After 3 full days in Geneva, we took a train to Munich and then from there to a stop near my friend Katrin's house. It was a long day of traveling and it was so nice to see her when we got off the train! I took a lot of pictures on the train while we rode through the beautiful Alps. It was very snowy and cold in Germany, but so pretty!
I met Katrin's family when we got to her house in Winzer, Germany. Her parents and younger sister are so nice and they were so generous to let us stay with them and to feed us while we were there! That night we had a delicious spätzle dish with some type of meat (I can't remember if it was pork or chicken). Our first whole day was Wednesday, and we started out with going to a butcher and bakery to make a traditional Bavarian breakfast. We also saw the church in Winzer. For the whole trip, it was so nice to have Katrin plan everything and be a translator since I don't speak any German! For breakfast we had the white sausages, called weisswurst, with a sweet mustard (it comes in a tube!), pretzels with butter, and other sliced meats and breads. I think the weisswurst with the mustard was definitely my favorite!
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| Traditional Bavarian breakfast |
Here are some pictures of Katrin's family's beautiful home!
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| The porch |
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| A sauna in our bathroom! |
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| The church in Winzer |
Then we went to Passau for the day, which is where Katrin goes to school. We first went to an old castle where we had a beautiful view of the area, and Austria as well! Then we walked around the town and shopped a little, had lunch in a café at the top of a building, and went to St. Stephan's Cathedral, which has the largest church organ in the world! It was probably the prettiest cathedral I have seen yet.
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| View of Passau (Austria is on the other side of the river towards the left) |
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| View from the café |
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| St. Stephan's Cathedral |
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| Largest church organ in the world!! |
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| Beautiful ceiling paintings |
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| First German beer! |
The next day, we went to a glassblowing factory and saw a lot of really awesome glass art that was so cheap! I wanted to buy some but I couldn't have fit it or brought it back without it breaking. After that, we went cross-country skiing in the mountains! It was my first time ever skiing and I fell a ton but it was so much fun! It was also a really good workout and made me wish that I could do it for exercise when I get home to the US.
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| Skiing! |
After skiing, we went in the sauna, but only for a short time because it was so hot.. It was set on about 75 or 80, which we thought was fahrenheit but then realized that was celsius so it was about 170 degrees F! For dinner, we had raclette, which is a cheese that you put in a little container with whatever else you want in it, like meat, vegetables, bread, etc. and then stick it in the raclette grill to melt it. It is soo good!
Friday we went to Herrenchiemsee, a castle on an island in lake Chiemsee. It was made by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and modeled after the castle in Versailles. Herrenchiemsee is the largest and one of the most costly of his castles, but it is also unfinished. Only 20 of 70 rooms were completed, I believe. The finished rooms that we saw on our tour were beautiful and very extravagant, but unfortunately we couldn't take pictures. The king only stayed at the castle for a number of days, maybe 10 days, before he died by drowning in a lake. The cause of his death is a mystery and he was also said to be insane.
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| view of the castle from the boat |
On the way back to Winzer, we stopped to see the Pope's house. His family is from Winzer, and he was born and raised in Marktl where we saw his house.
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| These guys stopped Katrin's dad to ask him some questions |
On Saturday, we went to Regensburg with Katrin's parents. The bridge in the city center is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We walked around the town and had lunch, then walked around outside of a palace. After a great day, we caught a train at the Regensburg station and said goodbye to Katrin and her parents. I had a wonderful time visiting my friend and seeing Germany, and I would definitely recommend traveling to Bavaria!
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| Regensburg |
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| Cathedral in Regensburg |
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| Cute buildings |
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| Palace area |
