7 Nights, 6 Cities

    My parents came to visit during the first week of November...and boy did they hit the ground running. There were zero "rest days" schedule into the itinerary.  We wanted them to see as much as they could in the short 7 days they were here. They arrived on a Saturday morning, which of all days, was the most low key (jet lag....). We spent Saturday roaming around downtown Stuttgart (city #1), followed by the only evening of pure rest at our apartment having dinner, watching a movie (Hocus Pocus), and passing out candy to Trick-or-Treaters. They reveled in this rest...as they knew what was to come was non-stop traveling...next was:

Sunday: Salzburg, Austria (city #2)
      Wake up call at 6:30, on the road by 8, heading east for Salzburg (and crossing fingers to avoid long border control traffic!) In about 4.5 hours we were in Salzburg, without much traffic. Greg parked the car, and we headed out to sightsee.

After a scenic walk along the river to the old town, our first stop was Mozart's birth house. 

The yellow building is the exact building where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in the 1700s...

 Mozart's harpsichord (above)
Painting depicting Mozart's death (below), December 1791. He died in Vienna from a very high fever. He was only about 35 when he died. He was still perfecting a masterpiece while on his deathbed.

After touring Mozart's birth house, we explored a bit of the old town:

The Salzburg Cathedral

The Salzburg Castle sat high on the surrounding cliffs. There are catacombs all along the cliff, which we explored walked up through, and could see a few nice views!

From the catacombs we had a view of the St. Peter's Monastery...where Mozart and family are buried.

After climbing back down through the catacombs, we ate dinner at the oldest restaurant in Europe. the "Stiftskeller" dates back to the early 800s.

We ate in the oldest room in the restaurant! 

Monday: Berchtesgaden, Germany (city #3) and Salzburg, Austria...again.
     Berchtesgaden, Germany had to have been no more than a hour drive from Salzburg. We took a tour to the salt mines, and along the way, stopped for some beautiful Bavarian Alp views:

...selfie with Dad...

From where we stopped, we were able to spot The Eagle's Nest (Hitler's headquarters), high in the Alps. (below)

Next stop was the town of Berchtesgaden. We were only there for about 45 minutes, so Greg and I just wandered around and snapped a few photos, while Mom and Dad chilled out in a shop to have tea.

The super fun part came when we got to the salt mine. We had to put jumpsuits on, and hop on a train to go deep into the mine:

(I took a picture of a picture that my dad bought) I wonder if the people behind us also bought this picture?? 

The best part in the mine, was a 2 story slide that we had to use! We went down as a group. Greg was the caboose. Soon after we stared to decent, Greg shouts "Wait! I'm unattached!!" 

So, can you find Greg in this picture? 

Sorry, Greg, Wagners only.

The day was NOT over after the tour. Upon arrival back to the city, we set out to explore the Salzburg Castle. 

There were countless opportunities to snap shots of gorgeous bird's eye views from up there!

On my dad's side, we have ancestors with last name "Primusberger" from Austria. We wonder if this archbishop/ruler is distantly related! 

Tuesday: Ebensee, Austria (city #4)

    About an hour from Salzburg, is a town called Ebensee. My great, great grandmother Primusberger came from this town in the 1870s. She moved to Minnesota. As we explored the city, we discovered that during WWII, there was a concentration camp right in town.  After the war, people began to build apartments and houses over the site..and now there is just a memorial left in part of what was the camp.  We found a museum about the concentration camp. My dad got to talking to the curator (we were the only patrons by the way...this was a fairly small and quiet town). The curator knew about the Primusbergers who moved to Minnesota from Ebensee in the 1870s. He knew of a lot of families to do so at the time. The curator even had a map of plots of land where families from Ebensee moved to in Minnesota. 

   Things must have been pretty bad in Ebensee for so many families to move across the world...the place was so beautiful, why would you want to leave?!

...It reminds me a little of Whoville...

Here are some pictures of Ebensee throughout the years, that we found at the museum: 

Nazi occupied in the 30s/40s

It is blurry..but Hitler has been in Ebensee..here he is standing in where we were in front of that lake.

Here are some photos from the concentration camp memorial: 

This was the gate/entrance. Today, it is in the middle of a neighborhood. Not sure I'd ever want to live in this neighborhood...

Houses built where the camp used to be... 

We drove back into Germany Tuesday afternoon...and did hit some border traffic. We were delayed about 2 hours. 

Wednesday/Thursday: Trier, Germany (city #5)

   Wednesday was another early morning, as we set out for Trier, Germany. Trier is where my German Wagner ancestors come from.  It is also the oldest city in Germany, with many Roman ruins. 

Mom and I in front of the Porta Nigra (the old Roman city gate)

We were able to explore inside of the Porta Nigra.

Here are some more photos as we explored the city, looking for more Roman ruins:

....a foot. Its a replica of a statue that stood in Roman times..

An old Roman bath: 

The city center...

A three-wheeled-car:

We wandered around for a while trying to find a good place to eat. We stumbled upon "The Potato Restaurant"...which was THE BEST food we've had the entire week. I would go back to Trier for this restaurant. The best meatloaf I've ever had. Great if you love potatoes too. Cheap prices too....simply the best. 

Karl Marx was born in Trier. This is the house where he was born. It is also a museum, which we toured Thursday morning.

Before we left Trier, we walked through an old Roman colosseum on the edge of town:

View:

On our way out, we stopped at St. Mathias Cathedral. I didn't mention much in this post....but we for sure went inside more than 10 cathedrals this week! I lost count in Salzburg...

Friday: Heidelberg, Germany (city #6)

     Greg and I have already been to Heidelberg, in fact it was the first place we visited when we moved to Germany.  As it is only a 45 minute train ride from Germany, and a very beautiful story book-like town, we decided to go with my parents. We only spent the day there: 

Schloss Heidelberg has been through a lot in its day...it is left with just its ruins. We took a tour of the inside, which was awesome, but we were not able to take pictures.

We headed home after a day of exploring, and Mom and Dad rested up for their Saturday am flight home!

Saturday: 

Mom and Dad left! And they finally were able to have a day to just sit there....though I don't think it is was where they would have picked! ;) 

That's all! 6 cities in 7 days! A fun time was had by all! 

-Gina

Belgium

Disclaimer: I just arrived back to Germany this morning from The States. I haven't slept in over 24, so there will be typos. I'm writing this to force myself to stay awake today to avoid jet lag tomorrow. Don't worry, I'm not entering this in some perfect paper writing contest.  Sheesh.      

At the end of September, Greg and I hosted our very first guests here in Germany...Greg's parents, Bonnie and Scott. While they were here, we took a mini trip to Brussels and Brugge, Belgium.

   Our first stop was Brussels. On day one, we traveled a bit outside of the city to Fort Breendonk. This was a WWI fort, turned WWII concentration camp. Here are a few photos of the grounds:

 entrance...

Upon opening Fort Breendonk as a concentration camp during WWII, prisoners where made to dig out the fort, which had parts underground from WWI.

 ...memorial

What was interesting about Fort Breendonk was that there were many accounts of individual prisoners, and soldiers who ran the camp. It felt like we were able to get to know some of them. There were videos (probably at least 10 years old) of survivors telling their stories. We didn't have a live guide, but we had headsets which told us all of the stories just fine. Fort Breendonk has been the 3rd concentration/death camp that I have visited. Therefore, I am not going to go into detail of information which I learned...its all same sad, disturbing, and depressing stories. I explained enough in my posts about Dachau, and Auschwitz. Enough is enough.

On to something more uplifting: Chocolate.
On day 2 in Brussels, the four of us went on a Chocolate tour!
I'm not joking, our tour guide looked like he could be Willy Wonka's cousin. Seriously. I didn't sneak a picture of him however, I did not feel like being creepy on this day. Just take my work.

The tour consisted of our guide leading us around to top notch Belgian chocolate shops. At each shop, we were able to try a piece. I wish I remembered what the guy said was in/not in this chocolate....but anyway, he said if you ate it, it would make you beautiful. This is a fact...so go buy top notch Belgian chocolate and you'll look young and beautiful forever.

 ...chocolate sculpture...

 ...pictures of the guys collecting coco beans someone in South America or Africa, I can't remember.

Here is Pierre Marcolini's....he is the Louis Vuitton of chocolate I am told. Naturally, Greg and I had to buy a box of these suckers. My favorite chocolate from this shop was an "Earl Grey" dark chocolate bite.

This chocolate place is called "Mary's", and they had the most delicious strawberry champagne flavored chocolate balls

 In the middle of the tour, we had a workshop where we able to "decorate" our own chocolate. I made enough little chocolate circles (covered in coconut and salt) for my students to try. They told me "this is the best chocolate I've ever had!" I'm either the next Wonka and should change professions to "chocolatier", or they were just acting excited about the chocolate because I was acting excited about the chocolate. I can never tell.

Here are the remaining pictures of Brussels:

The statue behind us is called Manneken Pis. He has taken over this part of Brussels. I mean he is everywhere in shops...including chocolate ones:

Here is the Grand Place (main square)

...a nice looking cathedral in the sunset...

On our way out of Brussels, we stopped and gawked at The Atomium...which I'm still pretty sure none of us can pronounce yet.

So in Brussels they speak French, so I had to brush up on the 3 French words I remember from 3 years of high school French (America really needs to stress languages MUCH earlier than middle/ high school...I mean everywhere too, not just certain areas/schools.)

After a couple days in Brussels, we made our way to Brugge...where all that French recollection ran out the window. In Brugge, they mostly speak Flemish. 

In Brugge, we had some of the best food and drink on the trip.

This restaurant had a menu with 500 different types of beer. I can't remember what Greg and Bonnie ordered, but I went for the strawberry beer. It was the best decision made all day. Can't remember the name of this restaurant, but we were very lucky to get a table. It is always packed with reservations.

 Here are some photos of the Town Square:

One afternoon, we went on a canal ride. Brugge is known as the Venice of the North. 

I found my favorite store in the whole world in Brugge. It is called "Twee Meisjes" (this means "Two Girls"). I've never found clothes to fit me so perfectly. The store worker told me the clothes are all made in Spain. Guess I build like a Spanish girl. Now Greg has a go-to website when it comes to occasions where a present must be present. I bought two of the cutest dresses. 

On our way out of Brugge, before we headed home to Stuttgart, we stopped at a Canadian War Cemetery. Here we located Bonnie's uncle (Greg's great uncle), who served in WWII over here. 

Here he is.

That's all for our trip to Belgium! Next we are going to Salzburg, Austria, and Trier, Germany with my mom and dad. Stay tuned!

-Gina