Trip to Germany - Day 7

 Day 7 Hohenschwangau

Today we had a lazy morning. We slept in, ate at the hotel cafe and slowly got packed up. Our first stop was to walk the promenade by the largest lake in Germany (Bodensee). It was raining but the sun came out for a few minutes. The girls played in a grassy area and we admired Switzerland from across the lake. Then we got in the car and drive to Hohenschwangau. They have 2 gigantic castles. One of which Disney based his Sleeping Beauty castle on, Neuschwanstein. We had lunch at the hotel restaurant then went on a nature hike up to the castle and then to Mary's bridge that is above the castle. There are some amazing views. The bridge is so high up it makes my knees weak. Naomi got really nervous and kept saying that she was going to die. They had locks on the bridge. People would carve thier initials into the lock, attach it to the bridge, then throw the key off the bridge. It symbolized that their hearts are locked together and thier love will never die or something to that affect. 

Then we walked back down the hill. We were all so tired by the time we got back to the hotel that we all collapsed for a hour before we went to dinner. Dinner, at the hotel again, was delicious. We had the bratwurst, and goulosh, potato cakes with applesauce. It was all delicious. Naomi is having a hard time with the foods. What I describe to her from the menu isn't what she expects. Like apple juice is carbonated. I thought she would like it. Apparently not. For dessert we had Apple strudel. Basically Germany's take on Apple pie. It was really good with the vanilla sauce they poured on it. 

Trip to Germany - Day 6

Day 6 Ludwigsburg and Triberg

We got up early this morning in Heidelburg and our first stop was Ludwigsburg where we visited the Ludwigsburg Schloß (palace.) we took the guided tour. Dan and Dana played translator for us. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, although we really wanted to. The pictures we did take showed how over the top everything was. It started out as a hunting lodge for a duke. He kept wanting to have a better lodge than anyone else so he kept making it bigger and better. It was then taken over by Prince Eugene, then finally King Fredrick. He was made King by Napoleon. We got to see the throne rooms for the King and Queen. Several tapestries, including those in the throne rooms, were red velvet with silver weaved in it. It was tarnished and looked black, but you could still see the silver. When the palace was in use they would have been polished and shiny silver. They wanted to keep the tapestries on the wall as long as possible so we weren't allowed to touch them, but could see that some were practically disintegrating because of age. The art gallery had lots of pictures of the royal family going back to when the palace was started in the late 1600’s. In later years they would show pictures of both the duke, prince or king, and their queen, as long as she bore a son for the monarch. There was a picture of the "most beautiful lady in Europe." She was only called that because she had lots of money and the smallest waist (reported to be a 5 inch waste). She couldn't go outside in the winter because she would get cold too quickly. There was a tent room. The walls were covered in fabric to make it look like the inside of a tent. That was the King could be "closer" to his troops because they were all in tents. There was the war room. It was only called that because it was decorated in some war type statues and it was required to have a war room for the building to be called a palace. They showed us the hand stitching on the furniture. The queen had some kind of accident that kept her in a wheelchair so she needed to find activities she could do, so she stitched flowers all over the furniture and painted ceramics.  Most of the history we got was from the Nepolianic years, but we did get some history from when it was built. After the tour we got a few pictures of the gardens then went to find lunch. We found a fun little cafe/bakery. They were taken back that we wanted to just take our food and go without a bag or sitting down. There some yummy ham and cheese croissants, some things that looked like Danishes, the girls got pretzels, and there was some yummy raisin sweet bread. Delicious. 

After lunch we hoped back in the cars and drove to Triberg. We took a tour of the worlds largest Cuckoo Clock. The guys were fascinated with the inner workings of the clocks and we looked at all the awesome grandfather clocks and cuckoo clocks they had for sale. 

Then we went on a little hike to see Germany's tallest waterfall. The spring run off must have been happening because there was a lot of water. There is a lot of power behind all that falling water. 

After getting soaked from all the waterfall mist and the rain we got back in the cars and drove to McDonalds and found our hotel. The stuff we did on this day were much more tourist type things than any other day.

Trip to Germany - Day 5

Day 5 Frankfurt Temple, etc.

We started a road trip today with Dan and Dana and Tristan. We started out with a drive to the Frankfurt Temple. Dan, Will, and I went to an endowment session while Dana watched the kids in the play area at the cafeteria. Then we switched while Dana did some initiatories. After some pictures we changed in the parking lot and headed off to our next destination. They wouldn't tell us where we were going as it was a surprise! When we pulled into the parking lot for the Frankenstein castle we were surprised! Will was excited because he had read the book. Dan told us that the book Mary Shelly wrote was based on local legend. He said that an apothecary once lived there. And once there was a lightning storm when lightening stuck the castle. After that people in the village reported seeing people that were dead walking around. 

We wandered around and looked at the sights. It was becoming evident that each castle we saw was in better condition than the last.

Next we visited the Auerbach palace. This was less of a fortress castle and more of a palace. They had lots of steel improvements to make it safer and let the tourists venture around more. From what we could tell they did lots of things there like jousting events and lots of photo ops. We even ate at the restaurant that was there. The waiters dressed the part. The walls were decorated with swords and there were suits of armor in the corners. The waiters were very concerned that we couldn't understand the menu. But Dan and Dana reassured them they we would be fine. I got to try snitzel. It was yummy. 

That night we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Heidelberg.

 

Trip to Germany - Day 4

 Day 4 Parkstein and Flossenbürg

Today we went a couple of places. The first was Parkstein. The first thing you see coming in town is a little yellow church on top of a really tall hill.  All the buildings are really close together and the roads are narrow. The town is built around and on this steep hill leading up to the church. It was cold and windy walking up to the church. The church is built on top of some ruins which used to be castle. We went down the hill on the other side where we found out that this really tall hill is actually a volcano. The rock formations are really cool. I really liked this tiny town. Tristan was ready for nap time so Dana gave us some instruction and she went home while we headed over to Flossenbürg.

In Flossenbürg the first thing we saw were some "hobbit homes" as Dana called them. As you pull up here there are just doors in the hill, some seem older than others. One actually had a date over the door. These were wine cellars at some point. We then headed over to and admired the cemetery. We will have to look up there burial traditions, because there was not enough room between the headstones to actually bury someone. In addition, there were not a lot of years on the headstones, so it was hard to tell how old the cemetery was. All the stones look new.

Then we took the trail up to the castle ruins. It was cool to go see all the walls. The oldest walls were built in 1100. Then there was some built in 1200, then 1500. From the top we could see forever.  The girls loved running around, exploring, and climbing higher and higher.

After the castle ruins we headed over to the concentration camp. Flossenbürg KZ was built in 1938 at first as a place to house Career Criminals and Political prisoners. We learned some interesting things about the concentration camp. It was right in town. I kind of expected it to be in the middle of no where. In the visitor center (located in the old laundry building) there was references to city council meetings where they talked about the land and where the building would be. The town liked the idea of it being built there because it would mean a lot of jobs in building the camp, feeding these criminals, and provide labor that worked in the granite quarry down the road. It was like a boost to the economy. As time went on, the type of prisoners, and what constituted political and anti-party prisoners changed of course. By the end of the war, there was far more racial prisoners than political. They have made an amazing memorial there.

While there, I was uncomfortable at first. We ended up going through the visitors center the backwards. So I wasn't sure if we were allowed to be there. But we passed by the welcome desk and the lady there didn't ask us to leave, so I felt better about it all. We talked to the girls about how it was a prison. They took lots and lots of people there. Some were there because of their beliefs. Some were there because they were considered criminals. Some were there because people didn't like them. They didn't treat them nicely. They did mean things. A lot of people died. The girls kept saying it was spooky there. Naomi pointed out a picture of a person laying on the ground with a big hole in his head. She didn't understand and asked me what was on his head. I pulled her away from the picture and told her simply that they didn't do very nice things to people and a lot of people died. That probably wasn't the best thing to do in that situation, but we can get into the other details when she gets older.

We saw a bratwurst stand at the entrance. We thought that would be really cool to eat there after we wandered around for a bit. So after we were done we left to go get the bratwurst we saw before. But by the time we got there they were closed. We came to the conclusion that they stayed open for the tour buses that left right after we got there. We will have to find another one later in the trip. 

As a general rule we have noticed that a lot of businesses are open at different times. The craft store we visited didn't open till 1 pm. Most grocery stores, delis etc, are only open till 7 or 8. Food places close at 6 or 7. There are very little to no fast food places. McDonalds is like a cafe. People go there to relax and stay and sit for a while.

After getting back to Dan and Dana’s house, we relaxed and had a great dinner that Dana’s sister made.

Trip to Germany - Day 3

 Day 3 Amberg

After a good night's sleep we were up at 7. Dana babysat the neighbor girl for an hour. Then Dana took us on a little trip to Amberg. (Awe-m-burg). The old city walls that once surrounded the city are still there. Inside there they still have the buildings and churches and cobblestone roads. They have made it into an outdoor mall with lots of little shops. We went inside two churches. The Basilica St. Martin and the Cathedral St. George.  They were very beautiful and ornate. I loved the stain glass windows. After that Dana indulged me and I bought some fabric at a cute little shop we passed. We played at a cute playground then headed home. We met up with Dan, went to the grocery store, watched some Studio C clips, put the kids to bed, and had a traditional German dinner.

A note on a ‘Traditional German’ dinner. It was like a bunch of different meats and cheeses on bread. So, there you are, with a couple different types of bread, a few cheeses, and few meats, along with butter and mustard, and you pretty much just talk to each other while eating whatever suits your fancy. Dan pointed out that if a family member doesn’t like one item, then they just don’t eat it. No arguments about ‘Your mother slaved over the stove and that is all there is to eat so you better eat it or else you can just go to bed.’ Tonights fair included Sültze (weird stuff, hard to describe, look it up), Alaska-Seelachs Brotaufstrich (Alaskan Salmon spread), Fleischsalat (Meat Salad, has belogna, pickles and eggs), Rotwurst (also known as blood sausage. Not as bad as you would think), Mettwurst (smoked and cured pork burger), Gruyere, bayrische Blaukäse  (Bavarian blue cheese), Camembert (really stinky cheese, but still tastes pretty good), Hartzerrolle (a cheese native to where Dana grew up, very good), along with a boring smoked swiss. It is a very filling meal. We sampled a few German sodas also (Almdudler, Lemon Bitter, Cola-Orange). All in all very good. Then we watched Big Hero 6.

Trip to Germany - Days 1 and 2

Day 1 travel.

The girls were so excited to fly on the plane. Naomi was super nervous. She kept saying "we are all going to die!" We had to explain to her that it was not something you say real loud on a plane. When we got off the plane Naomi was excited to get on the next plane. 

On the second leg of the plane ride we were in a bigger plane. There was tvs on the back of the seats. The girls were entertained by them most of the time. There was games, TV shows, and movies. Plus they fed us dinner and breakfast. The kids each slept for about 2 hours. They were so excited to get off the plane but they both had to much fun being on them.

Traditional McDonald's breakfast at the airport.

There is our plane!

Day 2 jet lag

After we got off the plane we got our rental car and took a drive on the autobahn. Will had lots of fun going over 100 mph. We drive a Ford, listened to American music, and spoke English to everyone. It was kind of weird to think of us in Germany.

To get over the jet lag we needed to stay up till normal bed time. So that is being up for 31 hours with the one or two hours of sleep we got on the plane. Will didn't sleep at all. Complete torture. We went for lots of walks and avoided sitting on the couch. Caffeinated drinks had no affect on me. I even let Naomi have some Dr Pepper. Dana and Will had lots of fun laughing at the silly things I would say. Alana fell asleep in the stroller during a walk at 3:30 and we couldn't get her to wake up for anything. She slept till 7:00 when she woke up long enough to have some dinner (Döner, which is like a pita stuffed with meat and cabbage and a sauce then grilled. Supper yummy.) and change into pjs. Then she was back asleep for the night. Naomi fell asleep playing a game at 6 or 7. We tried to get her to eat some dinner then then was in bed for the night. After the kids were asleep we were chatting with Dana and Dan and I completely fell asleep on the couch. 

160 kph! The record while we were there was 200 kph!