My goal for this trip was to blog every day… major fail so far.   But I am going to try to do it from here on out, but first a little update of where we have been and what we have been doing.

We spent the first week of our trip in Berlin (Germany) and the surrounding areas.  On our first full day we explored Berlin’s Cathedral, walked along the Spree River, went to museum island and took in the Altes and Pergamon Museums. Our first full day ended with a candlelit dinner at the top of the Berlin (TV) tower, at sunset.

Sunday, on our second full day, I woke up with a bad head cold. Walking around was not an option, so we hung out at the hotel – I slept, and Allyn worked. The next day I felt somewhat human again, and we went back to exploring Berlin.  Our day started by going to Germany’s parliament building – Reichstag building – and walking up into its glass dome.

Then we explored the Brandenburg Gates.

Followed by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Then we walked over to Check Point Charlie and different parts of the Berlin Wall.

The next day started with the drive out to Wolfsburg, Germany to tour Volkswagen. After the tour, we visited Autostadt, which is a museum/theme park for Volkswagen enthusiast.

Our last day in the Berlin area was spent in Potsdam, where we visited Cecilienhof, took a walk by a lake and then visited Sanssouci Palace and Park.

After a short flight from Berlin, we arrived in Munich. Shortly after we arrived at our hotel, thunderstorms set in and we decided to relax for the rest of the evening. The following morning, we got up and went to the BMW factory and museum.

That evening we went for a short walk into downtown Munich, did some shopping and got dinner.

The following day we were supposed to get up and drive out to the Alps, but we both overslept so we decided to get up explore downtown Munich some more.  We were able to make it downtown by noon to see the Rathaus-Glockenspiel (basically a big cuckoo clock) go off.  Then we explored a few churches and walked through a traditional German market.

We had a late lunch at the (original) Hofbrauhaus and then did some more shopping before we headed back to our hotel.

The next morning, we did manage to get up and get moving, so we did an early morning drive out the Berchtesgaden where took the first bus up into the Alps to visit Eagle’s Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) and do some hiking.

On our way back to Munich we stopped in Chiemsee and explored one of the lakes and visited Herrenchiemsee, which was King Ludwig’s summer castle. Additionally, Herrenchiemsee is a copy of the Palace of Versailles, just done in a much grander Germany style.

While the Herrenchiemsee and grounds were pretty, Allyn was disappointed that he could not take pictures inside. He said he didn’t want to go to any more castles where he could not take pictures inside.  So, with that noted. I changed our plans from visiting Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles, the next day to visiting the Munich Residenz. The change was probably for the best because Neuschwanstein castle and the Marienbruck (Queen Mary’s Bridge) was undergoing preservation work, which interferred with the photography plans.

At the Munich Residenz, Allyn got his fill of taking pictures. So much so that this camera battery died halfway through. Like many other places, the Residenz was undergoing preservation work, so some of the rooms were closed off, which was fine because it is a palace that can go on forever.  While it contains some beautiful rooms, it is not air conditioned, so it gets quite miserable after a while, due to lack of air flow.

In addition to visiting the Residenz, we also visited several other churches in downtown Munich.

Later that afternoon I found laundromat and did laundry, which was an adventure in itself!

The next day – this past Tuesday – we got up a drove to Ingolstadt to visit and tour Audi (factory and museum).

Then after we finished at Audi, we drove to Stuttgart, where yesterday we visited Porsche.

Today our plan is visit Mercedes-Benz and maybe explore a little bit of downtown Stuttgart.

So far I have taken around 10,000 photos and I working on going through them, editing and posting them.  I am hoping to go back and write about the places we have visited.   I am posting my pictures on my photo blog – http://www.canonscanon.com – in the Germany album – https://canonscanon.com/portfolio/germany/