Tagged: germany

travel tuesday: münchen mit marie

schliersee: a beautiful alpen lake

This year has been a whirlwind of plane rides and delightful trips. I always feel bad leaving Lemontree at home alone, but there’s just so much world out there to be explored!

I had been looking forward to this particular trip for what felt like forever. Marie, my incredibly talented blogging, sewing, knitting, and baking friend, scored an internship with BMW in Munich from March through August. When she first shared the news, she said, “if you happen to come to Germany this summer, you should come visit me in Munich.” What’s summer without a trip to Germany? I penciled it in for late August and dreamed about the trip for months.

germany as seen from the plane window

We had the most wonderful visit. We visited flea markets and fabric stores. We took the train into the Alps, with day trips to Salzburg and gorgeous Schliersee.

tiny colorful cars at the deutsches verkehrsmuseum

We went to museums: BMW Museum, Deutsches Museum, Deutsches Verkehrszentrum. At the BMW factory tour, we saw the car assembly from start to finish, including a detailed – and fascinating! – description and walkthrough of the 6-step exterior painting and powdercoating process.

eiskaffee at a biergarten

We had ice creams and Eiskaffee. I had Bier and Schnitzel, Marie had Apfelschorle and veg. I filled my suitcase with MAOAM for Brad and flea market treasures for me.

untersberg in the clouds

We took a cable car to the top of Untersberg in Austria, where the view was all too similar to my view from Mt. Snowdon on last year’s hike in Wales. That is to say, we were embraced by a giant, opaque cloud. But the tufts of mist nestled in the nooks of the mountain couldn’t be beat.

church steeple through a window, salzburg

I loved the chance to visit Munich for more than the day or two that I had spent there on previous trips. There’s a big difference between sightseeing and experiencing a city, and this trip was the perfect blend.

sam and marie by the lake in munich

The best thing about having a creative friend is the chance to discuss techniques, problems, and current projects without any sort of explanation. While riding the train, walking our tens of thousands of steps, or sitting by the lake making friends with ducks, we’d chat about things we were working on or dreaming of working on. Blogs we’ve read, quilts we want to try, the difficulties in trying to keep a fabric stash to a manageable size. We even debated appropriate stitch lengths! Sorry, Marie – I just hate sewing at under 3.0.

sam and marie at the schliersbergalm

On our last day, we visited the lake town of Schliersee and hiked to the Schliersbergalm and then to the top of Rohnberg. It was a perfect day, and there are few sights more gorgeous than that lake surrounded by mountains on all sides.

schliersee rodelbahn: an alpine roller coaster

My favorite part of the whole trip, though, was the ride down the mountain on the Schliersee Rodelbahn. You just sit in a little cart with a brake and careen down the mountain in a winding plastic chute. What could be a more perfect end to a wonderful day, and a wonderful holiday?

schliersee rodelbahn: an alpine roller coaster

Thanks, Marie, for the perfect summer adventure! I can’t wait until next time!

Travel Tuesday is a semi-weekly feature that allows me to recap the many trips I’ve failed to formally document. I’ll be sharing photos and fuzzy (but fond) memories from recent and not-so-recent adventures.

the doors of deutschland

doors of deutschland - berlin

At our end-of-semester photography critique, the guest critic asked me, “what’s with the doors?” While I still don’t think there’s any deep, artistic or poetic meaning behind my love for doors, I can’t say I’m not compelled to photograph them. They’re all so different and so special.

doors of deutschland - berlin

Like the turquoise doors I found in Berlin, intricately designed and painted with fun colors.

(more…)

day 7: time to go

farewell, dear europe,
your pastries will be fondly
recalled in my heart.

heart-shaped danishes

indoor part of fancy german swimming pool

schlosshotel clock tower

rear view of the schlosshotel kronberg

Staying in the most awesome hotel ever also got us into the most awesome pool ever. Part of a recreation center, this pool was half indoor and half outdoor, heated and surrounded by mountains. The indoor part (in the picture) was for laps, but outside was awesome with jets on the walls and huge water sprayers that you could just sit under. There was also a small whirlpool thing that we had a good time floating around.

Then we said goodbye to darling Schlosshotel and headed to the airport, but stopped by a grocery store first to pick up some take-home goodies. Lots and lots of chocolate was procured. We grabbed our last European pastries of the trip from the bakery in the front of the store… the heart-shaped cheese danishes with strawberries were incredible.

After that it was just us being super early to the airport, then boarding the plane, saying goodnight, and flying back in time.