Mountains on the weekend

Hallo!
This past week of staying in Germany has been a real eye opener for me. I have seen and experienced many things  that I would never have thought of. What I have enjoyed most so far about this trip has been seeing the cultural differences and by far the best experience has been the German mountains.

This weekend Doreen and I hiked up a mountain called Becherspitze. We woke up early at 6:00am and had breakfast. For breakfast there was a wide range of meats (like salami and ham) and breads such as rolls, pretzels and loaves of bread. We left early in the morning at 7:00 to catch a train to the base of the mountain.

I have noticed many things that are different and similar between Germany and Australia but one has got to be the houses. They are very tall usually 2-4 stories high, unlike many houses in Bright that are usually longer and flatter with only 1-2 stories.  Many of the German houses are known as a "typical farmhouse" and these are very long, with lots of wood and space on the ground level for animal stalls or hay storage. I have also noticed a lot of corn being grown in the paddocks everywhere especially while driving or going for a run with Doreen.

The hike took 5 hours overall and was a very steep trudge up the mountain, on parts of the trail we were almost rock climbing up. But in the end it was all worth it, the views were spectacular everything was so green it all looked like something taken out of a fairy tale, there were a lot of tall pine trees, steep rocky cliffs with a very well peaked summit and a lot of very green grass.

Many mountains in Germany have houses  or restaurants usually about halfway up the mountains as well as churches or crucifix at the top of every mountain.

For dinner that night I tried something called Knödel which is like a ball of potato and vegetables mixed together, we also had pork and sauerkraut. I have been trying and seeing many amazing things while being in Germany and have been loving every moment of this exchange trip.  I can't wait to see more of Germany and its culture

Nicola