Prologue

I was a bit apprehensive about this trip since I didn't know much about Germany and was also concerned about the language barrier. The words especially the names of the cities are very foreign unlike Spain or Portugal and even have special characters for proper pronunciation. The map that we purchased also didn't help because the cities were listed in their German names such as Köln for Cologne and München for Munich. What helped me was surfing the internet while preparing our itinerary. I was able to find out about the history of each city (including the German names) as well the places of interest. But the best and most comforting information was finding out that English is their second language. Everywhere during our trip, we were able to communicate with anyone from the ticket counter in the train station to a teen-ager riding a bike that we stopped to ask for directions.