Grrrrrrr

Just spent over an hour trying to upload a proper post. The site keeps locking up and deleting my pictures. It's got to be blogger.com because every other site works fine.

I'll try again another day - sorry!

Random Stuff

Went to a market and saw this seafood counter. Notice the flat screen TV on the wall. It was playing a video of swimming fish who seemed to be mocking the dead fish - I imagined them saying "Suckers!".










This was just an old vending machine that sold candy - for 10 and 20 cents - cheap!

















Another pay as you go potty - 50 cents. I'd go bankrupt if I lived here.


















Mmmmm, milk in a tube.

















These are my favorite - they're chocolate bees with beautiful fluttery wings.

Graffiti

While hoofing it to the car museum, we stumbled upon some amazing graffiti. Check it out - this one was being painted while we were there.











It's worth clicking on some of these to get a better look.











Not sure what this guy was painting - looks like rainbow poo.













Hey Jake, this one's for you!












Gotta love the aliens in the bumper cars. It was fun to look at while we walked and walked....and walked....

Mercedes Benz Museum

So, we decided to take the train to the Mercedes Benz Museum - we bought our tickets, hopped on, made the first connection and soon realized that our second connection was not going to show up. So, we ended up walking I don't know how many miles thru the city to get there. It was worth it! I don't like cars too much, but they had a lot of neat stuff there - like these old gas pumps.













And this super old fire truck.....













and a less old, but still sort of old fire truck.














I called this one as soon as I saw it - PopeMobile. His tall hat must be protected at all costs.













I had to take a rest room break and discovered that the hand soap looked like the top of an ice cream cone.









Back on the floor, I called Sean over to see the Jurrasic Park vehicle. I was so excited - what was his response?












"That's from the second movie." Well okay but it's still cool.












Here's a picture of the jeep and a dinosaur to prove it!













This is an old British Tour Bus. That little cage on the top left says Madame Tussauds.
















Here's the fare card for the tours - cheap.













Just some old cars. Not exciting but they were so shiny.











This car looks like it could fly away.













I'm not sure what this was, but it had a hearst look about it.













Ugh, must be from the 70's.

This isn't the end....it's just the beginning.

Hamburger Shack

Very close to our hotel is a small hamburger place. It's sort of fun because you can eat outside on the street and the weather is perfect right now. Sean got an "american" burger, which had a fried egg on it for some reason. Jeff, unwisely, decided to get wurst in a brown sauce in which they had squirted mayo and ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder. FAIL.






I had a lovely cheeseburger and it was super good. The fries were really crispy and 100% better than McDonalds - really. Jeff said it's because they use lard.

I was nice and gave Jeff some of my burger since his food was so pukey.










Shot of the outside.












Here is part of the menu. Each burger had a number, it was like ordering Chinese food, I think they had 20 or so to choose from. Also, each burger came with "dressing". I wasn't sure so I declined it. Good thing because it's a mix of mayo and ketchup - Sean liked it.

Apple Strudel Battle

So, since we're here, I decided to do a strudel taste test. Will I be impressed? Let's find out.

On the left is a strudel from a regular grocery store. On the right is a strudel from a bakery shop. As you can see, they are very different - the bakery strudel has a lot of filling and a stickier crust. The grocery store strudel has a drier crust with powdered sugar on top and a skimpy amount of filling. But, how did they taste?



Jeff and I carefully tasted and evaluated each strudel. Our conclusion: neither measured up. The grocery store strudel was lacking a buttery taste and had not enough apple filling. The texture of the pastry was very nice, light and flaky. The bake shop strudel had lots of filling but was WAY too sweet. The crust was heavy and had more sugar brushed on top which made it quite cloying. On the plus side, it had raisins. So, the winner is: the grocery store strudel. Go figure!


This is the cheesecake section of the bakery we purchased the strudel at. Sean got a slice which turned out to be lemon - he said it was good. As a side note, the girl behind the counter short changed us 5 euros then hid in the back for bit. We had to wait for her to come out and demand the rest of our money. It was sort of embarrassing but that was too much money to let it go. It seems like she did it on purpose and hoped we wouldn't confront her. Well, it worked out in the end. All the other shop ladies were nice as they could be.

Bavaria

Bavaria was only 2 hours by car from our hotel, so we had to go. The park we went to had this cute little ice cream truck - more about that later.










The park also had a food stand where you could get sausage, sandwiches and beer. The best part: no disposable plates, cups or utensils. After you eat you simply carry your plates, glasses and silver back to the counter for washing. Lots of places here do that - I kinda like it!













So, they had a luge which Sean rode 7 times.
By pushing the stick down, you could go super fast around the curves. There were signs at each turn that may have said "danger - slow" but I'm not sure because it wasn't English.















Remember the ice cream truck? Here's the menu - only 1 euro per cone. Jeff got the orange and I had the walnut. Sean abstained.













Sometimes, at the end of the line, there would be a traffic jam if someone slow got stuck in front of you.











Varooom.















Jeff did it too.
























This is a view of the luge with the alps behind. Lovely.










We took a tour of 2 castles while we were there. This is the kitchen in King Ludwig II castle Neuschwanstein. Pretty tricked out for the 1860's.













When we arrived at the village where the castles are located, I had to GO. Imagine having to pay 50 cents to use the bathroom. I was so desperate that I had no choice. I hated myself afterward. 50 CENTS!














There were a bunch of crazy people standing on a bridge suspended waaaaaaay up on the mountain - not my idea of fun.

















Another view of that kitchen - actually, there were two more rooms - mostly empty. One had a giant marble topped table that must have been for pastry making.












A view of the village from a castle window.












A view of the lake from a castle window.

















A view of the castle from it's own castle window. They wouldn't let us take interior photos but taking photos from the windows was okay. It's too bad because the interiors were beautiful. We even got to see Ludwig's toilet.














Another castle window view.



















This is Hohenschwangau castle. This was Ludwig's parents place, where he grew up.



















Exterior of Neuschwanstein. Supposedly, Walt Disney used this castle as the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle.

















We had dinner at a Biergarten near our hotel. All the food was BROWN. Not a bit of fiber to be found.






There it is in all it's brown glory. It was good but looking at the picture is a bit much for my stomach.



Until tomorrow.....bye!