Cindy and Mike Do the World!: Dinkelsbuhl and Munich, Germany

I think we picked Dinkelsbuhl because we just like to say the name. This town is on what is known as the ‘Romantic Road’, a concept that I’ve read the German Tourist Board created to bring tourists to many different towns along this road. And from what I’ve read, it’s been quite a success. We didn’t drive on much of it (the road itself is not the ‘romantic’ part but rather the towns it leads you to). Mike preferred the autobahn, where he could test out the speed capabilities of our car while hearing me shriek ‘slow down!’

Dinkelsbuhl retains its medieval looks and charm; it still has walls surrounding it and its architecture is very much intact since it was not touched by the war. I also had my first experience with sauerkraut and let me tell you, it lives up to its reputation.

We also visited the Neuschwanstein castle, which is the one that inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. It was built for King Ludwig II but he died before it was finished (17 years of building!). It's just such a random concept...all of these kings building castles everywhere to fulfill some whim of theirs. This one was built partly in homage to Richard Wagner and his operas since Ludwig loved his music. Wagner's operas were also favoured by Hitler and it sounds like Wagner himself was controversial (he died in 1883).

We moved on to Munich and spent 2 nights there. It was a bit rainy during the time we spent there and perhaps that contributed to our impression that it felt the most similar to Vancouver, out of all the places we’ve seen. Except without the cheap pho restaurants – we were craving this and had some yummy pho but it was also 13 euros. I think I’ll have more appreciation for Vancouver restaurant prices when I get back. J

We spent a lot of time at the Deutsches museum, where Mike taught me about internal combustion engines, pistons etc. It was one of his favourite places and I’m sure he could have spent days in the electrical section. I loved the pharmaceutical section. The museum was pretty cool, I have to admit, although something that’s best seen broken up by breaks in the cafeteria eating sausages. And that’s just what we did! We also checked out Hofbrauhaus, which is a biergarten and puts on one of the biggest tents at the fair during Oktoberfest. We got the 500ml but most people seemed to be getting the 1L beers (the waiter scoffed at Mike when he asked for half since it wasn’t on the menu). Ha! I read that the average amount of alcohol consumed per capita in Belgium is 200 L per year…I wonder what this number is for Germans.

Exploring some castle ruins in Germany's Black Forest area. It's nice that they don't block it off.

Sigh. I never have to duck.

This was our room in Dinkelsbuhl. I noticed that they seem to have the beds like this everywhere in Germany (the 2 places we stayed plus pics on websites when I was looking for accommodation looked like this). You have your own separate comforter. Mike said it's so that you get your own sack after eating all that sauerkraut. I'm inclined to agree.