November 26, 2014 Wednesday

On the plane heading to Europe. We are so excited for the sounds and sights of Christmas. There's no better place at Christmas time!

We left Seattle at 1:30 p.m. and flew to Amsterdam. We got there about 8 a.m. on Thursday the 27^th. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We caught a train into the city and walked around for a couple of hours. 

We took the train back to the airport and caught the plane into Munich, Germany. We rented a car and drove to our hotel. We are staying at the Sheraton near Erding. We ate dinner in the hotel and went to bed. We were so tired I went to bed and Michael went to the hotel spa then to bed. The beds in the Sheraton are unbelievable.

November 28, 2014  Friday

We had a great sleep. We got up and headed into Munich for the day. I love the drive there from Erding. Its farm land and so beautiful. We first went to the Nymphenburg Palace and walked the grounds. It’s huge. The palace was a favorite residence of the Bavarian royal family. This castle is the birthplace of King Ludwig II, who built all of the other Bavarian castles. We shopped in Munich and ate dinner at “Zum Durnbrau.”

Old church on the garden grounds of the Palace.

Munich, Germany 

We found a license plate for Michael!

November 29, 2014 Saturday

We went into Erding and ate brunch at the Pano Café. It was very good. We’ve eaten there before. We walked around the small town Christmas Market, and then we headed to the spa for the rest of the day and evening.

 

 

November 30, 2014 Sunday

We drove into Munich and went to the Christmas Markets. We pretty much ate and shopped and took it easy. It was actually a very relaxing day and fun. We ate brunch at “Zum Durnbrau” just because it is so darn good. We had a salad and their potato soup. We also had sausage and sauerkraut. It was so good on such a cold day. We drove to the airport in Munich and caught a plane to Berlin. Our flight was delayed (which we knew) so we hung out at the airport and ate dinner there. We took the bus to the Brandenburg gate then a taxi to our hotel. The Christmas tree in front of the gate was all lit up and it was so beautiful and not a soul around!! 

December 1, 2014 Monday

We ate breakfast at the hotel. It is really good and a lot of food. After breakfast we walked through what was known as East Berlin. It happened to be a part of the neighborhood that was pretty simple, plain and a little run down. Since it was a very cold and gray day it looked kinda depressing. Well we later found out when we returned to the hotel that night, instead of walking in the freezing weather for 30 minutes we actually were about 1 block from the subway or train station. When we came out of the hotel instead of turning right we went left and went in a big circle. What stinks is there wasn’t anything worth looking at either. Oh well. We did find out that there are better things in Berlin then where we had gone that first morning.

We did end up at our destination finally, the remains of the Berlin wall. There are a few parts still remaining. For about 100 miles you can see a small brick line all through the city where the wall used to be. We went into the museum mostly to get warm and read and looked through all the history and peoples experiences with and at the wall.

We walked over to “Checkpoint Charlie.” Went through some of the museums and got hot chocolate. 

We later went to the most beautiful Christmas Market. “Gendarmenmarkt.” On both sides of the Market are cathedrals and the Opera house is in the middle. It is so pretty. We stayed for a while and ate dinner there. I bought a lot of Christmas ornaments from “Kathie Wohlfahrt.” 

December 2, 2014 Tuesday

We ate breakfast again at the hotel and took the train to the “Schloss Charlottenburg” or The Charlottenburg Palace. The Palace is the largest Palace in Berlin.We rode the bus around the city just to get a quick look at all the different sights. 

He was in a funny mood taking pictures today!

We stopped at the  Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The church was partially destroyed during a bombing raid in 1943. Following the war, several different options for the church's redevelopment were considered, including the construction of a new church made from glass in the old church's ruins, and also its complete demolition and replacement with a new structure. Eventually it was decided to leave the ruined tower as a memorial to the horrors of war, and create a new church around it

A picture of the original church.

Stained glass window was blown out.

We went to another Christmas Market and then ended up at the “Brandenburg Gate.” It is so beautiful at night especially with the Christmas tree in front of it.

December 3, 2014 Wednesday

We headed to Potsdam, Germany for the day. There is a Christmas Market there but they have a huge Palace there. It belonged to Frederick the Great. The complex is called Sanssouci. It’s beautiful even in the winter. A lot of the statues were covered. I bet it’s unbelievable in the spring or summer. The advantage to winter there are not a lot of people and we love that!! The gardens are amazing and very large we spent a good deal of time walking from one end way to the other, stopping at palaces on the complex along the way. The beautiful and extensive park and complex of palaces has been designated a World Heritage Centre of Culture by UNESCO. The Prussian King Frederick the Great wished to live “Sans Souci,” in a place outside the boundaries of the hated city. The French phrase means “Without worries.” There are 709 acres of land! Frederick the Great used to play the flute on the grounds. We saw a man dressed up playing the flute. We bought Taylor a necklace in the palace that came in a princess box! We walked all over the gardens and visited all but two of the palaces. In one of the Palaces the Potsdam conference was held in 1945. Heads of government met. United States Harry Truman, USSR Joseph Stalin and Great Britain Winston Churchill. They met in order to seal the future of Germany in a treaty. Important points such as the demilitarization of Germany, the punishment of war criminals, the resettlement of Germans from Poland and the new borders of Germany were decided here.

We pretty much spent the day in Potsdam. It was really fun. We took the train back to the hotel. Tomorrow is our last day in Berlin then we fly back to Munich for the last three days of our trip.

 

Pictures cannot show how huge this Palace was. Just walking up to it was unbelievable!

December 4, 2014 Thursday 

We went into Berlin for the last day today. We took the subway over to the Brandenburg Gate again to see it during the day. There was a LOT more people there. It was still pretty awesome but it’s so beautiful at night. We walked over to the Reichstag or Parliament building. The next tour was at 5pm and we had to be at the airport around 4 for our flight back to Munich. So we just walked around it and took some pictures. 

Car we saw in the window.

Reichstag or Parliament building. 

Microsoft. J

We went over to "Bebelplatz." This huge square was meant to introduce some of the splendor and glory of ancient Rome to the Prussian capital.In May 1933, it became the scene of the infamous Nazi book burning. (as seen in the movie and book “The Book Thief.” There is a window on the ground where you can look down into and see empty book shelves. 

We then walked over to the Berlin Cathedral the “Berliner Dom.” It’s so huge we went inside and sat for a little bit then climbed the stairs to the top of the dome. It was very cool but lots of stairs! I never get tired of seeing cathedrals and castles. We walked around town and rode the tour bus to see any missed sights. I think we pretty much can say we did Berlin pretty well. We ended up back at the Brandenburg Gate. We sat in Starbucks right next to the gate and had pastries and hot chocolate. It was cold out and it was good! We went to the spa and ate dinner there.

 Hotel Adlon, where Michael Jackson hung his baby out the window! It’s right next to the Brandenburg Gate.

 We walked through the hotel to the other side where the Holocaust memorial is.

Walking through the mall.

December 5, 2014 Friday

We slept well after the spa last night so needless to say we enjoyed sleeping in! We have been to Munich many times we pretty much have seen it so we had a free day to do whatever we wanted without rushing. We drove into Munich and ate breakfast at the pastry shop and did more shopping and the Christmas Market in Marienplatz.We drove over to the town of Garmarish where Zugspitz is. It the highest mountain range in Germany. It is on the border of Germany and Austria. I loved going to Jungfrau in Switzerland and we heard this was great! We wanted to go tomorrow or Sunday but the weather may not be so good. It needs to be a clear day if you go to the top. It was lightly snowing and it was pretty foggy. If we don’t go tomorrow we may go to Nurnberg again. They have a Christmas Market and it’s beautiful. It’s about an hour or so from Munich. We went to the spa and ate dinner there again.  

 December 6, 2014 Saturday

We decided not to go to Zugspitz this time we’ll have to do that in the spring on a clear day. We decided to drive to Nuremburg (Nurnberg) which is about an hour away. We spent the day at the Christmas Market there. It is a very popular one and it was packed but so beautiful. We had so much fun. We drove back to the hotel and ate dinner in the restaurant there. 

 Under the Mistletoe.

December 7, 2014 Sunday

We decided to go into the city of Oberammergau, Germany. We’ve been there before but it’s so beautiful there. It even started to snow a little which added a nice touch. It’s such a cute Bavarian town I love it. Every ten years the whole city puts on the “Passion play”.

In 1633, the residents of Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany, vowed that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague ravaging the region, they would produce a play thereafter for all time depicting the life and death of Jesus. The death rate among adults rose from one person per 1000 per year in October 1632 to twenty in the month of March 1633. The adult death rate slowly subsided to one in the month of July 1633. The villagers believed they were spared after they kept their part of the vow when the play was first performed in 1634. Word spread throughout the region about the play, and it became too expensive to perform every year, so the town decided that every 10 years would be sufficient. I can’t imagine what this little town would look like when there are a ton of tourists. Glad we aren’t here then! We drove over to Ettal again and Linderhof Palace. It was a beautiful drive. We went to the spa and spent the evening and ate dinner there.

Theater where the Passion Play is held.

 Funny!

 Linderhof Castle

December 8, 2014 Monday

Well…all good things must end! We had a wonderful trip. It’s the best way to start off the Christmas season. We headed to the Munich airport and caught our flight from Munich to Atlanta Georgia. 10 hours and 27 minutes. From Atlanta we fly another five hours to Seattle. (You get the longer flight with a better price on your tickets.) It’s worth it. We have a three hour layover in Atlanta so we’ll get dinner there. It was an awesome trip but it’s always great to get home! One week home then it’s off to visit Stephanie and Cody in St. George, Utah for Christmas. Feeling very blessed to be able to travel as much as we have.