Matt and Janelle in Europe

We took some time getting ready at Patty's house in Stuttgart before we left, especially since it was our last morning with familiar American luxuries (a nice shower, laundry, English-speaking TV, etc.). We washed our clothes, took showers, and ate some breakfast, then left the US military base for the Stuttgart-Vaihingen train station.

We took the train a couple stops over to the Stuttgarter Fruhlingsfest, the largest spring festival in Germany. On the way over, the train was very crowded, with lots of teenagers drinking alcohol -- but we figured it was better that they drink and take the train than drink and drive.

We arrived at the fair, which was really just comparable to a county fair (like the Del Mar Fair) in the United States. There were lots of rides, games, and traditional food stalls. Also, many people attending the fair dressed in traditional German clothing; the girls all wore checkered or plaid dresses and lederhosen. We got some of the food (currywurst and chiliwurst) and a couple mugs of beer. We didn't have much time, so we had to eat them quickly and continue on our way.

We returned to the Stuttgart main train station, then took a train to Cologne, Germany, the next stop on our trip. We had arrived too early to meet our Airbnb host (Leon), so we had a little bit of time to kill. We went to the tourist information office near the train station and picked up a map of the city. We briefly looked at the nearby Cologne Cathedral, or Dom, which is Germany's most-visited landmark.

Next, we walked across one of the big bridges over the Rhine River in order to get a view of the city. As we walked across the bridge, we saw that the bridge fences were completely covered in padlocks, where couples write their names on the locks, attach them to the fence, and throw the key into the river.

By now, it was time to meet our host Leon, so we took the train to the closest train station and made our way to the apartment. We were a little skeptical of the place before we got there (Leon's communication was a little strange), but it ended up being pretty great. It was a studio apartment with a small kitchen. It appeared that Leon normally lived there (the apartment had his photos, DVDs, clothes), but stayed with his family or girlfriend whenever he rented it out. He had really perfected his Airbnb hosting, with lots of Airbnb trinkets (booklets, a guestbook, pens, keychain, etc.), some printed out maps, and bus and train schedules.

Since we weren't very close to the city center, we decided we would just spend the rest of the evening around the apartment. We found a nearby grocery store, where we were again amazed at the cheap price of grocery store food in Europe. We bought some meats, cheese, and bread for sandwiches, as well as some carrots and these mini chicken cordon bleus, all of which ended up being delicious. We ate our meal while watching various German TV programs (they always show this billiards game called "snooker"), then watched The Descent in German while following along with the plot on Wikipedia, before going to sleep.

We awoke fairly early in order to catch a train for our day trip to the medieval town of Heidelberg. After we ate a quick cereal breakfast, Patty drove us to the local train station where we barely caught the next train to the main station where we then took a different train heading to Heidelberg.

Once in the city, we found the tourist information office to get a city map and ask for advice on a day trip in the town. The woman circled the main sites and then strongly suggested we take the bus rather than walk to get to the most famous site: the castle. However, we never take this type of advice, and, once we left the office and oriented ourselves with the map, we realized walking seemed fine. It took only 10 minutes to reach the historic Altstadt, or Old Town, with lots of old churches, fountains, and one of the oldest universities in Europe. We also walked along Hauptstrasse, a nice pedestrian shopping street, where we eventually enjoyed a kebab lunch.

Before long, we reached the road leading up to the Heidelberg Castle that sits on a hill overlooking the city and river. We decided to walk up the steep hill rather than paying to ride the funicular to the top (also because we had already rode a similar one in Salzburg). At the top, we decided to pay for entrance into the castle, but it turned out it merely got us into the castle inner courtyard, because most of the castle was closed and some parts were being worked on.

Also included was a pharmacy history museum, which was fairly interesting. It should be noted that pharmacies are a little different in Europe than in the US; there are numerous small pharmacies around every city, and many people go there first to get medical advice before going to doctors.

We soon left the courtyard to go walk around the gardens, which are free to the public (and would have been sufficient without viewing the courtyard). From there, we enjoyed the view of the back of the castle and a nice view of the city and river below. Eventually we returned to the courtyard to see if we had missed anything and found a room with giant wine barrels (no, seriously -- giant) that had been built centuries ago. Soon we rode the funicular back down, which apparently was included in the price of the castle ticket. Overall, we enjoyed the castle gardens but felt the tickets for the castle itself were a little overpriced and misrepresented.

Once down the hill, we walked towards the river and then across the old bridge which had been built in the 1700's. We climbed up a small, twisty set of steps to reach the Philosophenweg, or Philosopher's Way, where philosophers, poets, and university professors would walk and think. Now, it is a peaceful place to walk and enjoy a nice view of the river, city, and castle on the hill. There was an old tower at the top of the hill, but it was getting later in the evening and we were running out of time, so we skipped it.

We started heading back in the direction of the train station, stopping at a restaurant for dinner. They, like the restaurant the night before, had a happy hour schnitzel special -- Janelle got one with parmesan cheese and marinara sauce, while Matt got one with grilled onions. We also enjoyed a couple local beers while waiting for it to get closer to the time of the departing train.

After dinner, we made it back to the station and further on to the Stuttgart station, where Patty picked us up and brought us back onto the base. We talked a bit, then solidified our plans for the next day, tried to write some blog posts, and went to sleep.

On our full day in Stuttgart, Patty took us to the train station and we traveled into the downtown section of the city. When we arrived, we went to the tourism office by the train station to get a map and some more information. We started by going to the top of the train station tower, which gave a great view of the city, including Konigstrasse, the 1.2 km pedestrian zone that's home to Stuttgart's big shopping areas.

After climbing down the tower (okay, we took the elevator), we started on a walking tour around Stuttgart as designated on our map. We didn't know too much about Stuttgart, but fortunately the map gave a short blurbs about each of the main sights.

We walked around for a while, then stopped for buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant, which was delicious and very filling. After lunch, we continued our walking tour around the city, then headed back to the train station and traveled a few stops away to the Mercedes-Benz (a company that was started and is based in Stuttgart) museum.

At the Mercedes-Benz museum, we learned all about the history of both the company and the evolution of the automobile itself. We learned about how the first automobile gasoline engine was invented and the different types of vehicles to which their engines were attached (the Mercedes logo, with its three-pointed star, actually refers to the fact that its engines were used for land, air, and water travel). We also learned about the effects that the wars had on the two companies (we're learning that the effect of war is a common theme in a lot of German history). The museum was divided into two main sections or paths. One went through the history of the companies, so you could see the evolution of automobiles over time. The other section showed collections of certain types of vehicles over the years; for example, there was one collection of Mercedes vehicles used by celebrities or custom-built cars, like the "Popemobile." The museum was well designed and presented in English, including some cool audio guides.

After the museum, we returned to downtown, where we completed the suggested walking tour of Stuttgart. Once we were done, we took the train back to Stuttgart-Vaihingen, the stop nearest the base. Patty met us when we got outside of the base and showed us the way to a restaurant they had mentioned the night before. The restaurant's special for that day was schnitzel, so we tried two different types. Patty met us once we were done and signed us back into the base. Once back at their home, we chatted for a bit, watched some TV, and went to sleep.

On our last morning in Munich, our Airbnb hosts stressed that we should try the Munich standard, weisswurst. These are traditional Bavarian white sausages eaten before noon, usually along with sweet mustard, a brezel (pretzel), and beer. Miriam suggested we go to the large open air market near the city center and explained which bus to take that would bring us straight there.

Once at the Viktualienmarkt, we looked around at all the stands and restaurants, but without a lot of time before our train, quickly chose a stand that had weisswurst on the menu. We thought the sausages were pretty good -- they were very light, so they were appropriate for a pre-noon snack.

After our meal, we walked to the main train station nearby and boarded our next train headed for Stuttgart. This was probably the nicest train we've been on so far. It had a modern style and lots of displays on board: ones above the seats explaining which are reserved and for which stops, and a larger display that lets you know when you will arriving at each stop. As always, we enjoyed relaxing and looking at the scenery, as well as trying to catch up on our blog (a hopeless task).

When we arrived in Stuttgart, we met with one of Matt's relatives, Patty. She lives with her husband and one of her kids on one of the US military bases within Stuttgart. We had planned to stay with her, so she picked us up at the train station once we arrived and took us back to their house on the base.

We relaxed once we got back to their home, and spent a long time talking about our trip so far and where we expect to go in the coming weeks. Later, we had a great home-cooked dinner of bratwurst, kasespaetzle, and sauerkraut, then spent some time planning out the next couple of days before going to sleep.

We took a while in the morning to decide what we wanted to do for our second full day in Munich. We had two main sights that we wanted to see. One was the Deutsches Museum, which is the world's largest museum of technology and science (right up Matt's alley). The other was the Dachau concentration camp, which is about 30 minutes by train outside of Munich's center. Dachau was one of Germany's main concentration camps, and since our trip wasn't bringing us near any others, we decided to visit it instead of the museum.

We had seen the Hard Rock Cafe a couple days earlier (it's right across the street from Hofbrauhaus) and wanted to get lunch there, but were annoyed to see that it didn't even open until noon. So we ended up just getting some fast food before heading towards Dachau.

Once we arrived at the main Dachau train stop, we had to take a short bus ride to the memorial. The memorial and museum were free to enter, but you could pay 3 euros to get a two-hour guided tour, which is what we chose to do.

The tour was very interesting and insightful, and we learned a lot about both this specific concentration camp and about the context of the second world war as a whole. We learned that Dachau was the first main concentration camp and the only one to be in use for the full 12 years that concentration camps were used, from 1933 until it was liberated by the American forces in April 1945. We learned the difference between concentration camps and extermination camps (like Auschwitz-Birkenau); concentration camps were primarily forced-labor camps that were used to concentrate "unwanted" people in one area and to exploit their labor, while extermination camps were nothing more than systematic killing facilities.

On the tour, we visited the gas chamber and crematorium, some of the only ones that remained after the war. Although Dachau wasn't an extermination camp, there were still tens of thousands of people that were killed there, either by firing squad, being worked to death, or by the gas chamber, which people were brought to thinking that they would be taking a shower.

The museum within the memorial had a lot of information and artifacts leftover from the camp. It started with information about the state of Germany following World War I and how the stage was set for Hitler's rise to power, primarily Germany's war-devastated economy. Later, it covered the conditions of the camp, the prisoners (who primarily were not Jewish, as might be expected), and the liberation of the camp by the Americans.

We stayed until the museum closed at 5 PM, then took the bus and subsequent train back to toward Munich's center. We got to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, where we ordered a delicious American-style pulled pork sandwich and cheeseburger and, of course, German beer.

After dinner, we returned to Tim and Miriam's (our Airbnb hosts) place, where they were watching the Munich/Real Madrid soccer match (and they handed us each a beer as we walked in). We watched the game (Munich won in the last few minutes) with them and chatted for a while before going to sleep.