To Travel is To Live

"Work Will Set You Free" - such a lie... :( December 16, 2020: We stepped out of the new and into the old…Foggy mist hung in the air, providing an appropriate melancholy aura to the site.  As we approached the infamous gate with its infamous phrase, I swallowed a growing lump in my throat.   So much death and horror had happened here… Yet, if you ignored the double barbed wire fence around the complex and had no clue about where you stood, it almost passed as an old academic site.  The brick building laid out symmetrically, each one connected by a narrow gravel and sand path.  Yes, without knowing the past, you could easily never know what had happened within the walls of the buildings. Which is why the site remains as a reminder.  Because that’s how easy it is to forget… Auschwitz was smaller than I’d expected, and much better to look at.  All the buildings were brick, well-kept and in order.  But, once inside, you could feel the oppression and he

Berlin has been an eye-opening, educational and rather heavy experience.   I knew coming here that I would be exposed to a lot of war and unrest history so I’m not surprised.   And I don’t regret the information that I came across in my exploration. But you have to ask yourself, how could this have all happened?   I mean, no judgement against the people (I wasn’t in their shoes so I can’t comment or assume), but there were serious messages and indicators of what was to come…yet it happened. This was the theme of the Berlin Bunker Story museum, a wonderful, thorough and thought-provoking exhibition of the history of the Third Reich coming to power and what transpired between 1929 and 1945.   So much of the WWII information I’ve read is set during the actual war, but the incidents and activities that led up to that first shot by the Germans were truly a great indication of the terror to come. Yet few did anything about it… So, why did it happen?   How co

As I write this, we are on the high-speed ICE train to Berlin.  The average speed is about 230 km/hr, reaching 270+ on the straightaways between cities.  This is probably my favorite way to travel!  You can pack however you want (no liquids issues or security to deal with), there is free WiFi and movies to watch, and it's smooth enough to work!  It's a 4 hour train ride, we are a little over 2 hours in, and time flies. Bryan really wanted to visit Neuschwanstein Castle while in Germany and I found a tour from Munich.  Caveat - it was a 9 1/2 hour tour.  He said 'no way'.  Luckily I convinced him that it's worth it - if we're here and it's something he really wanted to see, let's do it.  We skipped a couple of things in Nicaragua for stupid reasons like a long ride or cost slightly too much and I totally regret that.  I will not skip something for stupid reasons again if I can help it! The previous day's tours had been through a company called Rad

For what it's worth, getting around so far has been very easy.  The train and transit systems in the cities are so easy and complex.  We managed to get to Munich without issue from Salzburg and settled into our hotel. I chose hotels based on the tours and museums we wanted to do, and basically just plotted all the sites on a map before looking for hotels in the middle.  In Munich, we stayed at the 24/7 Rilano, which was nice enough - again, an upgraded hostel more than a hotel, but we had our own room and bathroom.  What more do you need? We had to laugh, though...turns out the hotel, while super convenient to the main Marienplatz area and the train station, appeared to also be in the heart of the strip joint district!  And there was a hair studio called Paradiso in which, every night, a bunch of men were getting their hair done while people hung around inside drinking and laughing, music blaring.  The strangest hair salon I've ever seen! We had one minor issue with the h

One of the places we really wanted to visit was Eagle's Nest, a home in a mountain that Hitler used during the war to hide away.  Unfortunately, trips to Eagle's Nest are closed from November to May so we had a free day to figure out something to do. A bunch of people back home and in Salzburg recommended the Sound of Music tour...I didn't think Bryan would be into it but he agreed.  So, we quickly booked a tour and joined the group. I wished I'd watched the movie recently.  I remembered a lot of the songs and the scenes but when they took us around to specific sites, it was hard to recall the look and feel of the movie particulars.  Our guide was phenomenal, so enthusiastic about the Sound of Music and knew so many cool facts.  She'd met Carmine Carr (who played Liesl) a few times too. The tour took us through the Old Town of Salzburg and pointed out the abbey in which the film had used - Noonburg Convent.  We saw the two hotels where the cast had stayed and

We arrived on time, after a very long flight and little sleep, to Salzburg yesterday.  Longing for sleep, we were happy that our flight was small and our bags came out on the belt rather quickly.  I'd done some research (of course!) before we left on how to get from the Salzburg airport to our hotel and found that there was a bus that should take us right there. And after already spending a ton of flights, hotels, transportation and tours, I was kind of looking for a frugal way to get to our Salzburg home.  However, knowing that finding the bus and buying a ticket can be frustrating at times, I did want to have as much knowledge under my belt as I could. Salzburg transit has a really great app that showed me where to find the bus and which stop to watch for.  So, I thought I had it all figured out. The airport signage was very good, pointing us right to the bus stop.  The sign there said we had just a 3 minute wait, perfect for buying 2 tickets at the machine conveniently loc