Leipzig-ing to Berlin

We left Rothenburg for Berlin but decided to stop in Leipzig for lunch.  I loved my baked potato with creme fresch and smoked salmon.  Patrick had a little bit of order envy.  We saw some great buildings and the above ground sewer...blue pipes everywhere.  On the way to Berlin, we drove through a tunnel that was 7878 meters (5 miles) long.  Not one panic attack from tunnel hating me.
We got to Berlin late so planned to start the next morning early with a walking tour.  It was freezing.  We knew it was cold when more than one person on our tour asked why we didn't wear proper coats.  "We don't have proper coats.  We've been traveling for 3 months."  The layers held up well until the last hour.  We sprinted to lunch just to warm up.  

We started the tour in West Berlin.  Not much there because the West Berliner's didn't want anything remaining from the Hitler reign.  This church has not been reconstructed since WWII. 

Then onto Museum Island, the Berliner Dome, and the Berlin City Palace.  Starting to get cold.

I can't remember the name of this memorial statue, but it was powerful.  Then a picture of the iconic "walking man".  And the sight of the notorious Nazi book burning.  boooooo.

Then to the Gendermanmarket.  After a warm coffee break, we found another Wille for Patrick to pose with, and then found Checkpoint Charlie.  

We simultaneously stood in East and West Germany.  Then we saw the Nazi headquarters, one of very few Nazi building still in tact.  That's the Berlin Wall in the background.  So weird and interesting exploring this part.

Though very moving and depressing, we loved the Jewish Memorial.  Toes are numb at this point.  Thank goodness only the Brandenberg gate and...

Victory Angel, and Reichstag.  

The next day we went to the Jewish Museum (one of the best), had an altercation with some bathroom doors and drank some beer.  We loved Berlin and would probably love it more in the warm summer.

Romantic Road to Rothenburg

Rothenburg, Germany was the most picturesque, medieval town.  At the last minute we decided to drive on the "Romantic Road" from Munich to Rothenburg.  Rick Steve's had highly recommended it so we took a shot.  We drove up to the first parking place we could find.  It just happened to be in front of a bed and breakfast that offered us a room for 40 euros.  Sold.  We set out with Rick Steve's self-guided walking tour.

We bought a coo coo clock at Annalise's famous store and met her chatty-cathy grandson.

This is the most amazing wood-carving we've seen.  It was inside St. Jakob's church.

It was just so cute.  We loved this town.  That's why Rick Steve's makes the big bucks.

Prost-Munich

So we started our Munich adventure with a break from being tourists and escaped into a movie.  It was great.  The next morning, we started fresh again with a bike tour of Munich.  It was a bit chilly, but our guide Steve-O (from Ireland) was awesome and informative.  We started in the main square, Marienplatz.

We saw all the high points: Hofbrauhaus beer hall, the opera house, The Residenz and background garden, Saatskanzlei, Leopold Strasse, The English Garden, Chinese Tower beergarden, Surefer's bridge, and the eastern gate of town from the 14th century, among other things.  There was so much history and so many interesting stories about Hitler and the Nazis. 

This alleyway is a subtle memorial to the Germans who refused to salute the Putsch memorial at Feldherrnhalle.  They would avoid the memorial by walking down this street.  The little path of bricks reminds Germans of the people that went to great lengths to oppose the Nazi party. 

We biked on to more cheerful places like the English Gardens and the Chinese Tower beer garden.  It was beautiful and we're sure even more beautiful in the summer.

One of the coolest things we saw on our bike ride was the surfers bridge.  The waves were man made after some guys realized a knocked down tree created the waves.  It was freezing outside so I can't imagine the water temperature.  Crazy!
That night we went to Augustine's for "the best beer" and some hearty German food.  Then we went to the Hofbrauhaus for the experience of the um-pa-pa band and big pretzels.  We met a group of people (one name Claudia who had an enormous crush on Patrick.  He was a rock start with the ladies in Germany.) and had a great time.  Some much fun, in fact, that we said good-bye to yet another camera.  This one broke after a fall, so the memory card was spared but we had to buy camera number 3.

Armed with a new camera we continued our tour of Munich starting with the church once inhabited by the monks Munich is named for.  The views from above were quintessentially German.  We also got a great picture of the glockenspiel.  Then we went to the Neue Pinakothek Museum. Really chill with lots of impressionist art.  It was a nice last stop in Munich.