Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau was a sobering experience.  It will forever stand out in my memory.

The gas chamber

"Work Makes Free"

On a side note we had a memorable experience while at Dachau.  Travis and Jennie dropped us off just outside the gates of the concentration camp and left to run a quick errand to the Apple store, 8 miles away.  We were supposed to meet them at 5:30, an hour later.  At the intended meeting time he wasn't there, no biggie, it probably took him longer than he thought.  We walked around a little more and kept checking back at the gate to see if they were there.  The concentration camp was closed by now and it had been raining on us since we got there.  By 6:30 I was REALLY cold and WET but I was trying to remain optimisic that he would be back soon.  At about 7:00 I started to really worry, what if something happened to them?  Where in the world were they?  We were supposed to catch the 7:20 train to Salzburg and we were going to miss it.  Soon I really began to panic.  If something happened to them how would we know?  They had no way of contacting us and they had all of our luggage and passports meaning we would be stranded.  At 7:25 I was almost at my breaking point, I so wanted to be on that train getting ready to go see my parents.  We had deemed 7:30 the time to leave to find a phone and start contacting people to see if they had heard anything.  I was trying to think of every possible reason as to why they would be this late that didn't involve a major catastrophe and I was coming up short, they were only going 8 miles away!  They finally showed up at about 7:28.  I sighed a big sigh of relief that we were not indeed stranded in Germany, that I was finally getting out of the rain, that we would shortly be on another train to Salzburg to go and see my parents and that Travis and Jennie weren't splattered all over the side of the road somewhere.  And why were they late?... nothing short of being stuck in traffic!

We Love EIS!

One of our favorite treats in Germany was Italian eis, aka the most delicious ice cream you've ever had!  I don't know how or why it was so much better than ice cream at home but it was heavenly.  We stopped and got a cone almost every day, sometimes more than once a day and savored every last drop.  I even learned how to order my eis in German, ein kugel pistazien bitte.  (that was about the extent of my german speaking while we were over there, with the exception of an occasional "thank you").  Pistachio was my favorite although I gave plenty of other flavors a try!

With Travis and Jennie in an eis shop in Dinkelsbul.

Castles, castles and more castles

There are so many amazing castles all over Bavaria.  We went to the 3 castles that were built by King Ludwig, we learned of his obsession with swans, his obsession with Wagner and his obsession with building castles that he never really lived in.  They were amazing but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castles so you'll have to take our word for it. 

Neuschwanstein:

We stayed at a cute little hotel right at the base of the castle in Hohenschwangau. We sat out on our patio and could see Neuschwanstein up on the mountain side, it was beautiful. After touring the castle we went on a 5 hour hike to a lookout. It was supposed to be an amazing view of the castle with the Alps in the background but unfortunately we were in the thickest fog and couldn’t see more than 15 feet in front of us. We kept going because there was supposed to be a restaurant at the top of this lookout and we were hungry. When we did finally get to the top, there was a restaurant but it wasn’t open and it didn’t look like it had been opened in a while. So, a little disappointed and very hungry we headed back down the mountain. Although we felt like we were hiking in a humidifier it was a great hike and we had a great time slipping and sliding all the way back down.

Linderhof:

This was another one of King Ludwig’s castles. Unlike the others he actually lived here for an extended period of timel.  The ornate detail on the interior of this castle was simply amazing!

He was cutting down all of the wild flowers!!

Herrenchiemsee:

We went to this castle with my parents as it wasn't too far from Salzburg.  It is on a little island in Lake Chiemsee.  It was fashioned after the Versailles Palace in France.  The gardens and fountains outside the castle were fascinating and I was surprised to see that they weren't full of coins!

On the ferry boat to the island

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I absolutely LOVED Rothenburg o.d.T!  It was a picture perfect little German town full of history and charm.  There was a ton of color, cobblestone streets, and a little wall that surrounded the city.  We went for a morning run while there and ran inside the wall all the way around the city, through a cute little vineyard and explored a little bit of the country side outside the city wall.  It was one of my favorite memories from the trip.  There were cute little shops all up and down the cobblestone streets including Kathe Wohlfahrt's Christmas shop which was amazing.  It was HUGE and had a little bit of everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had these pastries that are a Rothenburg speciality called schneeballen (snowballs).  They look pretty impressive, especially the window displays they have of them in all of the bakeries.  Although they look fabulous I can't say it was my favorite taste of Germany. 

 The town cryer giving an evening tour of the city.

We stayed the night at Gasthof Butz.  It was a perfect little German gasthaus with a traditional breakfast of hard rolls with meat,cheese and hard boiled eggs.  (I had to get used to these traditional German breakfasts because salami and swiss cheese aren't usually among my breakfast staples.)  I absolutely loved the atmosphere here!

With Travis and Jennie in the country side just outside of town (where we ran that morning). 

On the way to Dinkelsbül we saw this little old man herding his sheep through the country side. 

Travis took some fantastic pictures of us in the streets of Rothenburg.  How lucky are we!  He is seriously amazing.  Here are a few of our favorites.