Amazing Race - Sahara Desert

We left the campsite around 8am for about a 12 hour day of driving to Marrakesh. We loved chatting with our driver, Abdul. We took a different route this time and drove across a dried up lake. We stopped in the middle of the lake to take pictures of the mirages surrounding us.

We stopped at Ait Benhaddou, the famous red mud brick kasbah featured in films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator. We didn't
have time to tour it but we still enjoyed gazing at the outside. Finally, we drove through the Atlas Mountains. Our favorite part was driving through Tizi N'Tichka, a stunningly beautiful mountain pass.

Sweating in the Sahara - Erg Chigaga, Morocco

Traveling to Morocco was a nightmare for everyone but we all survived. Melanie and Ashwin Shashindranath's flight was canceled so they had to drive all night to Chicago in order to make their 9am flight. Sara Collins' (aka Lizzy) had to run through several airports to make her connections. And Sara and John's flight was filled with out of control children. There was screaming, running up and down the aisles, and a child even hit Sara in the face. We all met up in Casablanca and took a 1am flight to Ouarzazate. We arrived at 3am and headed straight to our hotel for a couple hours of sleep.

We were up and at it around 7:30am. Our driver, Mohammed, arrived at 8am with another girl, Carla, from Costa Rica, to take us to the desert in a 4x4. We had a long five hour drive to the edge of the Sahara desert. Even with AC we were sweating like crazy. We stopped at a small hotel in M'Hamid and had lunch, took naps, and watched Germany kill Argentina. We had to chill there for a few hours because we needed to wait until the desert cooled down before heading out to our campsite.

Around 5pm we headed out for two and a half hours of off-roading though rocky desert floors and small sand dunes until we reached our next destination. Once there, our guides tied our special desert head scarves around our heads and we hopped on our camels. We then took an hour long sunset camel ride through the dunes to our campsite. We spent the evening climbing the sand dunes, listening to live Berber music (yes, they brought several musicians out with us), and eating traditional Moroccan food. We had tajine, stew cooked in clay pots. Lucky for us, they were out of camel meat and had to serve us beef.

The campsite was extremely nice. Each group had their own Berber tent with real beds and a bathroom (a small western style portable toilet). We opted to sleep out under the stars instead of inside the tent because it was much cooler outside. The stars were incredible! We saw so many shooting stars that we lost count. The moon didn't grace us with it's presence until about midnight but once it arrived it lit up the whole desert.

As we were falling asleep Lizzy started screaming and jumped out of her bed so fast that we thought there was a snake in her bed. No, it was just a giant beetle. In a matter of seconds, John and Lizzy were standing on the elevated beds in hysterics. It was hilarious. It took the rest of us a few minutes to calm them down and convince them that sleeping in the car wasn't a good idea. We shook out all of the sheets and then settled down for the night - although a few people continued to have a few mild freak outs until the sun came up.

Surfs Up - Munich

You wouldn't think that surfing would be popular in a land locked country but the Germans love to surf. At the tip of the English Garden, there is a giant man-made wave in the river that runs through the park. We could have spent hours watching these guys surf. The park was full of people at 5pm on a Thursday. Talk about work-life balance!

Somber Visit to Dachau

We visited the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. Dachau was the Nazi's first concentration camp and became the prototype for all other concentration camps. Over 200,000 people were held here and approximately 32,000 people were killed here. We each wandered at our own pace through the camp and museum while listening to an audio guide. It was a very moving and emotional experience.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle - Bavaria

No visit to Germany is complete without visiting Schloss Neuschwanstein - the castle that inspired the Disney Sleeping Beauty Castle. We drove a couple of hours through charming villages to reach the popular tourist stop. We toured two different castles but Neuschwanstein was definitely the most remarkable and memorable. King Ludwig II was a huge fan of the composer Richard Wagner, and had the inside of the castle decorated based on Wagner's operas. Unfortunately, Ludwig went crazy (common in the family) and drowned in a lake (no one knows how but everyone suspects suicide). He was only able to live in the castle for 170 days. Such a shame!

Hansel and Gretel - Munich

We decided the best way to explore Germany was by car so we rented a car and hit the road. It's strange that a Mercedes is considered a standard rental car but hey, we didn't complain. John was thrilled to drive on the autobahn. There are portions of the autobahn where there is no speed limit and you can drive as fast as you want. Some cars were going well over 200 km/hr. Surprisingly, we didn't see one accident!

We headed straight into downtown Munich and gave ourselves another walking tour. We ended our night at the famous beer hall - Hofbrauhaus. This place was heaven on earth for John and Sisuda. We enjoyed some good German food and drinks.

Welcome to Deutschland - Berlin

John's friend, Sisuda, joined us for our whirlwind Germany tour. We started our trip off in Berlin. When we arrived the city was bursting with anticipation for the Deutschland v. England game. Everywhere you turned there were flags waving and people cheering. The partying began at early in the morning and thanks to a victory continued well into the night. Never have we seen such a unified group of people gather to cheer their country on. Thousands of people gathered together in the center of town to watch the big game. It was pretty incredible.

We needed to pick up tickets for a concert that night so we decided to walk to the ticket office. We ended up giving ourselves a walking tour of the city. We walked and walked and walked. Side note, you can't always trust the expected walking time when using google maps. During our walk we saw the following attractions: Holocaust Memorial, Reichstag Dome, Sony Center, and the Brandenburg Gate.

That evening we went to an outdoor concert at the Waldbuhne. We saw the Berliner Philharmonic featuring Renee Fleming. We had a great time listening to amazing classical music while enjoying the beautiful scenery around us. We particularly enjoyed the traditional encore piece. The audience jumps to their feet (many with sparklers in hand) and sings and whistles along with the orchestra. It was fantastic!

The next morning we went to the East Side Gallery. This is an open air art gallery on the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall. The murals are filled with various political statements and are very artistic.