So this is the view from my room- not too bad, is it? It's a nice, quiet neighborhood.






This was one of my first nights here. We went out to a bar called Barfüßer, which means barefoot. The story is that monks used to brew beer here- barefoot. It's a great place, and they have karaoke on Tuesday nights. After a few "halbs" we all start trying to sing in German. Its truly fabulous.
These are my friends Anna (left), and Katie and her boyfriend Robert. He's German, which is very helpful!

This is the Ulmer Münster- the Ulm cathedral. You can see the steeple from almost everywhere in the city. The inside is amazingly huge. Out on the plaza in front is where they show the World Cup games, and is where we're sitting in the next shot for the opening game...

Go Deutschland!! Katie, Anna and I at the World Cup opener.





These next two pictures are from Tübingen, which is a little university town about an hour and a half from here. Anna and I went on a Sunday, so there wasn't much open. But the town was so absolutely cute that the trip was totally worth it. The river is the Neckar...

Yes, the whole town actually looks like this!



Vienna...


This is St. Stephan's cathedral, which is located right in the downtown area of Vienna. You can't really tell from this picture, but the roof looks like a colorful mosaic. Vienna was beautiful- we spent two nights and then moved on to Salzburg.

So I really can't remember who that was supposed to be on the horse, but I thought I needed another picture with me in it- haha. This was in the courtyard of the Hofburg Palace, which we toured. Inside we saw the imperial apartments and the Empress Sisi exhibit (she was insane, by the way). We also saw the apartment where Mozart wrote the Marriage of Figaro, the Art History Museum, and the most amazing rose garden I've ever seen.

This is Salzburg now. The picture below is the view of Schönbrunn- Maria Theresa's palace, which I took while stading in front of the building in the picture on the top. I realize that was a little complicated :) The palace was amazing, and to get to the building in the above picture, we walked up what seemed like a very big hill at the time (it was very hot out) but I'm so glad we did. There were the most spectacular views from the top- of the city and the palace- the picture really doesn't do it justice...

This unassuming shot is one of my favorites. Yes, this is Mozart's actual piano, and yes, I took this shot illegally. At first I didn't realize that this was actually his piano because it was just sitting there in the middle of the room. Very soon after the flash in my camera went off, a man came running at me yelling in German. It was very exciting.

This is also a picture of Salzburg- from the top of the fortress that we (again) needed to hike up to in the Austrian heat. Getting to these fabulous palaces, castles and fortresses is never easy as they are usually situated at the top of frightening craggy hills, which I'm sure made a great deal of tactical sense before they became tourist attractions. It's always worth the climb, however.

This is Mozart's Salzburg apartment- he actually wrote the Magic Flute here. And, I just realized, it was here that I took the illegal shot, not in Vienna. Walking through the place where Mozart composed some of his greatest works was incredible. I kept having to remind myself where I was!


We were all set with Salzburg, but not ready to go home yet, so we decided to visit a small Alpine town on the German side of the boarder called Berchtesgaden. I was thrilled because this was where Hitler's Eagle's Nest was (yes, I realize that I'm a complete history dweeb). Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see it, but the town itself was gorgeous.


Yes, this is a real photo. I loved this bridge, it sort of reminded me of New England. The river was really that awesome blue-green color, too. There are a lot of salt mines in the area, and we think that's what made the water look that way.

Absolutely gorgeous...






Okay, moving away from scenic Alpine villages- this is Munich. I went with a group of friends from the international group to see the Germany vs. Sweden game, which was being played in Munich. We watched from a beer garden, and as you can imagine, it was crazy. We had an excellent time.

One of the first things we saw was a group of folk performers in, yes, the most amazing liederhosen I've ever seen. I was going to get some liederhosen for Billy- wouldn't he look great! Anyway, we had to get a picture- and this nice guy posed with Kat (on the left) and Deanna.



This is the Rathaus, or city hall, in Munich. It was pretty much the only sighteeing we did that day!

And my favorite part of the day? The world-famous Hofbräuhaus. It was packed with singing Germans pumped for the game. I don't think I need to explain how funny and memorable this experience was. Also this was where I had my first German liter!!!

Before...

And after! It felt like it would never end! We wanted to order halbs (half liters) but they only serve liters. I love this country! Anyway, Deanna and I each finished our liters, definitely felt like real men, and went on with our day. We were very proud.