Traveling to Munich

Today we don't have very much planned.  We are traveling to Munich to go to Oktoberfest.  We are all really excited about it but we needed to go a little over 300 miles.  We stopped at Super Target (yes they do have Target in Germany) to get food because we didn't bring any food from the United States.  We went inside with $250 and completly stocked the RV with all the food you could imagine.  We go canned soup for lunch, pringles, pretzals, sodas, and some drinks for Oktoberfest.  We got 20 HungryMan dinners.  We hope that will last for at least 5 days.  We also purchased multiple DVDs for entertainment because we are not allowed to drive the RV on the Autobahn.  We were forced to take some side roads and back roads where the speed limit was between 30mph and 50mph.  With traffic it is going to take about 8 hours to get there.  Luckily the company gives us 150 miles of gas per day included in our price.  After that they charged us $1.50 per mile.  To travel the whole way it only cost us $475 and we are going to be set for a couple of days.  We decided to switch off driving every hour.  When we were on uncrowded stretches of road we all stood up and whoever was  driving would rapidly slow down and try to knock us over.  It was not very intelligent or responsible but it sure passed the time well.  We also tried to do handstands while the RV was moving and the first one to fall had to sleep on the roof. Elliot lost so he is getting kicked out as soon as we stop. Its freezing outside but we will give him a sleeping bag don't worry.  I will tell you how this goes tommorrow.

Berlin Zoo

Today we went to one of the largest zoos in the entire world. The Berlin Zoo. It was so cool. We didnt even manage to see all of the animals there, there were too many. There were 1400 animals and we only had three hours to see them. We got to see the pandas, but when we got there, they werent doing anything. It was exciting seeing the sheer power of their jaws ripping the bamboo apart. The rest of the animals got fed at about 12:00, and that was pretty interesting. Most of the habitats where inside because it was too cold for them outside.  There was a reptile house that had a 23 foot anaconda inside.  When it moved you could see his muscles rippling throughout his body.  Maybe we can come back soon and see them again if we have time.

The Flight

Today is the first day of our long and hopefully very exciting vacation. Unfortunately we did not start on a good note, and I would rather catch the flu, than go through it again. For starters, the tickets are $818 a person, just to get there! I hardly believe this charge was worth the excessive security measures. It seamed like almost every 100 yards there was a security checkpoint. Now with the new full body scanners it takes about twice as long just to make it through the terminal. It is fine now though, we made it through the airport, and we are sitting on the plane on the way to germany. I hope that all of this hassle pays off in the end. The plane is quite comfortable and roomy.  Luckily there was almost no one on the plane and the flight attendant was nice enough to let us sit in first class. We were on a Boieng 767 that had maybe 15 people on board.  The seats where wide and offset so there was more leg room.  It was probably the longest flight I have ever been on.  We got 3 meals and watched movies on a flat screeen on the wall.  The flight attendant let us pick and we chose Snakes on a Plane just to make the flight more interesting.  4395 miles seemed like a lot less when we were planning this trip last year.  There was a monitor on the wall that was displaying flight information for the passenger.  We were flying at 480 mph and the flight lasted roughly 10 hours.  We have reclining seats so most of us are going to sleep now.  I will try to write more when we land.

Touring Berlin

Today I got stuck with driving the RV around Berlin.  We all got up around 9 a.m. as we are not yet acclimated to the time here.  While they were in the back chilling I got to sit in the drivers seat for a little over an hour.  You would be surprised how hard it is to get a 42 foot bus through the clogged and crowded streets of Berlin and even better: the parking.  There is no-where to park the huge beast in this city.  I finally found an empty parking garage and took up 7 spaces in the back.  We walked about a block and a half to Museum Island.  This is kind of like the National Mall in DC.  There are a lot of Museums and buildings around a large square.  The outside of the Museum was beautiful.  It had manicured lawns that where starting to turn a golden yellow because of the cold and there were huge columns with armed security guards outside.  It was mainly a sculpture museum with hundreds of sculptures in many different materials.  There were some that were simply made out of hardened clay that were of people and animals that were truly brilliant.  There were some made out of blown glass that where made into the shape of letters and one was in the shape of a person.  When we got into the depths of the halls we got to the more modern arts.  Here we found steel beams that were bolted together in totally random ways that forced us to find things it might signify. We really couldn't think of anything.  As we were leaving after about 4 hours wandering that halls we made it to the exit.  Great news.  We got selected for a random search to make sure we didn't steal anything.  Four security guards approached us at the exit and asked us to follow them.  We did and they made us stand in an X-Ray machine that scanned us completely from head to toe.  I guess they don't have he same laws that we do in America.  When they were done looking us over we were kicked to the curb and we had to trudge back to the RV. We were not allowed to park anywhere overnight so we were once again forced to endure the terrible traffic back to the outskirts of the city where we were able to lock up for the night and go to sleep.  It was overall a great day and I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Our First Full Day in Germany

We just landed in Berlin after a very long flight.  The security was not too bad but we had a little trouble at customs.  The Customs agent there did not speak English and none of us speak German.  It took us about 5 minutes for him to realize that we could not understand I thing he was saying.  He started out talking incredibly fast in German and eventually looked up and saw our blank faces.  He began to slow down assuming he was just speaking too fast for a couple of Germans who had just gotten off a long flight.  After about 2 minutes of him talking to us like we were six he called for an interpreter and we finally got through.  We made arrangements for the RV to be dropped off at the airport.  One thing we did not anticipate was the airport being so big and we had no idea where it would be.  We walked around for roughly ten minutes before we finally got the great idea to call the company and ask them where it was.  We got them on one of our cell phones, which we had hoped not to use, and they told us that they had a car waiting to take us to the parking garage where it was left.  When we got to it I we were in awe.  The thing was massive! The pictures did not even come close to capturing the essence of the sheer size of the vehicle.  When the door opened there was a very Star Trek like whoosh and three steps folded out.  When we walked in there was mood lighting lit dimly and a person from the company waiting for us to arrive and check our IDs.  He looked at our passports and gave us a quick tour.  It looked a lot bigger from the outside.  Unfortunately there was only sleeping for 4 so we needed to make someone sleep on the floor.  We would alternate so it wouldn't be bad.  After our long flight and the time change we were all pretty tired.  Elliot was lucky and got the fold out couch after doing rock paper scissors with Corey.  Corey got the queen in the back and I got the couch in the same room.  Jason got the convertible table and Dylan got stuck with the sleeping bag on the floor.  This is where I sign off.  Hopefully more tomorrow.