Europe Part II- Germany: Munich and Berlin

Hello!

Sorry that it has taken so long to post about the rest of this wonderful trip!  I swear that this summer is flying by way too fast!

After London, we took a short flight, 90 minutes- which I slept the entire time- to Munich, Germany.  Noah served his mission in Berlin, Germany (the third stop on our trip) but he had never been to the southern part before.  We were only there for 2 1/2 days and mostly went to see the castles!  I was super excited for this part of the trip because we are hard core "The Amazing Race" tv show watchers and this was one of the stops/legs on their trip around the world in the latest season.  It was so fun to walk down the same path as we had just seen on tv!

We took a tour bus to see the castles and it was nice just to be a tourist for the day and stop and see all the touristy things and not have to worry about a thing.  I believe that you should always have just one of these type of days on any trip :)

Our tour took us to two castles owned by King Ludwig of Bavaria (who was a crazy king... google him).  The first was this tiny castle that had more gold in it than I have ever seen in one place!

the tiny castle- and our whole tour group :)

The countryside was so green and beautiful.  I really loved being in this amazing part of the country.

Amazing gelato, that we had every night we were in Bavaria

Our next stop on our tour took us to the castle that we were the most excited to see, the Neuschwanstien Castle.  This castle is pretty famous and is know as the Fairytale Castle or Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  The interesting thing about this castle is that it was built in the late 1800 and made to look medieval.  It had running water, flushing toilets and everything.  It also was never completed because the king died while it was still being built.

It was so fun to tour it and learn a little bit more of Bavaria's history.

So beautiful

this is looking down at the castle from an amazing bridge that was built in a gorge part of the canyon behind the castle.  It was so breath taking when you first walked out and saw the castle

On our tour bus!

After our tour, we made our way back to our bed and breakfast which was such a new experience for me.  We just had a little room that had a sink, fridge and bed.  The toilet and shower were in a different room down the hall.  We never saw any other guests during our stay, but it was still weird having to leave our room to use the restroom!

I loved the old entrance of the Bed and Breakfast so I had to take pictures!  

My favorite yellow color! When I saw the raillings and doors, I knew it was sign that we should stay there :)

The day after the tour of the castles, we headed for Berlin.  We took a 6 hour high speed train ride from Munich to Berlin which was really fun.  I had never been on a "real" train before and it did not disappoint!  I read the Hunger Games during the train ride and finished it when the train came to a stop.

We stayed with Noah's friends once we made it to Berlin in a little city called Frankfurt Oder that is on the Polish border.  It was so fun to see them.  They came to stay with us last summer, so I had already met them. 

The day we got there it was raining and about 90 degrees out= SO humid!  My hair had no trouble at all staying curly the entire time.  

The next day we went exploring and Noah showed me all of the places he used to visit on a regular basis (the post office, the grocery store, etc.)

It was so beautiful!

Us next to the Oder river that separates Germany and Poland

We crossed the bridge and went to Poland and I felt like I was in even more of a foreign country!
I also look super happy to be in Poland :)  

the view of Germany from Poland was beautiful

After our adventure to Poland, we stopped by this street vendor/ food shack place that sold one of Noah's favorite meals when he was on his mission.  It is called a Doner (pronounced Doo-ner).  It is a Turkish meal kind of like a gyro.  It is sliced meat with vegetables, cabbage, and sauces put into bread that was like a crispy pita.  It tastes delicious, but was so heavy!  It was also very messy to eat as you can tell by the picture above.

It was really fun to meet the members that Noah served with. Germans are such nice people and they opened their hearts to me and loved me the minute we met.

Chatting with the sister missionaries on Sunday after church :) It was so cold that day- the 90 degree weather had totally dissapeared!

One of the things Noah and I were most excited about in Berlin was the German candy!  We really went crazy at the grocery store and ended up with about a suitcase full of candy to bring home!
{also, notice just how curly my hair became as the days went on!}

On our last full day we went into the city of Berlin and spent the entire day sight seeing. One of my favorite places to visit was the Berlin Wall.  They have left about a mile of the wall up and have turned it into an outdoor gallery.  It was amazing to see all of the artists interpretations of freedom and history. The history of Germany, especially Berlin is so interesting to me. It still blows my mind that the communists built this wall in the middle of this amazing city and it finally came down 23 years ago.    

the famous "Berlyn" mural

One of my favorite things we did during our day trip to Berlin was visit the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory where we were able to create our own chocolate bars!  (For those of you who know me you know how much I love chocolate!  

apparently when I get super excited I go into "raptor " pose when my picture is being taken :)

the famous radio town

Noah eating a hot dog/ sausage thing

We had the fantastic opportunity to take a tour of Germany's capitol building (kind of like the White House)  It was such a long tour and they explained how Germany's government is run. It was very educational and amazing.

this is the inside the dome that you see in the first picture of the Capitol Building.  Such amazing architechture!

Our last stop in Berlin was the Brandenburg Gate where we watched the sunset.



The next day we got up super early and flew back to America (a 10 hour flight).
This was such an amazing trip and it was so fun to be in Europe with Noah.  This trip was such a learning experience for me.  It made me realize just how much history there is in the world.  I saw so many different cultures and met so many amazing people.  It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity!  (and probably the best graduation present ever!)


Kate

The best way to start summer- Europe! {warning: lots of pictures!}

Hello friends,

I am finally back to reality and ready to blog about the wonderful experiences Noah and I have had since summer began!

I really feel like I missed the whole month of May, and I cannot believe that it is already my birthday week, but here we are.

A week after graduation, Noah and I took an amazing trip to Europe.  I know, crazy right!  Back in late October, Noah and his accounting group signed up for a competition that had to do with accounting stuff (I know very detailed :). ) They competed against other groups that were in their Jr. Core program and they won the BYU portion.  By winning this they went to the "national" competition which was the final part of this competiton which was held in San Jose, CA.  They competed against other schools in the Western United States and where they each gave a presentation on a topic that had to do with helping Ernst and Young (the accounting firm holding the competition) foster a global mindset in their employees.  They gave their presentation and found out that same day that they had won the competition!

The grand prize for winning this competition was a trip to London to tour  Ernst and Young's  headquarters and $1,000 spending cash (which turned into my plane ticket!)

Noah's Jr. Core Accounting Group

These guys are so great!  We loved spending so much time with them!

It was so much fun and still doesn't seem real!  We were able to visit London for 5 days (aka the grand prize of winning the competiton) and since we were over there, we found a really cheap flight to Germany where we visited Munich and Berlin (they are on opposite sides of the country.)

This was my first time ever visiting outside of the United States- if you don't count Victoria, Canada :)

It took months of planning to figure out what clothes I was going to bring with me, because Noah and I figured with how much walking and traveling we would be doing it would be best to only bring 1 carry on suitcase- Yes. ONE Carry on Suitcase!!!  I thought I was going to die!  But thanks to this blog here, I was able to pack quite light and brought less than Noah.  Impressed? :)  Not only did I not have a ton of room to bring all my "getting ready essentials" but the plugs are different in London and in Germany, so to save time, space- and I KNEW it was going to be much more humid than good old Utah, I decided just to take my sea salt spray and gel with me and let my hair have it's own adventure. Oh goodness!

When we arrived in London, we were bound and determined to stay awake the whole day so that we could avoid jet lag.  I only slept a few hours on the plane, and our flight landed at 9:00am, so already feeling tired and dirty, we tried to have as much fun as possible.  As we stepped out onto the first street in London near the Victoria train station, I realized that it was freezing cold and wet, which was how the rest of our London stay decided to be.  I was super grateful that Noah had surprised me with a beautiful trench coat for graduation.  Which is not only waterproof and warm, but EVERYONE in London was wearing one and so I felt like I fit in just perfectly!  We made it until 4:00pm and I realized that I had been awake for 28 hours straight.  I was so tired!!!

The next day we were planning on going to the temple, so that night we stayed at an apartment that is located on the temple grounds and it was so nice!  We took a train and a taxi to the temple and it was in the middle of English country side which was so Beautiful.  I fell asleep at 8:00pm that night and slept 10 hours.  The next morning we did a session and were also able to do some sealings which was a really spiritual experience!  It is amazing that the spirit is the same all over the world.  Looking back Noah and I have to say that visiting the temple in London was probably one of our favorite things that we did!

After the temple, we rode the train back to London and met up with Noah's accounting group.  We walked around Kensington and ate at a cute Italian restauraunt that was SO good!

We thought it would be fun on our first Sunday to visit the local ward and then visit some of the museums, because they are on the same street!  It was so cool to see the church so strong in London and to listen to their testimonies!  We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum (or the V&A) which is a museum on contemporary art.  Since working at the MOA at BYU, I have gained such an appriciation and love for museums.  I loved the V&A because not only did they have some amazing exhibitions, and history of London but because it was founded by Victoria and Albert who I love!  (Side note: If any of you have not seen The Young Victoria, you are missing out on my favorite love story ever!!!!)  

This wall was just out side the V&A- such amazing history.

 Latter that evening, we met up with our group and took a ride outside our hotel on the London Eye!  It was breath taking.  For the 30-45 minutes we were on the ride, the clouds cleared and we were able to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.  It was seriously like I was dreaming, or watching something on TV.

Here are a few pictures I rook from our pod on the London Eye:

This was the hotel we stayed at and the London Eye.  It was so fun staying in the heart of Downtown London

Beautiful Big Ben

My favorite View from outside our hotel-
Big Ben and the Themes River

Visiting Windsor Castle- SO much fun!

Make Way for the Royal Guards!

 Beautiful Windsor- the Queen was there that day! 

While in London, we were lucky to see two Musicals!  Wicked and Les Miserables! I loved them both.  It was my first time seeing them and I fell in love with Broadway and musicals all over again!

 London really is such a beautiful place!  At first (on my tired first day) I was disappointed that it was just a busy, dirty city.  I think I was expecting more of a Disneyland experience where everything was magical and you settled down each night with your Dole Whip icecream, Mickey Mouse ears and tired feet ready for the next days adventures.  While it grew on me as the days past and the "magic" of the city appeared, I came to realize that it is just a city where people live and work.  The "magic" I guess that I found was seeing the history and the future of this beautiful city come together as a beautiful masterpiece.  

Part II- Germany: Munich and Berlin coming up next! 

Stay tuned...

Kate