May Day

After returning from Amsterdam, with plans of a day trip to the town Julianna's grandmother is from, we decided we had exhausted ourselves and needed a day of rest. That worked out for the most part, with a good night's sleep and a nap to boot! Plans changed a bit though when we got an invitation to go out that evening for some dinner and dancing. May 1st is labor day in Germany, and thus a holiday. The night before is then, of course, a night for partying and 'dancing in the month of May.'

So, we accepted the invitation and headed to the Pontstrasse for some dinner with a few people that work with Dustin. After the meal we changed locations, did some dancing and rang in the month of May. We turned in about 1:30AM, a bit early for our German friends, but then again they haven't sprinted through three European capitals in the last three weekends in true American style... so we definitely felt ready for more sleep!

Amsterdam, Queen's Day

Our visit to Amsterdam brought many unexpected experiences. It is a city filled with all kinds of people, especially on this day -- when they celebrate the queen's birthday. It's hard to feel like we're not exaggerating, but it seems that there must have been over a million people roaming the streets and partying on boats in the canals on this festive day. In fact, a little research turned up that the attendance ranges from 500,000 to 2 million on Queen's Day. I'm sure that Claire would have liked the day, everyone was decked out in the brightest of orange (the color of the Dutch monarchy)!

As many people know, prostitution, marijuana, and mushrooms are all legal here - which means there are an abundance of sex and drug paraphernalia shops among the streets... not to mention the prostitutes who 'advertise' their services by dancing in the windows of their 'place of business.' We spent most of the day just walking around taking in the excitement of the day. As with Queen's Night in The Hague the night before, there were bands playing everywhere, crafts and food for sale, and no shortage of beer. In the midst of it all we also ran into a stage with a Christian praise band, singing 'Yes Lord, yes Lord, yes yes Lord' -- quite the juxtaposition with the rest of the events of the day.


Our other main activity for the day was visiting the hiding place of Anne Frank. The house is now a museum chronicling the story of the family and their experiences hiding from the Nazi occupiers. The exhibits were nicely done, we learned a lot, and appreciated being able to connect the book we read as kids to a real life place and greater context. By the time we finished in the museum we were pretty well pooped out, and headed for the train station. We'll leave you with a couple more pictures of the festivities!

The Hague

This weekend brings us a trip to the Netherlands, and a visit to one of Julianna's friends from her summer at the Carter center. Erik and his girlfriend Olivia were having a birthday party on Friday night, and invited us to come -- so we headed out on the train. First, a little stupid language humor, we're not quite sure why the people who put this on the German train don't think it is a hammer...

Ok, back to our 'serious' blog :) In addition to it being Erik and Olivia's birthdays, the weekend was also a major national holiday for celebrating the queen's (named Juliana -- note the slight spelling difference) birthday. The occasion meant that in The Hague on Friday night was 'Queen's Night' which meant the street were filled with concert locations, small amusement parks, and lots of drinks for sale. It was fun to walk through the streets from the train station towards Erik's apartment and watch all the people enjoying themselves.

After navigating through the city to Erik's apartment, we were greeted by our gracious hosts - who even set aside a room for us to sleep in (we brought our sleeping bags to be on the floor). We arrived around 10PM, and many of their guests were already there. We spent the evening sampling Dutch beer, Julianna learned how to salsa from a gay Ecuadorian lawyer (he was quite the character with many interesting stories and ideas), and Dustin made some new friends. All in all, it was quite a full night (and lasted until 5am the following morning) - dancing, discussing the definition of genocide and the impact of international criminal courts, and watching people enjoy the evening.

The next morning we walked back to the train station, picked up a chocolate crossaint, and snapped a quick picture of a nice fountain near the city center.

Munich

After two days of day-trips from Munich (to the Castles and Dachau), I had one afternoon in Munich. I decided to take the "Third Reich Tour" of Munich and cap the evening with a beer from a beer hall. The Third Reich Tour was too much -- after Dachau, I thought I wanted to have more information, but it turned out that my mind was full. We went around to a variety of sights in Munich and saw where Hitler formed the party and where it became the Nationalist Socialist Party -- in the event room of the popular Hofbrauhaus. Hofbrauhaus is where all tourists go to get an "authentic" beer hall experience. As you can imagine, I did not go there for my beer. Other than Hofbrauhaus, we went to the new seat of Bavarian government -- the old building pockmarked with holes from bombs with wings extending out of the sides of the building, encased in glass. This is supposed to show that the region recognizes it past but is now a true democracy with transparency (glass). The final site was Hitler's office in Munich when he came to power and the location of most of his large rallies.

I was slated to go on to Rothenburg, a small medieval village, the following day. However, after a draining day, I decided to return to Aachen and surprise Dustin! So, the following day, on Wednesday, I jumped on a train and came home...

Dachau

Having been to the Holocaust Museum in D.C., I thought I could handle a trip to a concentration with a numb, academic interest. For those of you who have not been to the Holocaust Museum, I strongly recommend going. It is a challenging place -- filled with people's shoes, their hair, their belongings, and their stories. But what really got me while touring the Museum were the shoes... So many shoes piled up all along the floor. Such an ordinary thing - a pair of shoes. I guess it says something about you -- where you have been, what you are doing, and where you are going. That last part is the hardest -- the shoes are not going anywhere anymore. Their role now is to remind us all about what genocide means. I was (and am) still struck by the memory of my visit to the museum and why I thought a visit to a concentration camp could be any different is beyond me. How I thought I could "handle it" -- particularly alone -- is a mystery. But, I am glad that I went and I hope not to return...

Two particular quotes seem to apply here, both from Elie Weisel (a great author).

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.

And so my journey to Dachau began... Having an experience transmitted and coming away anything but neutral. You first walk down the lane where the prisoners were brought. Now, it is a graveled walkway lined with trees and peaceful as a park. I can only imagine what people were thinking as they walked through here.



You then come to the gatehouse (not the original -- it has been reconstructed). Here is where three things were stripped of the prisoners: their pride, their possessions, and their identity. Hearing about these stories and seeing movies like Schindler's List should have prepared me but did not. It was surreal to be standing on the same earth that thousands of people stood and became less than human in the eyes of their captors.



Dachau was the first concentration camp -- it was used for training of the SS soldiers and was the model for all of the rest of the camps that were built. Dachau is also a town -- it was formerly an artist's colony, a cute little village away from the big-city life of Munich. The residents of Dachau were initially supportive of the camp being built there because the town was suffering from no jobs (as was the rest of Germany) and desired to have something to do -- even if it meant working at and building a prison for "political prisoners." People of the town denied knowing anything about what was going on at Dachau... Although it was not a "death" camp, plenty of people died there -- thousands and thousands. Their bodies were burnt in the crematorium. There are some Jewish prisoners from the camp who currently live in Dachau and used to give tours daily of the camp. A truly unsettling place....


The above picture is of the plaque, commemorating the liberators who came to the camp April 28. The soldiers tried to give all of these starving people food -- which resulted in the deaths of some because their bodies could not hold the food. Even after the camp was liberated, people had to remain at the camp because there was such a large typhus epidemic. The camp and inhabitants were quarantined for three months.

The next picture is the infamous "work will set you free."










On the left is the large gathering square where people had to stand for role call. Requirements were: to look downward at a 45 degree angle, hands at side (not in pockets), feet parallel to one another... At one point during the winter, people stood here for 17 hours straight. People died all around them. This place is like a cemetery.

I asked my guide if she ever had people come on the tour that did not believe the Holocaust had happened... She had not had that happen, but other guides have had Neo-Nazis come along. It would be hard to still believe that the Holocaust did not happen when faced with all of this evidence. Still, she said that people are not fazed.

This is the border for one of the barracks which stretched to the tree line in the distance. It was built to hold 200 people. At one point, it had 2000 people "living" in it. The second picture is of the "beds" in one of the reconstructed barracks.




















The next picture is a reconstruction of the ditch, barbed wire fence, and electrified fence. Called "going to the wire," people who could not handle the camp anymore would make an effort to run across the grass climb out of the ditch (difficult when in good health -- imagine what these people's condition was) and then throw themselves on the barbed wire in hopes of being electrocuted or shot by the guards.













The hard part about this tour was that most of this was not a reconstruction but the actual building and place. People really died here. And there was a such a contrast to the light -- it was sunny, people were walking around freely, kids were on school tours giggling and talking about whatever was on their minds... The challenge was to remain focused on the enormity of what had happened here (death) and to allow visions of what was going on now (life).

Outside the gates was the Crematorium. People are not allowed to smoke there. I don't know why that was so striking -- no smoking allowed. I understand the power of the imagery of fire and burning, but smoking also seemed to be commonplace everywhere else. It was almost as if the burning of bodies and smoking a cigarette were equivalent, but they don't seem the same to me. Maybe it was the unsettled atmosphere that made the rule so striking...

The picture is of the old crematorium -- there was a new one built (but I did not take a picture of it) because the old one could not burn bodies quickly enough. My guide said that "crematorium" was almost too nice of a term -- she thought incinerator was more appropriate. Crematoriums are where individual people who have died have their wishes fulfilled and are returned to ashes... Their ashes are gathered in a single container and handled respectfully. Here, it was anything but. No handling of individuals, no respect... Just efficient ridding of people. Prisoners worked in the crematorium and thought it a good job -- they could stay warm.

Next to the Crematorium were the gas chambers. The jury is out on whether or not these were used. There are not records of people dying here. But, there were experiments done to find out how much gas was needed. The pellets of the gas -- Cyclon B -- were dropped in through the window (far right picture). Cyclon B was developed by a German Jew to take care of rats; the scientist later killed himself as he could not stand what had happened to his discovery. At Dachau, over 30,000 people died (registered). It is estimated that the number is far higher -- thousands of Russians were killed in firing squads, groups of people who were killed were not counted in various years, etc. The number of people who died here is likely closer to 60,000... Enormous - but, compare it to Auschwitz, which had four working gas chambers which held 2,500 people. Death by Cyclon B took 15 minutes. When working at full capacity, Auschwitz was responsible for far more deaths.























The final picture is of a statue by the crematorium and gas chambers. It is in a shaded alcove, surrounded by trees. Look closely -- it is of a prisoner, hands in pockets, eyes looking straight ahead, and feet planted in a strong posture. Defiance is the name of the statue.

It's a Small World After All...

After leaving Dustin in Salzburg, I continued on via train to Munich. With no reservations, no map, but a destination (Wombat's Munich), I was ready for more adventure. I arrived in Munich at 10:30pm after riding the train with folks from Vancouver, Washington. It was really fun to talk to them. As it turned out, we had the same travel plans for the next day (Monday), so we planned on meeting up again.

Arrival in Munich was typical -- and finding Wombat's did not turn out to be quite so much of an adventure. I wandered out of the train station (complete with middle-of-the-night train station sort of people... the kind you are not interested in talking to) and down some of the streets around the station. I knew that Wombat's Munich was near the train station -- I just did not know in which direction :). So, after walking for about half an hour with my good karma leading the way, I found my new home for the next three nights. I checked in and went to the bar only to meet up with a slew of other Americans, most notably an American soldier on leave from Iraq who was traveling around Munich with three of his closest buddies from Illinois. We had a very interesting couple of conversations -- and they, like the folks from the train, were also heading to the same place as me the following day. What a small world!

I woke up in the morning ready for a trip to the castle that the Disneyland Castle was based on: Neuschwanstein (here and here) and its parent castle Hohenshwangau (here and here).

The scenery was gorgeous. I was swept away by it all... It reminded me of Bozeman, Montana, with the Alps in the background and the green fields all around. The train running through the countryside went past little valleys which had walking paths cutting through. Along the paths were benches here and there -- I had fun imagining going on walks in the afternoon and sitting at these benches, reading, thinking, and journaling. The houses all look like those in Leavenworth, WA, with their steeped roofs, whitewashed walls, and wooden shutters with cutouts. It reminded me of the story of Heidi (based in Switzerland, but what I imagined her house to be like). (The picture is actually from the castles, but you can get the idea of what the scenery and day was like...)

After arriving in Fussen (with my Vancouver friends), we took the bus 5 kilometers through town and countryside to the castles' ticket office. The only way to access the castles is by a guided tour, and the English tours leave only every so often. I was lucky -- I had arrived just in time for the start of the English tour of Hohenshwangau followed two hours later by Neuschwanstein.

** On a side note, things got a bit interesting when I went to the ATM to get cash for my trip. Dustin had just given me a new card, with a new PIN, but I was not aware of the change. Needless to say, I could get no money and had only enough to eat and go on the castle tours that day. I quickly went to the Internet station and used a precious euro to email Dustin in hopes that he would get the email in time for me to get some cash so that I could stay at the hostel another night... Otherwise, I would have to cut my trip short! I was anxiously hording money all day long. However, Dustin came through (per usual!) and I was spared having to return early.

Hohenshwangau was destroyed in the middle ages but rediscovered by Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria in the middle of the 1800s. He rebuilt it and it became a summer residence and hunting castle. Quite the place to stay while hunting! There, King Maximillian and his wife Marie had two sons: Ludwig and Otto. Otto was the older brother but was declared insane at a young age; Ludwig assumed the Kingship when his father died. As it turned out, during the completion of his castle, Neuschwanstein, Ludwig was also declared unfit to lead due to insanity. Maybe it was from all of the inbreeding?

Anyway, Hohenshwangau is a beautiful place. It was built around the theme of swans (Neuschwanstein also adopted this motif throughout the building). Here are some pics... First of Hohenshwangau and then of Hohenshwangau looking to Neuschwanstein...





































After touring Hohenshwangua, I sat by the alpine like bordering the castle and had lunch. The next stop, Neuschwanstein, was a 45 minute climb straight uphill, and I needed my energy! Lunch was good and the walk turned out to be invigorating. The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, and there were lots of interesting people to watch. I was pretty grateful to get to the top, however! Neuschwanstein was built by Ludwig... He wanted to model the entire castle off of Wagner's operas. Each room that we saw had a theme related to Wagner -- the castle even had a "cave" room, inspired by a part of another Wagnerian opera. I know little about opera and even less about Wagner, but my recollection is that his operas were dramatic, haunting/gothic, and depressing... The castle was eerie -- I would not want to be there at night. The outside, however, is quite cheerful -- probably because I associate it with Disneyland. While we could not take pics of the inside, here are some pics of the view from the castle grounds and of the outside of the castle:























In the distance in back of me, there is a bridge over a waterfall (this pic was taken from the courtyard of Neu.)... below of me looking over that bridge down at the waterfall... and also of Neu from the bridge...






















On the way back down from my hike, I met up briefly with American soldier and friends, but I wanted to get back to Munich before dark. So I bid them adios and continued along my way. That evening, I crashed in bed but ending up reading my book until 1am. Sometimes, a book is just too good to put down! (I have read more novels here than I have in the past two years. What a joy!)

Salzburg

After eking out a few hours of sleep in our Vienna hostel, we got up to catch a train into Salzburg for the day. We both fell in love with the city right from the beginning with a great view of the Alps from the train station and then a beautiful walk along the river towards the city center.














Salzburg is a great old city, home to Mozart, one of the most intimidating castles in Europe (it was never defeated!), and of course, the Von Trapp family (Sound of Music). We started our tour with Rick Steve's guided walk through the city. It has a nice cathedral,















interesting old grave yard with a monastery hidden in the hillside above (picture from there), and streets with fun old shop signs...















complete with old fashioned door bells. You actually pull the wire to ring the bell on the floors above!

After finishing the walking tour (and a quick nap on a park bench) we checked out two Mozart museums. The first was his birth place, and was interesting, but a bit overdone by somebody that thought they had designed an artsy monument to Mozart... to us it came off more like a failed attempt at dramatic presentation. The second museum was in the flat that Mozart and his family lived in for most of their lives. They moved there after he started to become well known (at about age six!) and their living situation improved quite a bit). This museum was much more tasteful, more interesting, and more informative. We walked through the rooms of the house with an audio tour (with plenty of Mozart music), learning about his life and family. It was all quite nice.

After the Mozart museums we headed out for a hike up the hill to the Salzburg castle, Hohensalzburg. The day was coming to a close, so we didn't go inside any of the buildings - but we did get to go into the courtyard for free! From here we found some of the most beautiful vistas of our travels so far, and after stopping for a gelato we headed back out along the ridge for a nice stroll through the woods.















At the other end of the ridge we took an elevator down through a modern art museum, and headed into town for a bite to eat. We found a fun Italian place, with a very Italian owner/waiter, and had some great pizza and gnocchi. With our day coming to a close, we headed back out along the river to the train station to catch our respective trains onward. Dustin headed back to Aachen, and Julianna headed on to Bavaria.

Vienna

After a difficult night's sleep, we arrived in Vienna (although late). We were a bit tired and hungry but excited to tour another great European Capital. We had to quickly revamp our full itinerary to make sure that there would be time to see the top-priority things. It was particularly interesting to arrive in Vienna and tour the city as my Grandma had not too many years ago. Before Dustin and I left for Austria, Grandma told me about the various places she had visited -- many of the same places we were also planning on visiting. So, it is (and was!) neat to have that special connection.

We quickly got on the metro and zipped into town, getting off at St. Stephen's Cathedral. We actually did not go in -- but did take a picture! Here I am scoping out the options for the day in in front of the cathedral...

Our first stop was the Lipizzaner Stallions of the Spanish Riding School. We were late -- we only got to watch their morning routine for 30 minutes before they closed up shop. It was long enough, however! Dustin's allergies went wild with the horses and the confined space. He was sneezing and wheezing for the rest of the morning and afternoon. The practice space is a little strange -- if you imagine a beautiful and ornate dancing hall with chandeliers, carved ceilings and walls, and classical music playing in the background, you get a feel for the setting. Rather than parquet floors, however, there is sawdust and horse manure. Young men are riding around on their special horses (doing, I am sure, very special things -- but I am afraid that I don't know enough about horses to know just how special!). It was just as interesting to take in the atmosphere as it was to watch the horses prancing about. Below is a quick video of the horses...

After a quick stop at the horses, we went on to the Hofburg Palace, Treasury, and Silver Collection. The last Austrian Royal family lived at the Hofburg palace during most of the year and summered at the Schonbrunn Palace. The tour started with the Silver collections... I have never seen so much silver and gold eating utensils, candle stick holders, chandeliers (for candles); crystal vases, goblets, and glasses; and china in maybe 100 different patterns -- all complete sets. These were on display in a dizzying array of rooms. I got lost in all of the flatware -- literally. There were too many rooms and too many objects that looked similar. So much extravagance... Queen Marie Antoinette was an Austrian princess in this family -- you see where she got the "let them eat cake" attitude -- it would be hard to imagine anybody so poor as to have only one set of anything, let alone none at all. I was marginally disgusted with the over-the-topness of it all, but I can only imagine what is in the White House's own sliver/crystal/china treasury. Anyway...

Next were the imperial apartments. The Hofburg palace is overburdensomely large because no new king/queen would live in the apartments of the former ruler. So, more building had to commence. The Hofburg Palace is HUGE. I cannot imagine being a servant back in the day. It was typical for the Palace to feed 3,000 people each day -- that is how many people it took to keep things running. We only saw the rooms of the last Emperor and his family: Emperor Franz Josef. His rooms were "sparse" - particularly as compared to the rest of the rooms. His wife, Sissy (Elisabeth "Sis(s)i" von Wittelsbach) was a crazy lady. She was originally from Germany (Bavaria). People talk about her as the 1900s version of Princess Di. She was a tragic character -- unhappy to be married (at 16 or some young age) to Franz Joseph (who supposedly adored her). She worked out incessantly, ate rarely, was depressed and hated the public and court life, and was assassinated. She now has a sort of cultish status amongst people -- mostly because she was such a dramatic narcissist (as many commentators have labeled her). She also wrote a number of sad poems and stories about her life, adding to her status. Apparently, a number of movies have been made about her -- I must say that learning about her piqued my curiosity. I am going to read a bit more about her...

The final stop at the Palace was the Treasury. This is where the crown jewels, sacred objects, and items of great import are kept and put on display. It was another bout of "oh my goodness" -- lots of gems, jewels, intricately woven and sewn garments, and the ever important relics. In fact, we saw (supposedly) one of the nails that Christ was hung on the cross from and a piece of wood from the actual cross complete with nail marks. Regardless of whether or not they are actually those items or not, I was moved. If not the real thing, than a really old thing -- and probably somewhat similar to what Christ would have encountered.

Before leaving the city center, we looked around the palace grounds a short bit. Here are a couple of pictures... The first one is me with some of the Palace gardens in back of me. The second one is of Dustin -- on the left side of the picture are some original Roman ruins.

From Hofburg, we took the metro (again, one cannot help but be impressed with the mass transit here in Europe. If we are so worried about gas prices, maybe we should stop driving so much and instead develop good mass transit?) to Schonbrunn Palace. This was my favorite stop of the day. The Palace was beautiful, the tour (and audioguide) were informative and interesting, and the setting was picturesque. If planning a trip to Vienna and only wanting to make one palace tour, I would recommend the Schonbrunn way over the Hofburg.

The Schobrunn Palace was basically a repeat of the Hofburg, just better. The best part was the gardens, located in the back of the palace and spanning a huge number of acres. There were little paths everywhere, people strolling about, getting their running in, talking to one another on benches -- it was a perfect park setting... save, of course, the huge palaces bookending the park. It was fun just to roam about and watch people.

Here are some pics... the first is Schonbrunn from the front. Next are a couple of views from the back of the palace (the first is with Dustin and the second is from the top of the hill in back of the palace). The next couple of pictures are of the gardens...





After a full day of touring about Palaces and Gardens, we had three more stops to make: dinner, the Vienna Opera, and the Sacher Resturant. For dinner, we used Rick Steves as our guide and went to a PCC on steroids. For those of you not familiar with PCC, it is a natural food market where you can buy really good-for-you and good-tasting food from a deli. Well, we were pretty hungry and loaded our plates (they sell the food here by the plate) as full as they would go with veggies and salads... Needless to say, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, and we could not finish everything. With me almost asleep in my chair and both of us plum exhausted, we decided to go to the opera where you have to stand for three hours... Another one of our bright ideas!

The opera house was amazing. We got there an hour early and got tickets for 3 euros each... It was pretty fun to watch people stream into this very beautiful building wearing their finest. We were not in top form -- no showers, walking all day long, and carrying our bags left us a little worse for wear. We didn't care - much. The opera started, and it was quite a funny one. But no more than half an hour into it and I was almost asleep again. So, we made a graceful exit (heck - for three euros, we more than got our money's worth) and headed across the street to the Sacher Hotel. Here are some pics of the opera... the first is looking from the stage to the seating areas. I am in the orange shirt leaning over the balcony on the far left. The second is of Dustin and me looking out and down to the stage (which I don't think is visible).

On to the final stop before bed... the Sacher Hotel, home of the world-famous Sacher Torte. We each had a glass of wine and split the Sacher dessert tray for two. What a treat! Sacher Torte was created in the 1800s and is a dry chocolate cake. I had heard of it occasionally and am glad that I got the chance to partake of the world-famous treat. It was a bit dry but completely rectified with a (large) dollop of whip cream.

After our full day of traveling and little sleep the night before (on the train), we made it to Wombat's Vienna, our youth hostel for the night. It is a youth hostel -- complete with its own bar. So, as you can imagine, our desired night of peaceful sleep was anything but that...