Look at the Monkeys

I love London. Well, more specifically I love museums in London. Plus I love geocaching. It seems the two go together quite well. Let me explain. The day started off with Marshall leaving early to get into Wimbledon, which was rained out. I had the whole day to myself so I started off by going to the London Museum of Science. It was cool and I spend about 2 hours there. I got kind of bored though and was tired of reading. Most of that stuff I had seen before in other museums in D.C. and such. After that museum I was going to go into the history museum first, but decided to do a geocache first. The cache took me to a museum I had never heard of, and clues in the form of a maze that I had to do inside the museum to end up at a piece of art. Well let�s just say that this museum turned out to be one of the best I had ever been to in my life. It was the V&A Museum and features art and other items from thousands of years of history. There was everything from Japanese artwork to giant roman monoliths. The place was amazing and I got caught up in there for quite a while; and to think I would have never found this if not for geocaching! After that I did some more caches (it was raining all day too). While I was doing one cache (a virtual one for a sign on a wall) the owner of the cache happened to walk by and I talked to him for a bit. He said the cache was almost 3 years old and that this was the first time he had never saw someone finding it while he walked by. Another cache led me to the famous spot from Harry Potter at the train station where you get on the Hogwarts Express; another cache took me to the very top of St. Paul�s Cathedral, which was the most steps I had ever climbed in my life! Later it was off to see The Producers, which ended up being an amazing show. I cannot stress how cool it was to see it, so you have to go see it, or at least see the movie. So now I am packed ready to leave back to the U.S. tomorrow morning. It has been a good trip, but I think I am ready to come back now anyways. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. I might type up a conclusion later also. Other than that I will see everyone soon! Thanks for coming to my site and reading about my tales. ~Kyle

After breakfast we took a stroll over to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. The place was a zoo. There had to be thousands of people there to see it. I did not think it was such a big ordeal, especially since they do it everyday! Yet we stood around while all the stuff happened and I still can not figure out why the British guard band was playing the Mission Impossible theme in the Palace!? After we went to a few more landmarks while I found some geocaches and eventually went to a pub where we watched England beat Ecuador in a pretty lame match. Another walk through more Hyde Park, some more caches, and a rest before dinner and walking around. Sunday night is not as happening as Saturday, so it was disappointing. Tomorrow Marshall is going to Wimbledon stuff all day while I check out some museums and lots of geocaching. Then we also get to see The Producers! Cheers ~ Kyle�. P.S. My fish bone was no longer in the back of my throat when I woke up. Yay!

Today we woke up and had our homemade breakfast and left for another city tour. It was one of those ones that you could hop off and on so we got off to see some of the British guards (one of which you could really tell was about to crack) and then again to see Big Ben and the palace. We spent a good deal of time in the Tower of London. There are so many little nooks and crannies there we spend a few hours looking around. We even got to see the royal jewels and such. It is weird seeing movies of Queen Elizabeth being crowned because it seems like something you read out of a history book, yet it is still happening in modern countries. We then watched Germany destroy Switzerland at a pub where I ordered fish and chips. Unfortunately, many hours later I still have a fish bone stuck in my throat the remains to be stubborn.  We get back to the hotel and buy tickets online for The Producers on Monday night. Yet afterwards we still went to the discount theatre booth and picked up tickets to see Stomp about 30 minutes later. After running around unable to find the theatre, we find it with about one minute to spare to see the amazing show. I will not go into details and such, but it was very good. After that we strolled the streets. It looks like downtown London is the place to be because the city was packed. There were almost as many people as there were in Germany during the World Cup, and this is just a normal weekend in London. Now, as I try to still lodge this dumb fish bone out of my throat it is time for bed. Cheers!

Not too much to say about today. Got on a train, got on another train, then a plane to Brussels, then a plane to London. An express train to the city from the airport got cancelled, so had to take a shuttle forever to the hotel. Got in around 9PM. Walked around a bit, ate some food, saw some stuff. Just from walking around for a few hours, the city reminds me of Washington DC with the way the streets are laid out and the buildings. Also, it is odd being here because the atmosphere is totally different. In Germany, the World Cup is going on so the country is prepared for millions of extra people. Everything is easily on display for travelers, and everything is easy to find. In London, we are just on vacation. To make it worse the tube (aka subway) is completely color-coded without any other means of distinguishing the lines; which does not make it easy for us colorblind folk. Tomorrow we wake up early, have breakfast, then off to a city tour. Sorry for no pictures, but I only took a few so they will go with tomorrows. Cheers ~Kyle

Our last full day in Germany was spent in Nuremberg. We took the hour and a half train in the morning to beat the pre-game rush. We got there early enough to see some sights. The town has some interesting architecture and sculptures around the city. We walked around a castle located at the top of the city and looked around a bit before the match. The crowed was not as lively as some of the other matches, yet there were plenty of US supporters everywhere. On the way to the came many of us US fans came together and marched to the stadium. The game was a bit disappointing (as was the entire US performance during this World Cup), and the call that led to the penalty kick was a joke. It was disappointing to see the rudeness of the Americans in the audience, but I guess we are just not used to seeing the US suffer so badly in a sport, seeing as how we always conquer over everything else. So now we leave in the morning for London for a few nights then back to the states before July hits. So that raps up my experience in Germany. Overall I had a wonderful time and was glad to be able to experience. Untill next time! ~Kyle

As our trip starts to come to an end we spent today on a guided tour through what was once the Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. Now, we all know what went on there so I will not go into all that stuff, but just over some interesting things we learned. While many thousands of individuals were killed at Dachau, it was not intended to be an extermination camp, but a work camp. It was the first state camp and was meant for political and other prisoner (there were many Jews, but they were a minority). It was opened in 1933 to the public and was publicly displayed to be a work camp where they trained the inmates to become the �correct� German, then set free; although we all know what really happened. After the U.S. liberated the camp it was used for many years to house other people and went through many remodels. By the time it was decided to become a memorial, much of it did not look the same. Because of this they tore down much of it and rebuilt some of the buildings as they were during its concentration camp days. None of the bunkers are original. As you can see in the pictures they only rebuild a few and put the outline in stone of all that used to be there, which was a lot. The individual cells, the crematorium, and many of the pistol ranges were all still there. As sad as it is to be there, it seems like some of the sentiment is taken away because of the atmosphere. The place is so crowded and so many people just seem to be walking around as if they were at a crummy amusement park, and not a memorial for thousands of individuals. It is sad because the atmosphere takes away much of the power and impact that the Dachau memorial has. For example, my experiences at many of the memorials in Washington D.C. seem to have a much more respectful atmosphere, and not just a few hundred people fighting to take pictures. But I guess it is not fair for me to compare the two. Anyways it was a very interesting place to see after reading so many books and learning it in school every year since middle school.

Tomorrow is the U.S. last match before the quarterfinals and we will have to see how it turns out. We will be taking an early train to Nuremberg to see the sites before the match.

We took our train ride to Munich. I watched the movie Lucky Number Slevin on my laptop, which was a very good movie on the ride. We had previously been in Munich for a few days so the area was not new to us. We got to our hotel and relaxed a bit. After a while to went out to the English Gardens in Munich. There were hundreds of people there waiting the Germany vs Ecuador match start. We watched the game at a bar because it was way too hot outside and you barley see the big screen with the glare. At the bar we were served some special shots that were colored black, red, and yellow; like the German flag and were layered like a elementary school science project. I asked and it was black vodka, strawberry, and mango juice. After seeing the amazing 3-0 German victory it was of course crazy on the streets. I think most of the crowd was in Berlin because CNN reported over 100 thousand people in the same spot we celebrated the Brazil win a few days ago. After that we ate and I went back near the hotel and watched another good match, England vs Sweden as the score ended in a tie at 2-2 within overtime. Tomorrow we might be going to Dachau concentration camp and maybe some other stuff as our trip starts to come to an end. After tomorrow we will be in Nuremberg all day Thursday to see the US play Ghana, and then we leave for London on Friday! Cya soon everyone! ~Kyle

P.S. I have been told my spelling is atrocious. Well I do not care, lol. I type these up real fast usually around midnight here. 

Today we got up and took a train from Mannheim to Stuttgart, which is only like a 30 minute train ride away. Once we got there we met up with an old friend of Marshalls who showed us around a little. Our first stop was to the Mercedes factory where we took the tour. It was amazing to see so many machines doing so much work. Unfortunately photography was not allowed. This was part of the reason why I did not take a single picture today! After the tour we got to relax a little in their home and eventually we went to a small town and ate at a local place, which was really good. After we went to a small town and looked around. Here I was very upset I did not have my camera on me because it was the perfect little German town that makes me want to move out here and forget about the US. Kids playing in the street, horses drinking from fountains, and cobblestone roads all around in this little town. The sun was coming down and created a color in the sky that I had never seen before. After that we came back and relaxed and I was treated to a collection of liquor that I had never seen or heard of before. Just a relaxing day as we head back over to Munich to finish off our trip and see the last US match (unless they make the 16!) on Thursday.

Today we slept in after not getting back till after 2am from the US match. It is our last day in Mannheim and there is not a whole lot to do here so we hopped on a train to the nearby town of Karlsruhe. The train ride was about 50 minutes and after we got there we went to a medieval sort of building near the town. I am guessing it was medieval because people were dressed up like knights and such. It was blazing hot outside so we walked around, trying to stay as much in the shade as possible. I realized while we were walking around that we should have bought bikes when we got here. 90% of people are on bicycles. I mean they are everywhere. There are hundreds of them parked all over the cities, and for the most part you can take them on the trains. We should have bought some cheap bikes when we got here, took them with us everywhere, then sold them at the end of the trip. Oh well, too late now.

Another thing I have noticed over the weeks are the way bottles are recycled. Oh yeah, another thought real quick: there is not such thing as free water in Germany. It is annoying because you are used to water fountains, or tap water; but not in Germany. Everything comes in bottles (including cola), and is barely cold, and never with ice. The reason I mentioned that quickly is because it adds to the amount of bottles that are around the city. They have trashcans with labels for recyclables, but some also end up on the street and such. What is unusual here is that people collect them. And when I say �people� I do not mean the homeless. Yes, there are some homeless here picking up bottles, but it seems groups of people walk around picking up bottles. Some bums do not even look like bums (they might not be), they just carry around large bags, or even suitcases and pick up bottles. They even go through the bins and sort out the trash to get the bottles. Today I saw a bunch of children doing it to. I do not know if it is a program set up for the World Cup or not, but I am assuming they are giving them a decent amount of money back for the bottles. I think this is true because yesterday in Kaiserslautern (and everywhere else), when you bought a drink you pay extra for the cup (the ones at the stadium have logos and WC designs), but you can bring the cup back and get your deposit back, which ranges from .50 to 1 euro. Most people do not do this and either leave them or throw them away. Well at the end of the game yesterday I collected a few cups that were left in our row. I had a decent stack and went to the concession stand, and they gave me nearly 15 euros for the empty cups. So next game, I am totally walking around collecting cups after the game.

All right, lastly we came back in town to see the Brasil vs Australia match. Brasil won, and we went out to east dinner. By the time we got out from dinner and onto the streets there was a parade of over 100 people celebrating in the streets for Brasil. They took up the whole street and police had to escort them around. It was crazy because it is not even like they won the whole World Cup, just one match and people took to the streets.

Anyways, tomorrow we are off to Stuttgart in the morning, so catch ya later. ~Kyle

The first thing we did was found a laundry mat and washed some cloths. Most of my cloths I have been washing in the sink because it all dries quickly, but Marshall had a lot of cloths to wash (because he brought a lot of cloths) and I had one or two things. It was interesting trying to figure out the machines when everything is in German, but we figured it out. After that it was time to get going to the United States vs Italy game in Kaiserslautern, which is about an hour away. We hoped on a train that luckily was not completely crowded and made the trip. The town was crowded, even 8 hours before the match. There were tons of fans of both Italy and the US in the town. While I will say it was not as pumped up as the US fans in Gelsenkirchen, there were more people in the town and it was very crowded. We walked around for hours, ate some food, and eventually made our way to the stadium. It was a decent walk to the stadium, but at least we did not have to get on a crowded bus or tram. The whole stadium was pumped up because everyone knew this was going to be a tough match. The US needed to win this one to make it to the next round, and Italy is defiantly no push over. It was exciting after kick off because the US dominated the first half and by the end, even after 2 red cards, the score was tied 1-1. The second half unfortunately was not as dominated by the US, but we score was still tied by the end of the match. After the train ride back we had to walk everywhere because by this time is was 1am and none of the transportation was up and running. So now the US has a little bit of a chance to make it to the next round if they beat Ghana and Italy also wins. So we will see next week� ~Kyle