Several years ago we had the opportunity to take some good friends of ours, Bo and Liz, to Japan. I'm going to focus on the new things we did and then link to previous blog posts for reference to the things we repeated from our time living in Japan. The trip started out awesome and then kind of fell into a bad place for me and Matt, unfortunately. I chalk it up to our inability to tell Bo and Liz when we wanted to do something different from what they wanted to do, and Matt's desire to be a good guide in the country as he was the only fluent Japanese speaker. He felt a lot of responsibility and then got really tired and very stressed out, which in turn made me very stressed out. I say this not as a rebuke of our friends, who had no way to know how we were feeling since we didn't communicate, but as a gentle suggestion to anyone who travels with friends. Say how you feel and don't be passive aggressive about it. Own up to your limitations and ask for what you need. Your
The final day trip we took was to Nuremberg. It was a pretty quick trip from Munich, and it was good we'd saved it for last, as we had tired ourselves out with the long trips to Berlin and Heidelberg. Nuremberg is a smaller, solid city. It's downright normal and charming, while also being very much a city. It's like Cincinnati in that way. We spent a leisurely day walking the cobbled streets, checking out the famous market space, wandering the castle grounds, and of course eating lunch at a delightful restaurant. This is a view of the city skyline from a garden at the castle. We didn't spend a lot of time in the castle because much of it is rented out much like Burghausen . Also to go deeply into the castle requires money, and we spent this trip more in search of free experiences. Below, the top image shows the outdoor market, and the bottom image shows some of the architecture over a canal downtown. Matt was really excited to get this photo of Albrecht Dur