The Final Solution and Fairytales

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Outside of bathroom lights that would automatically shut off for no apparent reason (resulting in me being in the dark for the latter part of my shower), the bed at the Movenpick was glorious and we started our morning with their breakfast buffet that they feature on weekends. Matt loaded up on his usual Euro favorite yogurt and fruit, while I went straight for the moment I always wait for….that first sip of coffee. I don’t care what country you are visiting in the EU, there is a distinct and wonderful taste to their coffee and I love how familiar it always seems to taste, like I had it yesterday. I also had to have one of my favorites – a baguette with butter, ham, and havarti cheese (it just tastes like Paris). We hit the road in our Peugot, and headed for the Dachau Concentration Camp.

Dachau’s death toll may be lower (32,000 recorded from 1933-1945) in comparison to more than a million killed at Auschwitz in Poland, but the camp is notorious because it was the Nazi’s first. It is what all following camps were modeled after. The camp ended up becoming more of a holding ground for priests from various countries who opposed the Nazis (over 2,000), a center for barbaric medical experimentation, and a transfer destination for prisoners from other camps.

We couldn’t have asked for a better morning to visit, it was foggy and it just seemed to bring a surreal type of focus to the site. No original bunkers remain, although they have recreated two. You look inside to see wooden “boxes” for beds stacked bunk style. The bunkers were designed to hold 200 people each, yet most saw more than 2,000. The crematorium and gas chambers are original, and they actually ended up building another because they were not able to keep up with the flow of additional bodies and prisoners they were receiving from other camps. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the grounds and the museums.

Ok, I have to add this in out of pure excitement, but I finally did what I should’ve done years ago. We stopped at a “one stop shopping” store and I bought a hair dryer! No more converters taking my US version to half power, no more fear of it exploding in my hand, no more hot burning smell and thinking it’s going to catch fire! I now have a good hair dryer (motel ones suck) for all of our Euro travels. After my exciting purchase, we started heading to our next destination to visit Mad King Ludwig’s castles - Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau.

The drive was about 1.5 hours and I will be honest and say that so far, I do not think we’ve been anywhere more beautiful. Matt settled right into the German driving style of the Autobahn, and loved zoom zooming at any speed he chose shouting out random German words to show excitement LOL. We drove through the most pristine countryside…1.5 hours of perfectness. Beautiful lush green hills with big patches of green forest, farmland, barns, towns…all perfect. No dilapidated buildings, crappy houses, overgrown yards, broken down vehicles. Just a movie-like driving experience, with the end being a fairy tale castle up in a mountain with the Alps standing behind it. Breathtaking feels like an understatement when I refer to Neuschwanstein, it is magnificent looking up on that mountain. It’s like the Alps are holding out their hands to present the castle the way it is situated, it’s every little princess’s dream!

Out hotel, Villa Jagerhouse is literally sandwiched between the two castles and we have a wonderful room with a view of Hohenschwangau right outside our window. We enjoyed walking the town, and then caught a late lunch at a restaurant with a full-on view of both castles. It was our first beer, pretzel, and sausage meal of Germany and nothing could top it. Yummy, with a view never to be forgotten! As a last minute decision by Matt, we caught the last bus up to Neuschwanstein to watch the sunset. It ended up being a fantastic decision, if only you could make moments last forever…..perfect.

Dinner was pretty good. I had a pork knuckle with a dumpling and sauerkraut (Oh Ya!) and Matt had deer with spaetzle and brussel sprouts. The evening ended with a nice bath in our hotels fab tub, and me almost finishing ‘The Hunger Games’, which is so darn good I have to remember that Germany comes first! Tomorrow we tour the Castles….

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