Germany Part II - Hofbräuhaus, Neuschwanstein and Dachau

Although the main reason we went to Munich was for Oktoberfest, we didn't want it to be the only thing we saw or did there. So we ventured out into the German countryside to see a glimpse into the Bavarian lifestyle and see first hand some powerful reminders of history.

Hofbräuhaus am Platzl München

The Hofbräuhaus is a traditional German beer hall originally built in 1589. In 1944, the majority of the hall was destroyed by air raids in WWII. The structure was rebuilt so that one of Germany's oldest breweries could continue to produce beer. This is now a place where you can experience a small piece of what Oktoberfest is outside of the 16 days in late September and early October through the traditional Bavarian music, food and beer. Another unique feature is that the hall has lockers for it's regular guests so that they can store their own beer steins - it's seen as a high status symbol in Munich that I'm sure has a very long waiting list : )

We had drinks and dinner here one night with Melissa, Adam, Jake and Katie since we heard it was a "must-see"! The apple strudel was my personal favorite...

Neuschwanstein Castle

Set near the Austrian border is a castle that was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella castles. In 1868, the Bavarian King Ludwig II built it as a personal, lavish retreat decorating it in romanesque revival and romanticism styles. To say he spent his fortune on it is an understatement: he continually borrowed money to pay for it and died with 14 million marks debt (aka A LOT).

There is a lot of mystery surrounding Ludwig II's life. A devote Catholic, he had an interesting relationship with Richard Wagner, a German opera composer, whom he idolized (this was very apparent by his many painted depictions of Wagner's opera scenes throughout the castle). Ludwig also was deemed insane by the Bavarian government (after going into so much debt and asking for more loans) and mysteriously "drowned" in a shallow lake with his doctor just days after the government forced him to be watched and evaluated. It was ruled a suicide but there are a lot of conspiracy's around his death.

We managed to just make it onto Jake and Katie's tour to go see the castle on the day we were flying out (literally showed up 15 minutes early in the morning and thankfully two people had not shown up for the tour, so we took the last two seats on the bus!)

After a two hour ride down near the border, we stopped for lunch at a lodge, did a quick hike where we got a little too close to some cows (play video... more cow bell, anyone?) and raced down an alpine slide! This was awesome and was basically a sled-looking seat that you sat in while going down a curvy, metal slide. (I think Elk needs one.) Then we toured the finished rooms of the castle (only part of it was completed when Ludwig died) and made our way back to the bus. The castle rooms were incredible - everything was so detailed and no inch was left untouched - but the walk across Mary's Bridge was my favorite because of the spectacular view of the breathtaking castle (see picture on the upper left).

Dachau Concentration Camp

The first concentration camp ever started in Germany was opened in 1933 in a small town outside Munich called Dachau. The site was chosen because it was nearby to Munich, and there was an abandoned munition factory that had been forced to close after WWI. The set up and large, empty buildings made it appealing because there wasn't a lot of work that needed to go in before it was running. The concentration camp's original intent was to hold political prisoners (anyone against Nazi reign) but it soon was enlarged to include forced labor and the imprisonment of Jewish people. During the 12 years it was used, the camp became known for it's brutal treatment and detentions. The Dachau administration recorded the admission of 206,206 prisoners and deaths of 31,951 (but likely there are thousands more that were undocumented). The site has now been opened up as a memorial so on Sunday Aaron, Melissa, Adam, Katie, Jake and I headed to the grounds for one of the free, guided tours.

At the entrance, there is an iron gate that has inscribed "Work will make you free" in German. This Nazi propaganda was false hope: no one in the camp was free no matter how hard any of them worked.

Our tour guide lived in Dachau and said that whenever she says that she's from there, the first question people ask is why would you ever live there? The entire identity of this beautiful, Bavarian town will always be associated with a painful history.

It's really hard for me to write about Dachau because it was just so powerful. I can't describe it any other way. It was difficult to walk through and imagine all the lives that had walked the same steps but in such terrible, inhumane circumstances. Seeing some of the original buildings made you cringe at the cruelty and harsh conditions people lived and died in for 12 years. The stories of guards and prisoners stayed with me long after we left.

It is a difficult but very important thing for future generations to see.

Germany Part I - Opening Day at Oktoberfest in Munich

A few years back, Aaron and I went to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver with friends. It was the ultimate beer-tasting festival. This past weekend, we went to the opening weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich with seven friends. I can now say that Oktoberfest it is the ultimate beer-drinking festival.

It was everything you would expect: everywhere you look there are huge crowded tents, neon carnival rides, Bavarian food stands, boisterous live bands, massive beer steins, and decorative dirndls (women's Bavarian dresses) and lederhosen (men's Bavarian leather breeches).

For those of you that are thinking of going at some point in your life, all I can say is go. Add it to your bucketlist. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity where people from all different countries have been having one giant, happy Bavarian party together since 1810.  What's not to love?

A few notes about the festival:

• The majority of us dressed up and I'm glad we did. Almost everyone was in Bavarian clothing.
• You really have to drink beer if you go. They didn't have many other options for alcohol easily accessible and even water wasn't free.
• Each tent saves roughly 35% of the tables inside for people who don't have a reservation. But if you want to get a seat at one of these tables, you have to go early, and if you want to drink beer, you have to have a seat. We didn't have a table so on opening day, we got in line beginning at 8am with the other no-reservation people. They opened the doors to the tent at 9am and luckily we ended up squeezing in at a table with some nice people from California, but it was a mad dash and very disorganized.
• If you stand on your bench (which you likely will do), don't bring your beer with you otherwise the entire crowd will think you are about to chug it and cheer you on (see photo in the upper right hand corner).  Unless, of course, you want to chug but beware: if you don't finish the whole stein, they boo you!
• The tents also have beer gardens outside. I'm being nice when I say the weather this past weekend was iffy... at times pouring rain, thunder and lightning. On the second day, we went back to the festival around 6pm and all the tents were packed. We ended up just grabbing steins from an outside beer garden- it was much cooler and less packed. A little on and off sprinkling rain never hurt anyone : )
• The waitresses really do carry 12+ huge steins at a time. I could barely lift four at once! Also, we learned this "tip" a little too late: tip your waitress when she comes by your table and you will be one of the first group to get served.

And one more fun fact: in 2013, 6.4 million people went to the 16-day festival, and 6.7 million liters of beer were served at Oktoberfest. Wonder what the 2014 count will be at?

Prost!

Back to Work (After Summer Holiday)

The Monday that we got back from Seattle, I started my job again.

A recruiter approached me back in early December with a maternity leave contractor position for beginning of January through the end of June. I ended up taking it, and the company decided to hire me back on for another contract from September through the end of November. Same company, same people, same position; I just moved one desk over : )

When I start a new job, I feel uncertain, nervous, anxious, excited, a bit scared - basically a lot of different and conflicting emotions. This time around, I was a little nervous but mostly I was just really excited because here's the thing: I really enjoy my job. I love the people I work with and the work I'm doing, and that makes a huge difference when you are trying to roll your sleepy-self out of bed each morning. I feel grateful to have found a job over here that not only makes me happy but also allows me the opportunity to travel for events (Singapore and Portugal are down... Brazil is up next!).

I was worried about taking a contract position initially. But having two months off this summer gave me the opportunity to start writing and travel home for two weeks. Now that I'm on another contract again, I will be able to come home when I become "Auntie Ashley," and travel back for two weeks during Christmas. I was actually offered a full time position with a different company when we first moved over, but I ended up taking this job because I thought it would be a better fit and closer to what I was doing in Seattle. Looking back, if I had taken the other job, there is no way that Aaron and I would get to travel as much or have the flexibility to take trips home.

While I was worried at first, the truth is that now I look back and say that taking the contract position has been the best decision I've made here thus far. It has "worked" out perfectly : )

Will they stay or will they go?

That is the big question. All eyes are on Scotland right now as they vote whether or not they will separate from the UK and become an independent country.

People at my work are split on what the decision will be: some think that they will leave others think they will stay but everyone agrees that whatever the choice will be, it will be close. Too close to predict.

The country has been part of the United Kingdom for more than three hundred years. There's so much history, camaraderie and identity between the two. It just seems sad to me that there's a possibility they could leave. I walked past a storefront the other day that had a sign saying "Scotland, we love you! Please don't go!" I don't know anyone in the UK who wants them to vote yes.

It's interesting because all of the British media have been reporting on why they should stay. You hear about the negative impacts that leaving will have on Britain's economy, Scotland's future, our currency; life will certainly be different without them. But I wonder what the Scottish media are reporting on and what the feeling is in Scotland right now. There's probably a ton of national pride, but if they vote yes, will they wake up on Saturday like they had a bad night of drinking with a serious hangover of currency questions, unhappy neighbors and a decision they regret?

Only time will tell.

In the Meantime...

There is no short supply of beer in London. There are, however, short supplies of cold, craft beer in this old-fashioned, cask-ale-loving city.

We had five guests staying with us this past weekend- three friends from Seattle and two friends from San Francisco. We may not cheer for the same NFL team : ) but one thing we do have in common is that we all love beer. So on Saturday, we headed out to the Meantime Brewery in Greenwich for a tasting and tour of one of London's most popular craft breweries.

Greenwich is a neat area in general. I've talked about it quite a bit because it's one of my favorite neighborhoods of London, but the brewery tour is something that neither Aaron or I had done.

For £20 we had five hefty tastings and learned about the history of the brewery. America actually has a lot to do with it- San Francisco's Anchor Steam was called out for being the first brewery to dare to do something different from the usual Pilsner and Lagers. And Seattle was called out for it's hops: the London brewery buys Cascade hops and even named one of their beers, Yakima Red. That's what Meantime is trying to do: be a modern, craft brewery in a big production, same recipe kind of world.

What can I say? Beer brings the people together.

The Sport of Kings

Hear Polo and you might automatically think "Ralph Lauren" or "Marco," but the people here usually think of something else. Nicknamed the "Sport of Kings," the Brits think of the oldest team sport (the first match on record was played in 600 BC) and more often associate Polo with princes, ponies and Pimms.

Aaron's cousin and her husband visited us in London last weekend. After leaving Seattle, we touched down at Heathrow and met them at the airport since they'd gotten in only an hour before us. How's that for good timing!?

Sunday we went to a local market and picked up some homemade snacks, and then we headed to the only polo grounds in the London area - the Ham Polo Club - to watch a few matches. We followed the rest of the spectators by laying out a blanket on the edge of the grass, opening our beers and snacking on our earlier market purchases while we watched the games.

Polo was fun to watch, but it immediately became clear that the announcer was what was making the game along with a particular player named Coco. A voice rang out over the loud speaker shouting "Come on Coco, Get Out of the Way Coco" and other amusing phrases. Another interesting tradition is that in the middle of each chukka (time periods within the match), the spectators get up and stomp the divots on the grass.

Coco's team, the Polo Pirates, ended up taking the title home, but we took away a unique, British experience.

Packing the Last 10 Months of Seattle into 2 Weeks

We just returned from 2 weeks in the Emerald City. Side Note: I really do think it's the best city on this earth and traveling around the world has only strengthened this view.

We saw almost everyone and everything we wanted to. From a baby bump to new houses, a puppy, birthday parties, sporting games, happy hours and an engagement ring, we packed a lot in. The days felt like they were in fast forward while we were there. We were on a roller coaster of adrenaline and jetlag.

It was the perfect time to go back for a long visit.

Was it different? Do we miss it more now? Did it still feel like home? For the most part Seattle has stayed exactly as we left it. The city has the same feel even though there are new restaurants and a slightly changing blueprint. The people are the same apart from new life experiences and different haircuts. The weather is the same although the sun has decided to come out this summer a little more frequently than others.

On the one hand, I miss our life in Seattle terribly. But on the other, I was so ready to come home to London.

Newlybroad in London: A Visit to the Theatre

Seeing a performance at a West End theatre is a great activity for our visitors to do in London! Since we've moved, we've had the opportunity to check out quite a few: Book of Mormon, Jersey Boys, The Commitments, Once, We Will Rock You, Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King. I even got to see a few that I couldn't drag Aaron to with Becs: Dirty Dancing and The Bodyguard. So here are a few tips for seeing a show in London.

Buying Tickets

If you want to see a big name or new production (like Book of Mormon), you should buy tickets ahead of time or expect to sit in the very back (it those are still available). You can buy tickets online at the box office website or I've also had success through LondonTheatreDirect.com

But if you just want to see a show and have a few that you could see, you should visit a half price ticket booth on the day you want to see the performance. The ticket booths are located all over Leicester Square and Covent Garden.

Selecting a Seat
If you are buying your tickets online, one of the most helpful websites I've found is Theatre Monkey. It lists each theatre and then has reviews from other people with their seat numbers listed so you can see if what exactly "Obstructed View" means before you buy the tickets. It also has theatre maps with good value seats, ones that you should avoid, etc. It's a bit confusing to navigate but very helpful. http://www.theatremonkey.com/INFORMATIONBYSHOWTITLEAtoZ.htm

Finding the Theatre
Lucky for those of you that are staying with Aaron and I, we live in the West End! Not within walking distance, but only a short tube ride away. Here is a map that will show you where the theatres are located and their nearest tube stops: http://londontheatre.co.uk/londontheatre/maps/index.htm

Things to Know About Inside
Often times, if you are more than 10 minutes late, the staff wait until a good pause in the performance to seat you. You can't bring outside food or drink in (unless you can hide it... my purse has never been searched). They serve beer and wine in the theatre lobby, but the most popular thing to get is ice cream. Everyone gets this during intermission. So save dessert, and be prepared to shell out some pounds (both kinds) on this little tub.

Now enjoy the show!