Hi from the Hijacker

Hey everyone! This is Elizabeth. I'm hijacking my Dad's blog for a sec! I figured that you all got the, how did he put it? the "nerd history teacher" take on our germany trip, so I'll give you all a run down on the first timer's opinion!

Well, It. Was. Amazing! We started the tour, as dad said, in Vienna. The National Library was so beautiful! He wasn't kidding when he said you could smell the history! Every thing smelled of dust and age, but it was breath taking! The ceiling and all walls that weren't occupied by bookshelves were covered with the most beautiful paintings I've ever seen! Dad was disappointed that I didn't get a picture of Charles the Great's saber, but I got some pretty good pictures inside the National Treasury. I got to see the largest emerald in the world, but all the pictures I took of that didn't turn out, so... bummer! We got to spend hours walking around and exploring Vienna, which was quite the experience! Dad's knowledge of all the little, interesting histories made it even better! We would walk past a building, and Dad could tell all of the kids hanging around with us when and/or why it was built, or damaged (depening on the building). I got to experience a 'naschmarkt', which in german means 'snack market'. It was alot like a farmers market, but it also had a bunch of small built cafes and stores for different ethnic food, and that sort of thing. It was really cool because the tour guide kept taking us to the places that catered to the tourist, not the places that the people that actually lived there ate. It was fun haggling prices at one of the little clothes boothes there! I found a really pretty indian made dress for mom that I got the sales guy to cut the price on!! The center, which literally is the center of the city, was full of street performers and 'statues' that weren't really statues! They were people that paint themselves and wear costumes, like Mozart, and stand perfectly still for hours while people drop money in their bowls! We got to watch this one guy play the water glasses, and that was really something!! he was playing the glasses faster than I've ever heard anyone playing the piano!! and he sounded amazing!! He was playing various classical pieces and doing it all while adding and taking water from the glasses to get the right tone! Amazing.

After we left Vienna, we went to Munich, in germany. We went to the Dachau concentration camp. That was... something. Even if it hadn't been chilly that morning, I think I still would have had goosebumps! Walking in the 'yard' where these people did, being able to touch the beds where people were forced to sleep 5-8 to a bed, walking through the 'shower' which was really a gas chamber, being able to look straight into the incinerators where they dealt with the bodies... It was a touching experience! Its definatly increased my interest in the events of WWII. (just watched Valkyrie the other night, and it was so much more interesting this time because of the visit to Dachau!)

Once we left Munich, we stopped in a town called Oberammergau (try saying that one 5 time fast!) on our way to Innsbruck. While we were in Oberammergau, a couple of the other kids on the tour and I went to one of the parks and started talking to some teenagers hanging out there. They were doing this sport called slacklining, and helped us try it! it was so much fun! Basically, you tie one of those heavy duty nylon tie-downs to two trees, use the ratchetish thing to tighten it, and balance on it as you walk from one end to the other. The guys that were helping us were really good! They could do tricks as they went across! after a while we ended up in Innsbruck. The Chapel Bridge there is so pretty. in 1992 it was burnt half way across, but still stands and is stable enough to walk on! in the rafters of the covered bridge, there are pictures and text depicting the stories of some of the saint, or at least thats what Dad said, I adviously couldn't read it! The bridge was over a river or something that was FULL of swans!! they were everywhere!! We got to feed some of them on the banks of the river (until the swans started to attack me!!) And any girls reading this will appreciate this bit. The boys in Switzerland are sooo much cuter than the boys in america!!(no offense boys!) Me and a couple of the girls I met on the tour spent a few hours doing nothing but sitting on the steps of a bank, boy watching. no joke. I only wish I could have gotten pictures without looking a little weird!! :) Okay, there. I'm done letting the teenage girl in me run wild!!

After that, we went to This clock factory in the middle of the Black forest. The upper story of the building was a clock factory, but the lower story was a glass blowing shop and a cafe! It was so cool to watch this guy make a beautiful glass wine glass out of this shapeless blob by spinning it while holding it in a fire! it was... amazing! Dad was pretty jazzed because he got to eat a piece of Black Forest cake in the Black Forest!! He even took a picture of it! (goof!) After our lunch at the clock factory, we made our way to heidelberg, where we stayed the last night. It was an amazing trip! We had dinner at this cafe/restraunt thing built in/outside a church. The tourguide jokingly said 'how else do you get people to come to church?' The courtyard out back, where the cafe part was, was so pretty with the flowers surrounding it, and the fountain in the center! beautiful!!

All in all, the trip was great and I'm totally going back sometime within the next couple years!! Wow! I totally didn't mean to make it this long! Well, the gustapo is getting rid of the hijacker, so I gotta run! bye everyone!! I'll hijack it again soon!!