Tuesday we woke up and had a nice hotel breakfast and I even got to eat my oatmeal! Once we were finished we headed over to Dachau to take the tour we slept over for. We bought our tickets and had some spare time so we decided to just tag along to another tour group, the tour guide was awesome and gave so much history and really summed up how Hitler came to be so powerful. We took the two hour tour of the concentration camp, it was amazing. To see where there were 206,000 prisoners was crazy, the living quarters, the fences, even the welcome sign that states “Arbeit Macht Frei" which in English is "Work will set you free”.
It was unreal to see what we have read about in the history books for so long. They even had a video at the end with real footage, it was sad to see how these poor people were treated. Once we were finished with the concentration camp we headed into town to get my first real Doener, it was really good! Blake talked about these all the time before we came because they saved him on his mission. It was cheap, a ton of food, and kept him going. It is basically a Turkish Gyro, but better than you can ever expect. I even pounded a whole Doener! Whoopsies, but it was delicious.
After we had stuffed our faces with more yummy food we jumped in the car and headed to where we were staying, Berchtesgaden. It is the cutest tiny town in the middle of the southern German mountains. This little German village is President Monson’s favorite place in the world and now I can understand why. We found our hotel and checked in. It was a beautiful hotel with gorgeous hanging flowers complete with sheep all over the rolling green hills behind it. We then headed to Salzburg, Austria. This town was incredible again, it seems like every time we see something new it just gets better.
It is funny to see the original that Americans try to re-create at places like Zermatt. We went into town and headed up to the famous castle, it is so steep to walk up you have to ride up a trolley that goes straight up the mountain side. They view was amazing!
This castle was phenomenal, and you cannot believe the torture tools they had in there. The view was amazing and to see how big this mountain is and to see that the people built an enormous fortress on top. We made it 15 minutes before the museum closed and Pop sweet talked our way in for free. They were having a big concert in the castle and we were able to hear them practice for it, it was heavenly. Once we finished the museum we ventured into town to find a restaurant, we finally found the cutest Austrian restaurant, thanks to some help from the locals, Wildemann. The food was delicious and we had a blast!
That day was Pres and Sandy’s 37 wedding anniversary and they got matching schnitzels to celebrate! What a wonderful life they have had together and I can only hope Blake and I will be so lucky.
Wednesday morning we woke up early, ate a yummy breakfast at our hotel and headed to the Koenigsee River for a boat cruise (we wanted to get there early to beat the crowds). We had to grab one picture because our hotel was so dang cute!
The water was crystal clear and it was a gorgeous ride.
They stopped part way down and played a song on the trumpet to show you the echo. It was the best echo I have ever heard!
We stopped off at a little church. We looked around, played on some see-saws and sat to enjoy the amazing scenery. We rode a boat back and walked through the little souvenir shops.
We couldn’t resist this classy apron for my amazing chef husband!
We had another long car ride as we headed to the Neuschwanstein castle. This is what Walt Disney used as inspiration for the Disney castle. We had lunch at a little café and enjoyed some delicious Austrian food. I tried spaetzle and loved it! Christian ordered pig’s knuckle (apparently everyone loves them in Germany) so we’d all try it. Blake said it wasn’t too bad but I just couldn’t do it!
After lunch we rode a bus up to the castle. We hiked up to a little bridge to get the amazing view. It is breathtaking and I can see why Disney loved it so much!
We were able to go inside for a tour and it was amazing. It took 17 years to build 1/3 of it (before the king died and construction stopped). Everything was so intricate and so over-the-top.
Since the way back was downhill we decided to
walk. We drove into
Friedrichshafen and drove around to find a hotel. The nights we have no where to stay are kinda fun and
exciting. Blake’s German helps
sooo much! We found another cute hotel,
Trauben Hotel. The rooms are all
super tiny in Europe but it’s really all you need, 2 small twin beds pushed
together and a tiny bathroom with a little stand up shower (most don’t have
phones, clocks or air conditioning).
We grabbed a small dinner, soups and salads and then sat around the
table chatting for a while before heading upstairs to hit the hay.
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