Munich Germany

Munich

Day 19: April 12th, 2014

(In German- Munchen)

Our first full day in Munich started out well. The sun was shining, the forecast was promising, if not a little cold, and there were sights to see! Then only hiccup with the morning was the train system. We were told to get on the S3 to Marienplatz and we would be in the center of town. Lucky for us, the S# station is 100 yards from our place. The problem arose when all of the sudden the train that we were on switched from being an S3 train to being an S4 train and started heading out of Munich instead of into it. Oh the problems of not speaking the language. Eventually we got into town, but we had missed the playing of the Glockenspiel at 11am due to our little diversion. Lucky of us though, it is not considered summer here which means that instead of playing once a day at 11, it plays 3 times a day at 11, 12 and 5pm. All we had to do was wait for 50 minutes.

To fill our time we made our way to the famous, supposedly,  Viktualeinmarkt. This is like a permanent outdoor market where various goods and foods are sold. We wandered around and found us some fresh squeezed juice and some sausages. It's Germany. Must eat sausage!

 OLIVES!!!

After that we went back to the Marienplatz and watched the Glockenspiel play with its life sized characters. There is dancing and jousting, and if you want the whole story, look it up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathaus-Glockenspiel . Here is our video of it. Be warned it is lengthy.

After that we headed out to Jeff's destination: The BMW Welt (World)! It is BMW's museum/factory which is set right next to the site of the 1972 Munich Olympics. Jeff loved wondering around and looking at the new cars. The highlights were seeing a Rolls-Royce Phantom and Ghost up close, as well as seeing the i8 concept car and how the i3 all electric car is made. Hint: It is mostly carbon fiber and is pretty cool even though it does look a bit weird. The NEED to make the i3 though. Amber spent most of her time lounging in the MINI area in some comfy chairs while Jeff indulged. The exciting part of the day was when a guy rode a motorcycle up and down the stairs. It was pretty cool, if not a little cheesy. Oh well.

After that we headed over to the Olympic Stadium for some sightseeing, and to our surprise we stumbled upon the Reebok Spartan Race being held there! We decided it was as good a place as any to sit and enjoy the beautiful sunny weather while people ran, crawled and climbed the obstacles.

We then proceeded to come home, watch the Sound of Music and sleep. Overall it was another wonderful day!

Day 20: April 13th, 2014

Today was the epitome of a rest day, it also was the Sabbath so it was a good excuse to do just that.  For church we decided to catch up on Conference which we missed most of last week due to travel plans. It was so good to hear the words of the prophets that everyone was talking about on Facebook. :) We lounged around pretty much all day and got a needed  recoup, especially the pregnant one. Just being pregnant can be hard, with all the joints aching and a little alien kicking around all the time.

Our in door picnic!!!

Amber's pastry and tea!!!

The  best moment of the day was when we were sitting there listening to Conference and the little tyke started kicking like he was in a Tae Kwan Do class. He has gotten to the point where you can see Amber's abdomen move when he kicks. It is just amazing, and terrifying at the same time.  

Well tomorrow we head off to see the Neuschwanstein Castle!

Day 21: April 14th, 2014

The Newschwanstein Castle, also known as the "Cinderella's Castle". It is as beautiful as you think it would be. Part of the reason that it is so nice and picturesque is that it was designed to be the pinnacle of the  Medieval architecture built in the mid to late 1800's, and it was never, and still isn't finished. It was also not really lived in so everything has been preserved fairly well.

It was built by King Ludwig II, who wanted a picturesque palace/ castle that went along with his desire to rule as a king in the Medieval times. The only problem was that he was part of a constitutional kingdom now and didn't have the ability to rule in absolutism. So instead he created a fantasy world comprised of palaces and the like that made him think that he was in that setting.

He also REALLY like Richard Wagner's music, so he had the walls painted  and sculptures  sculpted after scenes from Wagner's operas. There are no statues of him and his coat of arms is only depicted once in the building. Now the part as to why it is still not finished. Well, he was declared insane by some physicians in Munich and was escorted back to Munich. He then went for a walk the next day with his psychiatrist and the day after that they were both found dead in the lake. So he died and was also out of money ( not related to the death) so no more building commenced. Later that same year his family opened it up to the world to see as an attraction. It has remained a very lucrative one ever since.

A video of the castle from the near by bridge. 

The only room we could take a picture of: the massive Kitchen. You should really look up the other rooms because they are gorgeous! 

Your little German man mom! (Donna)

After wandering all over the grounds, we then drove back the longer way to Munich and enjoyed the evening by cooking some food of our own and then sleeping. Sleeping is always good.

Day 22: April 15th, 2014

We woke up this morning and headed out of Munich on our way to Stuttgart. Our first stop was a somber one: Dachau. The  first concentration camp. It was a good stop to make because it reminded us of the autrocities that took place in Nazi Germany and how it came about, but it was also hard to hear the stories of the people and to see the places that they were interred. The day that we are there was cold and dreary which only added to the somber tone of the occasion.

This is the entry door that every prisoner walked through. It says 

"Work Sets You Free"

Below is the one remaining long hall of where everyone slept. Above shows where many more rows of these buildings used to be. 

Main courtyard where the prisoners had to stand for role call. 

NEVER AGAIN

After Dachau we headed off to Stuttgart. We arrived there without too much misdirection by the lovely GPS lady. And to her credit, this time it was just an obscure road that nobody could find unless you knew where it was because it is one lane and is also a biking/walking path.  I guess we won't hold it against her for too long.

The place we are staying is a nice little guestroom where the host, Stefan, provides us with breakfast. He also has 2 cats which are very nice, but also like to sneak into our room. Because of this we have been constantly shooing them out, and once or twice we may have scared them a bit, because now they are not nearly as affectionate. Oh well.