On June 3, 2016, we began one of the most memorable adventures of our married life. Our oldest son, McKay had invited us to join him in Germany after his research paper was selected to be presented at an academic conference in Regensburg, Germany. We were thrilled to be invited. Germany is a special place for Steve since he served his LDS mission in the Central German Mission in 1967-69 and hasn't been back to Germany since. Of course, since I had never been to any European countries, I was eager also.
We flew into Munich and rented a car. Steve had selected a hotel within walking distance from the Old Town city center of the beautiful Bavarian capital of Munich, which includes Marienplatz Square and the Old Town Hall. Bavaria is a state in the southern part of Germany on the river Isar. It is known for beautiful architecture, fine culture and the annual Oktoberfest beer festival.
As soon as we checked into our hotel, we started walking to check out the area. We had a couple of hours before we had to drive back to the airport to pick up McKay. The building in the background above is the Old Town Hall.
The descriptions of the beautiful buildings were not exaggerated. There were also many biergartens or beer gardens in English. The Germans love their beer.
The Clydesdale horses pulling the beer barrel wagon were a popular tourist attention getter.
It had started raining by the time we arrived back at the airport. We found our way to the area where the deplaning passengers were scheduled to arrive. Due to thunderstorms in the area, the planes were not allowed to land. We ended up waiting several hours for his flight to land. During that time we received very little information which was unsettling. We were all relieved when his plane finally landed and we were able to greet him.
We immediately walked back down to the Marienplatz Square and Old Town. It was disappointing that even on Friday evening, most of the retail shops were closed by 5 or 6 p.m. We were able to see the famous St. Peters Church which is the oldest parish in town and pre-dates the founding of Munich as a city.
After walking around and seeing the sites of the area, we finally decided to eat at the Ratskeller Restaurant built in the cellar underneath the Old Town Hall. It had many rooms and was decorated in traditional Bavarian style. We sampled sauerkraut, sausages, potatoes, and weinerschnitzel, etc. It was fun and we enjoyed most of the food. We didn't care for the potato dumplings but everything else was great.
Saturday morning, we drove to Dachau, a town with a population of 45,000 about 20 km northwest of Munich. It was our intention to spend an hour or two at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial site. It was the first large-scale concentration camp in Germany, converted from an old gunpowder factory by the Nazi regime in 1933. It was operational until 1945. Over 25,000 people were murdered there with an additional 10,000 killed in nearby sub camps.
It is a very sobering experience to tour the remaining restored facilities, see the photos and read the descriptions of the horrendous things that took place in this death camp. It really is incomprehensible to my mind that human beings could do these things to other human beings.
These are replicas of the beds where many prisoners were crammed together trying to keep warm with just their body heat.
Below are the ovens where they burned the bodies after the people were gassed to death in the "showers." I can't really describe the somber feelings we had as we walked the grounds of this place which has become holy because of those who died here. Various memorial structures have been erected in the site in honor of those who were killed here.
Sculpture of Starving Prisoners
This sculpture depicts the suffering and the bodies of dead and dying.
We ended up spending more time than we expected reading the history placards and seeing the exhibits. We have an obligation to make sure we don't forget this dark time in history so that it will never be repeated.
We drove back to Munich to see as much as we could of the city there. The architecture is truly beautiful.
Here is the Olympic stadium from the 1972 Summer Olympic games. This was the year that 11 Israeli Olympic team members and a German police officer were taken hostage and eventually killed by Palestinian terrorists during the second week of the games.
We loved looking at the pastry and grocery counters. Most of the pastries looked better than they tasted as they are not as sweet as those commonly sold in the U.S. We do love our sweets!
This bicycle has multiple seats. It is designed for several riders to pedal but only one to steer the vehicle. The peddlers are drinking beer. The person who steers is supposed to remain sober. What a concept!
This shop was closed but another part was a restaurant and it was open.
We drove to the famous English Garden which is supposed to be bigger and nicer than Central Park in NY. We found a place where we could park and do some walking. It began raining, however, so our walk was short. That was probably good as I found a description online that said that nude sun bathing is allowed in the park. I'm so glad we missed that spectacle. After driving around to see the famous buildings and sites in Munich, we tried to find a restaurant recommended by our friend but were unsuccessful at that. We eventually found some food to our liking and then McKay and I walked back to the Old Town area to see a little more of the area. Once again retail shops were closed. Only the beer gardens and some restaurants were open. The shopkeepers and vendors had all gone home.
It was raining Sunday morning as we dressed to attend a local LDS church meeting. We arrived several minutes early but the doors were locked. A student from BYU, doing an internship, arrived at about the same time. He said he thought they were having a district meeting at another chapel about 30 miles away. We wouldn't have been able to make it there in time for the meeting and we had to turn our rental car back in near the train station in a narrow window so finding that meeting wasn't an option for us. We decided to rent a car to drive to Salzburg, Austria rather than take the train, but that meant we had to turn our current car back in and pick up a different car. That was a bit of a hassle but proved to be an excellent choice as it allowed us to tour somethings we hadn't necessarily planned.
Since the rental car place was near the train station, it gave us the opportunity to see this amazing facility. Trains are a primary source of transportation throughout Europe so the stations are huge and contain many shops and food options. The trains in Germany run smoothly and ON TIME!
After we had dropped off one car and picked up another, we loaded our bags and headed to the nearby Nymphenburg Palace. It was built by Bavaria's Royal Wittelsbach family as a country home in 1664. It was still raining on and off, but we thoroughly enjoyed walking around the grounds of this amazing estate.
After we left the palace, we got back on the autobahn and headed for Salzburg. The scenery was lush and beautiful all along the way. We enjoyed our approximately 2 hour drive to Salzburg.
The pictures I took while driving through the countryside really don't do it justice at all.
We checked into our Holiday Inn in Salzburg. Here are Steve and McKay checking out the balcony that adjoined both our units. We asked the hotel clerk to recommend a place to eat. That proved to be a wise request since most shops and restaurants were closed on Sunday and many on Monday.
She gave us directions to a restaurant named Urban Keller. We walked there and back to see that section of the city.
It was a beautiful little place and we were able to order traditional dishes which included pork, cabbage and potatoes prepared with an Austrian flare.
We woke up Monday morning to a beautiful, sunny day. Right away we discussed the option of driving to Hitler's Eagle Nest in the alps. We hadn't necessarily planned to do this, but with a clear morning we unanimously decided to take the chance. This was enabled because we rented the car.
After grabbing some food from the corner market, we started out for a celtic town called Hallein, about 29 km away, which is supposed to be a smaller version of Salzburg without the touristy feel. There is a famous salt mine nearby. We thought it might be fun to explore that area. When we arrived at the outskirts of Hallein, we saw signs to Berchtesgaden and the Eagles Nest. We followed the signs since clouds had started to gather and skipped our exploration of Hallein.
The drive through the country and past alpine villages to the alps was breathtakingly beautiful. McKay and I kept wanting to stop to take photos. We wanted to remember this day and this feeling.
Our photos don't capture the beauty and majesty of the mountains and the surroundings but we kept trying.
We went through the town of Berchtesgaden and drove a little farther to the visitor's entrance. There we paid to ride to the Eagle's Nest tunnel on a service bus. You can either walk up or ride the bus as no cars are allowed. The bus rides were instituted in 1952.
The bus drops visitors off at the entrance to a tunnel. From there you wait in line to ride in the elevator which takes you up to the Kehlsteinhaus. This mountain retreat sitting atop the summit of the Kehlstein was built starting in 1937 by Martin Bormann. It was presented to Hitler as a 50th birthday present in 1939. It was blasted out of solid rock and 12 workers died during the 13-month process. It was used for government meetings by the Nazi's. Hitler never slept there but went there 14 times during the war. The kitchen was an all electric kitchen which was very unusual for the time. However, no meals were prepared there but they were prepared down in the town and then brought up and reheated. The floors were heated and it took 2 days to get the temperature comfortable for visitors. The red marble fireplace was donated by Mussolini of Italy.
This facility was not damaged during the war so it looks just as it did in 1945. It is now used as a restaurant in the summer. There is no access in the winter due to the snow. Hitler had vacationed in this general area of the Alps since the 1920's.
These next three photos were taken inside the Kehlsteinhaus restaurant which is very much the same as it was in 1945.
The flowers between some of the rocks were beautiful.
The views were totally amazing in all directions! We were so glad the weather cooperated and that we were able to make this side trip into the Alps. The experience immediately jumped to the top of our list of favorites and has continued to rank very high on our list.
Our guidance app, "Here now" gave us an alternate route back to Salzburg and we enjoyed the beauty of that drive just as much as the one we took earlier in the day. This excursion still gave us several daylight hours to explore Salzburg.
