Ich Liebe Deutschland

I knew I was going to love Germany. How could I not? My dad served an LDS mission in Munich so I grew up hearing all his wonderful stories about Germany and eating all the delicious German food he would whip up for us every couple weeks. And Sel, whoa, pretty sure he would have divorced me if I said one negative thing against his beloved Germany. That man is obsessed! :) I even dubbed myself an honory member of the German club in high school (most of my friends took German and Frau Barner was amazing and they had great food so I came to meetings despite not actually knowing a lick of German...).

We also got to spend a few hours in Austria, which was sadly not as much time as I was hoping for. As soon as we crossed the border from Italy to Austria our tour director blasted the ever rockin "The Hills Are Alive". The hills of Austria really were stunning. I could totally understand why Maria felt she had to run through them bursting with that melody. We ate a delicious lunch in Austria and then the Von Trapp family begged us to smuggle them out of there ASAP so we sadly had to part ways before I wanted to.

Our first night in Germany was spent at the famed Hofbräuhaus in Munich. Supposedly, Motzart, Lenin, and Hitler all enjoyed a stein at one point in their lives at the Hofbräuhaus and probably plenty of other famed humans have had their share of beer in here as it has been around for about 400 years. Case, our tour director, agreed to buy everyone a stein to go with our dinner. Not drinking alcohol in Europe is like a national offense. It is so integrated into the culture in almost every country and while most places were accomadating, few understood why. We still had an amazing time and a truly entertaining time being the only ones sober most of the trip.

We bought SO much chocolate (Milka and Rittersport of course) that night from a local grocery store. We spent 40 Euro just on chocolate and I regret nothing. We gave some of it away as gifts, but we still have a hefty stock of perfect, delicious goodness. I wish American chocolate was half as good as European chocolate!

After our night in Munich, we went to Rothenburg which is probably one of the most fascinating cities in Europe. It was built in the early 16th century and is the best preserved medieval walled city (thanks Rick Steves). It managed to miss some of the heavier bombings during WWII because the American Secretary of War remembered his mother telling him how beautiful Rothenburg was and told the American general to hold off on using artillery to take over the city. Sel and I took off on our own to explore the city and ended up having a little picnic by the moat and sharing it with some of the fishes. It was a shame they didn't have any crocodiles there too cause we totally would have shared with them too. I then took about three hundred pictures of everything in the city from the Christmas store to the city wall to every little adorable house we passed until Sel took the camera away so we wouldn't miss our bus. I guess he had no clue that it was my plan all along to miss the bus and live in Rothenburg for the rest of our lives...It was fun to know that both my dad and mom had visited this fun little city in the 17th century when they were about my age. (Get it mom and dad? Cause you are old and stuff ;)  

Auf Wiedersehen!

Our tour director and the Southern Belle of our group dancing drunkenly outside the Hofbrauhaus in Munich

Look at all that chocolate and Haribo! 

The home and shop of one of the cutest German ladies you will ever meet. This is where Sel bought a stein and my in-laws bought a gorgeous cuckoo clock. 

The Christmas store that every other Christmas store wishes it was

Rothenburg's moat that we had a picnic beside

Part of the city wall stairs 

Our future home

These are rocks that have been sculpted to look like little bundt cakes and then were topped with lavender and moss. 

View outside our window in Rheinland

We went on a water cruise on the Rhein and to see all these old castles and cities while being serenaded by a German third grade class on their field trip.