Greg and Kristin's Visit Part 2 - Castles, Munich and Rothenburg

We returned from Rome on the 4^th of July and had a cookout with Toni and Warren to celebrate.  We didn’t get too crazy though, because we were hitting the road in the morning again to head to Bavaria. 

Thursday night we unpacked, did laundry and packed again to head on another trip.  We drove down to Munich and made a stop at the Neuschwanstein Castle on the way.  This is the famous castle built by Ludwig II of Bavaria and was the inspiration for the Disney castle.  He lived in the castle less than a year before he died and soon after his death the castle was opened to the public to visit.  Much of the interior of the castle is still incomplete to this day, but we were able to see many of the rooms that were completed before Ludwig’s death.  Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures inside the castle, but it was beautiful.  In Ludwig’s bedroom alone there were multiple carvers that worked for years to create all of the wood carvings and furniture.  If we were inconsiderate tourists like some of the people in our group we would have some pictures, but we followed the rules.  We did express our discontent with the people on our tour that were taking pictures and Greg got into a little verbal disagreement with a woman on our tour (it was pretty awesome! J).  Some people need to learn to follow the rules instead of making a bad name for all other English speaking tourists.  Oh well, there are people like that everywhere!

The view from the balcony in the castle

Along with this tour, we were able to tour the Hohenschwangau Castle as well.  This was the home of other Bavarian kings before Ludwig II and he spent some of his childhood in this castle (which is why he loved the area and ended up building his castle nearby). 

After our castle tours we drove to Munich, checked into our hotel and got some sleep for the next few days.  On Saturday, we took a guided tour to the Dachau concentration camp.  I don’t even know how to explain this experience.  Visiting a concentration camp is something I don’t know if I want to do again, but I’m very glad I did once.  It was so surreal and emotionally painful to stand in the place where thousands were killed and to actually see the ovens where human remains were burned.  Dachau wasn’t an extermination camp (I didn’t know there was a difference) so people weren’t sent there specifically to be killed like many of the other camps, but thousands were still killed and/or died due to conditions at Dachau.  It was the first and model concentration camp for the Nazis and officers were trained at Dachau to work at camps all over Europe.  Definitely an experience to remember.  Our tour guide was wonderful and we definitely learned a lot about life in the camp and this sad portion of history. 

The gate to Dachau reading "labor makes you free" - All of the people at this camp entered through this gate.

Sculpture at Dachau in the main square 

This memorial contains the ashes of unknown people that were killed or died at Dachau

The main square at Dachau where roll call was taken every day

I don't even know how to caption this picture.....

The bunks where people were packed in like sardines 

We tried to pick up our spirits a bit and after Dachau we went to the Augustiner beer garden to enjoy the beautiful weather and have a beer and giant pretzel.  After Augustiner, we headed back to the center of town and went to Hofbrauhaus for some more great Munich brew. 

Our plan on Sunday was initially to visit Hitler’s Eagles Nest in Berchtesgaden, but it was supposed to be cloudy there all day with a chance of rain, so we cancelled this tour.  We ended up visiting the Munich Residenz which is the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs.  The rooms in this building were amazing (we were able to take pictures this time).  We also got to see the royal treasury and feast our eyes on some amazing jewelry, crowns, art, etc. 

We spent the afternoon in the Englischer Garten walking around the pretty paths and having some traditional Bavarian food and beer by the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese tower). 

Since this day (Sunday) was Greg and Kristin’s anniversary we went back to the hotel to freshen up a bit and went out to a nice dinner at the Andechser am Dom restaurant.  This place serves our favorite Munich beer, Andechs.  The food was very yummy as well!  Happy 6 years of marriage to Greg and Kristin!! J

Instead of going to the Eagles nest, we decided to leave early on Monday morning and swing by one of our favorite little towns in Germany, Rothenburg ob de Tauber.  We have been to this town multiple times (we took Ron and Connie there as well), but we love to visit and it is a great place to take visitors to show them a traditional walled city in Germany.  We enjoyed a few hours walking around this town and headed home.  We relaxed the rest of the evening and Greg and Kristin got ready to head back to the airport on Tuesday morning for their early flight back to the US.

The streets of Rothenburg

City hall in Rothenburg

The view at the edge of town

One of the original city gates of Rothenburg

The view from the tower at city hall

There were high school band students from Ohio playing in the city square

It was a whirlwind trip, but we saw some wonderful things and it was SO GREAT to see Greg and Kristin.  We love having visitors and can’t wait for other friends and family to visit as well!

Phew!  Sorry for the huge posts, but I know people (well, family J ) were curious as to what we were up to and interested in pictures. 

Stay posted for our Summer adventures!  We are going canoeing, camping and white water rafting in Germany and Austria in the next few weeks!

Greg and Kristin's Visit Part 1 - Trier and Rome

Alright, Brandon took the reigns on the last few posts…my turn!  I’m going to split the next few weeks into a few different posts so it isn’t so long, but it is still pretty lengthy, sorry in advance!  I had to sift through almost 900 pictures for this post so I hope you enjoy all of the pictures! :)

We were SUPER excited these past few weeks to have my twin brother Greg and his wife Kristin visit!  Kristin’s parents watched our nephew Cade while they were gone and they spent 10 days with us.  We had a jam packed itinerary for their time with us and we hit the road the day after they got here. 

They arrived on Sunday, June 30^th around noon.  We picked them up and made the hour or so drive back to our house.  They were pretty tired and took a few hour nap, then we took them to one of our favorite local restaurants and micro breweries in Kaiserslautern for beer and some yummy schnitzel. 

We decided to play Monday by ear depending on how tired they were from their travels.  They were troopers and said they were good to go, so we drove about an hour and 20 min to Trier, Germany.  Trier is the oldest town in Germany and was founded in or before 16 B.C.  There are some neat Roman ruins around the city and a really cute downtown area.  The biggest attraction there are a few cathedrals as well as what they call the Porta Nigra (latin for the black gate) which is one of the surviving Roman gates to the city.  This gate was built between 186 and 200 A.D.  It was pretty cool!

Porta Nigra - Old Roman Gate

View from one side of the Porta Nigra

Inside one of the cathedrals

In the garden downtown

Downtown Trier

Outside of Porta Nigra

Inside Porta Nigra

Two of the cathedrals downtown

We drove home, made dinner and packed to get up bright (well, dark actually) and early for our flight to Rome on Tuesday morning.  Our flight left around 6:00, so we got up and were on the road at about 3:30 AM.  As of Tuesday morning….we were on our way to Italy! YAY!!

We arrived in Rome around 8:00 AM and got on our bus to our apartment.  We had to take a bus from the airport to the main train station downtown to get on the subway and find our apartment.  This was a little bit of an adventure, but we found it with little problem.  We got settled in, dropped of our stuff and hit the road walking toward the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and walked around Palatine Hill and used an audio tour to guide us around the Roman Forum. 

Palatine Hill is one of the most ancient areas of Rome and overlooks the location of Circus Maximus.  According to the legend of how Rome was established, the cave where Romulus and Remus were found was located in Palatine Hill.  Recent excavations show that people have lived on Palatine Hill since around 1000 B.C.  The ruins of Palatine Hill were pretty cool and they are constantly uncovering more ruins as well as restoring some of the ruins that are already uncovered. 

Overlooking the Vatican from Palatine Hill

Ruins at Palatine Hill

Palatine Hill overlooking the cite of Circus Maximus

We then walked from Palatine hill to the Roman Forum (they are basically connected).  The Forum is the ancient city center of Rome.  This was the center of Roman public life and the remains of buildings here are the government and public buildings of the city.   It was really neat to see what is left of the buildings here and to imagine what this area looked like so many years ago.  We even got to see the site where Julius Caesar’s body was burned after his assassination. 

The Roman Forum

Arch of Augustus

Arch of Augustus 

Arch of Augustus

Site where Julius Caesar's body was burned

After hours of walking in above 90-degree weather, we wandered around a bit and found some yummy gelato to relax a bit. After our break and snack, we headed to our tour of the Colosseum.  We had a guided tour of the Colosseum and were able to wander around after the tour to get some more great pictures.  I don’t really know what else to say about seeing the Colosseum other than it was breathtaking.  So cool to see in person and imagine all of the events that happened there! Some of my favorite facts about the Colosseum were that it actually was covered and had a retractable roof (they are not 100% sure how this worked, but they know it existed), attending events at the Colosseum was free and the structure used to be a perfect circle (it is now more of an oval).  It also wasn’t originally called the Colosseum, this name was given to it after a statue from outside of the arena of Nero (named after the Colossus of Rhodes).  The original name of the Colosseum was the Flavian amphitheater.

After our tour we took a taxi to the Trastevere neighborhood to look around and find a place for dinner.  We found an awesome restaurant and had some pasta and wine.  Everyone made fun of me for my reaction to the food here, but it was literally some of the best pasta I have ever had! So yummy!!

The next day (Wednesday) we visited the Vatican first thing in the morning.  It was beyond beautiful to see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters.  It was really cool to look around and be standing in St. Peters square where we were watching the announcement of the new pope not that long ago.  It was neat to see all of the history in the Vatican museums as well as take an audio tour of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters.  We learned a lot about this famous city and it’s importance to the Catholic church and to all churches in general. 

Inside the Vatican Museum

Inside some of the apartments in the Vatican

Outside of St. Peters Basilica

Inside St. Peters Basilica

Inside St. Peters Basilica

Inside St. Peters Basilica

St. Peters Square

After the Vatican we went back to our apartment to take a little nap (the heat just zapped us all).  We got up a few hours later and took a walk through the Heart of Rome to see some different churches as well as the Pantheon.  We found a few other great little places to stop and have dinner as well as see many of the famous fountains of Rome both in the daylight and at night. 

The Pantheon

The ceiling of the Pantheon

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

The Spanish Steps

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Overall, we had a wonderful time in Rome and crammed a lot into a few days!  We got up early Thursday morning to catch our flight back to Kaiserslautern.