Endlich zu Hause

I woke up, checked out of the hostel, and went to downtown Munich with the primary goal of having käsespätzle. It was pretty early, so I wasn’t sure if many restaurants were open. I walked around looking at menus for Käsespätzle. I knew the Hofbräuhaus did, so I walked in that direction, open to other restaurants. After a couple failed attempts I went to the Augustiner restaurant and ordered the Käsespätzle and a pint of beer. “What beer would you recommend?” I asked the waiter. “Um… well this is an Augustiner restaurant.” “Oh, um, right, that one,” I said sheepishly. 

The käsespätzle did not disappoint. The egg noodles were dense and covered in melted cheese and grilled onions. I ate the whole thing. 

One of the nice things about traveling alone is that I could go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted, eat whenever I was hungry, and do things at my own pace. There was no lengthy discussions about planning, I just did whatever I felt like. I loved traveling with my friends and we had a great time. I enjoyed their company and it was fun exploring the cities with people I knew. But it was nice to take a city I was so familiar with and visit what I wanted without worrying if other people thought it was boring.

I truly enjoy just walking around cities, getting a feel for them. And I’d already done most of the touristy things in Munich. So I just walked around. I walked from Marienplatz to Karlsplatz, stopping at the Kaufhaus for some German chocolate. I stopped by stores in the Fuβgängerzone. I wanted a view of Munich, so I decided to go to the Olympiaturm, which I’ve been to before but not for awhile. On the UBahn over I decided to make a stop by the University in Munich because I realized I’d never been to that area. I explored the University area then walked over to Englischer Gartens. I rested my feet in the huge, gorgeous gardens, and then walked back to Marienplatz. 

 

Exhausted, I went back to the hostel to hang out and use the wifi for a bit before heading out to dinner. 

One of the bigger adjustments to traveling alone was going out to restaurants alone. I eat alone all the time, but usually it’s when I’m cooking for myself at home or if I grab casual fast food, like a burrito or a sandwich. I’ve been out to a restaurant once or twice by myself before, but I got intimidated the first couple times I went out to a sit down restaurant by myself. My initial thoughts were always people are staring at me. But no one actually cared, so I got over that and eventually got the hang of going to restaurants by myself. 

I had never been to the Ratskellar before, the restaurant below the Glockenspiel and the Rathaus, so I decided to check it out. I got käsespätzle and wine and it was delicious. The waiter was very friendly and talkative. I went outside, appreciated the Glockenspiel at night, and then went back to the hostel. I picked up my backpacks. 

One downside of growing up very dependent on cell phones or internet for communication is that when I’m stranded without one I don’t function nearly as well. I took the S7 to Höllriegelskreuth around 10:30pm, which at this point is so second nature I didn’t have to put much thought or effort into getting to Pullach. I walked down Gistlstraβe carrying my bulky backpacks, a rush of sentimental memories coming back as I neared our old house. I checked to see if Philipp was home first before heading over to Herr Grimm’s to pick up the key. 

I remembered Irmi’s instructions: if Herr Grimm is not there, the key will be hidden under the cowbell under the bathroom window. I searched and I searched for a cowbell but I could not find one at Herr Grimm’s. I walked back to the Müller Rees’s to see if I could find a cowbell there. No luck. Back to Herr Grimm’s. I expanded my search using the light of my cell phone. I couldn’t find anything. I didn’t want to wake up Herr Grimm since I got there so late, but I wasn’t sure when Phillipp would get back from dinner. I figured I would get desperate enough to try to wake him up eventually, so better sooner than later. I tentatively buzzed the doorbell and waited. No response. I tried gently knocking on the door. No answer. 

I decided to be optimistic that Philipp would get back soon, so I sat at the small table in the Müller Rees’s front garden where I used to have breakfasts with them in the summers sometimes. I sat at the table and wrote for awhile, giving myself a midnight deadline before figuring something else out. The lights outside were motion sensored so every few minutes I’d have to wave my arms wildly around when they’d click off. It got quite old. 

Midnight arrived slowly and I was starting to get very antsy. My next option was to turn on my cellular data so that I could get ahold of Philipp. I was trying to avoid that because I knew it would be expensive and I figured the second I turned it on Philipp would arrive. Eventually though I started to shiver, so I turned on my data and Facebook messaged Philipp to let him know I couldn’t find the key and to ask if there was a spare somewhere else. My phone had no problem connecting to Vodafone.de. I also had his phone number so I tried texting him. The only problem was I couldn’t figure out the correct 0s + country code + area code combination so none of the texts were going through. I tried several different combinations, before calling my dad back in California.

I felt bad complaining since it was my own fault for arriving in Pullach so late, so I just explained the situation. “He should be here soon,” I kept repeating optimistically. The only problem was as far as Philipp was aware, I had a key and was fine inside. 

“This will just be a story someday,” I kept telling myself. Getting stuck outside the Müller Rees’s in Pullach on Halloween.  

At this point I was getting quite cold. I was shivering so I stood up and waited eagerly on the front porch listening for any car or person. I had put on every layer of clothing I could find, including my long sleeve shirts, fleece, coat, and beanie. I had even wrapped an extra tshirt around my neck like a pseudo scarf. I considered doing jumping jacks or jogging up and down the street but I was too lazy so I settled for shivering. 

I heard the voices coming up the street and I listened hard, but it didn’t sound like Philipp’s voice. I was still hopeful. Two people opened the gate and walked up to the duplex.

It was Bob and Uschi, who we knew when we had lived in Germany and who I haven’t seen in several years. 

“Was, hast du dein Schlüssel vergessen?” Bob asked me in German if I had forgot my key. I opened my mouth to say something, but the cold slowed my brain and I couldn’t decide if I should reply in German or English or what I should even say. He made another comment and I just stood there, frozen for multiple reasons. 

At this point Uschi realized who I was and her face broke into a huge grin. She also was unsure what to say, so she pressed her hands to her mouth and then started pointing at me.

“What do you not speak German?” Bob asked me, in German.

“It’s Kelly!” Uschi exclaimed happily. 

I explained I was waiting for Philipp and they invited me in. They explained that it was Andrea’s 18^th birthday the day before and they threw a huge party for her that went all night with about twenty to thirty of her friends. They went through several bottles of wine and 99 bottles of beer. Bob offered me the last one, but I declined in favor for several glasses of water. They also had a lot of leftover cake, so Uschi served me up a plate of rainbow vanilla cake with silver ball bearings. 

I enjoyed the cake, water, defrosting (and da frosting!) while catching them up on what my siblings and parents were up to and they told me about their kids, Andrea and Michael. 

Uschi was very excited to see me and kept hugging me and bringing me more water. It must have been strange after several years to have me randomly show up on their neighbor’s front porch at 1 in the morning with no context. In my beanie and tshirt scarf I was impressed that Uschi recognized me so quickly. 

I messaged Philipp to let him know where I was and he came and got me shortly after. It turned out Philipp forgot his key too, but luckily remembered where the spare was hidden. Philipp was very apologetic and very nice about me getting stuck outside. It wasn’t that bad, just cold.  

“Many greetings to your family!” Uschi kept repeating. 

I went back with Philipp next door. I met two of his friends from uni who came to visit Munich with him for the weekend. Philipp offered me the basement room, which I had stayed in when I visited for Oktoberfest a couple years before. Philipp gathered me lots of different options for gear. It was almost comical how much shorter I am than all of the Müller Rees’s. I used a mixture of Kathrin’s and Irmi’s gear. I really didn’t have anything, so Philipp made sure I had boots, skis, poles, gloves, helmet, goggles, ski pants, and a jacket. 

I went to bed around 2:30. Philipp told me we were leaving at 6:15 so I set my alarm for 5:45. It was extraordinarily painful getting out of bed the next morning, but I was very excited. Philipp was already in the kitchen slicing bread and cheese for our breakfast and running around packing the car. I was groggily moving around unhelpfully half in ski clothes and half in my pajamas. 

Philipp was very enthusiastic about everything and made sure I felt very welcome.

“We have so much to talk about! Like…why are you here?” Philipp asked me, grinning. I laughed. "That's a good question!" I replied.

We hopped in the car and took off south toward Austria. I had forgotten how absolutely stunning southern Germany and Austria are, especially at this time of year. We were up so early we got to see the sun rise bright pink over the dark Alps. The Alps themselves are incredible. They’re so steep and jagged and huge. There are cute little towns nestled in the bright green valleys of the giant Alps. The little white farmhouses with their orange and brown roofs cling to the lower mountainside. It was quite a lovely drive.

 Philipp added this to the car for Kathrin's sake

We got to Stubaie Glacier in Austria around 8:30. Philipp told me we were about half an hour from Italy.

We bought our tickets and took two gondolas up to the top of the mountain. The first thing we did when we got off the highest gondola was climb up a very long set of stairs in our ski boots to see the view from the tippy top. Philipp sprinted up the stairs. I was out of shape and not adjusted to the altitude. I was wheezing and dragging myself up the stairs. Philipp has a few pictures of me at various stages struggling up the steps when I paused for breaks. I thought I was going to throw up or pass out or both, but I really wanted to see the view. I had to sit for a few minutes at the top. Once I got my breath back, I was able to appreciate the stunning view. There were snowcapped Alps as far as the eye could see in every direction, with hundreds of jagged peaks slicing into the bright blue sky. It was sunny and gorgeous and if I wasn’t so cold and short on oxygen I could have sat up there for awhile appreciating the view. 

We then started our ambitious day of skiing. Philipp originally told me we were doing a half day which sounded manageable for my level of fitness. We ended up skiing from about 9 to 3. We constantly went up and down the mountain, skiing run after run. 

I’m used to my slalom skis, which are meant to be a lot shorter. I was on Kathrin’s skis and Kathrin is probably about eight inches taller than me. The first thing I did on the skis was eat shit. It wasn’t too bad, but I caught an edge on some ice at the bottom of the first run and went skidding out.

Once I adjusted to the length it was great. They were a lot lighter than my skis so when we went through the park I even got a little bit of air! Jumps are not my forte. Philipp went flying over each jump and I tentatively got a few inches between the bottom of my skis and the snow. Philipp is quite fast too, so it challenged me to keep up with him. We went flying down the mountains carving wide turns. 

 

There were a lot of people out enjoying the early November glacier skiing, but it wasn’t too crowded and we had plenty of space to ski. 

We skied off piste and on, on extraordinarily moguly runs and smooth groomed ones. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been a fresh layer of powder. I thought I would be freezing, but the weather was sunny and warm and I even had to take off layers. I borrowed Kathrin’s bright orange ski pants and bright blue jacket and I fit right in. In California, most people stick to basic ski pants colors: black and white. Most of the people I saw had the most colorful pants ever: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. The whole rainbow! 

We met up with a girl Philipp befriended at the Oktoberfest. When she showed up on a snowboard, Philipp muttered to me disappointedly, “I didn’t know she was a snowboarder.” 

We went to a park. There were famous skiers and boarders there filming a video. They had cameracopters and super fancy gopros. We watched them for awhile flinging themselves off the huge jumps, twisting in the air, helicoptering, flipping weightlessly through the air. It was awesome.

We got to the peak and took fast, wide turns down a groomed cruiser. The Alps were framing all sides and I could see the valley down below. I felt like “Step Out” should be playing in the background and I skied down the glacier. 

 

The Alps are so pretty and it was awesome to be able to ski in them again. I tried to pay attention both to the skiing and to the amazing view of the mountains. The alps are so big. I loved it. I love skiing. It’s one of those things that’s hard to explain in words why I like it so much. Why I enjoy waking up before the sunrise and be cold so I can attach two sticks to my feet and slide down a mountain. But I love it and it’s awesome. I love the views, I love the adrenaline rush, I love the feeling of rushing down a mountain as fast as you can go. It’s quite fun. It’s a great sport. 

 

For lunch we ate outside at the main restaurant. I got käsespätzle of course, and a Paulaner. I felt almost obligated to. Philipp and his friend took an accidental nap at the lunch table, so I was left to sit there and enjoy the view of lunch and beer in the mountains. 

We continued skiing, trying to ski as many runs as we could. 

You’re never supposed to call last run, but Philipp and I called last run about five times. We’d get to the bottom of a great run. “One more?” he’d ask. My thighs were on fire and I thought my arms were going to pop out of their sockets and fall down the mountain, but I was not about to turn down any opportunity for one more run on an Austrian Alp. 

We left about four and drove through the dusk Alpine valleys. We drove back through Garmisch. There’s a part of Garmisch I really like. Garmisch is quite flat and low but it’s framed by very steep, very high mountains and it looks so cool. Especially since it was getting dark, they were black outlines against a dark blue sky. It looked awesome. 

Philipp called Kathrin on the way back and I got to talk to her for a bit. In German, when you refer to someone sometimes you call them die + name for girls and der + name for boys. I like the way it sounds. Philipp would make a couple phone calls on the drive back. “Ich bin mit die Kelly! Die Amerikanerin, meine Freundin aus Kalifornia!” (I’m with the Kelly! The American, my friend from California!”). I think it sounds cool referring to someone with ‘the’ in front of their name. I went skiing with the Philipp! 

I had horrible helmet hair and I smelled like ski sweat. But we had no time to shower. We changed quickly and drove quickly to Rosenheimerplatz where we were meeting three of Philipp’s friends from university. The four of them were all viticulture students. One of them was Italian and his father owned an authentic Italian restaurant in downtown Munich. He hooked us up with a delicious three course Italian meal for free.

The appetizer round began with a huge tray full of giant mozzarella balls, thick tomato slices, bunches of basil, ham drenched in a tangy sauce, crunch baguette slices, olive oil, vinegar, and other meats that I was somewhat uncertain what they were. Then they brought out pizza bread which was just round cooked pizza dough with seasonings. They gave us two bottles of really nice Italian red wine.

“We got one with meat, I hope that’s okay. It’s… ragu?” Philipp told me.

I was not going to complain about a delicious free meal so I had planned to eat whatever they served me. 

“What’s ragu?” I asked.

“Baby cow,” Philipp replied.

“Ah,” I said noncommittally. 

The main course was a thick twisty pasta in a brothy sauce with chunks of ragu and shredded ham topped with a huge pile of freshly grated cheese. It was absolutely amazing. I did pick around the meat as best as I could and the waiter laughed when he picked up my plate when I was finished. Everyone else’s was licked clean and mine had a pile of ragu chunks with everything else picked out. I tried to be subtle about it. 

I like wine a lot. But Philipp’s friends thoroughly enjoyed each glass of wine they had. They all held their glasses daintily by the stems (to not affect the temperature the wine was served at, they explained). They’d swirl it absentmindedly to oxygenate the wine while having intense conversations about their wine education. For every sip they took they would swirl and then close their eyes and smell the wine, then take a sip. 

“Here, I’ll show you how to properly taste wine!” Philipp’s friend told me. “Swirl it and look at the color. Then smell it. Do you smell the oakiness? Mmm… the cherry undertones? This one was in an oak barrel for 18 months.” “Mm, yeah,” I agreed. However, it was my third glass of wine, so she could have told me that it smelled like unicorns and I would have believed her. 

For dessert they served two dishes. One was a cream dish drenched in berry sauce. The other was tiramisu coated in a thick layer of cocoa powder. 

The meal was eaten very slowly over the course of several hours. At this point I was running off of about three hours of sleep after a very full day of skiing and I was so tired I was in pain. I was trying to figure out if I could somehow subtly sleep in my chair while everyone continued on with dessert, but was unsuccessful as people kept trying to kindly bring me into the conversation. So when they finished off the meal with espresso, I could not decline.

Despite it being 7 degrees Celsius outside, Philipp rolled down the top of the slug bug convertible and blasted Europop Top 40 Remixes as we sped back to Pullach. 

Philipp also had a friend who had connections at a swanky club in downtown Munich. He was very excited to take me to the club, so we went back to Pullach, showered, and got ready to go out.

“We’ll leave at midnight!” Philipp told me. Still used to the Santa Barbara 10-2 nights, I was not sure if I could make it out for a night of European clubbing. I figured Philipp would understand if I didn’t make it out, but I didn’t want to bail. I was so, so tired. I hadn’t made up my mind and I was wearing both my nice black dress and my flannel pajama pants when Philipp asked me if I was ready to go. “Yup, almost!” I replied thus committing to going out. 

We went out to a club and danced until three in the morning. By the time we got home and got ready for bed it was four in the morning.

I woke up groggily and checked my phone. 4:45 it said. “Stupid phones not working it switched back to California time. I need to connect it to wifi to see what time it really is.” Was my groggy thought. I unlocked my phone, connected it to wifi, and the time did not change. Was it 4:45 in the morning? I rolled out of bed and shuffled upstairs. 

“Kelly!” Philipp greeted me. “Finally!” 

It was 4:45pm. I had slept all day. I had told Philipp jokingly that I would, but I expected to wake up around 11. I think I desperately needed the sleep though. 

Philipp told me that Herr Grimm was excited to see me, so I went over to our old house. He seemed very happy to see me and invited me in. The last time I saw him we had the whole conversation in English, so that’s how I started this conversation. I showed him pictures on my phone of my family. “Michael ist so groβ!” I showed him a picture of Michael with my parents. “Und Shannon ist so schnell!” I showed him a picture of her hurdling. “Du sprichst doch gut Deutsch!” he told me and insisted on speaking in German the rest of the time. He kindly let me stumble through improper conjugations and patiently let me correct myself until I found the article that sounded most right. We were able to have the whole conversation in German and I told him all about what me and my family were up to and asked about his son and his work. I struggled finding the words for some things though. It was a long conversation and it’s been awhile since I’ve had to use extensive German.

“Shannon studiert das Meer,” I kept repeating. Shannon’s studying the oceans. He told me he didn’t understand, and I might have been mispronouncing it, so I tried a different approach. “Shannon studiert Fische… und Schildkröten,” I explained. Shannon’s studying fish and turtles.

He laughed. “Ach so! Ozeanografie!” 

Herr Grimm kept on insisting that I come back with my family and visit soon. He said he had lots of spare guest rooms and that we were more than welcome. He then showed me that he kept the 2008 California calendar my mom sent him. 

Eventually Philipp came over and joined our conversation. Philipp then told me he was going to a family friend’s dinner in Schäftlarn and that I was welcome to join. I was planning on going to downtown Pullach for dinner because I hadn’t been yet to see it. I considered it and then decided to join Philipp. 

We drove over to his friend’s house. They were very welcoming and talkative. Everyone spoke very good English. I even met a half German half American who grew up in Ojai, right near Santa Barbara, which was cool. 

The dinner was very delicious with a huge, fresh caprese salad and baguettes for appetizers. They served white wine and beer. The main course was roasted pumpkin, mashed potatoes, and some sort of meat. I had the pumpkin and potatoes and it was very good. For dessert there was a Bavarian cream with raspberry sauce (similar to pudding or mousse). Philipp had to drive back to his university that night, so he dropped me back off in Pullach. 

Philipp and I talked on the way home about the time he visited California for two weeks and other times we’ve visited them in Germany.  “What a cool friendship!” Philipp told me.

Philipp gave me the key and told me to leave it with Herr Grimm the next morning.

I was overwhelmed by people’s generosity and hospitality. Friends everywhere went out of their way to make sure I had a good time. It was fantastic and I hope someday to either return the favor somehow or pay it forward. 

I spent the evening cleaning out my backpacks. I had accumulated so much crap. I didn’t have space to be sentimental, so I threw out all maps, ticket stubs, and various other items I had accumulated, including any tights with holes in them to make space for the souvenirs I had bought.

I woke up the next morning and had just enough time for a quick bike ride to downtown Pullach. I borrowed a bike, rode down to the center and back. The bakeries smelled amazing and I wish I had a chance to stop for a coffee or sandwich, but I just had to keep biking. 

Keisha told me as she was packing to leave the Netherlands that she thought it was always say it’s better to leave wanting more. She wanted to stay in the Netherlands longer.

I see the reasoning behind that, but generally I like to be really, really sure that I’m done with something before I leave. With the majority of cities I went to on this trip I was absolutely left wanting more which went against my usual approach. It’s nice to know that I can always come back. There’s always so much more to do! I could have definitely used a few more days to explore and hang out in Munich and Pullach. I had an unbelievably amazing weekend courtesy of Philipp and I did so much more than I was expecting. However, I do really like Munich and Pullach and I wish I could have stayed a little bit longer. I’ll just have to come back! 

Pullach and Munich are so pretty in the Fall. I can’t get over how pretty the leaves are when they change colors! While I love California, the changing seasons is definitely something I miss. Pullach is one of the homes of mine that I have to say goodbye to often, but that I get the opportunity to visit often as well, which is nice. It’s nice to have an excuse to go back to Germany. There are times when I get homesick for being there! I like to visit whenever I get the chance. Visiting places usually doesn’t satiate my appetite for them, it just leaves me wanting more. I have a fascination with the idea and definition of home. I guess everyone has a definition that suits them best. I’ve lived in five places so far in my life and I would definitely consider four of them home, with varying degrees of homeness. I feel ties to certain places. The homes have changed over time, and some I probably couldn’t move back to just because they wouldn’t feel as much like home anymore. It’s usually the people that make a place, so once others move away it feels less like home. I’m still figuring out my definition of home. I still love visiting all of them though. I can be a very nostalgic person, and I like to indulge in that from time to time. 

Hopefully I can come back to Pullach soon. 

I then caught the S Bahn to the airport and continued my journey to another city I used to call home.

Does this train go to Köln?

I have dabbled a tad in solo travel but have not traveled for an extended period of time by myself before. I've traveled between cities by myself or stayed one or two nights in a city by myself before. This however was the beginning of my first trip actually alone. I was not sure how I was going to handle being alone for so long. I was worried about getting lonely or bored of myself. While I do love traveling with friends or family, so far traveling by myself has been a great experience. Friends who've traveled alone have recommended it highly, expressing the sentiment that everyone should try it at least once in their life. There are definitely pros and cons to solo travel, but I have had a thoroughly good time solo traveling so far.

It took a couple hours and a couple trains to get to Köln from Utrecht. Once I crossed the border into Germany, I got especially excited for the next couple of cities. Hearing the German announcements on the train made me feel right at home. 

The train was delayed so I missed a connection in Mönchengladbach. I figured I could just get on any train going to Köln, so I attempted to figure out which trains went to Köln. I couldn't find an information booth at the station, so I studied the giant yellow timetables on a bulletin board. In size 8 font they listed every train on every platform that passed through each station every day. They were listed by their final destination city. Some had a few major middle stops listed underneath. I searched for a close time and found one that I thought was going in the direction of Köln. The train was supposed to arrive at the platform at 6:03. A train arrived at 6:00 and it looked like the right one. I only had a few minutes to figure it out, so I hopped on and asked the first person I saw, "Fährt dieser Zug nach Köln?" "Does this train go to Köln?" The guy hesistated. "Uh... nein." he told me uncertainly. I panicked and hopped off. I ran to the bulletin board and restudied it. I was pretty sure it was the right train, so I got back on. I figured if I ended up in the wrong city, I could just start over, take a train back to Mönchengladbach, or buy a new train ticket from wherever I ended up direct to Köln. I asked someone else on the train "Fährt dieser Zug nach Köln?" "Ja!" she replied. I realized then that just because someone is German does not mean that they are correct about the German trains. I certainly wouldn't be certain about all American train directions in the US. Luckily, the train did go to Köln.

Right when I stepped out of the Köln Hauptbahnhof I could see the cathedral towering dramatically over the station. I found my hostel quite easily and settled in. I talked to some guys at the hostel and our only common language was both of our second languages, German, so the conversation was very slow going. I found it very complimentary that my hostelmates, trainmates, and other people I came across often mistook me for German. People were very complimentary of my ability to speak German. I think it was just because they were surprised to hear an American speaking German. In Köln at least most people did not automatically switch to English when they heard my American accent, which gave me the opportunity to practice speaking German again. I loved it. 

I was craving dönner, so I asked the hostel receptionist where I could find a dönner restaurant. He looked at me skeptically. "Well there's a market down the street and there is a McDonald's at the train station." I think I looked horribly offended, so he backtracked. "Uh, actually, I think there is a dönner store nearby." He pointed me in the right direction.

Dönnerteller! It was delicious. It had tomatoes, onions, fries, chicken, and tzaziki sauce.

I wanted to see the cathedral at night, so I walked on over. It was about a five minute walk from the hostel. Köln was significantly colder than Utrecht, so I walked around bundled up in my beanie and coat.

Rittersport ad at the train station! One of my favorite German chocolate brands

I have never been to Köln before, and was looking forward to the opportunity to explore a new German city, even if it was only for a day. I went primarily for the cathedral because I had heard so much about it. I read somewhere that the Kölner Dom, or Köln Cathedral, has about 20,000 visitors per day. I was not disappointed by the cathedral. It was absolutely huge. It was Gothic and dramatic. I'm glad I decided to check it out at nighttime. The cathedral was lit up against the dark night sky and the foggy clouds were rolling in. It was so tall that the spires were in the clouds. It was almost spooky. It added to the dramatic effect. It was very, very pretty though.

The next day I woke up and went back to the cathedral to see the inside. It was very pretty inside as well.

Cool stained glass

I tried asking several different tourists to take my picture for me and I got... mixed results. 

Third time's the charm!

After the cathedral, I decided to go for a walk down the Rheine River. There was actually a lot to do in Köln and I probably could have spent a few days exploring. I was eager to get to Munich though. So I left Köln that afternoon.

First, though, I walked down the Rheine to the chocolate museum. I didn't have time to go through it, but I got a hot chocolate at a cafe overlooking the Rheine.

I bought my ticket at the Hauptbahnhof. It was a six hour train ride with one transfer in Stuttgart. I left Köln around 3. Train travel is my favorite was to travel. It's very comfortable. I don't get motion sick very often on trains. You avoid the hassle of getting to the airport, security lines, etc. And I got to watch the beautiful scenery pass by. The Rheine is gorgeous. The train followed the river for a few hours and we passed many tiny German town along the Rheine. There were so many castles in the hills and the towns were so cute. I wanted to stop and explore each one.

The train was delayed an hour so I missed my connecting train in Stuttgart. I started talked to the German lady next to me. She was also going to Munich. So she helped me navigate the missed connection and find the next train to Munich. We talked the entire time in German and it was very cool.

I arrived in Munich late in the evening. I was very excited to get there and felt very comfortable as soon as I arrived. I bought a chicken schnitzel and kartoffelnsalat at the Munich Hauptbahnhof and found my hostel, happy to be back in Munich.

Back to the Canals Again

Nick had suggested the 6:30 am train to Brussels and for some reason we agreed with him, seemingly forgetting how painful every previous early trip was. 

With a slight McDonald’s hangover, we rolled out of bed two and a half hours after we had gone to sleep. We made it to the metro station before the trains had even started running. The 5am occupants of Felix Faure metro station included three bleary eyed travelers, and two men dressed in suits laughing and pointing at a young man who severely stumbled and swayed his way along the opposite platform before puking. 

The minute wait time kept increasing instead of decreasing so we started having a taxi versus train debate. Train eventually won, and luckily the train came at the right time, we made our connecting train with ten seconds to spare, and made it to the central train station with enough time to print our tickets from a kiosk and get settled. 

We took TGV for 50 euro to Brussels. It’s a high speed train that goes around 200 miles per hour, I think. We took it too early to see the landscape rush by, but it only took two hours to get from Paris to Brussels. Even though Amsterdam is much closer to Brussels than to Paris, the regular trains to Amsterdam also took two hours. 

We hadn’t booked our tickets from Brussels to Amsterdam, but we were able to navigate ticket counters to successfully book the next leg of our trip extraordinarily last minute (it actually was really easy, we just went up to the counter and asked for three tickets to Amsterdam. It just felt cool being self-sufficient without using internet, computers, or printers to book our trip.) 

We got coffee and baguettes from the train station and continued our journey back to the Netherlands. We had to transfer trains twice, but we made it to Amsterdam Centraal by lunchtime. Hostels were outrageously expensive in Amsterdam for the days we were there, so we decided to spend a little bit more for the convenience of a hotel. We had no idea where it was, so we asked three different tourists information centers who gave us three different tram numbers. We picked the last guy’s tram number because he sounded most confident. 

Like most Dutch buildings, the hotel was very narrow and very tall. The stairs had no handrails and were unbelievably steep. By the third floor, impossibly, they got even tinier and steeper so that you could only cling onto the step with your toes, while your top heavy backpacks threaten to topple you right back down to the bottom. 

The room had three twin beds, a TV, and a window the size of a postage stamp. The bathroom was shared with everyone else on the floor, including the guy who left his cartoon marijuana leaf boxers hanging from the heater every morning. 

We found a café nearby and ate a lovely lunch with our daily cappuccino.

We couldn’t agree on anything to do and tripadvisor was giving us weird recommendation/star/comment combinations again. Eventually we decided to go to the Heineken Experience just to do something and then we could figure out what we wanted to do after. We bought tickets and they gave us these wristbands that had three color coded tokens on it: two for a small beer and one for a free glass.

We got in line to get in and handed the lady our tickets. 

The lady froze. “Keisha?” she asked. It turned out she and Keisha went to elementary school together in the Netherlands and hadn’t seen each other for ten years. 

They talked briefly and then she offered us more wristbands. “You guys want more beer?” We all had one band on each wrist. 

The Heineken Experience ended up taking most of our evening. The first part walked you through the history and included “artifacts” from the founders and their various awards, etc. The second part walked you through the process of making Heineken. They even had a stable with the Heineken Horses. One of the best parts was the ‘ride’ where they put you in a room and made you into bottled beer. It reminded me kind of like Star Tours/Soaring Over California at Disneyland. The ground moved and tipped and they sprayed you with water and hot air. It was very interactive and the whole roomful of people were giggling and having a good time. Then they gave us all a glass of beer and taught us how to properly pour and taste Heineken. Heineken was never really the first beer I would reach for, but I actually really liked it! Then we went through a room that played all the Heineken advertisements and it occurred to me that we paid to be advertised to. 

 

 

Then there was the Heineken Bar that had cool electronic coasters. We used all four of our tokens. We then left to get dinner, but not before collecting our six free glasses. 

We got dönnerkebab for dinner and then went to Leidseplein square near our hotel. The square was filled with lots of outdoor seating for all the bars. So we all grabbed a Bavaria Beer and just sat in the square talking until we finished our beer and decided to go to bed.

We took Amsterdam very easy, most of our trip was walking around by the canals, drinking Heineken, and eating food.

The next morning we got up, had an English breakfast at the square (yum eggs and beans on toast!) and then walked over to the Anne Frank House.

 I've been before (and had fallen down the stairs last time, much to Shannon's amusement). It's a very powerful museum and I think it's very important to see. It was packed with people shuffling through each room quietly. It's quite a tragic story and seeing the actual house and the actual rooms makes it all a lot more vivid and real.

I have two backpacks and to drag them around airports and train stations I carry the big one on my back and the small one on my front. Nick made fun of me for how silly it looked a lot, but at the Anne Frank House, you were actually required to wear the backpack on your front.

We spent the rest of the day walking around. We souvenir shopped at the Flower Market, a street with a bunch of stands selling tulip bulbs (among other things). We walked along the canals and appreciated Amsterdam in Autumn. It's hard for the pictures to do it justice, but the leaves were changing colors and floating down the canals and the air was crisp and it was quite lovely.

That evening we decided to walk through the Red Light District. We went into a sex shop and were quite immature about it. We walked past all the sex and drugs shops and prostitutes in windows. We grabbed a pint of Heineken at a bar in the Red Light District and then headed back to the hotel. Keisha's sister told us they were trying to close down the Red Light District a little bit, so I'm glad we got a chance to say we saw it.

On our last morning, we ate an English Breakfast at Pancake Corner again. We did some more souvenir shopping. We walked to Dam Square and took in the sights and appreciated the street performers. We ate more Mannekin Pis. 

Dam Square

We then caught the train back to Utrecht, which took only about 20 minutes. It was crazy to think that we had been in Utrecht three weeks before. Once we got settled again at Keisha’s sister’s house, the three of us biked to the city on two bikes. We enjoyed dinner by the canal and then biked back. 

We spent the next day in Utrecht as well. We attempted to go to the Domtoren, but alas a professor had reserved it for a lecture. We instead spent the day café hopping for food, coffee, and wine. We also went shopping for a bit.

 

Lunch at a canalside cafe

 My Bubbles impersonation

I took Nick to the train station early the next morning so that he could get to the airport to fly home. “See you in California!” I told him. 

I then took the bus back to Keisha’s sister’s house. Keisha and I packed up and then went back to Utrecht where we enjoyed chips drenched in curry and fritesause from Mannekin Pis while walking around a market and the canals. We ate at Mannekin Pis a lot this trip. They're shops with open storefronts and you order fries that they fry up fresh for you right there. They put a bunch of fries in a cone and then drench it in a sauce of your choice. My favorite was the curry. Keisha always got fritesause, a slightly flavored mayonaise. 

 

We then found a really cute café right by the canal that was filled with stacks and stacks of CDs. There were benches out front with colorful pillows where we drank our very rich coffees people watching and overlooking the canal. 

I then said bye to Keisha and caught my train to Köln to begin the second half of my trip solo.