Paris – Day Two

Our second day in Paris began with a slightly more appetizing breakfast at our hotel and a metro ride. Our first destination today was the Musse de Orsay, a huge art museum. The building it’s in was once a train station that was renovated just for the purpose of becoming an art museum and is amazing, with high decorated ceilings. There were so many beautiful paintings there, and a few sculptures as well. This trip has definitely started to turn me into an art lover! Some of my favorite paintings from today were by Monet and Van Gough.

Next stop was the Notre Dame cathedral, which was simply beautiful on the inside and outside. The architecture of the cathedral was amazing, especially all of the stained glass windows and flying buttresses. They were holding mass when we walked through, which made the cathedral seem more like a church than a big empty building, something I appreciated. We didn’t climb up to the top, which my legs appreciated, although I would have liked to get a closer look at the gargoyles.

After the cathedral we broke off for lunch. A group of us ended up at a small restaurant for pizza and pasta. Then we traveled around the many little shops in the area, buying souvenirs. We rendezvoused at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, which was very cool! There were tons of new and old books stacked everywhere in the small twisty building. It would have been a great place to spend a couple of hours. We then set off to see and climb up the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc itself was very cool, but the view from the top was spectacular! We could clearly see the Eiffel Tower and other monuments off in the distance, and the low hanging clouds made for some very cool pictures.

After climbing down the long winding staircase we set off down the Champs Elysées, a famous street lined with expensive stores and restaurants. We walked down the street for a while, admiring the things we couldn’t afford (it has become a tradition to stare longingly into the windows of Tiffany’s in every city) before hopping on the metro to come back to the hotel. Caitlin and I stopped at our new favorite bakery for a tart and a macaroon on the way. We spent a little time relaxing in our room before going out to explore the area around the hotel. We ended up at a grocery store, and in the interest of saving money and not eating out for once, Caitlin and I grabbed supper there. Fresh baguettes and jelly, fruit, and yogurt made for a delicious and cheap supper that left us feeling great both physically and economically.

It was another great day in Paris! Surprisingly, I’ve become quite adapt at navigating subway systems over here. So much so that my friends have begun to call me “the map” and rely on me to get them to where we need to be. It’s pretty ironic since I rarely know where I am or where I’m going at home. Tomorrow is our trip to the Louvre which I am very excited about! Talk to you soon!

Bonjour Paris!

After one of the worst nights ever, we pulled into Paris this morning and practically ran off the train. Many of us barely slept, either from that horrible blue light or having to keep ourselves from falling to our deaths every time the train stopped. We were all extremely glad to be done with overnight trains, and I for one will never ever choose to sleep on one ever again. While the teachers grabbed our metro tickets, we grabbed some breakfast in the station. I had a banana caramel muffin that was delicious! We headed out to find our hotel, and after a bit of unnecessary walking we found it. We almost cried with joy when they told us our rooms were ready and that we would be able to shower! After showering, brushing our teeth, and putting on clean clothes we felt a million times better and were ready to start the day.

We were on our own for lunch, so we explored the area around our hotel. We finally choose a little cafe right across the street that had delicious and somewhat cheap food (pasta, water, and a dessert for only 8 euro!) and some very friendly staff who could speak enough English to help us out. We rendezvoused back in the hotel lobby before setting out for the Eiffel Tower. We had to ride the metro for quite a while to get there, but we got to ride on a double-decker train which was very cool. After exiting the metro, it was a short walk to get to the base of the tower, but we could see it long before that.

It was so cool to see the Eiffel Tower in person! It was much more intricate than I had thought it would be, with lots of designs within the metal. We took pictures from a distance and then made our way to one of the four bases to ride up to the top. We thankfully took the elevator up to the second floor, but were unable to go all the way to the top because it is closed for construction. While we would have liked to be at the top, the views were still stunning from the second floor. It was pretty chilly all the way up there though, so after a while of admiring we made our way back down. My super patient friends weren’t willing to wait for the elevator so we ended up taking the stairs all the way down. It took forever to get back down, but the exercise helped to warm us up.

After everyone had returned to our meeting spot, we headed back for the hotel. Many people wanted to come back and relax or do laundry, but Cailtin, Aaron, and I wanted to do some more exploring. We did some metro riding until we got back to the main train station we had arrived at this morning. There were quite a few shops there, and we walked around for a while checking them out. We didn’t have much luck finding anything and we soon got hungry, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We stopped at a bakery on the way back and I had my first macaroon! It was fantastic! For supper we ended up at the same place we ate lunch, and I ate almost the exact same thing. We are now relaxing in the hotel, making up for last night’s experience.

I already feel much more comfortable in Paris than I ever did in Italy. There aren’t rude, angry people everywhere, nor are there a million obnoxious vendors trying to sell us things. The only big difference is the lack of English. Everywhere else we have been, almost everyone spoke at least a little English and many restaurants and stores had menus and signs in English. That is not the case in France! We will have to adjust to that quickly, or hope we can get by with pointing and annunciating obnoxiously.

We only have a week left in Europe! It’s crazy how quickly the time has flown, and how many amazing sights we’ve seen already. Talk to you soon!

Florence

Today was another early one for us. We ate breakfast, grabbed our luggage, and were headed to the train station by 7:45. We boarded our first train of the day, stored our luggage, and mostly napped for the hour and a half ride to Florence. Once there, we retrieved our luggage and brought it to a storage facility to keep it there for the day. It was only a couple blocks from the train station to our first stop, the Galleria dell ‘Accademia. The most famous piece held in this museum, and the one it was actually built to hold is Michelangelo’s David. The statue was very impressive, much taller and bigger than I had imagined. There were several other Michelangelo sculptures In the museum, as well as a number of beautiful paintings and sculptures.

After finishing at that museum, we took another short walk to the Duomo, a beautiful cathedral in the middle of Florence. We grabbed lunch in the area before exploring the cathedral. The cathedral was massive and beautifully decorated on the outside, with green and reddish stones and statues in little niches. In contrast it was very simply decorated on the inside, but was still very beautiful. There was a huge clock on the inside that I absolutely loved.

After that we were free to explore! Aaron and I broke off from the group to go explore a couple of little shops in the area. The others had gone to the nearby leather market, and with some help from a map, we joined them eventually. The leather market was fun, but not what I was expecting! It was a long, long street lined on both sides by vendors selling leather bags, coats, purses, belts, and all kinds of other clothing and accessories. It was entertaining to walk around and haggle with the vendors, but I didn’t find anything I couldn’t live without. At 4:30 we met at the train station to get our luggage out of storage and grab supper before our 5:30 train to Padua.

The train ride was just over an hour and went by smoothly. When we reached Padua we had about half an hour to spend before our overnight train to Paris came in. We grabbed snacks and drinks at a small convenience store and waited for what we hoped would be a nice, clean, comfortable train. As soon as we stepped into the couchette those hopes were abandoned. It is much smaller than the last, and seems much dirtier. We stored our luggage and are trying to get as comfortable as possible. The beds are much less comfy than the last couchette we had, there is a blue light on the ceiling that we can’t tun off, and neither the top or middle bunks have railings to keep us from rolling off.

We are trying to stay optimistic, hoping that we will get a good night of sleep. I think we will all be very excited to reach Paris and get off this train. Goodbye Italy! I will miss your warm temperatures, beautiful monuments and structures, and amazing gelato, but not so much your rude people or obnoxious vendors.

Talk to you soon!

Pompeii

This morning was an early one! We left the hotel by 7:20 to catch the train to Naples, a two hour ride during most of which I slept. The Naples train station was pretty sketchy, and Bob informed us that Naples is one of the most crime-ridden cities in Italy. So we all felt pretty safe after that. To make things better we had to board an extremely dirty and broken-down looking tram to ride for almost 20 stops. The tram was packed and scary and we all breathed a sigh of relief when we finally reached Pompeii and were able to get off. It was a short walk to get to the ruins, and we met our tour guide right outside. He was a great guide, leading us around for over two hours and giving us tons of information.

Pompeii was simply amazing! The city was was a lot bigger than I thought it was, and way more advanced. They had a lot of things that we would consider very modern, including fast food restaurants, spas, and intricate sewer and water systems. We got to see many different areas of the city, although we didn’t see nearly half of it. We walked through the ruins of what was the main square, many storefronts, one really fancy house, a brothel, a temple, and the main theatre. Our guide explained how life would have been back before the volcano erupted, which was very interesting. He explained that Pompeii was meant to be a great center for business and trade, which is why there was an endless amount of stores that lined both sides of most streets. He told us that prostitution was a very popular business back then, pointing out some of the phallic symbols carved into the road to guide men to the city’s 24 brothels. There was a condom shop right next to every brothel, and a pictorial “menu” on the walls (the BBC special we watched in class over Pompeii left all those details out for some reason). It was crazy to think that what we were seeing was not too long ago completely buried under volcanic rock and ash. We also got to see some of the many artifacts uncovered in the excavation, including the casts of bodies that were found. Because it was a cloudy day we were unable to see Mt. Vesuvius in the distance, which I was very disappointed by.

Something that we all found interesting and somewhat sad were all of the stray dogs walking around. Our guide told us that they live in the ruins and that himself and the other guides and security members feed them and make sure they are well. That made us feel much better. All the dogs were extremely well behaved, most of them ignoring the groups of people walking around their home. A couple of them followed us around on our tour, and were able to lead us along on our guide’s route.

After finishing the tour we ate lunch at a stand belonging to the tour guide’s brother. We got tomato and mozzarella sandwiches, drinks, and some fresh picked oranges that were absolutely amazing! We quickly explored the bookstore before heading back to ride the tram again. The ride back was a little less scary and went by much faster. But then we had to wait in the sketchy Naples train station for over an hour for our train back to Rome. We spent time time exploring shops until settling in a little cafe for a snack. We boarded the train at 4:40, not knowing at the time that it would be the slowest train ever. What was supposed to be a two hour ride turned into an almost five hour ride, and we were all extremely tired and hungry by the time we got back to our hotel.

We grabbed a quick supper at the train station – McDonalds and a huge waffle cone full of gelato (#noshame). Aaron and I ran around the local shops to grabs some last minute souvenirs. Then we returned to the hotel to pack up and get some rest. Today went by extremely fast although it feels like we didn’t do much. Tomorrow is our trip to Florence, and then we board our last overnight train (hallelujah!) to Paris. Talk to you soon!

The Vatican City

We had a very relaxed morning today, not going to eat breakfast until 9:30. Unfortunately the breakfast at the Hotel Nizza is similar to that of the hotel in Germany. We will have to survive on cereal, toast, and croissants for a few more days. After breakfast we got ready for the day and then spent some time relaxing in our room, which in hindsight was brilliance.

At 12 we made the walk over to the train station and boarded the metro for a short ride and then a short walk to the walls of the Vatican City. We didn’t waste any time, using our pre-ordered tickets to enter the museum. Our tour guide yesterday told us that if you spent one minute looking at each piece in the museum, it would take you 20 years to get through the whole thing. After today I would say I definitely believe that! There were just so many amazing things to look at, including statues, paintings, pictures, and anything else you could imagine. Some of my favorite exhibits were the Ancient Egypt collection, the tapestry and map halls, and a collection that featured culturally significant items from different cultures all around the world. And of course there was the Sistine Chapel. It was crazy to finally see the amazing paintings on the walls and ceilings of that small, beautiful church. They had a short prayer ceremony while I was in there, which made the experience even more special. We spent almost two hours in the museum and I feel like I didn’t even see half of the treasures kept in there.

After exiting the museum we had to walk around the walls of the city to the entrance. The middle of the city was far less crowded than I had anticipated, and was still decorated for Chirstmas. There was a huge tree and a beautiful nativity scene right in the middle. We immediately got in line to climb up to the very top of St. Peter’s Basilica, which was not something any of us were looking forward to. 551 steps and a small amount of claustrophobia later, we reached the top and stepped out onto a small walkway. The views were absolutely beautiful and made the climb up at least a little bit worth it. Coming down was another story however. The winding staircases made me extremely dizzy and it took all my strength not to pass out or throw up. The stairs end right inside the Basilica, which was also amazing. There were some very interesting statues and carvings inside, but I was more interested in getting outside and getting some fresh air. Sitting by the huge fountain outside and breathing deeply for a while made me feel much better.

After everyone had finished in the Basilica we walked back to the metro stop, to head back toward the Spanish Steps on our way to the Pantheon. It was almost a mile walk to get there, and by this time we were all exhausted. The Pantheon was definitely cool, it’s structure, the statues and figures inside, and especially the hole in the roof. What wasn’t cool was the walk back to the metro and from the metro to our hotel. By the time we got back we were tired and hungry and went to the restaurant closest to our hotel for supper. I ordered some amazing pizza and a huge bottle of water. After supper we came right back to the hotel to relax and do some necessary sink laundry before bed.

With almost 12 miles walked today, we are all more than ready for bed! Tomorrow is an early one as we head out to Pompeii! Talk to you soon 🙂

Photos from Munich and Rome

The Glockenspiel in Marienplatz.

The entrance to the Dachau concentration camp memorial.

The view from the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Salzburg.

Neuschwanstein Castle from the bridge we hiked to.

The interior if the Colosseum, including the system of underground tunnels.

The Trevi Fountain!

The Forum.

And here is a glimpse of the sunset over Rome, and a lovely palm tree. Hope this helps to warm you up a little 🙂

Hello Rome!

We pulled into Rome this morning, having had a much better couchette experience. We were all able to sleep this time, our train was much cleaner, and it provided a much smoother ride! We waited at the train station for Gwen and Bob (the professors leading this trip) to get our metro tickets before walking the short distance to our hotel. Upon arrival we found out that our reservation had not gone through and they had no rooms for us at the moment. So we used their restroom to freshen up and stored our luggage in the lounge. We began our busy day, hoping they would have rooms available for us when we returned.

Our first stop was the Colosseum. It wasn’t too far of a walk, and it wasn’t quite as crowded as I had imagined. We were bombarded by men trying to sell us random things as soon as we got near the Colosseum, and that was the same all throughout the city. We were polite at first, but after the 50th time our no, thank you’s turned into forceful no’s!! We hired an English tour guide to show us around inside of the Colosseum, so we got to skip the incredibly long line of people waiting to get in, and got a bonus tour of the Forum. The Colosseum was an amazing sight! We had watched a movie in class about it, so we were at least familiar with much of what our tour guide was saying, and what we were seeing. It was so cool to actually see and walk around it. The main floor has long since collapsed, leaving the intricate system of underground tunnels exposed, which was the coolest part in my opinion.

After the Colosseum we had a short break for lunch (spinach ravioli) before meeting up with a different guide for the tour of the Forum. The Forum was at one point a very popular center for business and trade, and it was weird to see mostly ruins where all that activity had once taken place. Our guide was great, explaining and pointing out several of the buildings in the vicinity and their function/importance.

After exploring the Forum, we made our way over to the Trevi fountain. The area was extremely crowded but we were able to make our way right to the front of the fountain for pictures and to throw our coins in! It was an awesome experience!! We stopped at a little gelato shop on our way to the next stop and had our first taste of real Italian gelato. No one was disappointed, and several of us have made it a goal to eat it at least once every day while we’re here.

Our next stop was the Spanish Steps. We came out on the very top of the steps and walked down them instead of the other way around, which was a great idea. There were neat Christmas lights and decorations up still, which included a large nativity scene in the middle of one of the platforms. The area around the steps was the most crowded area we had been in all day. We took our time walking down the steps and taking pictures before locating the metro. We were barely able to squish us all in and were forced to stand like sardines in that train car all the way back to the main train station.

From the train station it was again a short walk to our hotel. They thankfully had our rooms all ready so we were able to move our luggage in. Caitlin, Aaron, and I are in a triple room again, but this one is much nicer! It’s a huge room, Caitlin and I have a big double bed to share and Aaron has his own pull out bed in a whole different room. We dropped our stuff off in our rooms and set out to find a restaurant close to the hotel for supper. We hadn’t made it far out of our hotel before a nice little Italian woman approached us, trying to entice us to come to a restaurant. She was extremely sweet, telling us about her niece who lives in New York and how much she loves America, so we decided to check out the restaurant. The woman, Anna, escorted us all the way to the restaurant and in the door, assuring us that she would put in a good word with the boss for us. We had a great time eating, and some pretty good food (spaghetti carbonara), although it needed up being a little expensive. We still have not gotten used to restaurants being unwilling to split the check for us, but have managed to work it out so far.

This whole day was incredibly busy but it was amazing to finally see these extremely old and culturally significant places that we have all only heard about before. They were even bigger and cooler in person that I had imagined! Tomorrow is our day trip to the Vatican City, which I am very excited about. Pictures will be coming very soon!! We are all ready for bed, having walked almost 10 miles today. Talk to you soon!

Goodbye Munich!

This morning we slept in a little before packing up everything and storing it all in one hotel room. We ate breakfast and set out at 10:00 for the Olympic Tower. It was just a short metro ride to get where we needed to be, and a short walk after that. The morning was overcast and drizzly and just a little on the chilly side. We reached Olympic Park, which was strangely void of people at first, but slowly started to fill up. We went right to the Olympic Tower and boarded the elevator that took us straight to the top. There were beautiful, although cloudy, views from the top of the tower. We were able to climb a short flight of stairs and come out above the enclosed observation deck. It was extremely cold and windy up there however, so we didn’t stay too long.

After descending, a group of us decided to go explore around the park. The aquarium was tempting, but expensive. Several people decided to go spend some time in the BMW museum, but that didn’t sound very fun to me. Four of us broke off and decided to do some adventuring. We boarded the subway at the closest stop and rode it until we came to a stop that sounded like fun. It ended up being a very residential area, which was fun to walk around. We found several little restaurants and bakeries selling cheap and delicious food, and saw some cool houses and buildings.

We repeated boarding and getting off the subway at random for a while, trying to burn the time until our overnight train. The problem was that absolutely everything was closed, with it being Sunday and all. We ended up back at the hotel for a quick minute before heading to Marienplatz. Everything was closed there as well, so we walked around aimlessly, soaking up some culture and window shopping at some of the pricier stores in the area (Tiffany&Co, Prada, Cartier).

When our legs refused to walk any further we boarded the tram and rode it back to the hotel. We had just over an hour to burn before heading to the train station. Several of us have squished ourselves in the room with all our luggage, and the rest have occupied the lobby or the cafe next door, using all the free wifi we can get. At 7:00 we will round up everyone and everything and make the trek to the train station. We will have some more free time at the station, which we are just super excited for. I’m sure we will grab some snacks and last-minute souveneirs before boarding our overnight train.

Having done this once before, we know exactly what to do. We plan to immediately assemble the beds, get our luggage stored, and climb into our respective bunks. We hope to make the ride bearable, playing games and talking before finally quieting down in an attempt to sleep. When we wake up in the morning we will be in Rome! Wish us luck with sleeping! Talk to you soon!

Beautiful Bavaria

We had an early one this morning, eating breakfast and leaving the hotel by seven to catch our early train to Fussen, which is in another part of Bavaria, south west of Munich. The two hour train ride was not so bad and provided a great opportunity for napping, which partially made up for yet another horrible night of sleeping (or not sleeping). When we arrived in Fussen, we jumped on a bus for a short ride to the village of Hohenschwangau, which sits at the base of a small mountain. Situated on top of said mountain is Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle was commissioned by Bavarian King Ludwig II in 1869 but was never completed. After the mysterious death of the king in 1886, the unfinished castle was opened to the public. The castle was built and decorated using influences from both the Middle Ages and the baroque age, with many of its paintings and murals being inspired by the musical dramas of Richard Wagner.

Upon arriving at the bottom of the long and winding road that let up to the castle, several of us decided it would be a much better idea to wait to take a horse-drawn carriage. The other, more fit and brave, members of our group decided it didn’t look too bad and began the hike. We waited in line for a carriage for just under an hour, but I’m still convinced it was worth the wait. All the way up the road I was struck by just how beautiful the castle and surrounding area were. When we reached to top the view was even more amazing.

We took a guided tour through the beautiful castle, which as I mentioned before, is incomplete. We got to see the throne room, the King’s bedchamber, the singer’s hall, the kitchen, and some other smaller rooms. Everything was so ornately painted and decorated, with intricately carved wooden pieces and very detailed scenes painted on almost every wall. It stuck me as very sad that no one ever really got to use the castle, and that the King’s grand ideas were never carried out. With everything decorated in such medieval styles, it was surprising how modern most everything was, especially the kitchen. We saw a short video that went through what the unfinished rooms and structures would have looked like if they had been completed, which was very cool. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle.

After exiting the castle, we decided to do some exploring. Some other members of our group had found a bridge with some absolutely spectacular views of the mountains and the castle earlier, so we decided to make the trek to find it. It began with climbing around a gate marked “do not enter.” There were several other tourists doing the same thing so we weren’t too concerned about the legality of our actions. We followed the icy path (which is why they had closed it off) for about 10 or 15 minutes before coming to a small bridge far above a small stream. Our fellow travelers had not exaggerated just how spectacular the views were. We took several photos before making the somewhat scary journey back down.

Bavaria has been by far the most beautiful area we’ve been to, in my opinion. Everything is green, there are mountains in the background, and there are amazing castles! I promise to put up pictures as soon as I get the chance. I’ve taken lots of them!

Getting back to Munich was quite an adventure. We rendezvoused at the bus stop at 3:00, so we could get back to the train station to catch our 4:06 train back to Munich. When we were all gathered, we learned that the bus wouldn’t be coming until 3:42, which would make catching our train very interesting. We were surprised when the bus pulled up at 3:30, but we piled on. After a bit of a ride the bus pulled over, somewhere we had never been before, and the driver announced that we all had to get off. Apparently something had happened with our train, and we would no longer be able to board it at the Fussen station. The bus driver gave us instructions to get on a certain bus that would bring us to our train, so that is exactly what we did. That bus went on forever, finally stopping near a train station. We all got off the bus and climbed over some train tracks to board what we were desperately hoping was our train. We settled in on the train, glad to no longer be running or wondering, and amused ourselves by playing the Game of Life on Aaron’s iPad. The train stopped at the Munich station (thank goodness) and we made the short walk back to the hotel.

We went out to supper as a group, to a nearby restaurant with a name I can’t remember. We had a good time, talking, laughing, and enjoying some traditional Bavarian dishes. I ordered the goulash, which was not what I was expecting. It was a lot of beef in a brown sauce, served with some dumplings. It was pretty good, not the best thing I’ve ever eaten though. After supper we returned to the hotel and are now relaxing and preparing for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in a little (yay!) before we head out to explore the Olympic tower. The rest of the day will be free time until we board an overnight train to Rome. Talk to you soon!

Salzburg

After another horrible night of sleep and a less than exciting breakfast, we set out for the train station this morning. We boarded a train that took us to Salzburg, Austria. It only took about an hour and a half and we could see the beautiful Alps long before we reached our destination. After getting off the train it was a short walk to our first stop, the birth house of Motzart. It is now a museum that covers the life, death, and compositions of one of the only classical composers I know anything about. We got to see some of his early instruments, portraits of him and his family, and learn more about his life as a composer. I especially enjoyed seeing the diagrams depicting scenes from his operas.

After the museum we were set loose in The city’s “old town” for lunch. A group of us started at Starbucks (where some caramel hot chocolate helped make me feel like a person again), and ended up at a pizza place not far from the museum. I ordered a chicken and pineapple pizza and it was absolutely delicious! After lunch we met back up with the rest of the group to head up a nearby mountain peak to visit the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is over 900 years old. The ride up was the best part, a nearly vertical ride up in a small shuttle. It felt sort of like a short, slow, roller coaster. There was a ton of stuff within the huge fortress, including a museum of Salzburg, a marionette museum, cool architecture, and the most fantastic views I have seen so far. We spent some time walking around the fort, enjoying the view and experiencing the museums and other fun displays.

After descending the mountain (weeee!!!), a small group of us wandered around the old town, appreciating the beautiful architecture and admiring the trinkets for sale at the many vendors around. Several of us stocked up on souvenirs, and we stopped at a small bakery where I found the best pastry I’ve ever eaten! I have no idea what it was called or what it had in it ( some sort of cinnamon apple-ish something) but it was fantastic! After that we met up with the rest of the group to head back to Munich. We had trouble finding the train station, and ended up practically running to get there in time. And once we did finally get on the train, an angry German man began screaming at us, telling us we were on the wrong part of the train. So we had to quickly get off that car, and get on another, with only minutes before the train took off. We were extremely glad to finally be able to sit for a while, and were even more excited to finally return to our hotel rooms to relax.

After a little relaxation, and washing some laundry in the sink, we headed right next door to a small cafe, the Cafe Amadeus. The lady who runs the cafe was super nice, and all of the food was amazing. Some spinach tortellini filled me up, and my friends also enjoyed some home-made desserts. The best part was the quick, consistent, and free wifi offered by the cafe! We hung out there for a while, before heading back to the hotel to shower and to attempt to get some sleep.

Tomorrow is a trip to some Bavarian castles. Talk to you soon!!