Aaron 'n' Floss In Europe

Munich, Salzburg, Budapest!

We last left off as we arrived in Munich, Germany. We spent three days in Munich then caught the train to Salzburgh, Austria where we spent a day and half, then on to Budapest, Hungary where we spent three days. We are now currently back in Austria in Vienna. So lets catch up.

Munich:

Whilst in Munich we stayed at the fantastic wombts hostel. This is a chain of hostels that are popping up over Europe and we have found them to be great.

On our first day in Munich we headed to the University of Munich to see the white rose monument. With Floss even remembering a bit of her high school German to help us ask for directions etc. Very interesting history behind the monument. Here is a little wiki history if you are interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

We went to the 1972 Olympic site which has really got us excited for when we head to London for the 2012 games in a month. Tragically 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were held hostage and murdered in the Olympic village in 1972. At midday we watched the glockenspiel dance in the main square Marien Platz which drew a large crowd.That night we headed to the Lowenbrau to watch the Italy V Germany Euro cup game. The crowd was pumped as Germany was the favourite. Germany ended up going down 2-0 with some very passionate Italians celebrating amongst the solemn Germans. Still it made for a great summers night out.

We had been told by many that we had to make the day trip out to see the Neuschwanstein castle. The original inspiration for the Disney film Cinderella castle. It was a great day and the castle was stunning. We enjoyed a refreshing bushwalk after viewing the castle back to the town.

We booked onto a day trip tour to Dachau concentration camp memorial site. The tour leader, Ian from radius tours was fantastic and gave the tour the time, respect and reverence it needed. It was a very informative and emotional day. All we can say is never again.

We finished our time in Munich off with a night out at the Hofbrauhaus. A bit of an instituation in Munich. Lots of singing, dancing, eating pretzels, bratwurst and swilling steins all around. The local patrons even have their own steins locked in the wall waiting for their arrival. Munich knows how to have a good time, we saw 14 hens and bucks parties out that night!

Here are a few Munich snaps:

Scattered pamphlets part of the white rose monument

Modern architecture at the Olympic site

Olympic site

Glockenspiel

Aaron tackles the Bratwurst

Heading to the Lowenbrau

Aaron finds leiderhosen in his size

The stunning Neuschwanstein castle

Inside the castles kitchen

A lovely walk along the river back to town

"Work shall set you free" The gates that all Dachau prisoners walked through to enter the camp.

Never again.

The Hofbrauhaus

Live music

The locals steins locked up waiting for them

Salzburg:

A short train ride and we arrived in Salzburg. We booked into Strawberry hostel. As it was there opening night we were two of the very first guests. They were pretty disorganised but really did their best to help us out with the resources they had.

Being Sunday afternoon when were arrived the town was quite and we took the opportunity to just walk together and recharge the batteries. We found our way to Mirabelle gardens where many of the scenes from The Sound of Music were filmed. The gardens are incredible and bursting with colour, very well maintained. We lay in the shade in the cool grass and read, heaven. We also found the worlds best slippery slide and had fun dominating the play ground.

That night was the Euro cup final so we scouted around for the best place to watch and were soon directed to the Augustiner Brauhaus. A fantastic brewery run by Monks. They brew one kind of beer and it comes in big or bigger steins. We had a great night eating a drinking with fellow travellers, made especially fun as we were with a man from Spain and Spain ended up winning 4-0 in spectacular style!

The next morning we booked onto a Sound of Music cycling tour (because we are that cool) with the Fraulein Maria bike company. It was the best morning. We cycled in the sun for over three hours through the town and country side. We saw all the classic Sound of Music sites and even reacted some of the movie (yes really). Here is a link to their facebook page: http://on.fb.me/Nc8dux showing photos of us riding and singing our hearts out. Aaron was the “teachers pet”, impressing the whole tour group with his singing skills.

Salzburg snaps:

Looking up into the hills

Mirabelle gardens. Top of the stairs where Maria and the kids sing do ray me

Aaron <3 unicorns

Best slide ever

Hello Floss

Floss fuels up for the bike ride

Budapest:

We arrived in Budapest and it was hot hot hot! I think this was the first time we both felt very out of our depth with the language. Hungarian is very interesting to listen to, such a complex language. Fortunately many of the younger locals we came across spoke basic English so we muddled through.

We stayed in another wombats hostel. This one has only been open a month and was so nice, even had air conditioning which was a treat.

To find our feet we joined a free walking tour of the city. For three and a half hours Esther and Blanco walked us through all the interesting parts of town, we explored Buda and Pest and all the main attractions. It was the hottest part of the day and we were exhausted. The tour was great and they gave us a list of all the dos, don’t and local knowledge. We had our first real Goulash for lunch, yummo!

Next we headed to the Hospital in the rock. Which was literally a hospital in a rock cave used in WW2. It was a cool change being 12m underground and in 15 degrees! The hospital housed lots of antique medical equipment which naturally fascinated and horrified Floss. Some of the Hungarian Jewish population were treated, protected and hidden here under the red cross during Hitlers rein.

We watched the State of Origin final in a Scottish bar at 1100 in the morning. Amazing the number of Aussies who suddenly appeared when they heard it was airing!

It was so hot we gladly found one of Budapests famous “magic water” baths. We spent the afternoon floating around the outdoor cold pool which was so nice. The natural springs are very popular all year round with the locals.

Budapest pics: