So I did a little shopping while I was in Germany.  But not too much, y’all, because my suitcase weighed 45.3 pounds before I left the U.S., so there wasn’t much wiggle room as far as stashing lots of loot…literally and monetarily.  Mainly I was on the hunt for postcards and brochures that I can splice up and use as inexpensive scrapbooking fodder for my massive Germany scrapbook that I am about to embark upon.  I can’t wait to get started!  Idle hands are the devil’s tools, don’t ya know.  And Lulu can be very, very eee-vile.  Raaa-haaaa-haaa!

Anyhow, I thought that I would share with you guys some of the loot that I picked up during my travels…

1.  Embroidered Austrian lace

It was all I could do not to buy tons of this kind of stuff.  I could totally cover all of the tables in my house with it.  GR would not be happy.

2.  Edelweiss print bandanas

Edelweiss, Edelweiss.  Every morning you greet me.  If Christopher Plummer could sing this to me every morning for the rest of my life, I would die a very happy girl.  He was smoking hot in his day.  But, I must settle for Edelweiss bandanas.  Which I wore almost every day in Germany once I discovered them.  Lulu has very bad hair, people.  I will illustrate:

 But I digress.

3.  Print canvas bags

Oh, how I love these little bags!  I bought one in just about every town that I visited.  They were so inexpensive and can be used for many things!  Like for carrying other souvenirs!  Plus, they were lightweight and easy to slip into my suitcase…

4.  Cow bell charm

Yes, I am going to wear a cow bell.  It takes a woman with great nerve to wear a cow bell.  Just think of the implications!  Actually, I wore it for the first time today, and it kind of reminded me of the tinkle of a cat bell.  Oddly enough, I didn’t see a bird or squirrel all day.

The reason that I bought the charm (besides keeping the birds away), is that it reminds me of the many, many cows that we came across in Germany.  One evening while we were driving, we stopped alongside a large field of cows and just listened to the clanging of the bells that they wore around their necks.  It was pretty magical.

5.  German-motif dish towel 

I just couldn’t resist the cuteness of it all.  Not that I do dishes or anything.

6.  German incense smoker

This has got to be one of my most favorite souvenirs (just to give you an idea, he’s about 11 inches tall).  When I saw it at the Kathë Wohlfahrt store, I knew that I must buy it for GR.  If you are unfamiliar with a smoker (I know I was), what you do is lift off the top portion of the guy (you can see the split at his thighs), and place an incense cone on a little metal platform that sits on top of the legs.  Then, you light the cone (it doesn’t flame, it only smokes), and place the top portion back on.  After a couple of seconds, you will see smoke coming out of the little man’s mouth.  It has got to be the cutest thing ever!!  Plus, he’s holding a pipe (as you can see), so it totally looks like he’s smoking.  Just like GR!  Ha.  ha.

7.  Springtime Friends Hummel®

Can you seriously go to Germany and not come back with a Hummel?  Seriously?  Okay, well, maybe so, but not Lulu.  I bought this one because it reminded me of the sheep that grazed in the field beside our hotel in Maria Gern.  And also because I was calling to the sheep one morning from the bathroom window, but that’s a truly animated story that T-Nut tells to perfection and in no way can be described in a blog.  I like to mention things that can’t be described in a blog because it’s annoying to you, I know.  See, didn’t I say that Lulu was eee-vile?

8.  A German moose

I bought this for Phoo and Big H because a) Phoo is big on the moose and b) Big H is big on the Christmas.  Plus, he’s adorable and I was totally immersed up to my eyeballs in the Kathë Wohlfahrt store with Christmoose chachkis.  Get it?  Christmoose?  Ha!  ha.  Nooo.

9.  Hofbräuhaus München metal sign

Another gift that I bought for GR.  His basement is covered in metal signs, and I thought that this one would be nice to add to his collection.  You know, since I was there and had a beer and all…

10.  Manner Neapolitan wafers

Manner AG (an Austrian company) opened a cute little shop in Munich in 2007 (according to their Web site), and I was able to visit and buy some of these delicious wafer treats!  Actually, I bought the tin of wafers for the peeps in my department at the office.  I gave them the wafers, and I kept the cute pink tin!  See how Lulu did that?  Two birds with one stone.

11.  Magnet from Schloss Nymphenburg

Like I need another magnet to add to my growing refrigerator collection.  But, I just can’t resist the ones that look like miniature pieces of art.  We visited Nymphenburg Palace briefly on our second day in Munich…and what a piece of artwork it is!

12.  Magnet of Mad King Ludwig II

I bought this magnet at one of the gift shops in Neuschwanstein Castle.  It took a little bit of pushing and shoving through a group of rude tourists in order for me to make it to the register to buy this little gem, but make it I did!  Mad King Ludwig would be proud of Lulu.

13.  Red currant jelly

Okay, I’m making the assumption that this is red currant.  The lady at the Viktualienmarkt that sold it to me said that it was, but her English was not the best, and by far, my German is non-existent.  Anyhow, there is a very long and tragic story behind this very special jelly, and I’m afraid that if I tell it on this blog, that T-Nut will melt into a thousand tears and never speak to me again.  However, it’s almost worth it to tell the story.  Which I will.  Next week.  Forgive me, T-Nut, but it must be done.

So that’s it my peeps!  Lulu’s Germany loot.  Have a happy Thursday!

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You can all breathe a sigh of relief.  This is the final edition of Lulu’s Favorite Things about Germany. 

FAVORITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION

If you read my postabout the horrific landing that we had at the Munich airport, then you must know that a Delta 767 is not my most favorite mode of transportation.  In fact, I’m scared to death to fly…but that’s a whole other story.  While in Germany, we traveled by many means of transportation. 

We traveled by Munich’s fabulous S-Bahn (btw, Atlanta?  You need to get a freaking clue):

By bike around the city of Munich:

By Opel Astra around Germany and Austria:

By a mining train into the Berchtesgaden’s salt mines (Check out the second family from the left.  They need to learn to contain their excitement):

By electric boat on Lake Königssee:

By motorcoach on The Sound of Music tour:

By horse and carriage up to Neuschwanstein Castle:

And finally, my favorite (and second scariest), by cable car—5900 feet—to the top of Mount Jenner:

The tranquil Lake Obersee:

An angel on high in the Franziskanerkirche in Salzburg:

The Abbey of Ettal in South Bavaria:

A grave marker at the Pfarrkirche St. Peter und Paul in Oberammergau:

Looking down on the village of Hohenschwangau and Hohenschwangau Castle:

Looking out a window of Neuschwanstein Castle:

And finally, looking down on the square in the medieval town of Rothenburg:

 OVERALL IMPRESSION OF GERMANY (BAVARIA)

First and foremost, I can honestly say that I’ve never been to a county where people take so much pride in cleanliness.  In Munich and in Rothenburg, we witnessed shop owners scrubbing the cobblestone in front of their stores with soap and water.  Every public bathroom that I walked into seemed bleached clean (even at gas stations!).  Our hotel rooms were spotless and seemingly sterile.  I saw regular citizens stopping to pick up the smallest piece of trash on the street.  Recycling seems to be a way of life for everyone. 

Another thing that I noticed is that German dogs are freakishly obedient.  Freakishly.  Many dogs walk along through the city streets with their owners OFF leashes.  They don’t bark at other dogs.  They don’t bother people.  They sit quietly under café tables waiting for their owners.  And that is why I have decided to ship Bindi off to a German doggie boot camp.  I’m hoping that she’ll return home freakishly obedient and able to clean my bathrooms.  I can only dream.

So, I lied.  I said that this brief summary of my trip to Germany was only to be two parts.  But after I reread what I originally wrote for Part II, I started adding more “favorites” and decided that I better add one more segment…a Part III.  Which I will post on Tuesday.  For now, you get Part II.  I just love torturing you.

FAVORITE HOTEL

We stayed in the following hotels/guest houses during our travels.

Hotel am Viktualienmarkt (Munich)

Gasthaus Maria Gern (Berchtesgaden)

Hotel Müller (Hohenschwangau)

Hotel Gotisches Haus (Rothenburg)

This is another tough one to pick a favorite, because all of the places that we stayed were wonderful in their own way.  The hotel in Munich was so cute and perfectly located just steps away from the Viktualienmarkt.  Hotel Müller was situated between two castles and was beautiful at night.  Hotel Gotisches Haus was like stepping back in time to a medieval place.  But, my most favorite was Gasthaus Maria Gern in Berchtesgaden.  We had such a sweetly decorated room with and a balcony view that could not be beat…

FAVORITE PLACE FOR SHOPPING

While the Viktualienmarkt that I spoke about in Part Iranks up there as one of my favorites, the Kathë Wohlfahrt Christmas shop in Rothenburg is by far the Greatest. Place. Ever.  The massive shop is floor-to-ceiling Christmas displays, ornaments, and decorations.  Seriously?  You could spend weeks in this massive place and never see everything—kind of like The British Museum without all the old stuff.  I would totally have taken hundreds of pictures there, but there are rules.  Crazy German rules.  No photographs allowed inside.  It’s like freaking Fort Knox or something.  A fairy tale Fort Knox.

FAVORITE EXPERIENCE

My friend traveling with me, T-Nut, has distant cousins who live just outside the medieval gates in the town of Rothenburg.  One evening, they picked us up from our hotel and took us to their home for a deliciously prepared German meal.  Lohr, the wife, has lived in the same house since she was 3 weeks old.  She told us stories of WWII (she was 9 years old at the time) and showed us pictures of the town of Rothenburg after it was partially bombed.  It was so nice of she and her husband to invite us into their home and to feed us tell us about their life in Germany.

Happy Monday!  I’ll be back with more Germany stuff tomorrow.  Whether you like it or not.

So much for my feabled attempt at blogging on the road while traveling through Germany.  With intermittent Internet service and pure exhaustion at the end of each day, it was an impossible task.  And now, Lulu is back home and trying desperately to recover from jet lag.  My eyes start rolling into the back of my head by 8:00 each evening, and it’s beginning to really aggravate me!  I guess the older you get, the harder it is to shake the time difference.  Not that Lulu is old, per se.  Just aging.

Anyhow, I figured that at this point, a summary of my trip would be best.  There’s no need to regurgitate every last detail of my travels, because a) I would bore you, and b) I would bore you into an agonizing death.  That being said, I will summarize the trip with a list of my favorite things about Germany.

Side Note: After I finished with this summary, I realized that it was more like an anthology, so an agonizing death was still possible, in addition to bleeding eyeballs.  This is why I decided to break this post into two parts.  I’ve included pictures to help you through it.  I’ll post Part II on Monday.  You’re welcome.

MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE

This is a tough one, because everywhere that we visited was so beautiful!  But, if I had to pick, I would say Lake Königssee in the Berchtesgaden area.  This is the deepest lake in Germany, and the crystal-clear green waters are unbelievable.  We took an electric boat tour (no motor boats allowed) to the far end of the lake, and then hiked another 15 minutes over to Lake Obersee, which was just as beautiful.  And I forgot to mention that mid-way through the boat ride over, the tour guide played a song on his trumpet that echoed off the mountains.  It was amazing.

FAVORITE MEAL

By far, the best meal that I ate was salmon-trout almondine while sitting on the banks of Lake Königssee. On our boat ride, we made a stop to tour the small church of St. Bartholomä that sits on the banks of the lake and to eat at the Fischerei. 

 The salmon-trout was caught and served fresh directly from the lake.  It was a meal that I will never forget. 

I’m still coughing up the bones.

FAVORITE TOUR

While traveling, we went on six guided tours:

1) Mike’s Bike Tours through Munich with our very cute Irish tour guide, Steve-O

2) The breath-taking boat tour on Lake Königssee

3) Salt Mine tour in Berchtesgaden

4) Panorama’s The Original Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg

5) Tour of Neuschwanstein Castle

6) The creepy (but humorous) Nightwatchman Tour in Rothenburg

While they were all wonderful in their own way, I would have to say that I most enjoyed the biking tour through Munich.  Biking is such a fun way to see the city of Munich!  Our guide, Steve, was cute and funny and made things so very interesting.  And he was cute.  Half-way through the tour, we stopped in the Englischer Gardens at the Chinese Pagoda to have a beer and some brats, and we were able to get to know Steve our fellow bikers a bit better.  It was loads of fun, and Lulu didn’t even fall off her bike.  Not even after drinking a beer.  If you ever go to Munich, I highly recommend Steve this tour!

 FAVORITE PLACE IN MUNICH

Munich is such a great city.  We were only there for 2 days, but I could surely have spent several more days there and been happy.  However, we were able to cover a lot of ground while there—we visited Munich Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace, and the Spielzeug Museum (toy museum).

We meandered through the Viktualienmarkt, made a very long trek through the city looking for the München Paulener Brewery (to no avail—sorry Big H), toured the city on bike, watched the shitty Glockenspiel spectacle in the square (Steve-O’s words, not mine), and had a beer at the Hofbräuhaus (definitely not all it’s cracked up to be) and was told by the waitress that the price did not include tip—while she rudely waited at the table until I was able to produce the tip.

But of all the places that we visited there, the Viktualienmarkt was my favorite.  The market was located steps from our hotel room, and you could find anything from fresh vegetables, cheese, breads, flowers, and meats (even horse) to homemade jams, sandwiches, and crafts.  I could have spent the entire day just browsing through the stalls.  And eating—only not the horse meat.

Are your eyes bleeding yet?  I’ll post the remaining list on Monday.  I swear, people.  I already have it written!

Auf wiedersehen for now!