Germany / Austria - Day 6

We woke up early again so we could make it to the Dachau memorial right when it opened. We ate breakfast at Rebecca's, picked up Ramzi at the cousin's house, and Rebecca drove us to the train station. We said thank you and goodbye and were off to Dachau. We didn't expect the train ride to be as fast as it was because we're used to long ones...well we missed the stop. So we got off at the next stop and waited for about thirty minutes for the train to take us back to Dachau. After getting off the train, we waited for the bus to take us to the memorial. I can't put into words the emotions and feelings I felt at the concentration camp.

I couldn't believe how big it really was and how reverent the feeling was while visiting there. We walked around for a bit and then went into the museum. I was struck by the stories of the hundreds of thousands of people who suffered here. It was a very serene and special experience. After about an hour of walking through the museum and the old check-in point of the camp, we saw where a lot of the torture and humiliation took place - the feeling I had is indescribably. We then watched a twenty minute cinema on Dachau. After that we walked outside again and saw some more memorials like the ashes of the unknown prisoners of the camp. Next we walked into the barracks where the prisoners slept and got diseases and some even died. On the bunk-beds about 4-5 people per bed/mattress. Like I said, it's hard to describe what I felt there, but what I did feel will never be forgotten.

"Work makes one free"

We went from Dachau to Munich and we didn't really have a plan when it came to Munich, so we just wandered. It turned out great! Unfortunately, I don't know the names of any of the things we saw. We walked along the main street, bought some small souvenirs, and found a few really cool buildings and churches.

(Just for you, Gramps & Grams!)

Eventually, we found the English Garden which we HAD heard of. It wasn't as beautiful as Hyde Park or Kensington gardens, but it was BIG. Ramzi decided to sit and hang out by a fountain and Carly and I kept walking through this huge garden/park for a while until we found a bench by the creek.

We just sat there and took a break from carrying our heavy backpacks and chatted about some of the girls we met in London and how much we love and miss them. We have a special bond with these girls that is indescribable. I love you, London Lovies!!! After about a half hour of that we found Ramzi again and decided we needed something German: aka Haagen Daas (which is actually American...I've thought it was German my whole life!) and Milka. The Milka here is sooo cheap!! It was only half a euro for one bar!! Let's just say I spent 4 euros worth. :) Our time in Germany was now complete! Onto Austria!!

AUSTRIA

We got into Salzburg sound 7:30 pm and found our hostel, the "Yoho youth hostel", and checked in. Carly and I booked our reservation for "The Sound of Music tour" tomorrow too! We took our stuff up to the room, made our beds with the crunchy sheets they gave us (yum!), and left to explore a little bit of Salzburg! We saw the big castle (Fortress Hohensalzburg) on the hill when we pulled into the train station, so we decided to try and get to that castle. We wandered down some very old European streets that reminded me a little bit of Prague, but it was dark so we didn't wander too much. We walked across the bridge to where the hill to the castle starts and decided to hike up to it. The descent to the castle isn't nearly as long as the walk to the Neuschwanstein castle but it was definitely steeper! At least we didn't have our backpacks this time! We got to almost the top when we got to closed gate to the castle. Bummer. So we went over to the wall of the road to the castle and climbed up to it to find, yet again, another great view of the beautiful city.

I wanted to talk to someone from home for some reason so I called Jess because she graduated from Dental Hygiene school last week and since I'm still in Europe, I missed it. I miss her and wanted to hear her voice so I did and it was great! Being away from home and family really makes you appreciate them so much more. I love Jess. She's the best sister in the whole world! Even though we just chatted, it was nice to hear her. I can't believe it's been almost five months since I've seen her! I can't wait to see her and her baby tummy! After talking to Jess I wanted to call Annie really fast and see how she's doing being home. We were both so giddy talking to each other we couldn't stop laughing! Haha. She's like, "Come home, baby Bev!! I miss you!" I miss that girl and all the other girls so much!! After soaking up some Austrian air, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed!

Germany - Day 5

Today we woke up at nine which was really nice of Rebecca and Tom and they made us a real German breakfast. We had white sausage, carbonated apple juice, bread an pretzels with hazelnut spread thats even better than nutella, and more sausage. It was surprisingly very good! Rebecca and Tom have the cutest children: Phillip who's ten months old, and Leah who's two. She has the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen and she thinks we can understand her when she talks to us in German. It's adorable. She told me today that I have lots of beautiful hair and that I should lick it. She also told me that she's going to buy me chocolate ice cream. (this was all in German of course) We did the dishes and got the kids ready and headed to the police station to report carly's list eurail pass. We're lucky we had Rebecca to help translate...we figured it out! Then we got on a train to Regensburg - beautiful city where the Regen and Danube rivers meet. We walked around for a bit, went into the big cathedral there, across the bridge, and got on another bus to Walhalla where there's a big/small pantheon-like building with the most amazing view of the countryside of Germany.

I am in love with each country I have seen so far! I am so blessed to be able to do this and see these amazing places in the world. When we got back to Rebecca and tom's house carly and I helped rebecca make schpetzla (noodle type things) and schnitzel (yummy breaded chicken). It was fun and VERY good!!! We discovered a German carbonated apple juice called Apfleschorle and it was amazing! After dinner we walked through the city of Landsut and got ice cream!

(Tallest brick tower in Europe!)

Germany - Day 4

Today started out kinda rough. We decided last night that we needed to wake up early to get to Germany and Neuschwanstein early enough to see the castle and have enough time there. Well since Carly and I were sharing a room and she can't wake up to anything but someone waking her up, I am designated alarm clock. Well I have a problem with waking up before seven am. We were planning on leaving AT seven. So...needless to say, I turned my alarm of in my sleep. Good thing we had Ramzi here because he knocked on our door a seven and said, "aren't we going?" So carly and I got ready in about a minute an we were on our way to catch the 720 train back to Zurich. We it to Zurich and discovered that the the train to Fussen, Germany (the town next to Neuschwanstein) wasn't leaving for another 2 hours. So we wandered the train station for a bit and I paid to go into the bathroom and brush my teeth and hair and then we sat on our platform reading until our train came. After two long train rides, we made it to Fussen! We took a small bus to get to neuschwanstein and eventually caught view of the famous Disney and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle! it is indescribable how big and enchanted it is (insert history). As we got off the bus, I noticed more tourists than I have in my four months being in Europe. There were LOTS of Americans which I found interesting. It was weird listening to them speak because I'm not used to hearing the American accent. Ramzi ditched his backpack in a locker and carly and I kept on trekking up the very long road toward the castle. We stopped pretty shortly to get our first legitimate brattworst!! They were so good! Better than any i've had in the US. I hate them at home, but these were so yummy! I don't even know how much we hiked, but I do know I had to take off two coats and wipe the sweat off the back of my neck once we made it! This castle is amazing. It's on top of a mountain and the view from it is absolutely breathtaking.

We started by walking around the back and hiking some more to the bridge in the back (insert history). It was awesome! The bridge was a little shaky, but the waterfall below and the view of the castle was so beautiful! I've never seen anything like it before.

We headed back down and into the grounds of the castle but didn't go in because we didn't have enough time to do that and make it back to the train station in time. As we headed back down, we stopped and got a few souvenirs and the carly and I both got these German donut ball things. They were soo good!! Even better than the ones I had in Belgium! We made it to the train station in time and were now in our way to munich/landschut! We're staying with carly's brother's friend Rebecca just an hour northwest of Munich. It's very nice of these people to take in three American backpackers for a night or two. I am very grateful.