Trip to Germany

By Dan Allen
8-14 October 2001

This was a trip of firsts: our first time to Europe, our first time in a 747, and our first time in a foreign-speaking country together. Neither of us speak German either! And how was it? Fabulous! We had a wonderful time of it.

My wife and I decided to go to Germany before September 11th. Nevertheless we went and had no fears about terrorists. The airport part of the trip was slow and not much fun however.

Why Germany? We both had always wanted to see the Alps and we found a great deal on Expedia.com for two round trip tickets and 5 nights at a 4-star hotel. Since our world cruise had fizzled earlier this year I really wanted to go to see Europe, especially before March 1st of 2002 when the Euro completely replaces local currencies.

Timetable

Here is how we spent our time. Each day has photos with details about what we did that day.
Just follow the seven links below to enjoy your virtual trip!

Day #	Date	Place	Notes
1	Mon 8th	Seattle to London	British Airways 747
2	Tue 9th	London, London to Munich	British Airways 767
3	Wed 10th	Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Regional Train
4	Thu 11th	Salzburg, Austria	Regional Train
5	Fri 12th	Munich - Shopping & Art	U-Bahn (subway)
6	Sat 13th	Munich - Marienplatz	U-Bahn (subway)
7	Sun 14th	Munich to London, London to Seattle	British Airways 757, 747

German Money

Click here for history and photos of German money.

German Flags

Here is the Bavarian flag:

and here is the Munich flag:

Germany Statistics

Germany has 16 states, Bavaria being the only state we visited on this trip. Bavaria is 27,213 square miles in size, with a population of 11,000,000 people.

Munich has 1,298,537 people, the third largest city in all of Germany. Munich is the capital of Bavaria, and is the "Silicon Valley" of Germany. It is located at N 48.13°, E 11.55°, has an altitude of 170 feet, and is located about 31 miles north of the Alps. Climate details can be found here.

Here is how Germany households compare in terms of possesions:

% of Households	Item
99	Refrigerator
95	TV set
94	Washing machine
79	Bicycle
75	Car
58	Microwave oven
52	Dishwasher
51	Cable TV
48	Personal computer
36	Dryer
17	Internet access
18	Camcorder
6	Laptop computer

Car Facts

BMW has its world headquarters in Munich. (48.1333° N, 11.5500° E)
Audi has its world headquarters in Ingolstadt, 44 miles north of Munich. (48.7667° N, 11.4333° E)
Mercedes Benz has its world headquarters in Stuttgart, 113 miles west of Munich. (48.6833° N, 9.2166° E)
Volkswagen has its world headquarters in Wolfsburg, 299 miles north of Munich. (52.4330° N, 10.8000° E)
45% of all Audis made are diesel.
80% of German taxies are made by Mercedes Benz.
100% of German taxies are diesel.

Summary

My expectation before going was that I would love London. After all, I am largely English and many of my ancestors came from England. My other assumption was that I was going to feel very strange and uncomfortable in Germany. We did not speak any German, and I expected the people to seem quite foreign. These were my expectations before going to Europe.

I was quite wrong: I found few things to recommend downtown London, and to my surprise I found Germany to feel like home! I learned that not only did I enjoy visiting Germany, but I could see myself being happy living in Munich!

This trip proved to be quite an education. I want to thank my Father for coming to our home in North Bend to watch our four children so that I could take this special time with my dear wife.

I am sure that there are parts of England and London which I would adore. I am not writing off the whole country on the basis of 4 hours downtown, but what I did not expect was to gain such an great appreciation for Germany. They appreciate and value what I do: cleanliness, quiet trains, fine cars, precision instruments, crisp design, great products, and good food.

I now want to move to Munich and work on great software for cars. If any of the above car manufacturers need a sofware quality assurance manager, send me an email!

To day 1, the start of the trip

Back to Dan's home page.

Created:  18 Oct 2001
Modified: 24 Oct 2001