Germany

Travelling, travelling, travelling! All this Travelling! Yep, this time we were going to (you guessed it) Germany! We were flying on easyJet, the same airline we used to get to and from Italy. We were flying to Munich, but really we were staying at Passau, a small town that's about two hours away from Munich, and it wasn't as small as Hungerford, maybe three or four times bigger. The airport we were flying from was London Stanstead, another London airport. (In case you didn't know, London has 5 airports! London Heathrow, Gatwick, Statnstead, Luton and City airports. London Heathrow was the one that we came in from New York in, London Gatwick was the one we left and came from Italy at, and London Stanstead is the one we flew to and from Germany.) Since Stanstead was almost two hours away from Hungerford, and our flight was at 8:00, we had to wake up at almost 3:00 in the morning to get to Stanstead, go through check-in and security, and make it to our plane in time! So we got up at three, made last minute preperations and checks, loaded up the car and drove off to Stanstead. By the time we got there, it was past dawn. It was so cold, I could see my breath! We had to take a bus to get from the parking lot to the terminal building, so we did. Then when we went inside the terminal building we went to some monitors that showed us which check-in desk we had to go to so we could check in. Unfortunately it just wouldn't come, so we just went over to the Krispy Kreme doughnuts stand since we hadn't had breakfast(mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!) and then looked at the monitors again. The stubborn number wouldn't appear! We had one hour left and things were looking desperate when my dad looked around for the desk. He didn't find it, but he did find a desk that was for all easyJet flights. So we went to that and checked in, and then we sped through security, found our gate and boarded. After a small delay our plane pushed out, taxid to the runway and took off. About an hour and a half later we landed in Munich airport. I know I said we were staying in Passau, but Munich was the closest airport. And yet...it was still another two hour drive from munich to get to Passau. So my parents got in line for a rental car while Sophie, me, Cindy and Anthony waited. After a long time at the desk we went up with them. We all realized with shock that both of our parents' drivers licences had expired! But the ladies at the desk told us we could take a bus, a train, another bus and another train to get to Passau. So we did, and after we walked the long walk from the train station to our hotel, we got moved into the hotel and then Sophie, me, Cindy and Anthony watched German TV. We found Spongebob Squarepants on TV, and even in German it was still funny, so we watched it. Oh yeah, want to hear what they call it in Germany? Spongebob Schwamkopf! The Schwamkopf is pronounced shwom-kopf. Later we went out to eat at a nearby restaraunt with waiters that spoke English and acceppted US dollars! Too bad we didn't have any. Anyway, after we ate dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
I guess I never told you that my dad wasn't coming to Germany for vacation (or as they say it in Britain, holiday), he was coming for a mini business trip. There was an HP office not far away from the hotel by taxi, so after breakfast at the hotel my dad took a cab to the office. Meanwhile me, my mom, Sophie, Cindy and Anthony all went up to our rooms and got ready for the day. Then we went to a big church called the Dom that had the biggest church organ in the world. We went to listen to the concert, but there were no seats available so we had to sit on the floor. Also I thought the concert was highly boring, so I didn't listen. After the concert we went to a shop called Bear's and Friends that had tons of gummi candies everywhere. We bought a few things and then walked into a restaraunt that looked like it only had candies and ice cream, but then we saw some "real food" and decided to eat lunch there. I ordered schnitzel, something like German pork chops that I had got the previous evening for dinner. I liked them so much I ordered them again today, only they were even better here, plus they came with a mountain of french fries! After lunch we went back to the hotel and had gummies for dessert. Then we watched TV until dad came back from work. We planned to take him to the same great place we had gone to for lunch, but it was closed! So we just walked around for a while until we found an Italian restaraunt and gave in. We got gelato after (yep, Italian ice cream in Germany) dinner and then we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
The next day was Saturday, so my dad didn't have to go to work. We decided to go to the Passau castle. Well, my parents did anyway. We had already been to four castles on this entire Europe trip! I think anyone would want to stop there, but noooo, not my parents! (I think they're trying to make this trip as educational as possible) What made it worse was that we had to climb a TON of steps to get to the top. Even though I had already climbed over 300 steps in St. Peters in Rome and more than 700 in the Eiffel Tower, I was still wiped out when we finally got to the top. We didn't do much, so I won't describe it. (go to Sophie's blog for more) After we went down the horrendous staircase we ate lunch at the lunch place we had gone to yesterday that was (thankfully) open. We had to hurry though, because we were going to go, after lunch, on The Krystalchiff! Translated into English that means (duh) crystalship. We had to hurry because we thought we were going to miss it, and when we finally got to the correct dock...it wasn't even there yet! When it did come we got a window table, and I immediately started exploring the entire ship for the whole two hour trip. I never stayed in one place for long, it was so amazing! When we got back to Passau we had dessert at the lunch place and then went back to the hotel and watched TV some more. Later our mom and dad told us that we could either come with them for dinner, or stay at the hotel, watch TV while our mom and dad went out for dinner, and our mom and dad would bring back some leftovers. We chose number two, but Anthony wanted to go with mom and dad. (strange boy) So an hour later mom, dad and Anthony came back with some fish sticks and fries. We ate and then went to bed.
The next day was Sunday, so we had to go to church. We went to the Dom. Since it was in German, I didn't pay attention. After church we went back to the hotel and changed into regular day clothes. We were going to Austria that day, to a town called Salsburgh. If you know a lot about Motzart or the movie The Sound of Music, you'll know that Salsburgh was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadaus Motzart, one of the world's most famous music composers, and the place where they filmed The Sound of Music. Anyway, we had to take two train rides to get to Salsburgh, each an hour long. When we did get there, we met a tour guide who spoke English and German. (in case you didn't know, German is the native language of Austrians) We were forced to take a one hour tour of Salsburgh with the tour guide in a mini-van by our mom and dad, but this tour was their idea anyway. I didn't pay any attention at at all. When it was done we looked inside a big cathedral (by popular request by my mom of course) and then, after passing by the statue of Motzart, walked through Christmas and Easter shops (in the middle of August? These Europeans are going nutso!) we ate a really early dinner (my mom's idea again) at a British, Italian and Indian restaraunt all rolled into one! Then we got ice cream at a cafe' that happened to be in the bottom floor of Motzart's house remodeled! Then we went to a park and played for a while before going to the train station and taking the two train rides back to Passau. By then it was late at night and we took a cab to our hotel. We went up to our rooms and went to bed.
The next day we had to leave. But first we had three hours to kill before we had to go to the train station and leave. While my dad went to work again, the rest of us went to Bear's and Friend's again and a bunch of other shops before meeting my dad at the train station. We took the train, bus, train and bus back to the Munich airport. Then, with our luck, we had to go through a really big check in and really big passport control line. Then our flight was delayed by like two hours and when we finally got to Stanstead we got the biggest shock of all. There was a HUGE, NIGHTMARISH, HIDEOUS, OUTSTANDINGLY LONG, UNBEARABLE and TERRIFYING SLUG-PACE passport control line. No, it was worse than that, readers. If you're from the U.S, here's what it was like: think Disneyland/Disneyworld; think Matterhorn bobsleds; think peak time, and multiply that by ten. That's how big it was. It probably took longer to get through the line than how long our plane was delayed by. But we miracuoulsly lived, and by the time we got out it was almost 2 in the morning. Then we took a bus to our parking lot, loaded up the car and drove home, and, not surprisingly, fell right asleep.