Germany '09! The trip of a Lifetime!

A little about this trip. Melanie was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2007, and since then has had many struggles and triumphs! She is now in remission (which I am grateful for every day)! Anyway the nurses at Children's Hospital asked if Melanie had done her Make-A-Wish yet, we were confused we thought Make-A-Wish was for children with terminal diseases. They informed us they had changed their policy to all childhood diseases. So the nurses got in contact with The Make-A-Wish people, who came and met with Melanie to discuss what she wanted for her Wish! Her first choice was a tirp to Germany, and her back up wishes was flying lessons or a trip to New York. Well she got her first choice...a trip to Germany! We found this out about a year ago, since then Melanie and mom have been planning this trip! Make-A-Wish has truly blessed us by paying for almost everything; passports, plane tickets, hotels, rentel car, food, spending money for Melanie! Now we are home from this trip of a lifetime! It was amazing; I still cannot believe I was in Germany!
Since I wasn't sure if I would have internet access while in Germany I kept a journal on my computer to put on my blog once we got home! Here it is:
GERMANY '09!
Day 1 Wednesday June 10-11th 2009
Today at 8:00am a stretch limo picked us up and took us (Melanie, Angie, Mom, and Dad) to the airport for our trip to Germany! The Make-a-Wish foundation granted Melanie a wish, and her wish was to go to Germany! They are providing most everything (passports, tickets, hotels, entertainment, food, car and gas) except for personal spending money for us, with the exception of Melanie. We flew to Atlanta, Georgia where we caught our connecting flight to Munich, Germany. While waiting for the 8hr+ flight to Germany we were delayed in Atlanta because of stupid thunderstorms…and of course we were delayed while we were on the plane (for over an hour)! It was not that fun…but we were finally on our way to Germany! Once we got here we went through customs…got our luggage, and met a Make-a-Wish volunteer at the airport! I want to say his name was Christian (not sure though). He showed us how to get our car (a Chrysler Grand Tour…it’s totally cool…hopefully I’ll remember to get a picture), my dad was sad about this, he wanted a German car not an American one! From there we followed him to our hotel in Munich (Holiday Inn) and helped to get us checked in. It was a nice hotel (sorry no pictures). After we got all settled in we went on an adventure into Munich. We took the S-Bahn (Subway) to the City Center where we got to see the Rathaus-Glockenspiel in the New Town Hall. We ate at a little café for lunch and continued walking around the old part of Germany. We went to the Residence Museum and looked at many Churches and window shopped (most everything was closed, it was a holiday in Germany today). After we got our fill of walking we took the S-Bahn back the area with our hotel and ate at a little Italian Place, Mel and I had Hawaiian pizza it was delicious! Now we are back to the Hotel and more than READY for bed! Gute Nacht!
Day 2 June 12th 2009
Today we got to have a little sleep in. The beds and pillows were so COMFY! After we got ready we went and had breakfast at the hotel…might I add the best breakfast EVER!! There was so much to choose from! They had; eggs, bacon, tons of sausages and other meats, breads, yogurts, granola, pastries, fruit, and even pretzels! It was so good and SO filling none of us were hungry until dinner time! After breakfast we went back to the rooms and finished packing all of our stuff and head out to Dachau. In the process we got lost in Munich and got to see a lot of the town we would of other wised missed! It was really cool, and crazy! People park all over the place, half on sidewalks half in the streets! The lanes are really narrow, and not marked to our liking! At one point we were on a street with people parked on the side and a large trucked double parked, it was hard to see around the truck, so we trusted the person in front of us could see and followed them quickly to get around the truck on the other side of the road, crazy I say! Once we made it out of Munich we headed to Dachau which has one of many Concentration Camps in Europe. It was a very powerful place! I don’t even know how to describe how I felt, like a mixture of sadness, anger, and wonder. It was very sad, but made me grateful for the times we live in now, and hopefully this horrible bit of history will not repeat its self…even though similar things are happening! After Dachau we headed back on the freeway and started towards Linderhof Scholss, one of Ludwig II, three castles in the Alps! It was so BEAUTIFUL! I took lots and lots of pictures of the gardens…no pictures allowed in the castle because it has copy right! But take my word for it, beautiful! After the castle we headed to our final destination for the night, Garmisch. This has to be the best hotel I’ve ever been in. It’s a local hotel. It has a very home like feeling; Mel, Angie and I have this little suite it has room for all of us and wow does it have an AMAZING view of the Alps from both of our rooms! I have lots of pictures of this place! Well it is very late almost 11pm and we need to be up early for tomorrow! So I need to get to bed! Gute Nacht!
Day 3 June 13, 2009
Today was a very long day but awesome day! We woke up around 6am so we could be out the door by 7:15am. Once on the road we headed to King Ludwig II’s two other castles; Hohanschwangau and Neuschwanstein (Cinderella’s Castel). On the way there we drove through Austria! It was so pretty! There were little towns everywhere (but because of stupid trees blocking our view we couldn’t get any really good pictures) they were so beautiful, and almost fake looking. Once we got to the little parking/tourist area for the castles we bought the tickets, and headed up a trail for Hohanschwangau. This is where King Ludwig II grew up. The grounds were so nice we got lots of good pictures of the Alps as well as a lake that was nearby. After Hohanschwangau we went to lunch at one of the many cafés in the area. We sat out on the patio (in the shade) and enjoyed ourselves for a while. Mom and dad decided they did not want to go up to Neuschwanstein, so Melanie, Angie and I went up by ourselves. We took a bus up to this thing called Mary’s Bridge where you can stand on it and get and AMAZING view (and pictures) of Neuschwanstein. It was a beautiful view; unfortunately that part of the castle was under renovations! SUCKY!! But worth it all the same from there Mel, Angie, and I booked it (up and down steep hills) to the castle (did I mention we were running late for our tour) with occasional stops to catch our breath and take more pictures (the view was so beautiful, it make me wish that camera’s could capture what your eyes can see)! We made it up to the castle and discovered we had just missed the tour, so we decided we would just go on the German speaking one, and just look. That was really weird! We had no idea what they were talking about, Mel could catch a few phrases here and there but it was still fun to hear the tour guide talking! When we were in the second room (the Throne Room) the group that was after us was just coming in as we were leaving and we heard them speaking English so we asked if it was an English tour and it was…so we stayed with that group the rest of the time. This castle was by far the best one that we went to. King Ludwig was loved the romantics and this castle was had so many paintings of legends and operas they were in almost every room! He also had a mini-man-made-cave in the castle with a conservatory connected to it. It was real rock and everything! Pretty cool! In this castle there were so many stairs to climb! I swear I thought I would die if I had to keep going. We went up 96 stairs in the castle and down 100+ to get out of the castle! The tour guide said that in the castle and outside of the castle there are over 300 stairs! Yikes I would not like that at all! Thank God for elevators and escalators! After the tour we bought dad a pretzel and headed down to an area where you can get on a horse carriage and it will take you down the mountain to the main area. It was fun! We sat right behind the horses and they were making us laugh because one was farting and then they had to stop if one had to go to the bathroom, and once the carriage went over a piece of their poop and it rocked the whole carriage. We were trying so hard not to laugh because we were the only that laughed in the first place! But it was way funny! After that we walked back to the car to find mom and dad sitting in it waiting for us. After the castles we went to look at some church that I took pictures of but can’t remember the name of it. It was ok I guess. I just don’t know why mom likes looking at Catholic Churches; we’re not even Catholic! Oh well there were a couple of cute horses out front as well as this cute little goat! I liked the goat and I pet it! Then we FINALLY started to make our way back to the hotel. This time we did not drive through Austria but stayed in Germany and drove through some of the other towns like this one that does a play “Passions” every 10 years around Easter. It was a cute little town much like all of them here in Germany! While driving back Mel, Angie, and I all fell asleep in the back of the car, and once inside the hotel Mel and I took a little nap. Then we went to dinner at a local restaurant they had some pretty good food as always! And now I am in need of some more sleep! I’m so tired; hiking drains a lot of energy from you! Gute Nacht!!
Day 4 June 14th 2009
Today was a pretty good day. We got up and had time to eat breakfast here at the hotel. It was nothing compared to that first night in Munich. But it was delicious all the same. After breakfast we headed to the train station to catch a train to Zugspitze (the tallest mountain in Germany) we missed that train by like seconds literally; because no one listens to me!! We were in the train station and I saw a sign saying where to go, but no mom and dad had to wait in the regular line only to be told the same thing I had just told them!! Moral of the story read the signs that are around you! Most will tell you where to go! Funny how that works in life as well! Any the next train that left didn’t leave until 10:15 and that was a whole freaking hour so we decided not to wait and drive up to where the train drops you off to get on to the gondola that brings you up to the top of the mountain, by doing this we surprisingly saved a lot of time! We took the gondola up the mountain and it was so pretty…unfortunately no pictures of this …once on top we got out went up a couple levels in a building and went out on top! It was so BEAUTIFUL!! You could see Austria and Germany, the Alps looked absolutely amazing, we seriously had the best day for this the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky! We stayed up there for a while, visited the Austria side, bought some souvenirs, and headed back down the mountain…again no pictures…another experience all unto itself! Once we got down to the bottom we got back on the road and headed to Austria. We did two things in Austria first we went to Kristallwelten; this is where Swarovski has a little exhibit thing where they display a bunch of their crystal’s in very different ways! It was so cool. I even bought a crystal ring, it’s a little flower made of the crystals, it wasn’t a very expensive one (only 15 euro) but still it’s so pretty! After that we headed up to some waterfalls from a distance they looked so pretty! But unfortunately Angie and I didn’t get to see it close up! Long story short…Angie and I went to the bathroom and the others did not hear us say that so they continued on without us. When we came out we could see them in the distance ahead of us so we started to follow, but we couldn’t go across this bridge because we had no tickets!! Although dad had really bought us all tickets but they didn’t think to wait for us! So Angie and I were stuck waiting forever and a day for them to come back! But we had a little fun our selves. There was this little doggie sitting on a low wall that we sat down in front of and he came up to us and wanted to be pet. So Angie did, then he sat in her lap, which she didn’t like so she pushed him off. But he still sat next to us and let us pet him while we waited. We never figured out who he belonged to, and we were sitting with him for like 20min. After the adventure with the dog we walked up to an area we had passed earlier that we knew had tables and a little gift shop. Well gift shop was closed but we did get some little info on the falls and looked at it while waiting. Once they finally made it back we stopped at a little pizza place close to where we parked our cars! It was super delicious! Mel and I had Diavono pizza. It had salami and pepperoni it was so good! Dad had a spicy Hawaiian pizza. Mom had a salad, and Angie had some chicken wings (yes she had chicken wings at an Italian place)! And to TOP it all off we decided to order some ice cream dessert! Dad got a raspberry one Mel and Angie and one like an ice cream float but instead of pop it was made with chocolate milk, YUMMY, and I had a banana split, mom shared with us! It was all so good; it totally made the trip up there worth it!! After all that we finally got back on the road to head back to our last night at this hotel! I hope the next one is just as amazing!! :D Gute Nacht!!
Day 5 June 15th 2009
Today was pretty uneventful. We left the hotel around 9 and drove the long way to Braubach, Germany, which is close to Koblenz; and by long way I mean through Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and France! Of course it was raining all day so we couldn’t really see the scenery, except in Austria. We stopped for lunch in Zurich, Switzerland at a Chinese place. It was so good and the staff was SO nice and helpful! I was definitely craving no German food (I’m not exactly the biggest fan of it), so Chinese worked out perfectly! After lunch we continued on, eventually we stopped at a grocery store in FRANCE :D not sure of the name of the town but it was France, the country I dream of truly visiting some day! Mom and dad bought some chocolate truffle candy bar; it was good, and I still have the outside wrapper for scrapbook purposes! From there we continued on, and once we reached Koblenz we had a little adventure trying to find a gas station. We drove all over thinking there has got to be one close but no there wasn’t, so mom finally got out of the car and asked some guy on the street, she had success in asking for directions, because the guy told us how to get to one! Its weird how there are like no gas stations over there, when we have like hundreds in one area here! Anyway we FINALLY made it to our hotel. It’s this cute little Italian hotel, Hotel Bella-vista, with a delicious restaurant downstairs (yes Italian…again!) and the staff is so nice, they let us order our food and bring it upstairs to our rooms, we were all too tired to sit in a restaurant and eat! Did I mention our room this one is almost as good as our last one! It’s called a mini-apartment. It has a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, a little hallway between the living room and bathroom…and to top it all off a private balcony with an AMAZING view of the Rheine, as well as Marksburg Castle, too bad we are only staying two nights; it would be well worth it to use such a balcony. Well it’s late so GUTE NACHT!
Day 6 June 16th 2009
Today was, for the most part, an excellent day. Breakfast was good, nothing magnificent, just bread fruit some yogurt and hard boiled eggs; definitely nothing compared to the first 2 hotels. While waiting for mom and dad to get ready (they were running a little behind this morning) we watched MTV (one of the only English channels!) which was fun because we got to see a bunch of German band’s music videos; they were very funny to say the least. Because we were running late we did not get on an English speaking tour for Rheinfels Castle which was at exactly 11am, so we did a self guided tour which turned out way better. This Castle is only ruins; it was so pretty I swear I took at least a hundred pictures in there. I just loved it, and the flowers that were there were beautiful too! It really makes me wish that the camera could see what my eyes can, again!! Next we went to a little town, I have no idea what the name was, and just walked around. It was a cute town with much of the old city still intact so much of the architecture was original; I got a few pictures of it! After that we went and had lunch at a bratwurst stand (that was the first time we actually had bratwurst while here in Germany)! It was good :) a little messy to eat but still good! After lunch we went back and looked around Koblenz, and then to the hotel for a while before Marksburg Castle, welaid in bed for a while and then watched TV (2 and a half men in GERMAN, I love watching American shows in German it makes me laugh to hear what German people hear and not what I’m used to). Around 4:30 we started the best part of this whole trip! We headed up to Marksburg Castle, which is the only castle that has not been destroyed and therefore is in its original condition, just has the outside of the castle needs to be refurbished so not to lose the original walls due to weather damage, most of it has been plastered to protect the outside walls, this is what they did in the middle ages to protect the walls as well. Therefore Marksburg looks exactly the same as it did in Mid-Evil times! Anyway when we got there we were met by Patrick Hasser, who had helped set up this special evening. He introduced us to our PRIVATE tour guide (I want to say it was Misa but not sure) anyway she lives with her parents in the Marksburg Castle (her dad is the chief secretary of this German Castle Restoration thing, and is therefore required to live there) anyway, she showed us around the place, and told us so much information it was really cool. Now after the tour I knew that we were getting some kind of dinner but what greeted us was totally unexpected. As we came out of the exit of the castle a little band was waiting and began to play a march as we walked up to the entrance to the restaurant. There we were met by Thomas, our minstrel/Harold for the evening. He did some kind of crazy thing about a ghost, that involved dad having to be silly (I took a video of it, it’s hilarious)! Then he took us to our PRIVATE dining area, where we were entertained, fed lots of food, and they even did a little something special for Melanie! Thomas entertained us with different songs some modern some probably Mid-Evil time period songs, he was hilarious, and kept us laughing and made the evening very fun (which I suppose is his job)! Patrick was our server bringing us our “wine” (aka cola lights and sprite) and food! Before each entrée was served Thomas would do this little “poison test” before each course. The first course it was mom’s turn to be embarrassed, she had to hold a candle in one hand and a plate of what we were going to eat in the other, then Thomas would do a bell test and if something was wrong with the bell then mom would have to taste the food for poison! Well of course he made it ring funny (by covering it with his hands) so mom had to try it, but all was well, and we were served the first entrée, a rack of ribs, they were pretty good but not the biggest fan of pork so I only 3 pieces of mine! Next it was Angie’s turn for embarrassment! She again had to stand with a candle and a plate of food in each hand, this time Thomas circled the bell around her head, the candle, and the food, and then stuck the bell in the candle’s fire, which lit it up (it look really cool, I have a picture of it)! She then had to taste the food and it passed, so Thomas drank the antidote that he had brought along! Since it passed the next entrée was brought out, a turkey leg and some coleslaw. The turkey was so good! But by this time I was so full I couldn’t even finish it! Before the last course was brought out Thomas did something very special for Melanie, he brought her out in the hall and dressed her in a cloak and a little hat, brought her back in and “knighted” her as Duchess, or something like that, gave her a little scroll (in German) saying she was a duchess and everything, SUPER CUTE! After that we had a little dessert, grapes and cheese (not a fan of the cheese part) and this cherry streusel type thing, delicious! After that we decided it was time to leave, so we prepared while getting ready to leave Patrick let us meet his dog Charles, what a cute calm dog! He was so cute (I have a picture of him)! Tonight was seriously the best, it made us celebrate with Melanie the amazing person she is!! Helped me remember why we are here in Germany, helped me to remember what she has been through, and grateful that she is still here with us! I love Melanie, she is my hero! She has such strength in her that I only wish I could have! Melanie I love you!! Anyway after dinner and many thanks we left and headed back to the hotel. We packed everything up (we leave for Frankfurt tomorrow after the river cruise) loaded up some pictures to my computer (Melanie and I have both used up all of our memory cards) and now I am still awake typing this (as always I’m the last to bed). But I must go to bed, because we need to wake up at 6:00am and it is now 10 to midnight! So GUTE NACHT!! :)
Day 7 June 17th 2009
Today we woke up at 6:00am so we could have our bags packed and in mom and dad’s room by 7:00am, and to go eat some breakfast. We caught the train, at 8:00am that took us from Braubach to Rudesheim. In Rudesheim we took a little cruise up the Rhine River back to Braubach. The river cruise was very nice; they had a deck for viewing, another deck for eating and viewing, below deck they had two different sides to eat with huge windows to look out while eating! Along the Rhine there are a ton of castles and this is a great way to see them all! I took a lot of pictures on here. To start Melanie, Angie and I sat out on the deck, while mom and dad found a table in one of the lower deck restaurant seating areas. The cruise lasted for about 3 hours; the sights were beautiful! We could not have asked for a better day! We were afraid it would be cloudy and rainy (because on the train down it was), but we were blessed, the sun came out and the cruise was very enjoyable, I even got a nice tan…woops I mean sunburn ;)! After a while we went down and had lunch, we were finally able to get some American food (chicken nuggets and French-fries), we also had some ice-cream desserts on the cruise! All to soon the boat reached Braubach, and we got off and walked a block or two back to the hotel, where the manger had gratefully let us keep our bags, so we could refresh before our drive to Frankfurt! Upon leaving the hotel the manager gave us a little plate like thing from Sicily, Italy. It was so nice of him! Before we left the Rhine Valley region we had one more castle to see, Burg Eltz. We were lucky to find they had a little shuttle to bring you up to the castle; we were all too tired to hike down to the castle! This castle was beautiful! Apparently it used to be three separate houses owned, by three brothers, until one passed away leaving it to another brother, who combined the buildings. The castle is still owned and lived in by the family of the original creators (at least that is what I think the tour guide said)! After the tour we made our way to Frankfurt, the very last part of our trip. The drive was beautiful, until we got out of the Rhine area, then it felt almost like being in Minnesota, just a little hillier. Once we got into the city with our hotel we had to wind around the hundreds of ONE-WAY streets!! It was insane! The streets were tiny little things with people parked all over the place plus people driving all over the place. It took us a while to find the hotel, but we did! The hotel was again very nice! The rooms and everything inside were very comfortable (I forgot to take pictures of this one). Melanie, Angie and my room also had a little balcony; too bad we didn’t get to use it. After we got settled in a little we went to this restaurant that my dad had heard of from someone he works with called Waldgeist. Waldgeist is a restaurant/beer garden that serves huge quantities of food, huge wienershnitzles (this is what mom and dad had) and other things like cheeseburgers the size of a dinner plate (Melanie, Angie and I shared one, we couldn’t finish it). It was so good! After dinner we went back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for another long travel day! I’m sad that we didn’t get to go see the Frankfurt temple! I’m also sad that we have to go; this has been a trip of a lifetime! I still can’t believe I’m here, and now I have to leave. Although I’m definitely looking forward to some American food (even though it seems we ate more Italian than German)! I will miss all the little café’s everywhere with their outside seating, as well as all the nice people we have met along the way! We were truly blessed to have such an amazing experience! Thank you Make-A-Wish!! Gute Nacht!!
Day 8 June 18th 2009
Today was a very long, long day! We got up at 6:00am, again, to prepare for leaving back to the U.S., we checked to make sure we had everything and went to eat breakfast. This breakfast was the same as the last hotel we stayed in, except they had this yummy chocolate bread/cake, it was almost like a doughnut! After breakfast we headed to the airport, where we met our German Make-A-Wish contact, Marina, as well as another volunteer Annika. They were so nice; we sat and talked with them for a while, after we had gotten all checked in of course! They asked all about our trip, she said that she had no idea what they were going to do at the Marksburg Castle, we also showed them some pictures (I showed them the video I took of dad at Marksburg)! Soon after we headed to the gate, I must say that I like security over sea’s much better than in the U.S.! First you we got our passports checked, and then you walk to your gate, along the way to the gate there are more shops and cafés, before you can get to your gate is when you go through security. Security there is much more simple, all you have to do is take off your jackets, empty your pockets, and if you have a laptop remove that; no taking off your shoes, no taking out liquids (although they still have to be in the quart size bag), all in all much more simple! On the flight there was individual TV like screens in front of you, in which you can play games watch TV shows or movies! I was able to watch some movies that I’ve wanted to see for a while (Yes Man, He’s Just Not That into You, and Taken)! After 8 hours on this flight we landed in New York, at the JFK airport. I was really excited to see this area, but it was all cloudy and rainy so we couldn’t see anything! Anyway after landing we had to go through customs and then security again (American style), but we all made it through with one minor moment of concern; Angie’s bag was missing when we went to get them to re-check (however it showed up at MSP so all good)! On account of the above mentioned yucky rain our flight to MSP was delayed for about 2 hours! That would have been fine if the airport was nice, but it wasn’t. The gate we were leaving out of wasn’t even a gate! It was out like right next to the runway! We had to take a bus out to it; and once we got there we had to wait on the bus for people who were on the plane before us to get off! They have very poor communication, bad funding, and no room at JFK; I do not recommend having connecting flights there!! Anyway…we finally got on the plane, took off and headed back to MSP! I was so exhausted (I had been up for about 20 hours) by the time the plane took off I slept for the majority of the flight; I did wake up for the final descent into MSP and saw an amazing view of Minneapolis, to bad my camera was packed away)! Once we landed we made our way to baggage claim and up to the limo to take us home! Now that I am home I still cannot believe that I was in Germany for a week! It was more than amazing! I’m so grateful to still have Melanie in my life, I’m grateful for Make-A-Wish for making this all possible for her (and for us), I’m grateful for the gorgeous weather we had while there, I’m grateful that we made it there and back safely, and I’m grateful for this trip of a lifetime! Danke!

I will post pictures later. For some unknown reason (mainly I'm still getting used to the blog stuff) I can't get the pictures to actually show up! I hoped you enjoyed hearing about our adventures in Germany!! :)