Well, in short, this weekend was awesome.
Friday:
After an early start to catch a train to Munich (aka Müchen), we arrived at our hotel. After staying in hostels the past two weekends, this hotel was awesome. And the first time I've had air conditioning since the USA (ironically enough this was the first weekend we didn't need AC). We went on a 3 hour (walking) tour (cue gilligans island reference) of Munich, including seeing surfing at the English garden (larger than central park in NYC). Friday night we ate at one of the famous Biergartens and hung out in the park.
Saturday:
Nine of us got up really early to head to Füssen (2 hour train ride from Munich) to see Neuschwanstein. Unfortunately, we missed our train, had to wait an hour for the next one, and had to change our reservation for the Neuschwanstein tour. Neuschwanstein is the castle that inspired Walt Disney's castles. Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria built the castle in the 1800s. This castle is basically the kind of classic castle you would dream about. King Ludwig died before the castle was finished, so some rooms weren't completed to their full grandeur, but the beautiful castle nestled so beautifully in the alps was amazing. Neuschwanstein has so many visitors that the tours are on a very strict schedule, and we couldn't reschedule our tour in English. So we took the tour in German. So basically I had no clue what was said. But other people on the tour filled me in and a tour is the only way to get in the castle, so it was still worth it.
After our castle tour, the other girls headed back to Munich, and John, Scott, and I stayed to hike. How many opportunities do you have to hike in the Alps?? We hiked about 4 hours, and the views were gorgeous the whole way. I actually got really freaked out the last 30 minutes or so up the mountain. The hiking is way too intense for me if you are on all fours... Haha. But overall it was definitely my favorite thing I've done on this trip. It was very relaxing to just get away from the city and enjoy the Lord's handiwork. Plus, the three of us just had fun taking pictures and goofing off. We didn't get back to Munich until 11 pm so we called it a day.
Sunday:
The whole group went about 20 minutes outside of Munich to the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau is famous not for the masses that perished (a relatively small 30,000 - those "sentenced" to death were shipped elsewhere for intentional mass murder) but because it was the very first concentration camp and all others were modeled after it. In addition to serving as a labor camp, it had a military prison with individual cells, an SS base, a gas chamber and crematorium, and held Nazi prisoners after the war was over. It actually had inhabitants of various forms until the 1960s when the current barracks were torn down and the camp was converted to a memorial. I really can't put into words how surreal it was to be inside the camp. Some prisoners were also victims of medical experiments (pressure and malaria) - the pictures of these were the most nauseating. Now the grounds are covered with memorials, monuments, and even a convent.
This afternoon, five of us went to BMW World. Munich is the headquarters for BMW. Basically, it was a huge showroom compete with an indoor racetrack and cutting edge technology. Crazy story, but as we were headed to the Olympic Park, John and I turned back to find a bathroom. Next thing I know, John had volunteered for a contest and won a car ride on the track. We got to go "backstage", and John looked like he had on a space suit. With the whole car ride thing, the other girls left us to head back to the train station (we were pushing it on time)... Thankfully we made back in time and didn't get caught riding the U-Bahn without tickets (5 people travel on one ticket - and the others had the ticket).
Now I'm on the train back to Vienna. I took a TON of pictures this weekend, and I'll post them as soon as I can. This weekend = success.
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