Beer, Beer, Beer, Beer, Meat, Pork, Beer, Beer, Beer, History, Beer, Beer…..

Please click for Off the Beaten Path-Oktoberfest 2015

In case you have not noticed in the world, Germany is known for their great beer.  Oh yea they have a long and complicated history and they love to eat a lot of meat and pork (i literally have no problem with anything in Germany.  As a matter of fact I plan to do Oktoberfest very soon….

I have been here so many different times, that I have lost count.  You literally never run out of things to do here.  Among the many places to go and party or beer gardens to go to, you will either never leave here or you will basically die trying.

There is always a Rhine River Cruise you can go on.  Among the stops I have taken is Heidelberg which is a university town and also St. Goar which is a small town in the west of Germany.  Both are great and hold their own regional flare:

 

I wish I had a better camera with me when I took pictures of Cologne Cathedral as it was simply magnificent.  The sheer size and architecture used in creating this is still beyond me:

As you can see from the pics, Dresden was amazing.  Even though it was almost fully destroyed during WW2, it has made its way back in a big way.  I scurried around here to see if I could find any signs of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five here, but I could not:

One of the sad parts I witnessed here was going to Mauthausen Concentration Camp.  This was mostly a political prisoner camp but it still looked very harsh.  They made the prisoners carry huge slabs of rock up the quarry and the guards would kick them, making all of them fall down like a domino effect.  Truly a horrifying place to see:

 

Now to Munich.  Hmmmmmm here is where the beer flows free in every corner.  You may also run into some guys that are surfing in the canal, people laying naked in the park, or you may just decide to take a bike ride around the park and city to see all of the sites.  Munich is quintessential Bavaria as the culture is a little different than other parts of Germany, but I love it.  I could not get enough of the Hofbräuhaus.  I loved this place and will go back again and again if I had the chance.  However after two days, I really could not fit anymore beer in my belly:

Finally Berlin (or East Berlin is usually where I stayed).  I love this city.  I love this city.  I love this city.  There is everything here.  It is where East Meets West.  Unfortunately the East side of Berlin is still very far behind the west, but their nightlife is not.  I have been on pub crawls here which will make your skin crawl with all the alcohol.  I have taken guided tour walks around the city as there is so much to see from the communist era that it is amazing.  Just being around the Berlin Wall gives me shivers as I remember watching on TV as a kid when it fell.  So many things happened here during Nazi German that it is hard to get your head around it.  The nightlife is amazing.  There is literally every type of bar or club you can think of here, then some that you do not want to think of.  I really could not think of a city that I would never want to go back too.  Berlin, you stole my heart and soul…