Travels worth noting

May 20, Last of Trier
This was mostly a travel day really, but we returned to the Lindners back in Trier. This was our longest drive and we had the worst traffic jams. Still it was an enjoyable trip. Ian and I drove most of it. We spent the rest of the evening with Daniel, Josh and James Tiberio. We played some Foosball.

May 21, Breakfast and goodbye.
Yoham got a ride from a college which meant he didn't have to walk an hour to work so he could see us before we left. We said our goodbyes, happily knowing that we would see them again in September when they visit Josh and Marielle.

Final Trip Video to come

Munchen

Day 1 in Munich Saturday May 17,
Turkish Delights
We stayed in a hotel in the middle of a Turkish area. It wasn't as affluent as the rest of Munchen, but our hotel was actually pretty nice. The hotel had bought an apartment and was renting it out so all of us were in the same room. It was the first day in a while we had seen the sun shining, and it was very welcome. We wandered around downtown Munich had dinner on the first night. We also finished the Harry Potter series. Josh and I got drinks and saw an outdoor concert happening for free in a random square. We stayed for a couple songs and decided to see if there would be more on a different night.

Day 2 in Munich Sunday 18th,
Cars and Beer take 2
Today we went to the BMW museum. It was probably the coolest out of all the car museums. After the museum we went to the Hofbräuhaus.
After a round of drinks we decided it was too busy and went back to the hotel to play a Rush Hour drinking game.

Rules:

• Jackie Chan does something awesome
• gun is pulled
• racist comment

Day 3 in Munchen Monday 19th,
Nostalgic Wanderings
Shopping day. This was probably the best day of shopping we had. Munchen has lots of very cool corridors and a very cultural downtown. We had lunch on a rooftop patio overlooking a pedestrian intersection with street performers.

In the evening we planned to go back to the square to see if there was more live music. The guys were tired so they didn't go but I went and to my disappointment there was a DJ, playing some German electronic music. I stayed for a bit, talked to a few of the people there to find out what was going on.

Wien

Day 1 in Vienna, May 15 we drove from Hallstatt to Vienna. We walked around downtown Vienna. Josh wanted to go clubbing but all of us, including him were pretty tired from driving, after dinner we went back to our Hotel and watched Harry Potter, the Half Blood Price. The rain is getting to us.

Day 2 in Vienna, May 16 Today we got up really late, had brunch at a cafe, then went to a mall. We are going to have dinner. Today was fun, but not much to post about. We've been chugging along through the Harry Potter movies quite consistently, but we might miss tonight if we go clubbing.

Serenity

Today we just chilled. We had left over Shepard pie for brunch. Ian and I worked out for a bit, Phil and I went to the pool. We wanted to play volleyball but the weather was just way to rainy. As a group we drove into Hallstatt and had dinner. We watched the Order of Phoenix after dinner. Pictures of Hallstatt to come.

Rain

Today we drove to Hallstatt, well a city very close to it. The drive was rainy. We got to our only resort destination, Resort Oebetron. The resort was very nice but it definitely the off season. As I looked through the pamflet of activites in Hallstatt, I knew that we would not be able to do most of the outdoor activities because of the rain. This was very dissapointing that we got the weather that we did. There was a lot of georgous bouldering and climbing in the area, and I miss it so much. We talked about renting bikes, but the guys just ended up chilling. I went for a nice run. When I got back we went to a grocery store and made Shepard's Pie for dinner. After we continued watching the Harry Potter series.

 

Our resort on a lake

Sweet Wandering.

Today we wandered around Salzburg. We wandered the Old downtown. I went through a few markets.

 

We walked around a castle and went into the a cemetery. We went into catacombs. After a while we decided to go to the Stiegl Brewery.

By the time we got there we were all pretty tired and hungry. Phil was feeling a bit ill, so we didn't to the tour. We just had a meal and hung out for a bit, then Phil and I walked back to the hotel, and took a nap. Ian and Josh stopped and bought some chocolate on the way back. When they got back we had dinner then watched Harry Potter.

Travel Day

Today we drove from Como to Salzburg. We ate dinner, and now we are about to watch Harry Potter 2

No Scooters

Today we tried to rent scooters. The only place that we could find was in Bellagio, We weren't allowed to rent because they didn't want to rent to us after they found out none of us has ever ridden a scooter before. We ended up just shopping for the entire day. It was nice and after we had a nice meal. The roads in and out of Bellagio are insanely narrow and busy. After returning to the hotel we watched Harry Potter 1.

Open Waters

Our plan for today was to rent scooter to ride around lake Como, but the 125cc scooters that Ian found on the internet did not exist, so instead we rented a 14ft boat. It was a perfect. The only think I could have wished for was swim trunks. We rented it for two hours which was enough time for us to see much of the coastline of Como.

We found out that the scooters can be rented in Bellagio and postponed that until tomorrow.

After our lovely ride, we wandered around and found a lovely patio restaurant to eat at called Gorello. We all had true italian pizzas. After this we found a random bar with a fooseball table, Josh and I ordered beer and we started gaming away.

Skoots

Ian and I decided that we wanted to do a hike, while Phil and Josh wanted to spend some time wandering the city.
I looked up on a map where to drive to for the hike. There was a place called "First" by Grindewald that we could do a two hour hike from.
I found the same route to this place on both our car's Navigation and on google maps. Ian and I wandered through narrow and steep hills that were accompanied by gorgeous landscapes.
We reached a Gondola station called "Bort", but the road continuing was closed by construction. We went in to ask for directions around the construction and were told that it was impossible to have driven to where we were without entering private property and passing through farming reserves and that the fines for driving there were huge.

Awesome swiss lifty: "How the hell did you get that up here?"
Me "The roads were a bit steep and really narrow at some points but it wasn't too bad."
Swiss guy: "Are the roads not blocked? I've been working here ten years, and have never been able to drive up here without a farmer kicking me out!"

Figure 1: Picture of Ian and I taken by the awesome Swiss lifty.

Long story short, we didn't get to the hike, instead we drove back down and took the Gondola up to Bort where we rented road scooters (gravity powered)! After a quick run, we decided to push them back up the hill and have another go, as we got a two hour rental on the scooters. The hill took us about 1 hour to get back up.

Figure 2: Our scenic way up the Mountain.

We met up with Josh and Phil who went up a Gondola at the other side of town and had awesome strudels.

After meeting up again at around 230 we embarked to our next hotel near Como.

Zurich

Today we drove from Stuttgart to Zurich. We didn't do much in Zurich. A bit of Shopping, stopped for coffee, but we left for Interlaken quickly.

 

Quaint Cafe in Zurich

Cars and Beer

First thing after breakfast we went to find a Starbucks to try to find wifi. We ended up just stopping in a plaza and standing in the center of a hallway.

Figure 1: getting free Wifi

After finding the addresses for the museums we planned to go to we went on our way.

We chose to go to the Mercedes Museum first, as it was larger and not open as late. We spent until around 2, but decided to skip lunch in order to make it the the Porsche Museum.

Figure 2: Outside the Mercedes Museum

Figure 3: The kind lady who took this photo also took 18 other of the exact same shot with the finger over the lens.

The Porsche Museum was smaller but I thought it was cooler as the cars there are actually driven occasionally.

Figure 4: Porsche Museum

After a exciting but long day at the Museums Josh and I decided to return to the beer festival while Ian and Phil went to McDonalds.

Beer and Beer

Today we drove to Stuttgart,
On suggestion of our friend Mike, we were on a mission to see a few things. Beer festival, Mercedes museum and Porsche museum. Our plan was to go to the beer festival after the drive. Our drive was relatively uneventful. Once we were at the beer festival we shot some arrows, then met a couple of girls, Jenny and Sarah. Unfortunately Sarah didn't speak english and Jenny was married. Anyway we were able to stumble back to the hotel where Ian and I managed to watch part of the Hunger Games before passing out. Fortunately for us all, we didn't actually end up taking any photos of ourselves, but Ian did get a picture of Jenny:

Church

Ian and I went grocery shopping for breakfast. After the rest of the group joined us for breakfast we just chilled. There may have been some Fooseball. Ian went grocery shopping again for the dinner they planned to cook in the evening. Weber, Josh D, Phil and I went with Daniel to Daniel's school in the morning to play volleyball. Joel and another of Daniels friends joined us. Ian stayed behind to get some rest. After we returned, Phil and I went with Joel and the Lindners (including Josh), to Church. Joel Translated for us. When we returned Josh and Ian had a roast ready for dinner.

Our lovely hosts.

Castles and Gelato

May 3:

First thing in the morning, Josh, Ian, Daniel and I went for a quick jog around the park that we went to on the first day. It was a good way to start the day.
Breakfast again was a feasts. After devotionals, which Yoham (Mr. Linder) and Marielle joined in, we made our lunches to embark on an adventure. (of course we packed our beer.)

Figure 1: Pond at the Park

Today we visited three castles.
The first one was closed for a wedding. It was still gorgeous.

Figure 2: Parking lot at the first Castle

Figure 3: Castle

The second one Burgeltz, we got to do a tour, then we wandered around outside the castle a bit. I will update this with pictures and more details later:

Figure 4: Inside Burgeltz

Figure 5: Just outside of Burgeltz

The last one was also closed, but the town Cochem was in was gorges. We had gelato at two different places and wandered around the markets. I felt like this place was touristy, but the way to experience Germany. The vineyards were gorgeous, and just the walk from the parkade we used to the castles was amazing enough. I wish we could stay in this place a bit longer, and this town should have definitely been a destination. If you go here  be prepared to go on a gelato crawl through the markets. I will update this with pictures and more details later.

Figure 6: Gelato

Figure 7: Castle at Cochem

Figure 8: wandering the streets of Cochem

After returning from the castles we were all pretty tired. We played Settlers of Catan for the rest of the evening. We played a version where Troy was playing against another city. I was with Phil and Weber. Josh, Ian and Daniel were on Troy. Phil wasn't paying much attention and the rest of us are pretty competitive so I hope he still had fun.

Aquainting with Trier

May 2:
This morning Josh D. Ian and I went grocery shopping for breakfast. It was a very large and german breakfast. After breakfast we had a devotion before delving into the days activities. First we went groceryshopping again (Ian was loving this). After shopping Mrs. Linder returned to the home and unloaded the groceries. 

Breakfast at the Linders

We spent time in downtown Trier for the rest of the afternoon. We went to an old and very historical church dubbed the Dome. It was had architecture from many different time periods as it was renovated many times. Had infuence from the Roman empire, and Gothic influences. The building used to be a palace that was expanded. During WWII it was heavily damaged, but it survived. It is joined with church next door, which was also very beautiful. Next we went to the protestent church and to the Basilica. After this we went to see a bath used by the romans. After the sight seeing, we ate donairs, (I had a turkish pizza). We walked back to the house and hung out in the house till dinner. Everybody came for dinner but Mrs. Linder. Marielle's friend Joel, who was with Josh D. in Colorado and at his stag, came along. We stayed at the restaurant pretty late and I was getting pretty tired.

Porta Negra

Travel Day

May 1:
I've been up for 30 hrs, and I don't have any pictures. Today was a Traveling day. 9 hrs on a direct flight from Calgary to Frankfort, and 4 hrs from Frankfurt to Trier by train, so I guess its not a road trip yet.
I prayed with Ian and Phil over our first meal on the plane, unfortunately Josh didn't have a seat close to us. Josh Dyckerhoff was on a different flight with his wife Marielle. In the Frankfurt Airport/Train terminal I started to see Ian relax and Phil start to take charge a bit. Its cool to see this happening so quickly in our trip. I hope to learn a lot from each one of these guys over the next three weeks.
First thoughts of Germany: it's very green and beautiful. On the train the four of us were dozing in and out of consiousness as we just had a nine hour flight, but during the moments of coherence, we were able to appreciate the beauty of the country. At times it felt like I was on location for Braveheart, or The Hobbit. There were castles on the hills. It was cool.


We arrived in Trier and found Josh Dyckerhoff and Daniel Linder waiting for us to pick us up. Mr. Linder, was waiting in one of the two cars. We unwound a bit with a walk around a park on a pond with Josh D. and Daniel. I wish these guys could come with us. There is actually so many people I wish were doing the road trip with us.