Chamonix with Dad

We took a high-speed train at the wonderful hour of 4:30AM from Munich bound to Geneva (with a few transfers).

It was a long ride, but my Mom had sent me a Nintendo 3DS for Christmas, so I was entertained.

The landscape in Switzerland was breathtaking, so I spent a lot of time just gazing out the window as well.

Look at that landscape. Freaking gorgeous. There was even a damn rainbow.

After a long time on the train and in the airport waiting for our charter bus up to Chamonix, we got our first look at Mont Blanc.

We stayed at a Chalet that my cousin Michelle co-runs with her boyfriend Phil. It was really cozy and welcoming, and reminded me a lot of the cabins one would typically see in the Rockies. The next morning we were welcomed with a surprising view.

Chamonix valley is absolutely breathtaking. I had never seen mountains so beautiful. Mont Blanc is over 15,000 feet, which is around the same height as many of the mountains in the Rockies but the ground around the mountains is much higher, so you don’t get nearly as much of a sense of how towering they are like you do in Chamonix.

For New Year’s we had a delicious Italian dinner at a nice restaurant with some friends of Michelle and Phil’s.

The skiing was absolutely amazing, of course. Much of it was the wonderful environment you were in, but the runs were great as well.

We also got a chance to spend some time in the town itself. It was interesting because in many ways it felt just like any skiing town in the Rockies, but it was in France so it was quite different.

One thing that surprised me in Chamonix was how frustrating it was for me to not be able to speak French. I hadn’t realized that despite not being fluent in German, I actually had quite a good grasp of it and was quite capable at getting around and getting things I needed. I felt homesick for Germany for the first time. That, combined with how capable I was in Germany in contrast to my dad helped me more with my homesickness more than I ever expected. It made me realize that I do feel quite at home in Germany, and despite how much I miss Colorado sometimes, I’m going to miss Germany a lot now too, maybe for the rest of my life. And that really just made my homesickness melt away.

Munich with Dad

We rented a car in Frankfurt and drove to Munich. Daddy was having fun driving on the Autobahn.

Unfortunately it was raining most of our trip, typisch Deutschland.

We stopped in Nuremberg on the way and ate at a restaurant called Café & Bar Celona. Bar-celona. Get it?

We walked around Nuremberg and looked at the churches and stuff. Unfortunately the Christmas market had ended by then, so all we really saw was the stalls being taken down.

We were given a hopeful send off by our parking ticket machine.

When we got to Munich we had a beer together in the hostel bar and then walked around the city a bit.

The next day we saw church after church after church. There are around seven major ones in Munich, so I’m just going to show some of the better pictures.

My favorite was probably St. Peter’s Church, even though it’s one of the smaller ones.

Marienplatz is the main marketplace in Munich where the famous bell tower is located.

Here’s a picture of it lit up at night.

The next day we went to the Residenz, which is where the nobility of Munich used to live. It was unbelievably decorative and elaborate. It was really amazing to see.

Some of the rooms were coated in sea shells.

It also acted as a museum for artifacts, which were also incredibly intricate and elaborate.

This is a flat carved marble mosaic, and it was about two feet high by three feet wide. The quality of the perspective and the intricacy of the stone work is just breathtaking.

They had some relics as well. Ew.

Even the door hinges were carved. It doesn’t get more excessive than this.

Nearby there was a giant lion statue. Pretty cool in my opinion.

Munich is also famous for cuckoo clocks, so we saw some pretty cool ones.

I have to say though, that my favorite part about Munich was the food.

Here is Daddy’s first ever Currywurst. More of a Berlin thing, but it’s a simple enough dish that it’s good everywhere.

We went to the Hofbräuhaus, which is one of the oldest and most famous breweries in the world.

The great thing about it is that natives actually go there all the time, it’s not just tourists. A lot of times you will see people wearing the traditional German clothing.

Enjoying a Maß of Pilsner and Weißwurst with Spätzle. It doesn’t get more German than that!

The second night we went to the Paulaner brew house, where I had probably one of the most delicious meals of my life. I had a plate of all the different bratwurst types with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, and Daddy had a traditional Schweinhaxe (pork shank) with mashed potatoes. I can’t even express how wonderful this meal was. Ignore my lackluster expression, I was freaking giddy on the inside.

Munich is a really wonderful city, and if you only have the opportunity to go to one German city, make it Munich. You won’t get a more sincere (big-city) German experience anywhere else.