From Europe to Africa in America - A Sisters' Expedition

[Flossbolna]

Hi Magdalene and Katharina!

I am finally up to date with your trip report!!!

What a great report!! Your photos are awesome and you give a lot of great insight to the parks!

There's too much to comment on, but here are a few things I jotted down along the way...

Magdalene - I hate cilantro too!!

I laughed so hard when you told of how you messed up with the alarm and actually got out of bed and got ready for a day in the parks!!

I loved the tour of Animal Kingdom - I definitely want to do that some day.

I haven't done EE yet and now I will remember (thanks to you) to ask for the front row - hopefully I won't be too scared!!

Your dinner at Flying Fish looked awesome - especially the crab cakes!

Love that you used the word "peckish". My sister and I say that too!

Sounds like you had such a wonderful time with Liesa!

The red mushrooms look like they are straight out of a fairy tale - awesome!

Well I could go on and on, but I'll stop now!

So happy I am caught up so that I can follow along the rest of the way!!

Great to have you here and all up to date, hopefully the next update will come soon!!

We had a great time with Liesa and I am really sad that she lives soooooo far away!! I would love to meet her more often.

Thanks for all the nice comments on the TR! Actually for every roller coaster: if you want it to be less jerky, sit towards the front!!

On cilantro I have this theory that some people taste it more than others. When I eat something with a tiny bit of it in it, it is so overpowering. That's part of why I hate it, the taste itself isn't good either.

Thank the Lord, I haven't missed much!!! I'm STILL amazed at those red mushrooms!! (Yes, I actually went back and read the last installment again- it's THAT compelling!)

I will try to move along at a bit faster speed in the future, so you won't be stuck on those mushrooms for many months. But I find them pretty amazing, too!

I know I'm late but I'm here.

I used the links so I'm up to date on the trip, but I did skip the chatter.

Loving your trip so far.

I want to take the tour in AK after reading about it here. Your photos are beautiful and love learning about Germany along the way.

and thanks for the lovely comment about the TR!

 

[Flossbolna]

Today is the German national holiday - we celebrate 20 years of reunification today. I can't believe that I have by now lived longer in a reunified Germany than in West Germany... There is still a lot to do, we might be one state, but in many ways, we still need to grow together into one nation.

Besides this, today was also the day of my first ever 10km race. I was afraid of not being able to finish, 10km is quite a distance if you think about it! But the training had been ok and I knew that if everything went all right, I should finish in less than 1:20, but my goal was to finish at 1:15. I was really surprised how well it went and my time in the end was... (insert drumroll) ... 1:08:39!

But that's not all what has kept me busy over the last weeks. Settling back in Nuremberg went quite well, but was still quite a bit of work and somehow tiring. But I love being back in my lovely appartment and enjoy spending time with my friends and my parents. A work I was really lucky and ended up with the nicest colleagues. I really enjoy working with them and it has made starting there really easy! The work itself is great, too. I really could not have asked for a better start there.

Last Monday I met Wendy (lovealldisney here on the DIS) and her DH for lunch here in Nuremberg. They are travelling in Germany at the moment and also met Katharina in Berlin. We had a wonderful time together and they seemed to really enjoy Germany. I really enjoyed meeting them and was really sad that I had to go back to work and that the lunch was over all too soon!! Wendy was so sweet and had a lime green gift bag for me filled with goodies from Wisconsin which I loved. Besides maple candy cloud9 there was a fantastic highlight: lime green mickey heads!!! I will be able to have some on me on my next WDW visit!! I also got some lovely spices which I already used for dinner last week! Thank you very much Wendy!!

In September three friends of mine and I went to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a hiking weekend. The first day we climbed a mountain, but it was really rainy, so no great pictures besides this one:

But I thought you would like to see where I had lunch:

and what I had:

This is a type of strudel filled with quark (a German cream cheese type) instead of apples. It was delicious!!

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a quaint little town:

And we had a great view from our room:

On Sunday we only visited a gorge, which was pretty spectacular, but also rather wet. I took quite a few pictures there:

And then we enjoyed lunch at this mountain farm:

We also saw the Garmisch ski jump:

No way would I ever want to go down this thing!!!

I hope you have been entertained a bit by this and I promise that the next WDW update will come soon! But now I am off celebrating with a few fellow runners!!

 

[nodnol]

Congratulations again for finishing the race in such an excellent time!!!

I'm looking forward to the next installment. I can't remember at all what we did the next day, it's all a big blur...

 

[englishrose47]

Loved your mini report !! Lime Green Mickey Heads are a wonderful idea for the Non US Dissers !!!

Looking forward to the next update !!!

 

[John's Mom]

Congratulations on completing the race in such an great time!

The gorge pictures are spectacular! I always enjoy reading about other parts of your life in your trip reports.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Kathy

 

[MRYPPNS]

Awesome finish time for your race!!!

I love how that part of Germany looks a lot like Northern New Hamphire. Complete with ski jump!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Congrats on the great race time!

And your mini vaca looked fab!

 

[glennbo123]

Great job on your race Magdalene! You were really moving!

Thanks for all of those pictures. That town looks beautiful...wish I could visit. And you were able to show us some quark!

 

[vamassey1]

Congrats on your race time finish!

Your photos are fabulous. You're very luck to see such wonderful sites.

 

[addictedtothemouse]

Great time!
I love seeing the pictures of Germany. The countryside is so pretty.

 

[TyRy]

Congratulations on the race - what a great time!

And I agree with you...no way would I ever go down that ski jump!

 

[winkers]

Congratulations on your run!!

I love seeing the pictures of your beautiful country!

 

[swwake]

Congrats on the 10K! I haven't done one of those yet. Thanks for the photos - beautiful scenery. We are trying to plan a trip to Germany next year, probably Sept/Oct, with my Dad.

 

[Flossbolna]

Congratulations again for finishing the race in such an excellent time!!!

I'm looking forward to the next installment. I can't remember at all what we did the next day, it's all a big blur...

Thank you very much!!

I am so grateful for the notes that I took. Otherwise I really would have to abandon every effort by now...

Loved your mini report !! Lime Green Mickey Heads are a wonderful idea for the Non US Dissers !!!

Looking forward to the next update !!!

Thank you! The LGMH are really special for every one without a Home Depot store easy accessibly I think!

Awesome finish time for your race!!!

I love how that part of Germany looks a lot like Northern New Hamphire. Complete with ski jump!

Thank you!

I think when I was in NH I read that this was one of the reasons why it actually attracted lots of German settlers. But we don't have those wonderful covered bridges and the German landscape is much more densely inhabited. I was amazed how "empty" NH felt for us.

Congrats on the great race time!

And your mini vaca looked fab!

Thank you very much!

Great job on your race Magdalene! You were really moving!

Thanks for all of those pictures. That town looks beautiful...wish I could visit. And you were able to show us some quark!

I figured I managed to run an 11 minute per mile pace, I am pretty happy with that!

I thought of you and Cynthia and our strudel discussions when I took that picture! And then Katharina even taught you all about quark as well!

Great time!
I love seeing the pictures of Germany. The countryside is so pretty.

Thank you very much! I am glad you enjoy the Germany pictures! They are from southern Bavaria and other areas of Germany look very different, but this is the area where most people think of.

Congratulations on the race - what a great time!

And I agree with you...no way would I ever go down that ski jump!

Thank you!

Isn't that ski jump scary??? They recently rebuilt it and are getting lots of new records on it...

Congratulations on your run!!

I love seeing the pictures of your beautiful country!

Thank you!!

Congrats on the 10K! I haven't done one of those yet. Thanks for the photos - beautiful scenery. We are trying to plan a trip to Germany next year, probably Sept/Oct, with my Dad.

Thank you very much!

I think Germany is a really interesting country which has a lot of different things to offer for a trip! Don't be shy to ask away if you have any questions about anything for your trip!

 

[Millie12591]

Magdalene, you didn't just do well on your run.....

You Rocked it!!! Way to go!!!

The pictures are beautiful, and I would love to hear more history on Germany's unification.

 

[Flossbolna]

Magdalene, you didn't just do well on your run.....

You Rocked it!!! Way to go!!!

The pictures are beautiful, and I would love to hear more history on Germany's unification.

Thanks Camille!

I wrote something about the fall of the wall in 1989 on our PTR in this update. I think you weren't around yet when I wrote this.

On October 3rd 1990 the two parts of Germany - East and West were officially reunified. West Germany was a Federal Republic and in East Germany they founded five states (or Länder as we call them) which then became member states of the federal republic on that day. Germany had been devided since it was occupied in 1945 by the four occupation forces (USA, Russia, UK and France). While the three western forces cooperated, the Soviet sector was kept apart from the West. Especially the introduction of the new currency in the West, the German Mark, caused the Soviets to make the border between their sector and the West much less passable. They also blocked all the access to Berlin and the Western allies then transported everything the city needed by air (that's the famous Berlin airlift). In 1961 the Berlin Wall was built and thus the last open connection point between the East and West was closed.

When the Berlin wall came down and East Germany was becoming a democracy there was quite a strong demand from some sides that both German states ought to reunify. However, the situation in international law at that point was that Germany was still in some sense an occupied country, there never had been a peace treaty after WW II which settled all the open issues, especially the loss of territory for Germany. Also the European neighbours were not very enthusiastic about the idea of a reunified Germany which would be by far the largest country within Europe - considering the history of the 20th century when Germany started two world wars, I really do understand their feelings. In the end the "2 plus 4 treaty" was sigend between the old occupying forces and the two German states which settled all the open issues from WW II, e.g. Germany did accept the new boundaries in the East. This was the precondition for reunification. I recently read somewhere that the French president at that time, Mr Mitterrand, supposedly had a gentlement's agreement with the West German chancellor at that time, Mr Kohl, that if Mitterrand would sign the 2 plus 4 treaty, Kohl would join France in promoting the Euro, the new European currency.

But really bringing the people together is difficult. People in Eastern Germany lived for 45 years in a totalitarian state and this is something that leaves it marks on a culture. Also there are economic unequalities. While West Germany was the richest country in Europe in the 80s, living standard in East Germany were rather poor (even though they were still better off than Poland, Czechoslovakia and especially the Soviet Union). I think the East very much experienced West Germans coming in as the rich cousins telling them how to do everything and bossing them around, while West Germans thought the people from the East were whining and didn't get their act together and were ungrateful for all the money West Germany spent on East Germany. This is only the typical stereotypes, I personally know many former East and West Germans who don't think like that at all, but there are people who feel like that.

I recently watched a very acclaimed German movie with my mother recently, it is called "The Lives of Others" and it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007. It shows how bleak life was in East Germany and how paranoid the secret police was. If you want to find out more about life in East Germany, I can very much recommend it. It also has excellent actors! Just be warned that it has a few brief very adult moments - and it is very much a drama, not a comedy at all.

 

[manntra]

on your great running time!!! How wonderful to beat your goal!!

Glad to have you back although I love all of your side excursions that you report on so go and just stretch it all out

Tracy

 

[winkers]

My daughter walked in while I was reading your tr and was very excited to hear you're from Germany....she then got all excited because she is obsessed with a German band Tokio Hotel.

Anyway...in the mind of a 15 yr old girl this all made sense. I just thought it was funny.

Your post about reunification was very interesting. I still remember where I was when we heard that the Berlin wall fell. I was in 10th grade in my history class. I had taken German classes for 4 years and studied quite a bit about the country so it had a definite impact on me.

 

[englishrose47]

Very informative narration of the Berlin Wall coming down !!!I would like to say I was in 10th Grade like Winkers !!But you would need to add a few 10's !!! Eurpean History is soo complex , but sooo fascinating !!

 

[All7OfUs]

1:08 and a few seconds?!! WOW!! I am officially IMPRESSED!! Took me nearly that long to do a measly 5K!!

Your hike was beautiful. I"m sure the pictures didn't even really capture the beauty of it either. That gorge reminds me of one we saw once in the Canadian Rockies. Awesome and gorgeous, and a little bit scary with its depth and power.

I really am enjoying hearing about how much you are liking your new job and your new collegues!! IT's so great knowing you are having fun with them off the job too!! WAY TO GO!!