...well, there's actually not a lot of data on that one. But at least you get to read this now!
Saturday:
We caught a train that took us outside of Munich over towards the Alps where the castles are located. We bought our tickets to tour both castles, and headed to Hohenschwangau, the smaller, yellow castle, first. We had read that this tour was the better of the two castles, and we found this to be true. One of my favorite facts from the tour concerned King Ludwig II's bedroom. The ceiling of this room was painted to resemble the tops of trees and a night sky with stars. These stars were made of crystal and connected to channels that went through the ceiling up to a room that the servants could get into. The servants could then light candles and, through a system of mirrors, reflect light down the channels and into the crystal stars, giving the impression of a starlit sky. There was also a circular crystal plate to serve as a moon that used the same system, but with the added feature that the plate could be adjusted to follow the waning of the moon. We then hiked up to Neuschwanstein Castle, stopping briefly at a restaurant along the way (delicious), and went on that tour. The throne room was the most impressive room, with slightly over-the-top decorations and architecture. Afterwards, we hiked up and around the castle to a bridge where we had an incredible view of the castle. Needless to say, we took many pictures. The sunset that day as we came down the mountain from the bridge was absolutely incredible; I wished I had a better camera to be able to take a picture that really did the view justice. We finished out the day by eating dinner at the Hofbrau house, a famous and huge beer hall in central Munich that features a live German band.
Sunday:
Dachau. This was the first concentration camp the Nazis built and became the model for the others. It's difficult to put into words what you feel as you walk around a concentration camp, seeing how people lived, what they endured, and listening to some of their stories, especially because it is incredibly challenging to imagine what these people went to since none of us have ever experienced anything close to their suffering. The pictures and videos I saw that day were beyond disturbing; the fact that humans could do that to other humans in modern history is absolutely reprehensible. As we were talking about how we felt on the bus back to the train to Munich, I said on one hand I could stay at the memorial all day because of the incredible detail and breadth of historical information about the site, but on the other hand even the four and a half hours that I spent there made me sick to my stomach.
That morning Rachel & I had also attended Mass at the Frauenkirche in downtown Munich. Afterwards, we walked around on our way back to our hostel and took pictures of the neat architecture of some buildings and also some of statues.
All in all, one of the best weekends so far.
Neuschwanstein Castle (as viewed from the bridge)
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