I have a lot of ground to cover because we have been so busy, and because we have not had very easy access to internet. I also killed our adapter so we were without a charge on Chris’ computer for a few days. So here goes a summary from the last time I posted:
Munich
We went to the Oktoberfest tents on Tuesday and Wednesday. It rained and was very cold both days, but we still had a great time. It was a very interesting experience, tons of people – everyone friendly as heck. At the festival outside of the tents is a fair with crazy rides, fair food and cheesy games like “pop the balloon with a dart” and maybe win a cheap toy. Veronica and Maarten spent quite a lot winning me a stuffed dog that looked like Simone, which I named “Ocki.”
Our tent was the Hippodrum, one of the smaller tents but still very large in reality. We were only allowed inside from 4-6:30 pm and during that time we were assigned a table where we would eat and drink the house beer and listen to the lively band play upbeat, sing-a-long type songs. It was packed with people having a good time – a VERY good time. The beer came in 1 liter glass steins, and was so heavy to hold, that we all got bruises on the knuckles of our pointer fingers the next day. Four days later and mine still smarts!
We met some nice people and somehow each night, ended up with a random German wanting to join in on the fun – perhaps they wanted to hang out with Carrie who as she says, was the “fifth wheel.” At any rate we had a great time. On Wednesday night, we went to another tent afterwards although we didn’t have reservations and Maarten managed to a charm a beer maid into letting us sit at a table where some people had just left. We were able to stay there until 11 pm, when the festival ends for the night. I can see why it ended when it did, because people were enjoying themselves so much, it would get way out of hand if the party went on all night.
Dachau
On Thursday, Carrie headed home and Maarten, Veronica, Chris and I hopped in Maarten’s parent’s Audi station wagon and headed to the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, about 20 minutes from Munich. This was something I said I had to do when Chris and I were planning this trip. My grandfather, at the young age of 19 or 20, was a solider in WW II. While he was serving, he was part of the liberation of Dachau. On April 29, 1945 he and other soldiers came to one of the first and one of the harshest concentration camps, and were met with a sight so horrific – barely alive skeletons and dead bodies piled up like firewood, the stench of death everywhere with no relief from it – it literally scarred my grandfather for the rest of his life. There is not much left of the camp now, but we were able to tour where the people were processed, and where they slept (sleep really never came for them), crammed in like sardines. They had an exhibit that gave spotty details about what these people so undeservedly had to endure. It was horrifying, to say the least. It made me feel guilty that I had just had so much fun so close to so much suffering. I am glad I went, but it was terrible, and I feel like I did something to honor my grandfather in a small way.
Lermoos, Austria
After Dachau, we were in a hurry to get to a more peaceful place. We headed an hour to Austria, and the scenery changed very quickly. Soon we were surrounded by snow capped mountains, fluffy sheep, cows with huge horns and goats chomping lush green carpet-like grass. Lermoos is a town where Maarten’s family has a family vacation home. It’s a little ski resort town, very very small but quaint and everywhere you look, the views are breathtaking. The town sits in a wide valley surrounded by mountains, one of which is Zugsptize, Germany’s tallest.
When we got there, the fog and rain shielded these mountains for the most part, so we didn’t really realize the kind of view our hotel had until we left on Saturday. It was stunning – we were at the foot of all these beautiful mountains, and I couldn’t believe they already have snow on them.
When walking to dinner on Thursday night, I finally learned what the smell of Alpine air was like. It filled my lungs and was so fresh, so wonderful – the smell of the trees, the crisp air, it was like nothing I have ever experienced. We ate at Hotel Post, a resort that recently had been renovated. It was very posh in a cozy, ski lodge kind of way.
On Friday, we went to see two castles about 40 minutes away. The drive was so scenic, I don’t think you can round any turn without seeing something more spectacular than what you saw just a few minutes before. The water in the rivers was a pale, pale almost clear blue. It was so pretty, so clean looking, you wanted to go and dip a cup in it and have a long drink. We got to the castles – one at the bottom of the mountain was the family home of King Ludwig. It was yellow and had a storybook appeal to it, it was nice but it paled in comparison to what you would see if you looked from the castle up to the mountain and saw the castle built by the King’s eccentric young son, Ludwig II.
The castle, Neuschwenstein (I think that is how it is spelled – everything here is so long and hard to spell and pronounce) was the inspiration of Disney’s Cinderella castle at the Magic Kingdom. Ludwig’s quintessential Europen castle had all the turrets and spires you would imagine a castle having and was simply enchanting. It definitely is the stuff fairy tales are made of. Inside, every window had a view of stunning countryside, a large lake and on the other sides held even more beautiful views of a massive waterfall that crashes down a huge mountain. Ludwig even built a bridge in the mountain so he could see the waterfall closer, and he could gaze at his perfect castle the seemed to be perched in the sky
Inside, the castle was grand, and included a man made cave and modern furnishings for the mid-1800s like running water and a telephone. It was dedicated to the famous composer and a friend of Ludwig’s Wagner. Poor Ludwig never lived to see the completion of his castle – he died at age 40 in a tragic, mysterious drowning.
After we left the castle, we went home for a cozy meal. Finally on Saturday, the sun was shining and we could see the view from our hotel room. I could not believe we could open the windows and see such a beautiful sight. That was what was so nice about Lermoos, it didn’t matter where you looked, you only saw postcard worthy sights. Also in view from our room was a flock of goats, each one with a little bell around their neck that made such a lovely sound as the ran around the hills in a pack. They were really cute.
Zurich
On Saturday, we left for Zurich for one night with one goal in mind – finding Swiss watches. We had a gorgeous train ride with spectacular views of the countryside and the Alps. My grandmother would have gone crazy over the views, and would have probably been content riding the train back an forth for a few days!
When we arrived at our hotel after being on the train for 3 hours, and found out that all the shops closed around 5 pm, and it was 4:40 pm. So we literally dumped our bags in the room and sprinted down the hill, determined to get our Swiss watches. After passing dozens of stores, we finally found a department store that was open til 6 pm. We found their large selection of watches and were each able to find a nice watch that we “gifted” each other as a 2nd anniversary present.
We ended the evening with dinner cheese and meat fondue! Yummm!!!