Europe 2006 Part Two:
I must admit that Garmisch was all that I had remembered it to be. I recall the elaborately painted Bavarian houses and buildings as they were in 1968. I loved Bavaria. There’s something about it’s peacefulness that charms with a character all its own. I could live there! And, what’s a Bavarian house without painted-on decorative window shutters? Not to mention the mounted Elk head with the perfect Antlers high up on the building wall as if watching over the neighborhood (as only a dead Elk can do). And scenes or images of events with people having fun “prosting” their “biers” with music and dancing! And the music! This is the only area of the world I know where the Accordion plays second fiddle to the Harmonica!

The Alpenhorn is very cool! It is a wooden horn that is about 12 feet long, straight with a slight curve at the mouth of the horn. It was originally used in the alpine regions to communicate long distances. We watched an old man entertaining the guests atop the Zugspitze as he played 3 different instruments, one being the Alpenhorn.

In my opinion, German food is superior to any other European food that I have had. Perhaps it’s because I’m a professed carnivore and love meat! Germans love to cook meat and I love to eat it! It works for me. Since 1968 I have missed “Weiner Schnitzel” immensely. Yes, the Rheinlander in Portland is authentic and does a great job, too, but still does not achieve the perfection of the average Bavarian cook……nothing personal Horst Mager.

I did manage to stuff down a Schnitzel every evening in Garmisch and I offer no apologies! Our last night was spent at a very lively restaurant where we sampled the Bavarian delights and listened to a very well-shaped gentleman (“round” is a shape!) playing the Accordion, singing and yodeling all evening. It was great! There was dancing for entertainment…..some kind of Bavarian slap dancing or something, as well as a singing skit put on by 3 or 4 American kids from Michigan who were in Germany as part of a language class. It was cool. They were a great group of kids and represented our country quite well. The Accordion player/singing yodeler seemed to get better with every glass of beer he drank……I say “glass”, but they were clear glass steins about 14” high. I stopped counting after his 3rd or 4th glass.

We left the next morning, taking an early train to Munich in order to arrive before 11:00 AM to make it to the Marienplatz and view the popular Clock Tower. It commemorates the marriage of some royalty back in the 17th or 18th century with dancing of (near) life size figurines and jousting warriors (complete with a winner!) on circular tracks.

We canceled our trip to stay overnight at Gimmelwald, Switzerland, as the majority of our group had already “O.D.’d” on the Alps, and chose, instead, to head on to Paris, France.

Seeing the Eiffel Tower was awesome! It was more amazing in size than I ever dreamed it to be. We took the elevator ride up to the second level to view the city. Did I mention that 1,000 other people were doing the same thing?? But that’s okay! We had fun sight seeing Paris, with all the places I can’t remember (but have serious pictures of). Notre Dame was fantastic to see and we arrived early to avoid all the tour buses filled with tourists. It was very beautiful. We spent part of a day in the Louvre. It’s amazing how large of a Museum the Louvre really is! There are 3 levels and would take days to go through and see everything. Again, I “O.D.’d” on paintings and statues of naked men…..and more paintings…..

Not far from the Eiffel Tower, looking out over the Seine River, a very familiar sight made us remember home; the original French “Statue of Liberty”, miniature version. It was awesome!

We made a point to take a serious look at the Mona Lisa. It looked very much like the ones sold on many Parisian street corners ….. which were probably “originals” in the minds of the hawkers. We took a ride on a boat along the Seine River and viewed Paris in the evening sun between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. It was very relaxing. We spent 5 days in Paris, sampling the cuisine at sidewalk cafes and touring the city, taking numerous photos and spending serious dough on $6.00 coffee and expensive food. If you go to Paris, take a lot of money with you!

Our day visit to Normandy was awesome, even though our reservations were canceled by the credit card company. Watch out for Capital One!! Even though we gave them our itinerary prior to leaving the states, to let them know we would be using the credit card in various countries of Europe, they still managed to put a stop on its usage with a “fraud alert”, until we found out the hard way and called them. But that didn’t help much with our reservations! We visited Omaha Beach and saw the monuments. We visited the American Memorial Graveyard, filled with many white, marble crosses. It was a moving experience to actually be there and see everything.

I was not impressed with the French people. For the most part, they were unkind, unfriendly, “short-fused”, seeming to have very little use for Americans. I entered France with a certain expectation of the French people and I left there not being disappointed. I would not want to return, yet I am glad to have been there. The remainder of Europe was great!

Our European trip ended with an early morning flight out of Paris to New York on a crowed, American Airlines jet. We stayed in New York City for a couple of days prior to coming home. Times Square was awesome, as always and we enjoyed a zesty shrimp dinner at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Company, with an evening view of the Time’s Square lights and immense crowds.

Our boat tour around Manhattan offered special views of the Statue of Liberty and of course, Debby’s favorite, The Little Red Light House under the Great Gray Bridge.

Jet Blue was our hero the last day and we had spacious seating (compared to American) for our 6 hour flight home. If you have never visited a foreign country, you should try it sometime. It will give you a great perspective of our own country! There is, indeed, no place like the USA!