Munich was amazing. I was not expecting it to be my favorite trip so far, but it was. Munich is in the Bavarian region of Germany, and the nature is beautiful. We didn't spend very much time in the city itself but instead took a day trip on Saturday to Neuschwanstein castle and a day trip on Sunday to Dachau concentration camp. We got in late Friday night and checked into our hostel. Then Saturday morning we left for Neuschwanstein, which is about an hour and a half outside of Munich. Before the trip, we were worried the weather would be rainy and overcast, but it ended up being perfect. Once we arrived, we toured the Hohenschwangau castle. (It is the smaller, yellow castle next to Neuschwanstein.) Our tour guide was great, and it was interesting to learn that the castle served as a "small" hunting lodge for King Maximilian II of Bavaria. Hohenschwangau was really neat, but I'm glad we toured it first because Neuschwanstein was unbelievable. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures of the inside of the castle, but I took plenty of the outside. My absolute favorite part of the day was hiking behind the castle to get to see the castle from a short distance. Our adventure started by climbing over a fence (there may or may not have been a sign on it saying something about the bridge being closed for winter or trespassing or whatever...) and hiking to the bridge over a ravine that faces the castle. The views from there were stunning. We continued hiking up to the peak (and when I say hiking I mean occasionally using our hands to pull ourselves up the mountain). It was breathtaking. I can't even describe how incredible of an experience hiking in Bavaria and seeing this huge castle was.
Sunday morning (another beautiful day), Claire and I walked to the Frauenkirche for mass. It was cool because we had mass in one of the side alcoves instead of at the main altar, so it was a small and intimate mass. Then, after the gospel reading (when we usually sit down for the homily), the priest led straight into praying the creed. It was so funny because he completely skipped the homily, and mass was only half an hour! After rejoining our group, we went to Dachau concentration camp, which was about 45 minutes outside of Munich. On the bus ride there, we found out that our vice president, Mike Pence, was also at Dachau. How crazy that probably the only time I will ever be at Dachau, the Unites States Vice President was also there. He left a wreath from the United States at one of the memorials.
Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany. There were several memorials and a museum in addition to the camp. The concentration camp itself was huge. It was a heavy experience listening to and reading about the victims' lives and deaths in Dachau. It was hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I was walking where so many human beings were mindlessly murdered. I believe that everyone should visit a concentration camp at some point in his or her life. It is an important, worthwhile experience.
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