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Germany, International Travel

Rothenburg, 9/3/16

Jennell

Well, Saturday morning was a bit rough to start. Up too late and too many Jameson shots the night before. But we got up and went to explore Rothenburg, which is a city with a defensive wall. It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. There are Houses, shops, restaurants, etc and people live there! There were people dressed up in mid-evil outfits and a lot of shows that happened as well.
It was very busy and we drove in circles trying to find parking. We went to the street to find something. A woman flagged us down and asked (in English) how long we would be there. We said a few hours, but were unsure of an exact time. She said she was having a good day and we could park in front of her garage as long as we didn’t stay overnight. We thanked her and took her up on the offer, and then she said, “My husband was American. I’ll tell you what I did to him.” Then she walked away. I think there was something lost in translation. Anyway, we parked in front of her garage and went to explore.
We were hungry when we got there, so we went straight to a restaurant. I got the spätzle, which was delicious. Unfortunately, my stomach was not happy with it, and we spent a good portion of the day searching for a restroom and a pharmacy. The pharmacy inside was closed, and we didn’t want to leave, so I grabbed a soda and the bubbles helped quite a bit. We wandered around and looked at the shops. They had a few Christmas shops that are famous and open year round. We then went to get some photos by the wall (luckily, someone the people who took us there had been there before and knew where to go!). We tried to go to the torture museum, but it was closed. We got a picture out front and then headed back to Stuttgart.
That night, we ??

 

 

 

 

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Germany, International Travel

Sunday and Monday in Stuttgart, 9/4/16

Jennell

We woke up and went to brunch at the place where my friend’s boyfriend works.  Then she took us around Stuttgart to do some tourist stuff.  She showed us a lookout point near where she used to live and we did a lot of walking around.  We stopped at the Stuttgart wine festival and Wardell and my friend had one glass, then we headed to a different Irish pub for a birthday party.

We decided to stay an extra day in Germany because my friend only had to work for a couple hours on Monday. However, she realized she actually had more to do that day, so on Monday morning she let us know that she was busy and we could explore on our own. We woke up and had breakfast, then went back to take a nap and slept a lot longer than expected. We realized how tired we had been because the entire trip was “go, go, go.” I went to make sure everything was packed up and ready, and the zipper on my big backpack broke! The one with all of my clothes in it! So I had to go find a new suitcase, since we couldn’t really take the broken backpack with us to Iceland.
We went to TK Maxx (TJ Maxx in Germany) and I grabbed the biggest and cheapest suitcase they had. I was actually concerned about not having enough space, but when I transferred my clothes to it, there was actually more than in my backpack!
We napped again (it was a pretty lazy day), and then decided to go to the TV tower, which is essentially the space needle of Stuttgart. They even have a restaurant up there! We took the bus to get there and went to the base to get some pictures and into the gift shop, but did not pay to go to the top or eat there.
The night before, we were told that there was trivia at the Irish pub we went to the first night, which is very close to my friend’s place. So we decided to head there and try the trivia. It was just the 2 of us, and the questions were very difficult, but it was fun. However, after round 5 of 10, we both realized how tired we were and headed back to my friend’s house.

 

 

Germany, International Travel, Switzerland

Journey to Stuttgart, 9/2

Jennell

We had looked up the trains the night before and told my friend the time we planned on being there. We had to take 3 different trains (Montreux-Lausanne, Lausanne-Zurich, Zurich-Stuttgart). The first 2 were fine, but the second was a little later than we expected. Then we got to Zurich. We had planned on only having a 30 minute break between trains. We went to the closest ticket machine and realized that it was only for within Switzerland. We asked someone and he pointed us to another ticket machine (honestly may have been a language issue). Still nothing. We asked another person, who pointed us to the information booth. They told us to go to a window with “one woman” to purchase these tickets. We found the window (many windows where you can buy tickets) and talked to a man. We were already well past the time we had planned on leaving, so I knew we were going to be late.

We found out that the next train to Stuttgart left in 2 hours, so during that time, we needed to find WiFi so I could message my friend to let her know we would be 2 hours later than expected. This was surprisingly difficult. The train station has WiFi, but they have to text you a code, and we couldn’t do that because we couldn’t receive texts. That’s where the language barrier got in the way again. We tried to ask for an internet café and at least 4 people told me “there’s internet everywhere, on your phone.” Finally, after going to the information window a few times and asking many different people, we found out that they have an internet café at western union, which we had to find. After asking a few people (many of them thought there wasn’t one there), we finally found it! I paid for 15 minutes and then realized that keyboards there are different. Y and Z are switched and I had to ask someone where the @ symbol was. But I finally messaged my friend and we had a little less stress at that point.
When we got into Stuttgart, my friend was running a little late. The thing is, again, there was WiFi at the station but you had to text, so I didn’t get her message. I walked around to find her and we decided to wait by the gate we came into. That worked well, and she said they ran to get there, and they had beer for us!

We went back to their house and stayed in for a home cooked dinner, then went to their local bar, an Irish pub down the road. We learned that in every country we’ve been to, the Irish pubs are where the Americans tend to hang out, and it can get crazy!

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