germany: another layover in frankfurt

When booking my flights between Chicago and Moscow, my return trip got me a daytime layover in Frankfurt. I have to admit that after my last experience with this layover, I was a bit nervous about delays out of Frankfurt, I didn't want to spend another unintended night there.

Frankfurt is big, having almost 750,000 people. Civilization has been there a long time, going all the way back to Roman times; it was one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire. For a while, the kings and emperors of Germany were crowned in Frankfurt, Wikipedia tells me this stopped in 1792, with the coronation of Franz II who was crowned in St. Bartholomaus Cathedral.

Like much of Germany, much of the city was bombed to smithereens during WW2, most of what exists now has been rebuilt.

My flight arrived in the morning, and it didn't take long to go through passport control. I had ideas for a few things to see in the city, but it didn't quite work out that way.

Getting into the city from the airport is easy and fast, it's just an S-bahn ride. Only 20 or 30 minutes. I had just a personal bag, and my pack for carryon so I put them into a luggage locker in the Frankfurt train station. Much less worrying about my pack getting lost!

I was tired though, so very tired. Jet lag gets worse for me the older I get. Even though my head recognized that it was morning, my body was mostly in a fog. I liked seeing the city before too many people were running around, but I was so tired. 

I knew jet lag was going to be an issue, but I just couldn't keep going, no matter how much I wanted to see in the city. 

I saw a few spots familiar from my layover the year before, then I saw a Starbucks. An organization known for letting people sit in comfortable chairs for long periods of time. 

I admit that I spent the next three hours dozing off in a chair on the second level of the cafe. So tired.

I felt better after the sort of nap, or at least better enough to start walking again.

I wound my way through the old city center to find one of the towers that still stands from the old city walls. It was actually a city gate back in the day, but doesn't look very 'gatey' to me. I also found the opera theater, which is gorgeous. I'd love to attend a performance there sometime, but my layovers never seem to be at the right time for that to happen.

I crossed the river, the bridge was quite photogenic. On the other side of the river I stepped into a church, as I knew I wouldn't be seeing many Catholic or Protestant churches in the near future. I love stained glass, and the feel of belief in the buildings of any faith.

I crossed back over the bridge on a different bridge, this one much more modern. Pretty, but not in the same way the other bridge was. It took me back to the same general area, so I was able to get back to the platz that is featured in many of the photos of Frankfurt. The buildings all around the platz have traditional architecture, so it's beautiful. 

Maybe one day I'll sit in the chairs of all the cafes and have an ice cream.

From there I made my way back to the train station, picked up my bags, and caught the next train back to the airport. This visit to Frankfurt wasn't very long, and not very intense, but it left me something to see the next time I'm there.

germany: garmisch-partenkirchen

Instead of taking the train, I took a bus from Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The bus was only 6 euros, whch is hard to beat. Since it was leaving early in the morning I hoped that meant it would depart on time. It left about 10 minutes late, but that wasn't a big deal.

A little over an hour and a half later I arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I lived there from 2001-2004, and while it has changed in many ways there is something about the place that I'll always love. I will always want to return, as long as I know people still living there.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is one of the few places in the world where I would be willing to buy property if I could afford it. It really is that beautiful, and means that much to me. 

I was picked up at the train station, and taken to where I was staying for the next 6 days. My host had to go to work, so I laid down to relax for a bit. (An overnight bus, plus an early morning bus basically meant I hadn't had much sleep in the past two nights.) I ended up falling asleep and staying that way until almost noon, and I have to admit it felt amazing. Plus the weather outside wasn't great, so I didn't care.

My host works for the military resort in town, so I had access to some American goodies I hadn't seen in a while.
Corn Chex and other cereals in particular. I also got to watch a couple news channels, including CNN and BBC. I'm used to hearing news through podcasts, and reading it online, so this was nice. At the same time, it was odd to see commercials, as those aren't put into episodes you stream later on. 

I didn't do anything useful for the rest of the day. My host came home from work and found me just where I had been hours earlier, dozing on the couch. Eventually I got cleaned up and we went out for dinner with a stop for ice cream on the way home.

The next morning I'd arranged to meet up with a friend for a hike, so I had to get moving. We met up at 0815 (I was supposed to be there at 0800, whoops,) because I much prefer to hike earlier in the day. The hike we'd chosen was through the Hollentalklamm (Hollental Gorge in English) and into the valley behind the gorge.

If we'd been so inclined there was a 15 kilometer long trail, but I was hesitant to commit to an eight hour (or more) hike.

The entire hike was gorgeous. The trailhead starts next to a little chapel, and goes through woods. The trail is next to a river coming off a glacier, so the water is a beautiful gray blue sort of colour. I was taking heaps of photos right from the start.

Of course I wanted to take a few photos of the two of us, which Tom was okay with doing. The first one was good; the second one would've been good too, except that I didn't set up the tripod in a stable place. As I was getting to my spot, the camera tipped over and went into the water.

Big oooops. I raced over and plucked it out of the water, knowing it was probably the end of the camera. I tried turning it off and on again, but it didn't work. I was pretty sure the camera was dead, but I still had hope for the photos already on the memory card, so I pulled that out, along with the battery.

I was disappointed to lose the camera, but in the back of my mind I knew I had a newer, better camera waiting for me when I got to the States. Plus the lens on this one had a couple scratches that sometimes showed up as light spots in my photos, which already drove me nuts. I had my iphone too, so it wasn't as if I would've been without a camera for the rest of the month.

The rest of the hike was awesome. Even though I've gone through the gorge previously, I still loved every minute, and more than once asked myself why I'd left Garmisch-Partenkirchen. There is so much natural beauty in the area.
Going through the gorge was rather chilly, as we got dripped on a fair amount. The trail through the gorge itself was carved through the mountain, and of course there is drippage.

Coming out of the gorge was amazing. The rock walls slowly widen up into the bowl at the end of a valley. I got to see rushing glacier water too. As we followed the trail we saw the last bit of snow left in the valley, which had somehow survived all the way until the middle of June!

I figured out a way to prop up my phone to have a picture of us with the snow too.

Toward the end of the valley we saw a small altar/chapel, which seems totally normal to me in a German speaking country. Plenty of people would argue that God created all the beauty we can see. 

I'm sure we could've found a trail leading up the 'walls' at the end of the valley, but I wasn't that keen. Or maybe I was 'satisfied' with everything I'd seen already. I did see a few people up higher, I wonder how far they were going.

We circled around and came to a stop for a break at the Hollentalangerhutte. Tom told me it was pretty new, having only been there a couple years or so, but they were doing plenty of business.
We hadn't seen all those people on the trail (thank goodness,) so maybe they came through the gorge, ate, and went back.

Lunch was good, the portions were bigger than I expected, and we were both happy.

Going back was just as awesome. The sun was coming from the other direction now, so we could see the gorge itself a bit better. Since we were both hot from hiking the cold water dripping on us in the gorge felt pretty good.

Everything was fantastic until about 100 meters from the end of the trail when I slipped and fell for no good reason. There was nothing for me to trip over, I just lost my footing and fell. I landed on my hands, and I knew immediately it would hurt and that it would be one of those bruises that didn't show. Go figure.

After we got back to the trailhead Tom called my host who came to pick me up. When I got back to the house I got cleaned up and relaxed for a while, before we went out to an Indian place for dinner. I'm pretty sure this restaurant didn't exist when I lived in GaP, but I wish it had. The food was properly spicy, and had the right flavour.

The next morning I eventually got up and went out into town. It was good weather again so I had no excuses to stay inside. My first 'sight' was the Marientplatz area of town. Garmish-Partenkirchen is absolutely beautiful, no matter where you are in town. Well, that's not quite true, some of the new developments aren't so good looking, but that's not where I was walking around.

I walked along a pedestrian street, taking more than a few moments to enjoy the beauty of the place. I window shopped a bit, some of those stores haven't changed in decades. I seriously considered how early was too early for ice cream, hee hee.

Eventually I made my way to a river that runs through one side of town, the Loisach river. Since it starts at a glacier on the mountain, it is the same gray blue color I'd seen the day before. Absolutely gorgeous. Since there had been enough rain recently, the river was high enough to be seen. When the spring and summer are dry, it ends up looking more like a creek with lots of rocks.

I took a few photos near a covered bridge everyone always finds rather picturesque.

From there I walked back into the center of town, and followed a street out to another edge of town. The town area of GaP (the letters used on the license plates registered locally,) really isn't very big, and the town population is only 30,000 or so. I think. It is sortof shaped like a flat triangle, and the only time you're in town for longer is when you go from one specfic corner of the triangle to the other, and that doesn't happen often.

This next edge of town is also a bunch of farmers' fields. We all loved the little hay shacks you see throughout the fields as well as the rolls of hay. At this time of year there aren't so many rolls of hay, but the background of the mountains behind the hay shacks is pretty much the definition of beautiful.
There are amazing sunsets in this area as well, but I have yet to do a sunset hike to capture the light properly.

I would my way along paths through the fields to my next sight, the Partnachklamm. (Partnach Gorge, in English.) Way back when I lived in GaP (2001-2004) this was the very first 'sight' I got to see. There is a cafe/biergarden near the entrance, but I don't think I've ever stopped there. The entry fee is now 5 euros, which strikes me as a lot, but oh well.

Just like the Hollentalklamm there is a pathway built into the gorge for tourists, and you occasionally feel water dripping on you. Sometimes the pathway gets rather wet, depending on all sorts of things. In other words, don't show up in high heels or clothes that need to stay dry.

This gorge is just as narrow, at times you almost feel as though you can reach out and touch the other side. (You can't, don't try.) The water running through the gorge is just as beautiful, and is rather cold.

After coming out of the other side of the klamm I kept following the river for a while. Not too far from the klamm there is a spot on the river bank where people have set up a bunch of stone cairns, or at least mini piles of stones. As this is an area full of hiking, it was easy to follow a trail for a while, and turn around when I needed to do so. I wanted to keep going, but I realized I didn't have enough water with me, considering the heat and sun and how much I was sweating.

I went back through the klamm, getting dripped on all over again.

My next sight was the ski stadium. It was originally built for the 1936 winter Olympics, and is still in use today. You can see all the way to the top of the ski jumps (one for women, one for men) and they look pretty good. Since I was there in June the ground in the stadium was being used for football (soccer) practice. The stadium isn't huge, it's basically a horseshoe shape at the bottom of the hill. As always, I liked the big, Germanic style statues. Sometimes I'm amazed they are still there, given the history of the time in which they were built.

I eventually went home, completely covered in sweat. Since I'd been in Europe for two or three weeks already I was used to the heat, but it was still rough. I had only brought a liter of water with me, I'd drunk all of it. June in GaP isn't usually this hot, so I wasn't the only one suffering. As hot as it was, I'll take this weather over rainy/cold/cloudy any day. (Plus it was just like the weather I'd already had for the first half of the month in other cities.)

We had dinner that night at a cafe near the Kurpark in town. It was fun to hear the stories of what the place used to be like, as it had changed drastically even before I got to town, and has continued to change since then.

The next day it took me a while to get moving again, oh well. I started my day with a bowl of Corn Chex, then stopped at a bakery in town to pick up snacks for the day. I headed toward the building where I used to live, as the trailhead I wanted is behind that building.

The Kramer is pretty much directly behind where I used to live. When I lived in that building the trailhead was a five minute walk from the gate! I've only climbed the full mountain once, but the bottom half of the hike is something I've done several times and always enjoyed. It is another of my first memories from living in town.

Getting to what we called the halfway house (which is really called St Martin's Hutte,) doesn't take long, only about 45 minutes. Back in the days when I could/did drink, it was the perfect place to have a bier and look out at the city.

Just past the hutte, (or is it just before?) is the war memorial. The memorial is in a small field on the mountain, almost on the edge. There are little plaques memorializing those who lost their lives in battle all around the building, and is hauntingly beautiful. There area always flowers around, and the view of the valley is breathtaking.

From there I went back down the trail a bit, until I caught the turnoff to another trail. I followed this one across the mountain, it's a flat trail until I got to the Pflegersee, a lake. It's a tiny little lake, with a cafe built on one side. Really picturesque, with another, steeper mountain behind it.

I didn't go up the mountain, but instead followed the road going behind the cafe. It led to more trails, which I followed for a little while. I found a couple man made waterfalls, which were still beautiful despite being man made.

I know I hadn't been out all that long at this point, but I turned around anywho, because clouds were rolling in fast. I walked back down the hill following various trails until I got to town, and walked home. During this bit of the walk it started to rain, but it wasn't all that bad. I found out later that the other side of town had been drenched.

When I got home I showered, then went back out to meet up with someone. A few months previously someone had posted online that they wanted to work on taking photos of people (I guess they're called 'lifestyle' photos, or something along those lines,) so I volunteered. I was thrilled when I figured out this woman lived in Garmisch, so we set up a date for the photos.

Since I had to walk about 30 minutes about an hour after the rain ended, it was like walking through a sauna, but the photos were totally worth it. The lighting was great, as was the background. Heck, with that background I would have been willing to take those photos out in the rain.

As we were leaving the area I saw a friend of mine in a car, which was perfect. I've known Jill since I worked in GaP, and though we'd wanted to meet up while I was in town we had yet to set a date. This was perfect. I went with her to another area of town where she picked up her dog. While we were there (it was at the softball fields on base,) I got to say hello to a couple more people I know. GaP is a small town, you'll probably run into people you know while you visit, as long as people you know still live there.

Jill drove me home, and we agreed to meet for dinner about 30 minutes later. It was perfect. My host joined us, and I spent the next couple hours laughing. They've both been in town for a long time, and have heaps of stories to tell. There have been a lot of characters in GaP, and I think these two have known and remembered them all.

The next morning another friend, Christoph picked me up mid morning. When I lived in Garmisch he was my next door neighbor. He has a new baby, only 6 weeks old! Christoph drove us to the Pflegersee, we had a nice drink at the cafe on the lake. The baby slept through the whole thing, but it was still neat to see Christoph as a dad.

Christoph drove me to a cafe in town, one all of us gappers know and love: Mukkefuck. (Both Us are pronounced with the long U sound.) It has always been known for big salads and sandwiches, and has a lovely biergarden out back. I met my friend Donna there, she was also one of the first people I met in Garmisch. We had a great lunch, and catch up. I only wish we'd had more time.

After lunch I found the bus stop in the middle of town, and got lucky with my timing. I only had to wait about 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. It only runs once an hour to where I was going, and if I'd just missed it I think I would've changed my mind.

I was on the bus for about an hour, getting off at the end of the route, the Eibsee. This is the lake at the bottom of the tallest mountain in Germany. It's deep in the middle, and the water is clear. There are beaches all around the lake, but they're very rocky. It's a great place to hang out with friends, rent rowboats and paddleboats, etc... There are a couple hotels on the lake, though of course I've never stayed in one.

I walked around to one of the beaches, stripped down to my bikini and laid out for the next 90 minutes. It was quiet, the scenery was great, and life was good.

I took the bus back to the center of Garmisch, and walked home, stopping to buy postcards and a magnet on the way.

That night I'd made arrangements for dinner with more friends, at another old haunt of any ex-gapper: Zirbel. Jamie and Helmut are both people I knew from almost the very beginning of moving to Garmisch, it was great to hang out with them again. Jamie arrived not too long after I did, so between her and Helmut and my host, they could've told stories all night long.

The next morning I was awake early again, but didn't get moving until lunchtime. I had my breakfast of Corn Chex, and stopped at another bakery to get snacks again. This time I wanted to do a hike I'd never done before: going up the Wank, another major mountain in town.

There are numerous trails to get up the mountain, and I was never entirely sure where I was on the mountain.

Some of the trails are really challenging, others are more like an uphill walk. But basically if you just aim up, you'll get there. The trails are mostly exposed, which I could feel almost from the start. (The entire time I was kicking myself for not having gotten started early in the morning, which I much prefer anywho.)

I got to see cows grazing, and heaps of views of the city and valley. I also witnessed something I've never seen before: a mountain rescue of sorts. As I was going up the trail I saw a lady sitting and holding her ankle, I assume she'd falled and/or twisted something.

I could hear a helicopter but didn't think much of it at first. Then I realized the helicopter was hovering, and that a couple people were descending a rope from the helicopter. This was the mountain health service, the people you call when you get hurt on the mountain! From the way they behaved, it wasn't a major injury, but I was glad to see her being taken care of.

I kept going, slowly but surely to the top.

As with many mountains in the area, there is a cafe/hut at the top, it would be a great place to have a drink or snack. I was happy with the snacks I'd bought at the bakery before hiking up.

Also, as with many mountains in the area, there is a cross marking the top of the mountain. This cross happened to have Jesus on there, so I only took a picture of it, not with it.

Normally I would've hiked right back down the mountain, but the sun and heat had gotten to me, and I wasn't feeling so good anymore. Thankfully, there was a cable car, which felt amazing at that point. A lot of visitors take the ride up and down, but that seemed like cheating to me.

When I got back home I wasn't feeling good at all. Even though I'd eaten while hiking, and drunk plenty of water, I had sweated out all the nutrients my body needed. I should've brought more food with me on the hike.

My host gave me some Pedialyte, which tasted awful. I also got some snacks with salt and protein. Between the two of them I was able to think normally again. (When I get that way my head hurts to think and it is hard to answer questions, even the easy ones.)

That was my last night in town, we had dinner at another random restaurant. Side note: there are something like 250 restaurants in Garmisch, a town of 30,000 people. There is always a new place to try, or an old haunt to go back to.

The next morning I was awake early because I had to be. My host drove me to the train station, where I boarded my train at 0630. I will definitely come back to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 

germany: munich

I hadn't orignally planned to spend any time in Munich, but when bus schedules forced me to spend a day there, I didn't mind. I used to live a little over an hour away, so I'd visited before. Howeva, those were the days before smart phones, social media and the like.

My bus arrived on time, though I don't remember exactly what time it was. The bus station was right next to an S-bahn station, which basically guaranteed there would be a bakery somewhere around. I found the bakery quickly, picked up snacks, and kept walking. (This is Germany, I'd have been able to find a bakery pretty much anywhere in any city.)

An hour later I got to my hostel. I think I read the map wrong on this one, because I'd originally thought it was a lot closer to the area from which the bus would depart the next morning. Oh well. It was definitely too early for me to check in, but I was able to relax in the common area for a while. I probably dozed off for a bit as well, though the chairs weren't exactly comfortable.

I was able to use a bathroom to change, but I had to pay for a locker to store my bag, argh. I much prefer hostels with free luggage storage. Side note, this hostel also wanted you to rent sheets, which is also an annoying extra charge.

Just put sheets on everyone's bed, and add a euro to the price of the bed. People don't travel with their own sheets anymore, so I saw this as just a way of adding money to their prices. Plus this was not clearly stated when I booked my bed. Argh.

Eventually I started walking. Since I'd seen Munich before, and was pretty sure the city center hadn't changed too much, I aimed for a place I hadn't seen previously. In this case, the location of my hostel turned out to be a good thing, as my walk was only about 25 minutes long.

I walked to Schloss Nymphenburg, known in English as Nymphenburg Palace. As I got to the grounds of the palace I felt a great breeze, which felt really good. After basically baking in the sun in both Berlin and Prague I was really happy to feel wind. Schloss Nymphenburg is actually a complex of buildings, lived in by ................ The entire area was planned out before building, so everything is very specific and deliberate.

There are several bodies of water on the land, with geese in some of them. I generally love this kind of water, and clearly they'd figured out how to keep it moving so it didn't look yucky from lack of circulation.

The main palace is quite long and stretched out., not very wide at any point. The ticket area is on the first floor (Americans would call this the ground floor.) I chose to get the ticket that covered everything on the grounds, though there were cheaper options. I figured if I was coming out here I wanted to see the whole thing.

My first stop was the carriage museum. It took me a while to find the entrance, (which is nowhere near the main palace entrance, though it is technically in the same building.) which ended up being toward the end of the long main building.

The carriages on display are those that were used by the royal family in various circumstances. I never thought about it previously, but apparently you need a much fancier coach in a royal procession than you do in daily moving around. Some of those on display were covered in gold, or at least appeared that way to me. I'm still guessing they weren't all that comfortable.

Also on display were some of the sleds used by the royal family back in the day. I've always thought of sleds as winter toys, and some of these were definitely just that, but others were meant only to bring someone from point A to point B.

I went back to the main entry point, and found the staircase (not terribly big, and I couldn't see that it was very well marked, or maybe I just missed the signage,) leading upstairs to the main part of the palace.

This part of the museum definitely starts you off on the high note, as the first room you enter is the Great Room. It's beautiful. At least two stories tall, with windows on both sides that let in a lot of light. The walls and ceiling were painted, so it all comes across as grand and colourful. I reeeally wished I could've had a couple minutes alone in there to take better photos, but even then I'm not sure I could've captured the feeling of the room.

From there you could go off to each branch of the palace. One room led to another which led to another, etc... The people who lived here must've spent a lot of time going through various rooms to get somewhere else. There were halls in a way as well, but only in sections.

One of the rooms was green, and the sign said the bed was where King Ludwig (the crazy one,) was born. Another room was called the Hall of Beauties, and had paintings of so called beautiful women.

I don't think I agreed with them being beauties, but I guess beauty is subjective, and is in the eye of the beholder. There were plenty of other rooms as well, though none of them stuck out in my mind.
I exited the main palace into the gardens in back, which were even more extensive than those in front. I followed a smaller path to the building that interested me most in the entire complex, called Amalienburg. It was built as a hunting lodge, though after going through it I would never have guessed that. The entry room is pretty small, though the wall decoration was really nice.

Then you're in another small room, this one very yellow. And then, you're in the best room, the silver and mirror room. This sort of room does not 'belong' in a hunting lodge. Or maybe I don't have a royal mind for decorating. The entire room was decorated with silver or mirrors, excluding the windows of course. The light coming in the windows only added to the effect. The powers that be have roped off most of the room, visitors only get to walk a red carpet that goes straight through the room. There weren't many visitors, so it was easy for me to set up my tripod and take a photo.

There were two more rooms on the other side, one of which was the kitchen. The kitchen was decorated with Chinese tiles! It felt like it was more for show, but I'm assuming the kitchen was actually used, so who knows.

I continued walking along the path, going by a small 'village' (because of course a palace complex like this needed it's own village on the grounds,) which included a few homes and a water wheel.

The next building was called Badenburg, and was a bathing pavillion. What exactly that means, I don't know. I can't imagine the royal folks walking this far to a completely separate building to wash themselves.

The decoration in here was Chinese decorated wallpaper, which was really nice looking. Visitors don't get to go in every room, so the powers that be have been able to 'save' the wallpaper by putting it in a place visitors can't touch. There were quite a few windows in this building, so I don't know how the bathing part of things worked.

I followed the path around the end of the whole area, which involved a fountain with cascading water on several levels. A great place for a picnic if you just happened to live here. Bigger areas of water are on this side of the property.

More walking took me to my second favourite building, the Pagodenburg. It is shaped octagonally, with two stories. The bottom is completely decorated in Delft tile, so it comes across as blue and light. The second floor is all Chinoiserie (their word, not mine,) which really isn't my thing but still looked nice. The brochure told me this was a 'mainson de plaisance,' a house of pleasure. Hmmmmmm. I'm hoping that just means they came here to relax.

The last building I visited was built specifically to look like a ruin. (Why?) It was built as a religious retreat area, so there is an altar. It was built with stone, and to me just looked odd. But hey, who am I to judge the royals?

At this point I was sortof 'palaced out' so I'm glad I'd seen everything. I left the property, and walked into the center of Munich. It had been years since I'd been to the city center, so I was keen to see what I remembered. The walk wasn't short, but that was fine.

I walked past the hauptbahnhof, which doesn't look as big from the outside as I remember it being on the inside. I walked through Karlsplatz, and kept going on the pedestrian zone leading to the Marienplatz. I remembered a lot of the shops that were there, as well as finding a church I don't recall having seen previously.

The Marienplatz is usually one of the first place visitors to the city come, as it is where you'll find the Rathaus with the world famous Glockenspiel. I remember the Marienplatz as a fairly wide open area, but this time they were setting up for some kind of concert or festival, so it felt much more crowded and closed in. It was really crowded, definitely not a feeling I enjoy. 

By that point it was evening, and I was ready to go somewhere and sit. I found an entrance to an S-bahn station and hopped on a train. It took me to another station only a few minutes from my hostel. Yay for public transport! I retreived my pack from the storage locker, and checked in. My evening after that was nothing exciting, I just looked at my various social media accounts until it was time to go to bed.

The next morning I was up early, and was grateful I'd packed everything the night before. I hate the people who decide to go through everything, including rustling plastic bags early in the morning, I didn't want to be one of those people. I checked out, and hustled back to the S-bahn station. I hopped on a train that took me to the bus station, where I was about 10 minutes early for my bus.

I like Munich, though I don't remember it being this expensive previously. I'll always be happy to come back to anywhere in Germany.

germany: berlin

I came to Berlin for two reasons: one, I was hoping to finally have blue skies. And two, I wanted to see the dome on top of the Reichstag. I succeeded in both, yippee!!
My overnight bus from Copenhagen arrived about 20 minutes late, but I didn't much care. I'd been to Berlin previously, so I didn't have a huge list of sights to see starting immediately. 
I started walking toward my accommodation, the walk took a lot longer than I thought. I'm sure I looked it up at some point but I'd clearly forgotten what the map had told me, as it was a long walk. When I looked again, it was 4 miles. That's not a huge distance, not at all, but I was carrying my pack, wearing a jacket-ish thing over a t-shirt, and long pants. 
By the time I got to my accommodation everything was soaked with sweat, gross. Plus, I wasn't feeling so good from sweating out all that water.
I wasn't able to check in so early, but I was able to use the bathroom to change and clean up. I sat around for a while, because I knew I needed it, then started walking.
My first spot was a bakery I remembered from my last trip to the city. They had really good laugencroissants (like a cross between a pretzel and a croissant,) and a pastry with cream and sour cherry jelly. So good.
From there I started another long walk, and this time I knew it was going to be long.
I stopped at various points along the way, including at the ruins of a church. Most of the walls were standing, including where stained glass windows once stood, but the roof was totally gone. There was an art exhibit in one area, but it didn't seem very interesting to me. 
I passed a traffic circle with a fountain in the middle. I stepped into a store selling drinks and bought way too many. Several schorles (mineral water with juice. I had rhubarb, wildberry, and something else,) and a flavoured water. Carrying all those bottles in a bag over my shoulder was heavy, and I felt a little silly with the bottles clinking against each other nonstop. 
Eventually I got to my destination: the Stasi museum. It is actually just one building in what used to be an entire complex used by the Stasi in Berlin and the surrounding region.
It wasn't the cheapest museum I've visited, I think it was 6€! Then there was a photo fee of 1€. Argh.
I had high hopes for the Stasi museum, but it didn't end up being as awesome as I wanted. I was able to see rooms in which various people worked, and there were descriptions of 'important' people in the organization, as well as the work they did. 
Each room had old school furniture, but I'm not sure it was actually old furniture. The style was old but none of it looked at all used. The building didn't feel very "lived in," for lack of a better phrase.
All of the cabinets that had held documents and books had been cleared out, with the doors left open. I liked seeing some of the technology used back then, including phones and cameras. 
I walked through every open room on three floors, then left. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects was the covering built over the street in front of the front door of the building. The building was built without the covering originally, but then the powers that be realized anyone in the surrounding buildings could see who was coming and going, and they didn't love that at all.
I walked back toward my accommodation, and walked past it to get to a food court at a nearby mall. 
I wanted tofu and veggies for dinner, it was just about dinner time. The place from which I wanted to get food was closed, so I found a shwarma stand instead. I brought the food back to the hotel, then checked in.
It felt really good to sit down for a while, and I began to realize how dehydrated I was. One of my legs was cramping, and I could feel the heat coming off me even though I'd started to drink water steadily.
After a couple hours I started walking again. Thankfully, I didn't have all that far to go. My goal this time was the Reichstag building, becauseI had booked a (free) ticket to go up in the dome.
It's easy to book a ticket to go up in the dome, just look online; you can't go up there without a ticket, which is for a specific time of your choosing.
When I arrived, I went through security, then someone took a group of us into the building. The entrance is sort of an airlock, in that everyone enters the door, it closes, then the next door opens. Everyone fits into a large elevator, which seems to move really slowly. Eventually we all piled out again, and took a few steps to a desk handing out audio guides in various languages. I put on my audio guide, and started heading up the ramp. The powers that be have figured out a way to get a whole lot of people into the area without feeling super crowded.
The audio guide is GPS enabled, it knows exactly where you are on the ramp. As you walk (slowly) up the ramp, you get to listen to information about various buildings you can see from the dome. I loved learning some history and some modern information. The guide also tells you about the building and some itself, which I found fascinating. When the dome was designed (considerably later than the rest of the building,) the environment and economy were taken into account.
There are a bunch of solar panels on the roof, and there is a window shade of sorts in the middle of the dome. There is a hole in the middle that allows hot air to rise, keeping the parliamentary chamber underneath quite cool without big aircon bills. It's hard to describe in a way that gives you any idea what it all looks like and how it all works.

After walking up the ramps to the top, I walked down, and exited the whole thing the same way I entered. It didn't take me long to get back to my hotel, thank goodness. On the way I walked through the Potsdam Gate, which was lit up as usual. What was not usual was the way the platz in front was blocked off, I don't know why. When I got home I crashed quickly.
I was so tired that I slept like a rock, through most of the night. Eventually I got moving, and took advantage of the buffet breakfast.
After eating I packed up, and asked the hotel to store my bag again.
One of my travel apps told me I should be able to see an old East German watchtower a few streets away. I ended up walking past the tower a couple times before I saw it. It now blends in between a couple trees on a sidewalk.

My next sight was a wall mural that ended up being mostly blocked off, I don't know why. There was a tour group standing around listening to a description of the wall, I wonder if the description included a reason for the wall. I was able to see it by reaching as high as I could with my arm (and iPhone camera,) on my tiptoes. A selfie stick would've been really useful, to get more height, but I have no plans to buy one of those for the time being. 
From there I aimed toward an area full of museums. I made my way to the German Historical Museum. The entry fee wasn't cheap, but it ended up being a pretty big museum with extensive displays. They wanted me to check my purse, saying it was too big, but I didn't love the idea of leaving my wallet and passport in a place without a lock. 
It starts with the history of the area hundreds of years ago, and goes all the way through modern times. There are photos, descriptions, models, posters, etc... I looked at a lot of it, but by the end I was feeling rather dazed with all the information.
I walked a little behind this museum, to another museum, this one an art museum. Unfortunately, it wasn't open. That didn't stop me from taking a couple photos on the big staircase leading up to the entrance, and in the columns surrounding a small yard in front.
From there I went for another long walk. I walked all the way to Schloss Charlottenburg. It was well over an hour before I arrived at the schloss. When I got there, I discovered I had showed up on the one day a week it is closed, argh. Oh well. The front gate was still open though, so I got to take photos with just me in the yard. Yay! Part of the yard was covered for construction, I conveniently avoided that view.
At that point, I was ready for dinner, so I walked alllll the way back to my hotel. I actually walked a little further, so I could finally get the tofu and veggies I'd been craving.
Once I got back to the hotel I ate, while charging my phone and wasting time online.
When I grabbed my pack to get to the bus station, I knew what I had coming. Since it was nighttime, I walked without listening to my normal podcasts or audiobooks. 
I knew where I was going, the total walk took about 90 minutes this time around. I got to the bus station about 20 minutes before my bus departed, everything worked out well. Like most bus and train stations, I was able to find stalls with snacks to take with me on the bus. 

Berlin is a great city, there is still more I want to see. It's one of those cities that has an incredible amount of history from different eras, as well as being a modern city with a mixture of architecture, food, and culture.