Living a European Life: Germany and Super Bowl Weekend :)

February 1st.

Ok so last minute I decided to fly up to Germany to be with Corey for superbowl weekend. I haven't met any Seahawk fans here yet and I had this feeling they were going to win Superbowl...and I wanted to share that experience with my husband! So last minute, Corey's friend Josh's (who is also up in germany) wife also wanted to fly up there- so she contacted me and purchased a ticket on my same flight. The next morning- very early- Hannah and I met on base and took the shuttle to Marco Polo airport in Venice. We arrived in Munich around 10 am, which is a few hours from where the base is. The guys picked us up and we hung out in Munich all day! It was fabulous, loved it! First we saw the "Glockenspiel" which is a giant cuckoo-clock. We arrived just in time to hear it chiming. We thought the people statues in the clock were supposed to move, but they didn't. We just heard music, which was still cool. Then we headed to a restaurant for some lunch because I think it was 12:30 or 1 pm by this time and we were all starving. I ordered schnitzel and Corey ordered some sausages. After that we just walked around. Saw a live performance of a famous song (video of it in my movie :)), and we were in Munich on a day of an anti-war protest (again, I have footage of it) So that was kind of crazy to see. I was standing up on this huge block watching and there was also a woman, assuming shes a newswoman, filming and reporting on the protest. I was surprised to hear her speaking English and only during reporting did she wear this handkerchief on her head. Hmmmm. Not sure why.

Then Corey wanted to go visit some brewery that monks work in. Corey thought it was close to downtown, so we took a train there (see the pic below "snitches get stitches" lol)- we saw that out the train window! Then the train just stopped (we thought it was just stopping for a minute and would start back up), but after sitting there for about 15 mins we realized it wasn't going any further haha. So we had to walk a little ways to find a taxi. We eventually found the brewery! On our walk up to the brewery we stopped a few times for some photo ops. There were a lot of neat statues and we all know how much I love to take pictures! We stopped in the souvenir shop and the people there told us the brewery was closed on weekends! what? But the cathedral and restaurant were open. So we bought some trinkets and headed to cathedral first. It was beautiful inside, but all cathedrals in Europe are beautiful I guess. There wasn't a "no flash sign" either so I captured some good pics! After that we headed down to the restaurant for dinner. I had a huge pretzel and Corey had a big hunk of pork lol and a beer of course! After dinner we took a taxi back to the train, hopped on the train back to downtown Munich where our car was. Then we drove to base which was a few hours away and arrived to our hotel! Nothing fancy because it's on base, but we needed AFN (armed forces network) to watch the Super bowl the next day :)

The next day, Sunday, Corey and I headed to Nuremberg to visit the Zoo and a toy museum. First stop was the zoo, which I absolutely loved. The main reason why it was so cool was because the animals were all very close to us. Most of the fences keeping the animals contained were old and rickety. My favorites were the giraffes, penguins, polar bears and the lion that roared so loud! (i have footage of it:)) I could go on and on about the zoo, but I won't. It was a cool experience seeing which kind of animals they had there and there were a lot! We also went into this rain forest area, which I didn't get great pictures of because my lens kept fogging up haha. But I was able to capture a few good ones and took a video. Again, the animals were in very close reach to us. We spotted a monkey on a tree that was right over our heads! It was pretty cool. We spent a few hours here and I'm very glad I can see that I have been to a zoo in Europe! Woohoo.

Ok on to the toy museum. We saw all kinds of toys, dolls, figurines and games. We had a good time exploring and looking at different dolls and toys from the good ol' days- crazy that some of those toys were from the 1800s! It was pretty cool to see what kids played with back in the day. Corey and I were joking a little bit about the doll houses because they were so detailed. Kids would never play with anything like that these days! At the end we bought a few souvenirs and a music box for Grandma Edith. Then it was on to dinner!

Ok for dinner we ate at this cute restaurant that served some American type food, which was nice after eating German food the day before. It was so cute inside and reminded me of something we might see back home. I loved the buddha. I took two pics of it, one with my Nikon and one with my cell phone :) The bartender and waiter were both super nice and helpful with picking out or meals. They both spoke English well which was nice. There was a TV with a "football" game on and one of the commercials we saw was for the Super Bowl! I yelled "Go Hawks" and the waiter knew what I was referring to lol! We told him that our home team from Seattle was playing in the Super Bowl and he could see the excitement coming from us! For appetizers we ordered a platter that had some chicken on skewers, mozzarella sticks, and spring rolls. They were all delicious! Then Corey ordered a burger and I ordered a chicken sandwich (I think). I also had a very yummy cosmo. We had a great time. Then we drove back to our hotel, actually I should correct myself- I drove us back to our hotel because Corey had a huge beer and I didn't want him driving :) So I got to drive on the autobahn! Woohoo! Felt very freeing driving 140 mph. We arrived back to our room and tried to rest and nap a little before the big game!

Super Bowl!! We rested a bit then woke up right when they were singing the National Anthem- phew! Then Josh and Hannah joined us in our room to watch it together. I brought Lynch skittles with me in my suitcase :) Blue and green baby- all the way! We threw on our jerseys and were ready to go!!