After we crossed into Slovenia, and thus went through my last passport check while in the EU, I took a long nap and awoke in the middle of Austria: