Munich Again

As soon as we arrived back at Munich Hauptbahnhof, we went right back to Pension Central and checked in. Then we dropped our bags and headed to the Karlsplatz/Marienplatz pedestrian shopping area. It was the evening so we only had a little bit of time before the shops started closing. One of our stops was at a Cuckoo clock store, where we got enlightened and educated on different kinds of cuckoo clocks. There are pretty much two different kinds-mechanical and electric. The mechanical ones are the traditional ones with the weights you pull after an elapsed time and all the moving parts inside. There are generally two kinds of mechanical clocks-one day and eight day. That refers to how often you have to pull the chain on the clock, eight day is much more convenient, but is also harder to find and more expensive. As for the electric clocks, they are cheaper but not as good of quality and are battery operated instead of manually. By the time we left the shop we were brimming with information, so we decided to give our minds a rest by going to the outdoors store. It was huge but there weren't any really good deals, so we moved on. We ate a tasty bratwurst with sauerkraut in a bun for dinner at a little beer garden type thing. After looking in the windows of some closed cuckoo clock shops, we bared them in mind for the following day and headed back to the hotel. 

The next day was Sunday. Okay at home some stores are closed on Sundays but not many. This wasn't the case for Munich. We walked out on the street and everything was closed! Restaurants were the only things open, with the exception of the stores in the train station. Even the Apple store and grocery stores were closed. So we pretty much had to scratch the souvenir shopping on Sunday. We did find a couple stores though, the gift shops in Hard Rock Cafe and Hofbrauhaus were open, so it gave us a bit too look at. Window shopping was a widely popular Sunday activity, in the main pedestrian area, there were people peering into windows at every second or third store. We ate some really good food a Hofbrauhaus for lunch. I had  two Bavarian weißwurst sausages with sweet mustard, sauerkraut and some German soft pretzel. I really like German food, but by now I have figured out that eating veggies isn't high up on their list of priorities. 

The best part of the day was definitely the evening, we  went to a castle called Schoß Nymphenburg. It was really big and the garden was gorgeous. There was a nice big pond where all the geese hung out right in front. We wandered around the splendid courtyard area for a little while before getting back on the tram to the hotel. 

The next morning was literally a power shop. Unfortunately the stores didn't open until about 9 or 10, so our shopping was stuck really last minute. We had to head to the airport a bit before noon. My parents bought lots of souvenirs, but I just stuck to one. A cuckoo clock, oh it was so pretty! It was really expensive and I was broke when I got home, but I think it was worth every penny. I got one that was a little white chalet, with chickens decorating the balcony and of course a little cuckoo bird that pops out on every hour and half hour. I got the traditional mechanical style with one day weights. My parents also got a clock except a bit bigger and with eight day weights, mechanical as well. They also got some beer glasses and mugs and steins. We left the hotel weighed down by massive souvenir bags and headed to the airport by S-Bahn.
After a slightly less than desirable Munich Airport experience we were on our Lufthansa plane back home. It has been an absolutely amazing trip full of life long memories. And I definitely owe it to my parents, thanks mom and dad! I'm super exciting to be coming back home though! 

Salzburg

Once in Munich we got on the train the Ostbahhof (not to be confused with Hauptbahnhof) station. We then got on the train that we thought was to Salzburg, Austria. Evidently, it was the train right back to Italy!  Luckily we realized while we were still in Germany and better yet we were going in the right direction. So we got off at Rosenheim and waited until the train to Salzburg arrived, 15 minutes later. Then it was all sorted out and it was smooth sailing all the way to Salzburg. It was a really pretty train ride, with all the gorgeous chalet-style houses and quaint solar-powered communities. 

We found a hotel in Salzburg quite easily, it was right on the river with an awesome view and centrally located also. We wanted to get an idea of the city so we took a 1 hour drive-around-Salzburg-tour. The driver/tour guide was VERY thorough about what to go see in Salzburg and repeated everything too many times to count. Which is good, so it gets drilled into your brain, but also a bit repetitive. He drove us by a few film locations from The Sound of Music, including Mirabell Gardens, Shloss Leepoldskron and Untersburg. 

After the hour was over we got dropped off at the shopping area, so we did a bit of shopping before having Austrian Schnitzel for dinner. The cranberry sauce and lemon were a nice added touch I wouldn't have thought of. 

The next morning we did a bit more shopping and I bought an Austrian cowbell. Kind of a big thing I forgot to mention about Salzburg, Mozart was born and grew up there. So the whole town is sorta music and Mozart crazy. There are dozens of shops full of Mozart this and Mozart that, Mozart chocolates were especially popular. Afterwards we had a little walk around the iconic Mirabell Gardens made famous by The Sound of Music. Salzburg was a very nice city, especially for the music or Mozart enthusiast. They even have a school of music in Salzburg called the 'Mozarteum'. 

We once again got on a train and headed to Munich. 

Naples

The train ride to Naples(Napoli) was nice. It included the usual vineyards and wineries but also had some picturesque waterfront towns. It was a comforting feeling to see the ocean, as we had been landlocked for close to a month.

We arrived in Naples and it was quite dirty, I heard somewhere that the garbage picker-uppers went on strike a while ago and it is pretty evident when you walk around a bit. Okay it wasn't REALLY dirty, but it was comparable to some places in Asia. I think it was just a big shock coming from Rome, Florence and Venice, especially the latter two. We ate dinner at a little sidewalk restaurant and ironically enough, the dishes were dirty. It was a good dinner though, I had a tasty pasta with olives, capers and tomato sauce.
The next morning we headed out to the train station at 8am to get on the train to Pompeii. Once we arrived we bought a book for navigation and info, before getting tickets and entering the site. Wow! Pompeii was amazing, one of the coolest things I have seen! Pompeii was a thriving Ancient Roman city, that got coved in volcanic ash, in 79AD. The ash did a very good job of preserving the city, because 2000 years later there is still very clear evidence of civilization. Like I said the city was completely buried by ash, so in 1741 they slowly but surely started to uncover the lost city. Still to this very day there are many big restoration projects underway. We wandered around the ruin for about 3 hours, peeking into houses, temples and public buildings. Some areas contained incredibly intact floor mosaics and wall frescos. We went and saw the huge amphitheatre which was used for a similar purpose as the Colosseum in Rome. It wasn't as big or complex as the Colosseum, but it was looking pretty good, considering it survived a volcano erupting on top of it. And it could sit an audience of around 20,000. The most moving part of the whole site were without a doubt the bodies. They made some sort of plaster mould around the buried skeletons where the flesh used to be and then pulled them out of the rock and ash. The bodies were all making gestures that they were covering their faces from the falling ash. It was kinda eerie seeing the bodies on display. After a great time in Pompeii, we went to go have lunch and a birthday gelato. Haha, ooops I forgot to mention that it was my birthday! I'm 14 now! We then hopped on the train back to Naples.

That evening after we were rested up, we headed down to the waterfront to check it out. Wow, is all I have to say! It was honestly like a totally different city. It was all clean and there was a nice walkway and a pedestrian area and a harbour and a castle...I could just keep going on and on. All in all it was gorgeous and a great place to spend the evening. We went up the castle/fort thing and got a great view of the surrounding area. Once our appetites were getting big we sat down at an atmospheric sidewalk restaurant called Regina Margherita. We had a big plate of mixed cheeses to share and my dad and I split a seafood pasta and a pizza with buffalo mozzarella. While my mom had a pasta with tomato sauce. We also ordered some wine and I got a bit because it was my birthday. The wine and cheese tasted absolutely supreme together, an unrivalled combo that's for sure. The dinner was spectacular and huge, we had to bring half of the pizza and some cheese back to the hotel with us. The location of the restaurant was great, it was fun to watch all the people walk, run and bicycle by and the view of the castle/fort and harbour were nice. We hauled ourselves back to the hotel stuffed and happy. I had a great day, I couldn't have asked for a more special birthday.

The next morning we woke up still full from dinner and got on the bus to the airport. Unfortunately our flight to Munich was delayed by an hour and a half so we had a lot of waiting.

Rome

The train ride to Rome(Roma) was absolutely gorgeous! We passed through endless fields of cheery sunflowers, soaking in the golden rays. And of course since the train ride was a lot in Tuscany, there were many wineries and vineyards. But those beautiful sunflowers were definitely the highlight.

After a bit of wandering around and talking to some people we finally hunted down a good hotel. Still nothing yet has compared to that drop-dead-gorgeous room in Venice. Our hotel was called Palladium and was very centrally located. About a 3 minute walk away from the train and bus station and only a 15 minute stroll away from the Colosseum.
So that's just what we did the next morning. We had a nice little walk down to the Colosseum before hopping into the queue for a little while. It was really amazing, just the sheer size of it all. And the age, we mustn't forget about how old it is...2000 years it's been sitting there! It was really neat that the floor was rotted away, so you could see the underground level where the animals were kept. If you don't already know, the colosseum was a huge stadium, used for bloody battles between gladiators and wild animals and just about anything else they could come up with. It could house about 50,000 spectators. After we were done at the Colosseum we headed over to Palatine Hill, Ancient Rome's poshest neighbourhood. Once we were finished looking at the ruins of Rome's richest we dragged ourselves over to the Roman Forum, in the blazing sun. The Forum didn't disappoint, I couldn't believe how intact some of it was, we even got to see a monument dedicated to Julius Caesar, I think his ashes were there. For 2000 years old, lots of these ruins are looking very good, they sure knew how to make things last!

I bought a nice dress on our way back to the hotel, from a sidewalk shop. We had a great rest once we got back to the hotel, as we were tired from all the walking.
The following morning we made our way up to the bus station bright and early, so we could get on bus 40 to the Vatican. It was definitely a good idea to come early, because there was no waiting at all to get into the church. When we came out, the line to get in was massive. Wow! St. Peter's Basilica was definitely the most beautiful church I have ever been in (I haven't been in a whole lot...but still). There was so much to it, all the frescos and paintings and statues and separate places to pray. I definitely can't leave out the dead Popes in glass cases. I think they were replicas and the real guys were underneath the church. But my oh my, they looked real! They were all grey and shrivelled up. I'm not sure how many of them there were but I saw at least 4 of them. After we finished looking around the awe inspiring church we checked out St. Peter's Square. I still can't grasp that the Vatican is it's own country, complete even with it's postal service and military. Vatican City is the smallest country in the whole world. I think there was pretty much only enough room for a church, a museum, a square and a fancy house for the Pope to live in.

We caught the bus back to the main station grabbed our bags and got on the train to Naples.

Florence

The train to Florence(Firenze) was very scenic as well. Winery and winery after vineyard and vineyard, is really quite picturesque.
We easily tracked down a hotel, within walking distance to everything. I was very surprised how compact Florence's centre is, it only took minutes to got to where you needed to go.
My mom and I walked to the Uffizi Art Museum, shortly after we arrived. The queue was rather daunting but it only took about 40 minutes, a short time compared to the 4 hours I read about. Wow, there was A LOT of art! The second floor was positively teeming full of marble statues and painting. Even the ceilings were wonderfully frescoed. There was a large main hallway full of statues with loads of interlinked rooms containing paintings branching off. The paintings varied in size enormously, some were smaller than the size of your hand while others stretched from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Many of the paintings were religiously themed on Roman Catholicism. Some of the big names in the Uffizi included, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli. The paintings and sculptures were all VERY OLD, most dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries. I think it's incredible that all the art has lasted that long and still looks in great shape. After our visit to the Uffizi was done we wandered into the Piazza to see Michelangelo's famous statue of David.

The next morning we hopped on the train to Rome just in the nick of time.

Venice

The train to Venice(Venezia) was very scenic. The German and Austrian part was mountainous with gorgeous Chalets nestled into the hills. They were white, with red roofs and red flowers lining the windowsills and verandas. They were just so picture perfect, like out of a storybook. There were many old castles perched up on hilltops, staring into the horizon and lands below. As for the Italian part- vineyards ruled the land. They also looked as they should appear in an alter reality, rolling hills covered in rows of grapes with some brick Italian homes and wineries popping up on the edges.

The train station in Venice was right on the canal, so pretty much when you walk out of the train station it's just an instant wow factor. We crossed the bridge and found a hotel without too much difficulty. But we had to face the facts...If you want to go to Venice you gotta buck up! And that was just what we had to do, we ended up paying 150€ ($205) for a room! It was an absolutely gorgeous room though, one of the nicest I have ever stayed in. It was small but beautiful. From the gold gilded decor to the flower pots on the window sill, everything was spic and span. All the hues harmoniously complemented each other and the wood beam ceiling was a nice touch.

We ate dinner at an Italian trattoria and had some amazing seafood pastas. The next day my mom and I took the boat (sea bus they call it) down to Piazza San Marco. We took a little spin through the extravagant Basilica San Marco before attempting a walking tour back to our hotel.

The walking tour that was written in our Lonely Planet Guidebook was very complicated so we gave up after a little while. My mom bought an Italian leather purse and some murano glass stuff. I bought a tapestry bag, murano fish pendant and an Italian leather change purse.
For lunch we stopped and got an amazing slice of pizza each followed by some tasty gelato. For dinner, pasta it was!

Since we were short on time, two days was all Venice was rationed, so we could squeeze lots in. Venice was a magical city, all the winding canals and the hundreds of bridges.

The next day we hopped on the train to Florence.

Munich

Our flight from Delhi to Munich was great, we flew with Lufthansa. The plane was massive, one of the biggest I have ever been on (I have been on LOTS)! It was an Airbus A340 and you had to actually go downstairs to go the bathroom, where 5 of them were located. The breakfast was pretty good and also really huge. I think my favourite part was the drinks, the stewards and stewardesses came around close to 10 times handing out drinks! The flight a lot longer than I had anticipated, about 7ish hours.
Once in Munich(Müchen) we caught the S-Bahn(metro) into the city. We got off at Hauptbahnhof, it's the central station, near the town centre and where our train to Venice left from the next day. After a fair bit of looking we found a pretty good hotel with a shared bathroom and breakfast for 80€ ($108). It was a huge price difference from Asia, but we were expecting it.

For dinner we took the S-Bahn to nearby Marienplatz to get some dinner. Munich is totally famous for it's beer so we headed to Munich's most famous beer hall-Hofbrauhaus. My dad got a huge 1 litre mug of beer, while my mom and I ordered other drinks. For dinner we got yummy sausages and sauerkraut (and really good mustard), an amazing pork knuckle and some tasty German bread.

Back on the S-Bahn we went and headed back to Pension Central (our hotel). The following morning we wandered our way to Karlsplatz and the surrounding shops after an great breakfast of cold cuts, cheese and buns. There were some great (and pricey) souvenir shops around where we walked to. They sold absolutely gorgeous cuckoo clocks and beer steins, along with lots of other beautiful German souvenirs. The cuckoo clocks were my favourite, but came with a wallet-draining price tag. After a morning of gazing at cuckoo clocks we headed to Hauptbahnhof and got on the train to Venice.