Deutschland

Germany was great. For the first time on the trip, I could actually communicate with the locals to a limited degree. It's not like I needed to--Germans typically speak excellent English--but it made me feel better after a few weeks of frustration in Italy.

And two words: bratwurst and beer. I had the most heavenly bratwurst of my life at some market in Munich, and beer was to be had in abundance. We were only there for a painfully short three days, visiting only Dachau and Munich. Hopefully future trips will spend longer in Deutschland...

Enough out of me. On with the pictures.

The gate leading into Dachau, which roughly translates to "work makes you free." How sadly ironic, considering that the moment they walked through that door, they were far from free.
A view into the camp through a barbed wire fence.
One of the ovens where they cremated the dead. Dachau was not a death camp like Auschwitz, but the forced labor and malnutrition—not to mention the cruelty of the SS—still claimed many lives. The juxtaposition of the flowers and the oven said a lot to me about hope. This was a hard place to be.
But all is not gloomy in Germany. Here's a whimsical stereotype: the oompah band player in a Munich market chugging back the beer—at 10am! These guys were everywhere in downtown Munich, probably due to the World Cup quarterfinal between Germany and Sweden that was being played that day.
Here was the courtyard of the Hofbräuhaus during the game. Crazy football fans.
The Hofbräuhaus was only quiet because everyone was watching the game in the courtyard. Otherwise, this place is a giant, beer swigging hall of boisterous good times.
Speaking of beer, they believe in liters in Germany. Here's Jac and I looking somewhat wearied from the heat but happy at the prospect of hoisting a stein. Did I mention that I love Germany?

Anyways, there's a little taste of Germany. Unfortunately we didn't get too many shots of the city proper. We got photo fatigue every so often on the trip and the city seems to have been one of its victims.

Next up, Zürich.

Italia Tre

Ah, here we are again. I'm not quite procrastinating, I'm just making something useful out of my necessary study breaks... right...

Well, here we go with the last batch of Italy pictures. After the Amalfi coast, we made our way through Assisi (hometown of St. Francis), Ravenna and Venice, our last Italian stop. We were in Italy for nearly three weeks. It wasn't nearly long enough, but that was the refrain of the whole trip.

This is the chapel of San Damiano monastery, where St. Francis heard the Lord say to him "rebuild my church." Francis initially took this literally and started to work on the walls. He later learned to understand metaphor!
Class is in session outside of San Vitale in Ravenna. San Vitale was completed in 548, making it one of the oldest existing basilicas in the world. Lots of early church and state political stuff tied up in this place too!
Some very cool looking marble columns inside San Vitale.
Here's me standing on a bridge over one of Venice's innumerable canals. Venice is a ridiculously photogenic city, and its a crime the amount of stuff that I'll have to leave out of this post. Maybe I'll revisit the city later on, but we've gotta keep this thing moving.
The stereotypes are true: there's gondolas everywhere. We learned that they've never actually been a truly local form of transportation - it's always been all about the tourists with these babies.
So of course, we had to ride one. Come on, it's Venice! How can't you?
This is the kind of stunning view you get from the gondola. It was so tranquil and just plain lovely in these minor canals.
You can guarantee that you won't find this sign anywhere else...
And finally, just to prove that there is land in Venice, I present this view from the top of the Rialto Bridge, one of Venice's main bridges. As you can see, Venice is a thriving tourist trap.

Well, that's it for Italy. Next stop, Munich.

Italia Due

In my last Italia post, I neglected to provide some photos from our stay in Florence that it would be a shame not to share. That out of the way with, we will continue to our next Italian stop on the lovely Amalfi coast.

Here's our group enjoying a lovely Italian dinner at our Florence campground/resort. It was a delectable multi-cheese lasagne that I could happily eat every day for the rest of my life.
Speaking of food, here's how the Florentines do gelati. You're not going to find that on Corydon! It was incredible.
This is a cool-looking street in Siena, a city close to Florence. They were Renaissance-era rivals until the plague killed off a good chunk of the Sienese. Today they're mostly renowned for the color of their bricks which inspired the color "burnt siena."
Jac got this candid shot of this cute girl eating gelato in Siena's main square.
We visited the ruins of Pompeii, with its nemesis Mount Vesuvius looming in the background.
We had a great tour guide in Pompeii, who showed us little gems like this: a phallus pointing the way to the city's red light district. The more things change...
Here's Jac standing on the water by our campground in Sorrento, looking uber-cool and model-like. Sorrento marks the approximate beginning of the Amalfi coast.
Pictures can't do justice to the experience of careening along the high roads and sheer cliffs of the Amalfi coast. This is the type of incredible view that awaits you there.
And this might give you a sense of the roads we were on. My life passed before my eyes multiple times. It was great!

Well, that's it for this time. This is taking a long time to comb through and edit everything! It helps that I should be working on an essay and that this is a convenient distraction. :)

Italia Uno

Italy will be too big for one post, so here's part one.

Our journey begins at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Here's Jac in the courtyard between the wings of the gallery.
Here's the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's only bridge to survive WWII unscathed. It dates from the 15th century.
The infamous Medici family ran Florence for centuries. Their offices were in the current Uffizi gallery (Uffizi literally means "offices") but they lived on the other side of the river. After an assassination attempt, they got paranoid and built a covered walkway from home to over the Ponte Vecchio and ending at the Uffizi (where this picture is taken from) so that they'd be safer. Nice to know paranoia isn't a modern invention...
We stopped in the hill town of Orvieto en route to Rome. It had some spectacular views from its walls into the valley below.
You get used to seeing parking like this in Rome. This picture doesn't do one thing justice though: there's usually a lot more scooters around.
Here's a panorama from the top of St. Peter's Basilica overlooking the Vatican and Rome. It's still hard to believe that we were actually there. Click on the picture: it's a bit bigger for more clarity.
Here's another panorama of the Pantheon in Rome. I would be amiss if I didn't inform you that the panorama process has made the space seem much smaller than it actually is. This place was simply breathtaking. It was built around 2000 years ago and it took nearly 1500 years before a comparable dome was built.
Here's Jac standing under the Pantheon's oculus. (that's architecture-speak for "hole in the ceiling")

Well, there's the first bit of Italy. Hopefully there will be less time between the last update and this. Thanks go to Karin for reminding my lazy ass to do this.