Freiburg Half Marathon

After I started running a little trying to get in shape for ski season, Alissa somehow convinced me to run a half marathon with her in Freiburg, Germany. Before a couple months ago, I had never run more than a few miles at a time because I hate to run just to run. But, low and behold, an hour and 59 minutes later, I made it the 13.1 miles. After all the complaining I did, the race itself was actually a lot of fun and I can see myself doing another one sometime. The competitive side of me won't let me settle for only doing it once.

This is the start of the full marathon before our half marathon. About 6,000 people ran the half.

Finished!

The old town of Freiburg was pretty neat too. The design of the cobblestone was amazing. It was very small and very precisely laid. The little streams in the streets are called bachles and were from old times to be used by the fire department. Rumor has it that if you step in one, you will marry someone from Freiburg. So, I stayed as far away from them as possible! (thanks to Dad for telling me the story about those!)

We were walking into a restaurant to eat lunch and I saw this gold brick in front of the door. I learned about these on the Third Reich Tour I took in Munich, but had never seen one. An artist decided it would be a good idea if all towns in Germany did this. It says, "Here lived Albert Levy, born 1867, deported 1940, died September 30, 1942". This is a Jew who used to live in this building and was deported to and died in a concentration camp. The artist's idea was to bring back the name/identity of each of them. Munich actually doesn't have these because the person in charge of the Jewish community said she thought the Germans did enough damage to the Jewish population that she didn't want anyone else "walking" over them. I think she kind of missed the point.

And what old European town/city doesn't have a massive Catholic Church?

This is the entrance to the church.

This house has the date of 1460 on it. Others were from about 1350.

View of the old town from my hotel room. The second picture shows a large vineyard on the hillside.

This has nothing to do with Freiburg, but Alissa, Jenny and I went to a tiny bar last night in Munich (probably only holds about 500) to watch a band called Theory of a Dead Man that one of our other friends recommended. I didn't think I had heard of them before, until I looked them up and had heard a couple songs like Bad Girlfriend and Santa Monica. They were really good in such a small venue!

Munich Third Reich Tour

I took a Third Reich walking tour this weekend in Munich. I have to say that the tour itself was disappointing, but I think only because I've read so much about this area and walk by these places every day. On the other hand, knowing what happened at all these places is really amazing too.

I stumbled across this website a while back and absolutely love it. You know how I'm a sucker for then-and-now pictures, and it has a lot of good ones. The pictures in this post probably don't mean much to you if you haven't spent much time here or unless you go to this website. There are 5 pages just of Munich, so make sure you look at all of them. Here it is -- www.thirdreichruins.com/munich

This is the banquet hall in the Hofbrauhaus where Hitler made many speeches. The second picture shows where he used to speak from. It would be directly to the right if you were standing where I took this first picture.
There used to be a gold plaque of him where the light is now and he used to speak right in front of it on a short podium.

This is the Lowenbrau restaurant. The night of the Beer Hall Putsch (rebellion) in 1923, when Hitler decided to take over the Bavarian government, Heinrich Himmler and a group of Storm Troopers (the SA) were here and Hitler called them from the Burgerbraukeller (another bar, but no longer stands) and told them to go to the War Ministry and take it over.

This is the War Ministry building. After Himmler told Hitler that they had control of it, Hitler and 2,000 other men began marching from the Burgerbraukeller to here, but got stopped short after someone called the police and other local Bavarian armies for help.

This is Odeonsplatz, or also known as the Feldernhalle. Hitler and his group were marching to the left of the main building in the middle and the police were where I was standing taking this picture. The police fired on them, killing 16 nazis, but 4 police also died. This is when Hitler was sentenced to prison for treason, but served only about a year and wrote Mein Kampf while he was there.

This is the place where the nazis were stopped and the shooting began. There used to be a large memorial with a swastika on it and guarded by 2 nazi guards to honor the 16 nazis. Every time you would walk by, you were required to give the Heil Hitler salute. There is a small alley behind here that you could avoid this area by, so now it is called "Dodger's Alley" and has gold/bronze bricks memorializing the trail.

This is the Finance building, and still is today. It is across the street from one of my clients, so I walk by it nearly every day for a month or so at a time and believe it or not, I never noticed the eagle until I was going through the third reich website. It is illegal to show a swastika or do the Heil Hitler salute in Germany today, so the eagle is still there, but the swastika in the wreath has been removed. The punishment for saluting is one month's pay.

This is the Fuhrerbau (leadership building) and has a matching building on the other side of the street that was the administration building. This was used for the main government headquarters when the officials weren't in Berlin. The Munich Pact/Agreement was also signed here in 1938 with Mussolini and Neville Chamberlin. The Munich Pact allowed Germany to take over the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) and was meant to be a compromise so that he wouldn't take over anything else, but we know how that worked out.

This is the main entrance to the building. There used to be a big eagle above the door and you can still see the patched holes outlining it.

Across from these buildings were the rally grounds for the nazis (Konigsplatz). The plots that are grass now were granite then in order to accentuate the sound of the marching boots. Just imagine this filled with nazi soldiers and huge red banners everwhere.

This is the Haus der Deutschen Kunst (German Art Museum). Hitler was an artist himself (well, wanted to be) so opening this museum was a big deal to him. He gave a speech at the grand opening in front of the front door. Again, above the door, there used to be a large eagle, but it has since been covered up by the 2 "whiter" stones above it.

This is the back of the building. I run right here on this street almost every day and until I found the third reich website, I had no idea about it. But, there is a picture on the website taken just like this showing a bunch of US jeeps right here.

This is the art on the ceiling of the oustide and is the original artwork. The same pattern is on the Fuhrerbau. Some say they are interlocking swastikas, but that would be illegal, right? You be the judge.

This restaurant is Osteria Italiana and used to be Osteria Bavaria and Hitler's favorite lunch spot. So, after the tour, I figured it would only be appropriate to end there as well.

Hitler's favorite seat was where the two men were sitting directly across from me by the window.

There is a small square dedicated to the victims of the nazi party. This is actually a street, but since nobody wants this as their address, the street also has a second name that all the businesses use.

Ski Summary 2010

Wow, I can't believe I might have just skied my last time in the Alps (this year of course!)! Rather than bore all of you with weekly ski blogs, I decided to save them up this year. I "only" got to go about 8 days this year, but hey, who's complaining.

I've had some reality checks setting in lately when I look at the calendar and see just how little time I have left here. I'm hoping to travel quite a bit during the weekends in April, so hopefully I'll have some more frequent updates to this. My last day here is April 30th, so it will be here before I know it. It's amazing to think I've been here more than 17 already and that this is all about to be over. Don't get me wrong, I'm getting anxious to come home. I'm ready to be closer to family and have that sense of "permanancy".

Quite the snow at Obertauern. The bus had to stop and put chains on halfway there.
Alissa kicking up some nice powder.

Untouched...but not for long.

Zillertal, Austria

Kitzbuehel, Austria

I love this picture. So stereotypical.

Some of the signs here crack me up. I love the little man falling head over heels over the side of the mountain. And yes, this was enough to make us ski it - and it was awesome! I just love it when it is really steep and just deep enough to start a "mini-avalanche" on your first turn. (Just to clarify Mom, this was of course perfectly safe).

See, it wasn't THAT bad.

Town of Kitzbuehel.

Just outside Zillertal, Austria. What a view to wake up to. Apres ski in Kitzbuehel. Me, Jenny, Alissa, Coco, John, and Andi.

Nightlife in Kitzbuehel. Jenny, Andi, me, and John.

Enjoying a traditional German dinner in Munich. Me, Kerry, Chris, Juan, and Alissa.