Servus Munich

First of all... SORRY. Got too caught up w the travels & wifi was a bit sketch for the later part of my trip. I'm dedicating time to finish up my trip & give my final words. Alright so where did we end off...

We took an overnight train from Amsterdam to Munich... let's just say that sleep trains & I don't go together very well. It was quite a bumpy ride and this train stopped SO MANY TIMES it was hard to focus on sleeping but I did get some quiet time which was good. We arrived in Munich fairly early in the morning & met up with some fellow Canadian travelers that were staying at the same hostel (Wombat's http://www.wombats-hostels.com/munich/). The hostel was very spacious, clean and the staff was great. They had a great set up for guests and provided some awesome tours in Munich and around.
We decided to take the walking tour with Ozzie, which was by far the smartest thing we could have done. IT WAS FANTASTIC. We got to see all Munich had to offer, learned a lot about the history of the city and learned what it was like to be a REAL local (and not fall for the tourist traps). These are some of the sites we saw while on the tour:
- The Frauenkirche (gorgeous and symbolic church)
- The Glockenspiel in Marienplatz (part of the New Town Hall and is a performance/stories from the 16th century of the marriage of Duke Wilhelm V & Renata of Lorraine and of the Schäfflerstanz, which is the coopers dance)
- The famous Hofbräuhaus brewery
- Karlsplatz (known by locals as Stachus)
- Maximilianstrasse
- St. Michael's (absolutley breath taking with the high arches and gold encrusted statues)
- The National Theatre looking onto the Max-Joseph-Platz
- Odeonsplatz
- St. Peter's/Alter Peter (one of the oldest church in the city)
- The Residence (royal palace, which is the LARGEST palace in Germany)
- Viktualienmarkt (where we had the one & only Bratwurst and ice cold beer - also, we saw the beautiful Maypole next to the market)
- The English Garden (an absolute GORGEOUS day with tons of university students out and enjoying the sun.... we checked out the Monoptetros, stopped in at the Chinese Tower beer garden to enjoy the sunny afternoon and walked by the "nudest area" on our way out)
- The Surf Wave is this awesome spot in the English Gardens where surfers come to "ride the wave" right in the city...you won't believe your eyes
We ended up walking around the English Garden after the tour and enjoyed the absolute PERFECT weather for the rest of the day.
When we got back to the hostel, we found out that it was SPRINGFEST in Munich. Springfest is basically Oktoberfest but smaller... So after getting some eats and relaxing for a bit we ventured to the oktoberfest grounds to check out the festivities. What we found was a gorgeous fair filled with carnival rides, cotton candy and food stands, carnival games and much more BUT there was no one around. It seemed like the place WAS DEAD (mind you it was a Monday night) so we were a bit discouraged until we stumbled upon the beer hall... that's where we found the party. The place was ABSOLUTELY packed with locals in lederhosens and dirndls. We were definitely the only non-locals in the place but that didn't stop us. We ordered some beer, jumped on the tables and danced to the 50's and 60's rock&roll music that was playing by the live band. We met some new friends (dressed in lederhosen of course) and had an absolutely amazing night. Bavarians know how to party!!
The next morning we headed to Dachau, which is the very first concentration camp that opened in Germany in 1933. It was an extremely moving experience for me, witnessing the roll-call square, walking through the "maintenance building", reading about the various horrific events & walking through a sample bunker.
After Dachau, we headed to the Olympic Stadium and BMW museum. I will admit, the BMW Welt was pretty awesome - they had a lot of gorgeous cars on display, some interactive simulations and games as well as a great display of BMW motorcycles upstairs. While Jon checked out the museum (there was just so much testosterone I could handle from the place), I enjoyed a delicious ice cream with the girls from Windsor. After we headed over to the Olympic Stadium and Olympic village area. Basically an athletes heaven; there were courts, tracks, pools, fields etc... just gorgeous! Munich is in the running for the 2018 Winter Olympics and will be the FIRST city to host a summer Olympics, winter Olympics AND World Cup. Fingers crossed that they get it!!
And that was Munich. We headed for another overnight train to Berlin, to continue our EuroTrip. I have to say, Munich was by far the BEST place I went to on this trip. 2 days WAS NOT ENOUGH. I plan on going back for a much longer stay and really soaking up the Bavarian culture. It is absolutely gorgeous, filled with so much history and culture and there is SO MUCH TO DO. Munich is a MUST! Servus for now...

Inside our Hostel

Devil's Footprint in Frauenkirche

Inside Frauenkirche

Ceiling in Frauenkirche

Outside the Bavarian church

Glockenspiel in Marienplatz

Close up fo the Glockenspiel

breathtaking

Part of Marienplatz

Mariensaule in Marienplatz

Classic beer garden and market in Munich

Famous Hofbräuhaus Brewery

Unique to the Hofbräuhaus, these are beer stein safes

Entering the English Gardens

Englischer Garten

Surfer's Point in the english garden

riding the wave

Jon&I in the English Garden

BEER HALL for Springfest

Massive Beer

Taking in the "bavarian" experience

Of course I had to dance with some locals

BMW museum

Does he come with the car?

Olympic Stadium

With the Munich Crew! K&M

Amsterdam

Oh Amsterdam, what a fabulous time we had. We arrived late Friday night and took a cab to the apartment we were staying for the weekend. When we booked Amsterdam, we realized that all hostels in Amsterdam were either EXTREMELY pricey, booked or didnt have the greatest reviews. We turned to this perfect website I found called http://www.airbnb.com/ which is a great service that allows people who own apartments or houses to host bed and breakfast type of accomadations to guests. It was a great alternative to the normal hostel or hotel route and was very affordable. I recommend reading ALL reviews before hand to get a good feel of the hosts and if it matches up with your plans in that city. SO we arrived to Sophie and Pieters apartment and were greeted with a smiling Sophie (Pieter was gone for the weekend). She had a room set up for us with two beds, blankets and towels - amazing!

The next morning we decided to hit the city early so we ate breakfast, took the Tram (which was really simple to use) into the heart of the city and began to explore. We started at Dam square, which is the heart of historical Amsterdam. We saw the Royal Palave (which unfortunately was under construction), Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (still don't understand the interest in these places) and a WWII monument. We began just walking along the main streets and then some random side streets. We saw Nieuw Market which is where popular bars and restaurant are situated. A street over is the Red Light District, which we walked through of course. Not going to lie... it's not worth going to if you're not going at night. The women we saw were... well let's just say they weren't anything special. We then went to this AMAZING spot for lunch called Burger Bar - ABSOLUTELY delicious. We got home made burgers and the famous fries and mayo, SO YUMMY (yes I have pictures don't worry. After that we walked to the Anne Frank museum and had a visit. After that we headed t Rembrandtplein, which is a fairly famous little square and then headed towards the Heineken Brewery. After that, we just walked EVERYWHERE. We saw a lot of canals, bridges and BOATS. Unfortunately the line ups to the Van Goh museum was INSANE so we didn't get a chance to visit :(
The following day, we packed our backpacks and headed to the train station to store them in lockers. We walked around the shopping district (KALVERSTRAAT), took a boat tour and walked some more. To be honest Amsterdam was great and we got a lot of walking done BUT... we both noticed it was VERY dirty. A lot of garbage everywhere, some of the water in the canal had empty beer bottles or trash and there was a lot of dirty parts. Also, there was SO MUCH under construction. So a lot of the beautiful buildings were hard to see because of that. It was an ok visit, but I don't think I'll be back for a while.

Dam Square

Canal

Yummy, Burger Bar - A MUST in Amsterdam

nom nom nom nom nom

Rembrandt Square

More canals

Bikes were EVERYWHERE (of course)

Wellington Quarry & training to Amsterdam

Friday morning we checked out of our lovely hotel room and headed for the Wellington Quarry, which was a 15 minute walk from the train station. There's a lot of incredible history in this underground tunnel system, which is 20 metres deep into the ground. These elaborate chalk tunnels (also known as quarries) held over 20,000 soldiers for the surprise attack in the Battle of Arras in WWI. These quarries were originally dug in the Middle Ages and were linked up by New Zealand tunnellers for the battle. The tunnel system was extremely well done and very impressive. We took the tour and learned about the soldiers (primarily from Britain and New Zealand) and there experiences in these dark tunnels. Side note: I was briefly interviewed for some sort of television thing that was getting footage of the Quarry. So my best guess was I would be in some news feature in a random French TV station.

After the visit, we walked around the town and I indulged in some retail therapy. We picked a cafe for lunch in the Place des Heros and relaxed for a few hours. Our train left at 4 pm and we went on about 3 different trains, stopped in Belgium at one point (to our surprise) and finally arrived in Amsterdam.

K&M

Tunnel in Wellington Quarry

Lunch @ the place.... nom nom nom

Place des Heros

Arras & Vimmy

We left early Thursday morning for the small little town of Arras, which is situated north of France. It took less than an hour on the TGV (which is the high speed train in France) to arrive and we went in search for the tourism office. We decided to stay at a one star hotel (student budget here) called "Le Passe Temps" - it was literally a small room, bed and tiny bathroom. For the price we paid it was perfect. We first explored the small town and found their two main squares lively at lunch time. La Grande Place was the larger town square, which had mostly parking, businesses and restaurant cafes. Place des Heros was more interesting with city hall, bars, restaurants, boutiques and shops - there was much less parking making it more enjoyable. Not very far we found the main cathedral and also this huge museum of fine arts which was unfortunately closed.
For €35 we got a ride to Vimmy and back, which was about 30 minutes from Arras. We first went to the memorial which was this enormous monument up on the famous ridge. It was truly breath taking and we had the place to ourselves! The monument stands on a bed of 11,000 tonnes of concrete that's reinforced by hundreds of tonnes of steel. There are incredible sculptured figures that contain almost 6,000 tonnes of limestone. Carved along the walls are the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were killed in France during WWI. Over 66,000 canadian service personnel died in WWI. There is a lot of symbolism attached to this memorial, including representations of peace, justice, sacrifice, truth and knowledge. After the monument, we paid our respects at the common wealth cemetery and Canadian burial. We then took a tour of the underground subway/tunnels, which is where a lot of the strategy and planning took place, and walked along the trenches.
That night we went out for dinner and got one of my favorite french meals "moules frites" which means mussels and fries. They were absolutely INCREDIBLE, by far the best version I've tasted in a very long time. We ate at the Place des Heros in town and spent the evening enjoying the scenery, music and atmosphere.

K&M

Church in Arras

Vimmy Ridge Monument

Soldier names along the walls of the monument

Such an impressive monument

The monument is actually HUGE

The view from the monument of the ridge

Jon & the monument :)

Nice view of the ridge with my new friends

Canadian Burial

Common Wealth Cemetery

One of the many tombstones

Tunnels of Vimmy

Some of the furniture abandoned after the war

In the trenches

Incredible view of the line of fire