May 8, 2016 Day 2:

Today was a packed day of exciting activities.  We arrived in Munich Airport today at around 7:30 am (Munich time).  I slept very poorly on the plane, so I have not slept in about 33 hours.   As soon as we got back to the hotel, we had a snack, then left to tour Augsburg.  First, we went to a Lutheran church where some Fuggeri ancestors are buried, but the church was closed at the time we got there.  I was a little upset at this, because I thought seeing the burial place would be interesting, but it is what it is. 
From there, we went to what seemed like Market District in Pittsburgh; there were a few shops surrounding an open cobblestone plaza.  To the left was an old watch tower that we were told you could see all of Augsburg from, though we did not go up.  In front of us was the town hall (Ratshaus).  It looked too good to be true…because it was.  The outer façade was under construction, so tapestries were hung to hide the construction.  I found this very silly and deceiving, for I am used to seeing the ugliness of construction in Pittsburgh all the time.  That’s a thing I noticed; there’s hardly any construction and the air smells a lot cleaner than home, but that’s beside the point.  When we went in the town hall, I was very underwhelmed.  There were little areas with presentations, but that ws it.  After a few minutes of aimlessly walking around, we went up two flights of stairs to this grand room with gold plated everything and beautiful paintings.  Honestly, it looked like a palace straight out of a fairy tale.  This was probably the highlight of my day.

We went to tour the Fuggeri later on, which was pretty neat.  It’s interesting to see this cause continuing so many years (hundreds actually) later, surviving the war and all.  We went into a bunker, which was musty, but it was super interesting to me, especially because it was just multiple stone rooms.  Then, our outstanding tour guide showed us the rest of the Fuggeri, including letting us see what one of the apartments looks like.  We said our goodbyes, then went to dinner (where I ate pork….which never happens).

Later, I went to the gas station across the street from our hotel.  I am pretty sure I was almost completely dehydrated, so I bought a 1,5 L bottle of water.  When I went to ring up, the woman at the counter could not scan the barcode, so she started loudly speaking to me in German.  I felt bad because I don’t understand German, but she pointed to where I got the water so I assumed I needed to get another one.  This was a very stressful situation, and I felt like a typical “stupid American” at that moment.

I am not a history person, but being able to see this amazing city just blows my mind.  There aren’t very many cities in the United States that are hundreds of years old…let alone over 2000 years, like Augsburg.  I am very excited to see what this city has to offer, and I am looking forward to becoming comfortable with the city.