München - Arriving

Really, we are excited to be here. Just a little tired.

 After a 6 hour drive full of traffic, "Rude" on the radio, and occasional tickle fights, we finally found our little hotel in Siegertsbrunn on the outskirts of München. So did nearly a million other people, and as we rode the S-bahn into downtown there was an unusual busyness in the city. There were also  black thunderheads rolling our way.

Goslar and the Hartz Mountains

The arrival of Erin and John in Germany kicked off a new round of touring with Anne as our host, guide, and driver. We started with a massive breakfast at the Stein house in the Harz mountains of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony).

Berlin Blitz

I have blitz-visited Berlin once before, as part of a class trip during my 2008 study in Bremen. We were there only a evening and a day, but I was impressed by its size, its freshly minted sparkle, and the rawness of the story it has to tell. It's changed since then, but only a little. Cranes still fly high over the skyline, but there are fewer of them in the city center. The wall is still crowded by tourists, but the people I met who are my own age don't remember a divided nation.

Graz

Graz Landhaus

After a great morning visit to TrainBlue OG (CrossFit), I spent my afternoon in Graz visiting my old haunts.

Aufsteirern

From the second I boarded the train at Wien Meidling, it was so familiar. Buy a ticket with my ÖBB youth card, stop in Wiener Neustadt, over Semmering, downhill to Brück an der Mur, then home...

of Cottages and Mountains

Petra has told me often about the "cottage" in the mountains that her group of friends spends every New Year's Eve at. Their parents are about 300m away at Mat'y's parents'cabin, and the two generations gather at midnight for toasts and songs in the yard. In the summer, the cottage is a favorite retreat. So when Petra suggested we spend a day or two there, I was all for it!

Vitkovice Iron Works

A few years ago, while visiting Ostrava for the first time, we drove by an old steel mill. Petra pointed it out with a frown, like it was a scab on the city. Tall brown stacks and a mad maze of pipes and conduits around 19th century brick workshops. It is a short streetcar ride from the city center and visible from nearly everywhere.
Since that first visit, the site has begun to be transformed.