Mom Comes to Visit! (Part 1)

 The past two weeks I was lucky enough to have a bit of home in Europe with me! That's right, mother dearest came to visit me in London and then we traveled to Germany and Turkey!

(She insisted on taking a selfie in the middle of St. James Park....)

There's a lot to cover so I've split our trip into two posts. This one will focus on London and Germany and the other will focus on Turkey! Also, since theres a lot of info there may be a bit more abbreviated explanations but you'll get the point!

 London

Afternoon Tea at Harrod's

Our Hotel: The Stafford

 Lunch at the one and only Wolseley

The Tower of London: aka where Mom has
wanted to visit since I arrived in London

Founded in 1066, the Tower was used as a prison from 1100 to 1952. However, its primary purpose was to serve as a grand palace for the royal residence. 

As a whole the Tower is a complex of several buildings in the middle of two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat.

Today the Tower houses the Crown Jewels of the Queen and past royals.

The Book of Mormon

 Hands down the funniest musical I have ever seen. If you haven't seen it yet, you must go see it now! This clever, comedic musical had us laughing all night!

And that's the end of London... Don't worry that's not all we did! But everything else I've already blogged about, so I spared you from the repetition!

Berlin, Germany

Upon arriving in Berlin, the lady who checked us in pointed out the hotel's "2 star" restaurant... Looking at each other, mother and I both thought to our selves, "Why would you be so proud of two stars?" But after a little research I discovered that Europeans rate things a bit differently. Apparently under Michelin standings, 1 star is our equivalent to 5 stars. So you can only imagine how good our food was if it was 2 stars! 

We spent one entire day touring Berlin with guidance from our guy Helmet. Starting at 9 and ending at 5, you can say we were on Berlin overload by the time we were done!

First, we to took a little drive by the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. I didn't get a picture but its really nothing spectacular anyway, just a plaque on the ground.

The memorial for all the Jews who were killed is just one block away.

 Russian Monument for those Killed in WW2

 This castle was built for the Queen basically because the King would get annoyed of her so he gave her her own castle to live in...

 Berlin's Olympic Stadium

One of the railroads that leads to the concentration camps.

Funny story about the next pictures: We here outside on the top of a building and it was super windy. Being afraid of heights, I tried staying as far away from the ledge and possible. But since I had the nice camera, mom thought it would be a grand idea to push me up against the bars and make me take a picture... thankfully I made it out alive but I seriously scared for my life.

But anyways, here's some lovely views of Berlin! (not really)

(This is the picture where I almost died, beautiful right?)

The Berlin Wall   

 Brandenburg Gate

 Checkpoint Charlie

Chocolate heaven!

We decided that we learned a lot in Berlin and it is very rich with history but there's no need for us to go back.. haha lets just say we were happy to move onto Munich!

Munich, Germany

After 6 hour train ride from Berlin, we finally made it to Munich. Just stepping outside the train station, we knew we were going to love Munich. (It was probably helped that the sun was finally shining!)

Our delightful guide Mark picked us up on our first day and gave us a little tour around the city.

Nymphenburg Palace

Mom and I decided this is our favorite room in any castle/palace we have ever seen.

 The backyard which is a now a park and covers 490 acres.

Two of probably ten carriages covered in gold just for the king.

Oh, and don't forget the sleigh!

A typical German Biergarten

New Town Hall

Surfing in the middle of the city!

Typical German Lunch

Obviously I had to get Wiener Schnitzel and a pint of beer!

The next day we went to see two of the three fairytale castles that were built by King Ludwig II. He was a strange man in that he isolated himself from everyone, even his family. Being so, he built three castles where he lived alone with the exception of his staff.

Neuschwanstein Castle

This castle is famous for being used as the model for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle!

Linderhof Castle

 Just a little walk through the gardens will take you to the grotto that Ludwig had built.
From the outside it looks like nothing but a cave..

But the inside is decorated to reference one of Richard Wagner's operas.

It's cool when you first see it, but then you realize Ludwig was the only one who used it. Was this really necessary?!

After deciding Munich is one of our favorite cities it was hard to say goodbye. But Istanbul was waiting for us, so we packed our bags and made our way to Turkey!