Garmisch-Partenkirchen

I took a train ride through Munich, to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, two connected towns on the German side of the Alps on the border of Austria. I found a room at a nice small hotel for a good price, with a nice view and nice owners. My room had a little balcony with a view of town and the mountains behind.



I went out on cross-country skis for a few hours. I think I read there are 70 km of trails... but the ones I was on were pretty boring, especially on standard fat, slow backcountry skis like mine. The skate skiing looked really fun though; I tried to rent some the next day, with no luck. At any rate, the scenery was excellent.









The Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, is clearly visible from everywhere in town.



I guess it's a touristy ski resort town, but it's still really nice.

Snow in Nürnberg

After lots of mild weather, it has finally got a little colder. It snowed on Friday. I walked around the city in it. It snowed more Saturday, and again yesterday, and it's snowing a bit this morning. None of this is really adding up to anything, but it is the first time Sandino has seen snow. We have both missed the "Blizzard of 2005" though - and the 6 foot snow drifts in Boston I have just been informed of.

Nürnberg

Nürnberg is a nice city. One of a minority of cities in Germany which did not tear down their medieval walls to make room for expansion. However, it was more thoroughly bombed to all hell than most other cities. They seem to have spent a lot of effort to rebuild it in something like its traditional style, but I met an older German couple who told me just the opposite.. that the city was rebuilt with modern, ugly buildings. I think maybe they've never seen an ugly city.





Many buildings in town have huge banners hanging on them with photographs showing the area as it looked immediately after the war.

München

On Monday, I activated my rail pass and took a ride to Munich.



I walked around the main pedestrian "tourist" area for a few hours. It's a difficult place to get a good picture of.



After being used to Nürnberg, Munich seems more like just a regular modern city. It does, however, have enormous churches with lots of violent demon fighting artwork.

Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände

On Saturday, I picked out a "lake" on the Nürnberg city map and walked to it. It was a pretty long walk. Walked all around a huge park area in a big loop. There was a big arena with a circus tent next to it. It wasn't until the completion of the loop, I realized the entire area was part of the complex of Nazi rally grounds that were being built, but were never finished before and during WWII.



Only one structure of many that were planned was completed - the Zeppelinfield. This is a gigantic field surrounded by low stone stadium seating - now green with grass and moss - on three sides, with one side having a much higher structure on it with a podium that Hitler, etc. would stand on to oversee the parades which took place in the field in the center. The whole structure is in tact, but deliberately run down - with kids skateboarding and rollerblading on it, grafitti, etc.



The most impressive building, though, is the arena.



From the outside, it looked complete, but its actually a hollow shell. The insides of it are open, and rundown.



The exception is the bit of modern architecture which was built to symbolically pierce through the building in an effort to disrespect the original intent of the building while keeping it around for historic reasons. The Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände is a museum inside one side of the arena, which documents the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to power.

After my walk, I went back there the next day, and I did the rounds through the museum. It was really interesting with lots of cool photos and videos.

Irish Castle

I met up with the employee of the year last night.



Sandino tried to up his tolerance once again with mixed results.

Spaghetti "Carbonara"

In Germany, Nürnberg at least, your groceries aren't bagged. Nor are bags of any sort provided.



When I got to the store, I decided it would be best to pick one simple dish with a few specific ingredients which I could make in my little kitchen. I required: Milk, Eggs, Spaghetti, Bacon, and Parmesan cheese. Milk, Eggs, and Spaghetti are pretty unmistakable in any language. I bought some bacon-like meat product and some unknown cheese variety which was the closest visual approximation to Parmesan I could see (not very close).



The cheese was too strong, but it looked appetizing.

die Autos

Landbierparadiese

Some SUSE guys took Sandino and I to "Beerland Paradise" last night. I ate some german food. Sauerbraten, I believe - beef in sauce with 2 potato dumpings. They have lots of different German beers at this place.



Sandino decided the salt content in German food is designed to replace the lost sodium from drinking German beer.

No Comment

Samstag in Nürnberg

I got out of bed around 13:00 today and walked around the city. It was warm with blue sky.





There is a castle that I cut through on the way from the center of the old city to the hotel. Today, it was packed with tourists.

A Taste of New Hampshire

This had to be documented.

View from the EuroHOTEL

After a couple days I figured out how to open the door to my little deck.

Smart

Snorp, if I do get a Smart car, it'll be one of these bad boys:



"The roadster-coupe is 135 inches long with a width of 65 inches and uses a longer version of the existing smart car platform that features a Tridion steel safety frame. If it comes to the United States, possibly by 2005 or 2006, it will make the New Mini seem like a limousine."

die Strauße nachts

In Germany, if you take picture of fast moving, lighted objects at night with a slow shutter speed, they make cool streaky pictures:

Sandino arrives

Sandino arrived last night. Arturo and I met him and the hotel and took him to an Irish pub called O'Sheas:



We taught him how to drink Guinness (gulp it):



Eventually, I made it to the office this morning:



These little buggers are parked everywhere:




EuroHOTEL

I made it. Here is my hotel: