Post Spring Break

Following up from my last post, my family arrived in Cologne on Monday at around 15:00. They got a great first impression at the Koln Hauptbahnhof, when a lady left her stroller and baby at the top of the stairs, and when someone else failed in trying to prevent the stroller from falling down the stairs, promptly accused that person of pushing the stroller down the stairs. The police ended up getting involved, and it was a big mess but that was the worst of our travels that week. We took the train back to Bonn, showed them my house in Mehlem, and then hopped back on the train to Bonn. I established my role as navigator and tour guide early this spring break, and gave them a tour of Bonn, or at least the parts that I experience. They were really intrigued by my school, I guess because it's a smaller building. But, I made sure they also experienced some German food at the Machold Bierhaus, where my host family took me for my late birthday the week prior. This dinner also set a precedent for the rest of our meals, which were all very German and included lots of beer. What I didn't realize coming into this week, was that my family had done almost zero planning as far as going to Munich and Prague. So, we spent the rest of that night trying to find lodging in both of those cities. This was particularly annoying because they were mad that prices had gone up, as if that isn't exactly what happens when you wait too long to book something. But nevertheless, we booked two hotels in Munich and one hotel in Prague.

Tuesday we got on the high speed train to Munich, marking my first experience on a high speed train. Munich itself ended up being pretty forgettable, though I still had a good time. The night that we got there, we walked through the center of town, including the beautiful Mariensplatz, and had dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. The Hofbrauhaus was a very cool experience. It was packed, but it felt like a true beer hall, and the liter sized Hofbrau beers were amazing. The next day we met with an Irish tour guide, and traveled to Schloss Neuschwanstein. It was a Bavarian paradise in Fussen, where the castle was. It was sunny, and with a light snowfall the castle looked even more beautiful. The tour given by the guide was entertaining and very informative, and while that didn't include the tour inside the castle, it was ten times better than that tour. The castle and the Hofbrauhaus were my favorite parts of Munich, and the rest was about average. 

Prague however, was beautiful. I wish we had more time there, because I fell in love. We took an early morning bus on Thursday to get there, so we had most of the day to explore. We instantly got to see just how pretty the architecture was, and then checked into our hotel. As I mentioned before, we had to scramble to book everything, but we scored big on this one. It overlooked the river and the Charles Bridge, and was a lot of fun to stay in. Later that day we walked to the castle, stopping by a beautiful cathedral. The castle required us to climb 200 some odd steps, but it overlooked the whole city, and was well worth it. The St. Vitus cathedral had a different vibe than the first one we walked into but it was wonderful all the same, and so were the castle grounds in general. I had an interesting meal that night, consisting of raw meat on fried bread and garlic. My mother of course was scared I'd get sick, but I was deadset on trying something new. My sister was pretty much the opposite the whole trip, but she eventually opened up and ate some different food and ended up really liking the beer we had. We left on Friday, but not before we walked the Charles Bridge, saw the astronomical clock chime, visited a market or two, and tried some Czech pastries.

Once we got back to Bonn, we got a burger, and went home and crashed. Saturday, we went into the city and walked around the various shops, the market, and had dinner at Bonnsch before they left for Frankfurt where they would spend the night before flying out on Sunday. I desperately needed to do homework that day and Sunday, but I was so exhausted from guiding my family all over Europe, and I killed all of my time by catching up on Game of Thrones. Thankfully I have no other homework or school related stuff to write about this week, but that of course won't last.