Off the trail

We are heading home and maybe it is the thought of airplane food, but our final reflective thoughts wander to food we have had over the last few days.

The most important lesson Jared took away from the trip is that beer, bread and chocolate are necessities of life. If not for our rations, we may not have made it to our first hostel given the train delays. Later, these foundations of good health kept us in good spirits on the long train rides between Munich and Gimmewald. Finally, we made sure to grab a loaf for our ride home... Just in case.

The second most important lesson Jared learned was the expert skill of wandering. Not only does it lead to new favorite spots, new adventures and new friends, but it also leads to the best food. We found that the further away from other tourists, the better the food. In Switzerland, we were half way up Mt Shilthorn, and the best food was a 1.5 hour walk further up hill. We were welcomed with a warm cheese kitchen, homemade dumpling soup, a loving dog named Joey and a family still celebrating their recent perfect score on their cheese competition. In Germany, while driving along, we took frequent turns off the "highway" (racetrack) to see the countryside. While out there, we stopped for food twice. It was by far the best food we had. The locals each had some homemade special and we both lost all self control. Jason's diet didn't stand a chance and Jared's appetite grew as large as him. To give you an image of what we mean, here is Jared finishing off a homemade, homegrown strudel and locking in the memory. To give a little context, he already finished up a schnitzel, and a plum cake. He wanted the strudel to be the last taste he had. Look at that face:

Cooking with petrol

Well, after a few hiccups in getting situated, we now have this traveling thing down to a science. You might say we are now "cooking with (diesel) petrol!"

We finished up rainy Switzerland a day early on an epic day of canyoning. With big jumps, repelling down waterfalls and lots of floating through the Sax canyon, we left Interlaken on a great note!

Then, we traveled back to Munich, which involved flawless transfers between six trains and trams. We spent some time in Bern and had a breakfast of beer, vegetables, sausage, kraut and coffee, with a beautiful view of old town Bern and next to some bear pits (seriously). Then, we checked out the Einstein museum and a beach volleyball tournament in the city. (Again, seriously). That was not enough though, we saw a parade and a greeting for Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany). We could not make this up! She waved to the crowd and the crowd waved back without cheering - cheering must not be considered austere enough.

We settled into our final German digs, a comfortable hotel. No more hostels.

The next day, we visited a moving museum for concentration camps. It is at the site of Dachau, the first camp of its kind. Both of us were quite touched and shocked by the horrors that occurred. Though it reflects activities from so long ago, humanity seems to be making the same mistakes in other regions over and over again. Shocking! We were marginally uplifted to hear there was a nearby uprising against Dachau and Hitler at the local university. A couple students published brochures stating their disagreement. Unfortunately, two days later, they were sentenced to death and executed. The University keeps their brochures enshrined in gold plates at their main building.

The next day, we rented a car (BMW 2 series convertible) and head off to see some castles. As a perk, we enjoyed a little drive down the autobahn. We knew we had started on the autobahn as soon as we saw an Audi R8 blow by us with a huge roar, making us look like we were standing still. Welcome to Germany, Jared and Jason! As a metaphor for how the drive went, let's just blur the details - it was a good time and we are safe.

The castles were a monument to the childhood tales of a Bavarian King. He was repeatedly called an "enigmatic" character and eventually pronounced officially unfit to rule. We think he was just misunderstood. He was a significant patron of arts and science, following in his father's footsteps. His primary focus was on medieval literature. His aesthetic style followed King Louis the IX. All these details led to a castle filled with scenes from legends and tales from his childhood in extremely intricate and beautiful detail. It's existence suggested he had a lot of free time. We thought the castle was more pretty than defensible, but that could have been the timing of the build at the end of the 19th century - not many feudal wars were still expected by then.

The museum experience helped enlighten us about Munich and the Bavarian culture. We were fascinated by the strategy to make Munich a cultural and scientific hub. This was a version of power and influence in the area. To solidify this strategy, "October fest" was created to bring the various houses closer together. We agree with the strategy - fight for the best beer, not the most land and we will all prosper together (albeit drunk)!

One more detail about the autobahn, Jared looked good in the ride:

Hikology

The syllabus for the Switzerland school of hiking:

Hiking 101: we had already taken this class

- Plan your trip using a local map (we can read one now)

- Ask for tips on places to go

- Take note of other people's thoughts on the weather

- Plan backup options in case the weather gets bad

- Plan for good, hot soup and cold beer for when the trail is over

- Pack a great jacket just in case 

- Remember to pick something up to leave in the lockbox on top of the mountain (Jared's choice was eyeliner that he claims he "found")

- Heard cows and sheep off your path using clapping and loud noises

Hiking 201: we skipped this class 

- Wake up early enough to miss weather 

- When you don't wake up early, don't bite off too much trail

- Goats do not herd as easily as other livestock - they attack 

- When the third person you pass reminds you to get off the mountain before the rain starts, consider it good advice

- When the fifth person gives you good advice, follow it

- Always remember the name of the backup option in case the weather gets bad 

- Ravines you crossed when the weather was good fill up when the weather gets bad

Hiking 301: we had to take this class because we skipped 201

- Nearby wood makes a great bridge 

- Ideal climbing approach in bad weather uses all four limbs

- Water in your shoes can feel warm after your feet go numb

- Hand driers and room heaters at tourist joints along the way can dry clothes too

- Dumpling soup warms the soul

- The dog that spent the morning herding the cows to be milked is also wet and cold, and should absolutely eat with the tourists

We found this hiking curriculum wonderfully effective. If you do decide to take the course, we highly recommend professor Shilthorn (our mountain)

-Jared & Jason

Sent from a mobile device

Breakfast in Bern

Totally normal breakfast, right?

Getting cultured

Despite our ongoing travel failures, we have done our best to meet as many people as possible and see everything we can along the way. So far, so good. Each new conversation is an eye opening experience. We have met people from all around the world.

Jared's favorite encounter was a conversation with a Russian from Moscow and a Ukrainian from Danesk. Danesk is a war torn Ukrainian controlled city with Russian allegiances. Right now, the people there are starving because Ukraine does not like that they have Russian allegiances, and Russia can not support Danesk while it is still controlled by Ukraine. We met these two guys that know each other from a past travel experience. One guy is a ballet dancer not afraid to bring his skills to the dance floor and the other just liked to have fun and learn English. Both had strong opinions about the ongoing conflict. The Ukrainian shared the constant struggle his family faced just to find food in Danesk and explained how lucky he was to be able to go to school for ballet at the top school in Europe. The Russian explained his belief that the politicians & media in Russia tell him the truth, while American politicians and media only lie. He did not see a conflict in state control of Russian media. What a set of interesting perspectives!

Jason's favorite experience was the German museum. The combination of lots of engineered metal products on display and a brother with a lot of metal work knowledge led to a great afternoon. Jared successful ruled out two career paths: submariner and miner. One exhibit had Germany's first U-boat on display from world war 1. The exhibit cut away the wall of the boat so that we could see right in. Jared did not like the size of the door ways, the beds or the galley ways. We both stared at the intricacies of the engine, the exposed crank shaft and the ballast tanks. After the boat exhibit, we went to the mining section. The mining exhibit put us in cramped quarters to give us the feeling of being in a mine. It worked. While we are not claustrophobic, it was certainly uncomfortable. Jared walked out of the museum with a back ache from all the ducking through the mining exhibit.

Outside of specific experiences, we have thoroughly enjoyed just walking along streets that are hundreds of years old, through palaces that tell tales of Germany's rises and falls and over bridges that just plain look old. Below is a picture from our beach day where we had sun, a view of a church and an old bridge. Pretty cool!

We are writing this from a train on our way to Switzerland. At this point, Jared has realized he should have trained for our city walking in Munich. I can't wait to see how he handles the mountain trails in Switzerland!

This map must be in German!

To set the stage, neither of us ever won an award for map reading. That would have required us to do it at least once before. So, instead we took the approach of enjoying the journey and deciding that wherever we ended up would be our new favorite spot.

At this point, Jared and I are fairly certain that our hotel exists in a different universe. The only way to enter that universe is by achieving a feeling of intense desperation. Typically, we enter that state by searching for multiple hours. Luckily, that strategy has worked.

Upon arriving in Munich, we knew we had to get on the airport train to go to the main train terminal in Munich (Hbf). Seems relatively easy, especially since all trains run through it (so we thought). The little detail we were missing: a train accident caused them to shut down the line running through the middle of the city. We give ourselves a pass on missing that little detail because all notices were in German.

After getting to the end of the line of our first train, it became clear that we skipped our stop. Luckily, the rations of bread, beer and water had yet to run out. We went back the other direction carefully looking at each stop on the map as we got to it. Sure enough, we figured out what was going on and a helpful Bayern fan pointed us in the right direction.

Later that day, we were walking around aimlessly. Not necessarily because we didn't know our intended destination, just simply that we were not getting there. We have no excuse for this. We can only say we are trying to get better at reading a map.

Broadly, all our first day goals have been achieved. Jared has now successfully purchased a beer ... or two. We have thoroughly explored local bars and dining establishments. Our gardening skills have been honed in a fine institution of a German beer garden. We learned about the gadget scene in the German bocci ball community (seriously, gadgets for bocci ball!). And throughout it all, we refined our tastes for German beer and Cuban cigars. Life is good!

The picture below is in front of the Hoffbrau Hous. Unfortunately, you may not otherwise know that because our carefully selected, volunteer photographer could not frame the picture. We see it as a metaphor of our trip. Certain decisions may not catch the most of Germany, but we make the best of the ride and look good while doing it.

-the Harp brothers

Welcome to international air travel, Jared

Well, despite all advice from those who know, Jason had the bright idea to cut our times close. We only had 1 hour between flights at the Toronto airport. Jason was thinking we might just cut out a couple hours of airport sitting... Well, we did. There was no sitting. No standing. No walking. Just running.

Where should I start.... We were passing the last business class section ... and then the first coach section ... and that's when jason informed me he did not have status on this airline. We were the last seat in the very back of the plane, and when the plane was late, we were the last people to get off. We had the pilots right behind us. But don't worry, we were not in a hurry or anything. How could we be? We were not transferring airlines, let alone terminals. Surely, they would have all this figured out... Right?

Even as we arrived at the back of the long line at customs, the gate agent reassured us that we would be just fine. We laughed, joked, noted the different languages around us and just soaked it all in... We should have been stretching.

Then, the customs agent said we would miss our flight, and Jason bolted, only stopping to check the board to see that our gate was the very last gate in the airport... And to see that our flight was on the final call. Jason took off and cleared the way for me. It was a tough job, pushing aside senior citizens and toddlers. It must have really taken it out of him.

Then, Jared got smart and cut a corner. I lost him and doubled back. On this "faster" route, Jared realized that he had not zipped up his bag after customs. Luckily, by the time I found him, he had collected his stuff and we were back on the sprint.

As we make it to the gate just in time, one gate agent asks for our tickets and the other asks us our last name. In unison, we say, "The Harp brothers" and let the doors close behind us.

Can't wait for the flight to Munich - it's better to start a long flight sweating, right?