SPRING BREAK Part 4: Germany and UK with my parents

Munich
 
That night I took and overnight train to Munich.  One plus side of arriving at 6 am was walking through Marienplatz at sunrise. 

I loved the overnight train!

 That morning I met up with my parents who had just flown in from Boston!!!  We stayed at an awesome Marriott that we shared with tons of pro tennis players who were competing in the BMW open.  We had a relaxed first day, taking advantage of the hotel pool/hot tub, and then had a traditional German beer-filled dinner at Hofbrauhaus. 

Cheers from Hofbrauhaus!

 I can’t even explain how great it was to sleep in a queen-sized hotel bed with huge, fluffy pillows and a down comforter after 10 nights of hostel living.  And having a TV.  And the best breakfast I’ve ever seen.  And a pool, hot tub, and sauna.  I could keep going…We spent the next day touring around Munich.  We visited Munich but it was so fun to see new places and revisit our favorites.  We went running in the English gardens, and then spent the day exploring Odeonplatz, the Residence, the 1972 Olympic grounds, and the BMW museum.

Great day in Munich.

Ran into some Colgate friends in Odeonplatz!

Salzburg
 
The next day, Saturday, we rented a car and took a day trip to Salzburg, Austria!  In Salzburg we did the Sound of Music Tour, seeing the Mirabell Gardens (‘Do-Re-Me’), Leopoldskron Castle (the front of the Trapp family home), Hellbrunn Castle (where they had the ’16 going on 17’ gazebo), Nonnberg Abbey (Maria’s convent), St.Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang (the region showed in the shots of beautiful Austrian scenery at the beginning of the movie), and Mondsee (the beautiful lakeside village in the Alps that has the church where Maria was married). 

"16 going on 17"

Sooo pretty.

 It was a great way to see more of the Austrian countryside, even if it was my mom’s fourth time on the tour!  Salzburg is a beautiful little city and it was fun to explore it more that evening before heading back to Munich.

The UK

The next day we flew into London and then caught a bus to Cardiff!  It was fun showing my parents around the city I have lived in for the past few months.  I must say, I love the city a lot more staying in a nice hotel in a central location!!  (see pictures of my dorm room in one of my first posts…)  Being with my parents in our hotel let me see Cardiff in a new, awesome-er way…if only I could live downtown in the Hilton with their credit card always :-)  We spent our first day in Cardiff seeing the most important sights: exploring the Cardiff castle, walking around the downtown, seeing my dorm room, running in Bute park, and eating in the bay.  The next day, we started our sightseeing through the Welsh countryside that I had planned for us.  I showed them Rhossili, one of the favorite places I’ve been, and then we went to Tenby, an extremely picturesque beach town in the Pembrokeshire region.  We then returned to Cardiff for our last night there.

Tenby

Pretty Welsh coast (Tenby).

Thursday morning we headed into London.  Since we have all already been to London a few times, we spent most of the day taking a relaxed walk from Victoria Station to Covent Garden, stopping outside Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey—we had to simulate the route they drove in the royal wedding that had taken place just days before!  We had a great dinner with Lauren and Suzanne and their families, who were also visiting them.  It was really cool to all be together, with our families, not at Colgate, especially in a foreign country!

Friends in London!

I said good-bye to my parents on Friday and then took a train back to Cardiff that afternoon.  It was so great having them visit and I had the best 3 week spring break imaginable!


The End

Everyone keeps asking me what my favorite place I visited was so I’ll try to answer that…I genuinely loved everywhere I went and do not regret going anywhere but I think that Budapest was probably my favorite.  I think eastern Europe is really cool and Budapest was definitely the most eastern-European of anywhere.  Plus, Budapest was really cheap ($11/night hostel and awesome exchange rate!) so we got to do lots of cool things that we wouldn’t be able to afford elsewhere, like eating at nicer restaurants and spending an entire afternoon in an incredible thermal spa!  Ahhh I want to go back.

I have a bit more than a month more in Cardiff.  Tomorrow I am going coasteering (google it! It’s really hard to explain but really awesome!!), next week Suzanne visits, the week after I am going to Tarbes, France with Lauren to see her sister, and the week after I start exams.  I am done with classes and don’t have a final for 3 more weeks so hopefully the next few weeks will be very fun and stress-free!  Congrats if you are still reading.  This was ridiculously long.