08/14/16 11:58 - ID#60593

Train ride to Venice

The train ride from Munich to Venice is a long one (7+ hours, trains are slow in the alps) but has insane scenery. The train pops underneath mountains in tunnels, and comes out in the middle of the mountain range. I wish there was time to get out and go climb one somehow.

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Category: vacation

08/14/16 11:50 - ID#60592

Hofbrauhaus

Post treasure museum we were super hungry. We also were in the most touristy part of Munich. So what did we do? We went to the Hofbrauhaus. It's the German stereotype on steroids (its actually a chain that might even come to Buffalo soon). It's a beer hall with pretzels and blond ladies and 1 liter jugs of beer. Despite it being tourist central the prices weren't as obscene as I thought.

I think it was 8 euro for a liter of beer. (e:paul) got a pig's knuckle, (e:terry) and I ate a mushroom dumpling. (e:paul) scratched my last name in the table for my dad. At one point after we all had 1 liter of beer, the waitress came back and interpreted our request for one more liter to share, as one more liter for each of us. Drink up.

Leave the brewery after it rained, we came across this Bavarian king statue turned Micheal Jackson monument. There were all these pictures of Micheal Jackson - along with a 10 page document in English and German defending him against the pedophilia charges. They claim it was a conspiracy.

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08/14/16 11:42 - ID#60591

Bavarian Treasure Museum

Try to tell me these kings weren't gay

This is another pic dump only because there was more than one person could ever take in and read about. Basically the royalty of Bavaria had so much treasure they bought and gifted to them by other royalty they could open a museum about it. Once again the concept is disgusting, but the art and craftsmanship that went into these is insane. A lot of it was made it Italy which says a lot about how over the top these things were.

The trop of a pointy, jewel encrusted crown is real though.

This is for drinking water.

St. George slaying the dragon

Sexy plates

I appreciate the dogs here

(e:terry) is royalty! Who's the fairest of them all?

The golden penis

Napolean's wife's toiletry kit. The amount of drawers on drawers on drawers is impressive

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08/14/16 01:35 - ID#60590

My first time gambling

A night of debauchery in München. I bet money for the first time (casinos and gambling were everywhere in Germany). We put 1 euro in the slot machine, and won 24 cents back. Terrible deal, would not do this again.

(e:paul) ate fried food

I don't even know where we were that there were poles but there you go.

(e:xandra)'s gift we spotted at the Halloween store.

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08/14/16 01:31 - ID#60589

Critical Mass München

We were finishing dinner at this decent Indian/vegetarian restaurant called Kiss, on Landwehrstraße near our hotel. All of a sudden, a group of 50+ cyclists ride by the restaurant. So we ran as fast as we could to go get the bikes we rented a block away.

Somehow we managed to catch up with the ride. It turns out since it was the last Friday of the month, it was critical mass! I forget that it's a thing since Buffalo doesn't have one.

The ride had a lot of cycle cops and cars following along which was weird, but for the most part the police were cool.

We rode all around Münchens center. Even though it was a fraction of the city we got to see way more than we ever would have otherwise.

The first stop we saw was the Oktoberfest grounds. They're empty in the summer but you can see how huge they are from the steps of the Munich Hall of Fame.

While we were up on the steps, a guy who worked at a bakery brought a cart of pretzels, doughnuts, sandwiches and cookies out for everyone. He was promoting his campaign to distribute wasted food.

The ride kept going around the city, and eventually it got weird with the police. They brought us through the English Gardens, which were packed. All the people in the park freaked out because they thought something was wrong. At this point we peeled off. Still a fun ride.

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08/14/16 12:32 - ID#60584

Last night in Leipzig

Our last night in Leipzig, (e:paul) slept. (e:terry) and I walked around the old city, the south end, across the river to Plagwitz, it seemed like everywhere.

For future reference (e:paul) and (e:terry)'s favorite restaurant Kartoffelhaus Nr. 1 has a location here.

The Bayerischer Bahnhof, which was the second biggest train station in Leipzig but now with the Leipzig city tunnel is a brewery and S-Bahn station.

(e:paul) and (e:terry) getting our daily cro-bag sandwiches in the train station.

Is it possible to be in love with a city? Because if so I fell in love with Leipzig.
Maybe it's just because we were on vacation but I don't think I'll ever find a more beautiful and functional city.

The night we left I actually had a dream that I cried about us leaving. Meta.

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08/14/16 12:06 - ID#60583

Leipzig Rathaus

The old city hall of Leipzig is now their history museum. It covers at least 1000+ years of history. We couldn't see any more than half of it in the 3+ hours we were there.

They really like their dragon slaughter ;(

A satanic dragon vomiting Lutherans out of his butt dragon. This was on a painting to show catholic teachings.

A map of the city. Leipzig was known for it's trade fairs because it was one of the few cities in the middle ages permitted to have multiple markets.

The old city hall chambers.

A model of the old city

The armor of a Leipzig soldier

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08/14/16 12:03 - ID#60582

Botanical Gardens Leipzig

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08/14/16 12:00 - ID#60581

Raves and the best falafel

After the botanical gardens we rode over to the Ms. Hippy shop so (e:paul) could get some more zimmerman hosen. I ended up getting one pair, but I had a minor breakdown over how many pairs we got (something like 7).

On the same street these girls had hours of non-stop 90s kareoke. Ugh.

I did calm down a little when we had the best falafel known to man next door. It was 4 euro and had fried halloumi in it. I could eat this every day. In fact we went here at least three times.

You can get it at

Olive Tree
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 40
04107 Leipzig

(e:terry) looks happy after eating a falafel

So now that we were all full we went out to rave.

Leipzig is a city that's well known for it's electronic music. We went to two raves while we were there.

The first one was in this old warehouse in Plagwitz. I can't remember or find the street it was on but it was mostly old brick warehouses. I found a name on my google history, elipmanoke, but who knows if that is right.

The rave had three different DJ's including one outside. It wasn't even too smoky. You also got free erdnuss flips. And there were plenty of people who were friendly and just hung out and talked in the outside patio.

The second rave was maybe two nights later, in an old factory. The space was called "Institure fuer Zunkunft" or the Institure for the Future. It ran from 12am to noon, and you couldn't take any pictures inside. It was super dusty but the music was good.

Here's what Leipzig's new Rathaus looks like at 6am.

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08/14/16 11:55 - ID#60580

Völkerschlachtdenkmal

We rode our bikes through some of the eastern park over to the Voelkerschlactdenkmal, or Monument to the Battle of the Nations. The monument commemorates the defeat of Napolean which happened near Leipzig and was built between 1898-1913.

It's a 300 ft concrete and granite monument, that you can climb up to the very top in. I've never seen anything more impressive, especially built before 1900. The views from the top are incredible. When I was climbing the twisted narrow staircase to the lookout platform, I was almost dizzy.

It's obviously from a terrible time of nationalism, especially leading up to WWI but you have to give the construction props.

A nearby Russian church gaudily covered in gold.