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On my third weekend in Germany I decided to travel alone to Rothemburg and Nürnberg. Rothemborg is a amazing medieval city that (surprinsingly) looks the same as 400 years ago. I was really lucky because I visit the town on time for their annual celebration and there were lots of locals wearing medieval customs, playing medieval musical instruments or selling stuff in medieval markets all around the town.

Medieval militar camp in Rothenburg.

Rothemborg is one of the tipical german turistic attractions and there were lots of tourists as me.  It was nice to walk all around the town because there are no cars in Rothemburg. I visited a very interesting store where they sell cute chrismas decorations all year long and I also visited the KriminalMuseum, a place were I saw instruments of torture and penalties of shame and honour. There were very interesting pieces, like the ones used for problematic couples, used to chain husband and wife in a way they were facing each other but they could not fight. They were chained until they stopped complaining or yelling to each other.

KriminalMuseum in Rothemburg. Mask of shame, chastity belt and penalties for couples.

The next day I went to Nürnberg, a very historic city. Nürnberg was an important strondhold for the Nazi party and here were celebrated the huge nazi party conventions glorified in Nazi propaganda films before and during the World War II. At the end of the world, German officials involved in the Holocaust and other war crimes were taken in front of an international tribunal in Nürnberg.

Of course I visited the Reich Party Rally Grounds (Reichsparteitagsgelände)< where I could see the remains of the Zeppelin field used to review troops and the Gross Strasse. I’m not a big fun of museums but I also visited the Medieval Dungeons (Where they imprisoned people) and the Documentation Center at the Reich Party Rally Grounds (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände). This last one was really interesting showing how the Nazis rose to power and how the Nazis fascinated the masses.

Zepelin Field. How it looked before World War II and how it looks now.

The city was completely bombed at the end of the World War II. After the war the old city and the most important landmarks were rebuilt. That’s the reason modern Nürnberg still has lots of medieval architecture and monuments . The nazi monuments were dismantled or even bombed and the remains are concentrated in a public park. They are still in use but instead of Romanic monuments to glorify the reich, now are normal streets, lakes, museums, a racing pod and a open concert park. In the inner city there are lots of interesting landmarks but the most important is the castle that dominates the entire city.

Top: Zeppelin field during huge nazi party conventions. Bottom: How it looks today

It was a nice trip and I want to come back because there are still some landmarks I couldn’t see. For example both the Nuremberg Underworld (Nürnberger Felsengänge) and the Courtroom 600 where the Nuremberg Trials were held, were closed.

Maybe I will come back in a few months, stay tuned!

This was a fast weekend trip with a Philippine coworker. We arrive at Munich on Friday night and we explore the city on Saturday. This was not my first time in Munich. In the 2006 I came here with Alberto and Borja so I already knew the city. But this time I was exploring the city as a tourist. We visited the the central part of the city, Marienplatz and the Neues Rathaus. We saw the Glockenspiel moving (Not really interesting after the first 10 seconds). We also entered in Michaelskirche and Frauenkirche and we walk a around the Residenz. We had lunch in a traditional brewery and then we walk around Viktualienmarkt. In the afternoon we headed to the English Garden where I discover that Germans like to get naked in public as there were lots of people completely naked on the garden. And nobody was surprised or socked but us!

Munich, at the right side Marienplatz and the Neues Rathaus

In the evening we took the train to Füssen. This small city is located at the end of the romantic road. The most beautiful German castles are only 3 kilometers away. We arrive in the night, so the next day in the morning we went to explore the beautiful castles Neuschwanstein and Hochschwangau. Neuschwanstein is a fairy-tale castle, known worldwide. It’s totally worth it to come here and enjoy the beautiful views of the castle and the beutiful background. Hochschwangau is directly across from Ludwig II’s fairy-tale castle. This castle served as Ludwig II’s home while he was growing up and it looks completely different from the Spanish ones. In general these two castles are architecturally more beautiful and with better decoration that but they are way smaller.

Hochschwangau castle

Beautiful view from inside the Neuschwanstein castle

In our way back, we explore Füssen for a few hours walking around in the streets and visiting he beautiful church. After that, we needed almost 6 hours in bus and train to return to Würzburg.

Neuschwanstein castle

In conclusion, It was a nice trip because the weather was fantastic and we were always on time everywhere. We were lucky because we decided our route a few hours before taking the first train. In consequence this has been my the first trip with almost no planning. And everything has resulted perfect! I’m now preparing my next weekend trips, there are still lots of interesting places in Germany!

Finally on Würzburg!

Würzburg from the fortress

The first thing I notice once I arrived here was the COLD. I was used to hot and humid nights and the fresh COLD air was a surprise to me. I was freezing but the people was just wearing light clothes!. Another big difference I notice instantly, it was absolutely dark around 20:00!

After a couple of days visiting the city, I’m really surprised because I was expecting a small and boring city but this is a very beautiful and romantic city. It’s also very green, there are lots of trees and vegetation everywhere and most of the people appear to use bikes, and there are no cars in downtown. The buildings are short and the streets are narrow and clean. Everything looks… nice, which is a good contrast with Seoul. I was tired of the crappy saturated Korean streets.

Postcard-like picture of the city

The city is surrounded by hills. The main one has a huge castle. From there, you can see the entire city.I really like this mini city. It’s extremely romantic and cute,you can walk all over the city, there is no traffic and the air is incredible clear.

Jumping on Würzburg Residence (UNESCO)

On my trip from Korea to Europe I had a bad experience at the airport. I thought that my luggage allowance was 2 bags of 20kg each, same allowance as long haul flights between Korea and US and Japan/China with Europe. However between Korea and Europe is different and my real luggage allowance was 20kg maximum.

I was checking 44Kg. Overweight fees were 700 EUR.

It was the first time I had that problem so at the beginning I was quite confused. After some minutes, I ran to the freighter company and shipped my backpack directly to Würzburg. I needed to take off lots of weight, throwing to the gargaje lots of old clothes and crappy shirts I bought in Korea and Taiwan. And my running shoes!

I paid 150Won for shipping the backpack (more or less 70EUR) and the hole process took 1 hour and a half. Thanks god I went early to the airport. Shipping was ten times cheaper than Lufthansa. Next time I will not need to decide anything!

I’ve been living in Seoul for the last 4 months. Soon after arriving here, I started to look for a job in the city. I was relaxed but I spent two months searching without luck. The problem was that I didn’t have a work Visa, neither I had a lot of demonstrable experience or completely focused skills and I didn’t know any Korean.

Once I realized that looking for a job in Korea was not easy for me, I relaxed the bar and I restarted the job hunt. I started looking only in Asia but at the end I opened the circle until searching all over the world. The last stage was Europe because in Europe I didn’t need a working visa and I knew it was going to be way easier to find a job if the company didn’t needed to sponsor me. Soon after start looking in Europe a German company sent me an offer and I accepted it.

After coming back from Japan I had only had one week to say goodbye to Seoul and return to Europe. I spent the time walking around the city, sightseeing the important places in the city that I couldn’t visit yet and trying to store the streets, the lights and the smell of the city in my head.

I visited the main palace of the city, Gyeongbok-gung(경복궁,景福宮) palace. It was nice, but I was suffering Palace-fatigue. After living here for a while all the Korean palaces look exactly the same! Actually it happens the same problem with the churches in Europe. I went to the two main Korean Markets several times and I also visited the Seodaemun , created by the Japanese people the last time they invaded Korea at the beginning of the XX century. In this museum they have very creepy expositions in the real place where the prisoners were held.

I also visited once of the most representative buildings in Seoul. The 63 building. You can visit the top floor and enjoy a nice view of the city. Personally I thought it was more interesting the Hello Kittie Exposition that was in there than the sights. They are way better in the Seoul Tower. Actually we come back to the Seoul tower in my last night in Seoul to have a fantastic dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Seoul tower.

And after those magic moments in the last week, I got the plain and returned to Europe. My new house is in Würzburg, located between Frankfurt and Nürnberg in Franconia, Baviera.

And you will be always welcome here!