Munich!

Munich was wunderbar!  It was really fun and the hotel we stayed in was great!  The name was Hotel Atlas Residence.  Kelleen had made a itty-bitty error and told us that our hotel was called Hotel Atlanta.  We spent a good amount of time hunting for this so-called hotel that we couldn't find.  We walked into a hotel and asked the desk clerk there where our hotel was.  She had no idea.  She allowed Kelleen to use the computer to check her email with the hotel confirmation.  Our hotel's name wasn't Hotel Atlanta.  It was really Hotel Atlas Residence.  MAJOR DIFFERENCE!  The clerk then showed us on a map roughly where the hotel would be then.  We wandered there and hoped we could check in an hour earlier than we were supposed to.  Our room was clean and so we could check in!  Everything seemed very arabic and everyone that we saw in the hotel was arabic.  We didn't think anything of it when we had booked the hotel that it was main arabic place.

Our hotel was also a bright coral color so it wasn't hard to miss on the street! We were also a 5 minute walk, or even less from the main train station! Most things were closed while we were there since it was Easter weekend. Our room had a small kitchen in it so we went to the grocery store and bought some food to have while we were there. There was also free wifi! Woooo hooo! That helped us a lot to figure out our plans and such.

We arrived on Thursday and got groceries and then wandered around for a little bit before hanging out in our room an relaxing. Friday and Saturday would be full days for us and we didn't want to be exhausted.

Friday we went to Dachau in the morning. It was definitely an eye opening experience. It was the second concentration camp I had seen while being here, but this one had a greater impact. When you think of concentration camps, Dachau is or that comes to mind because it was one of the main camps. Kelleen, Olivia, and I wandered through the museum and I took a lot of pictures of everything. It was rainy and cold while we were there which added to the glumness of the day. After walking through the museum for two hours, we finished and discussed what we each wanted to see next. All of us wanted to see something different so we went separate ways. I headed to the very back of the camp to where the crematorium was. Kelleen went to the chapel and Olivia went to the barracks.

As soon as I entered the crematorium, I had this horrible feeling and sadness overwhelmed me. I walked through each of the rooms in the order the prisoners had walked through. I walked into the waiting room and looked around before walking intone changing room. The prisoners were told to undress there and then proceed into the showers room. The room even said showers room above the door. What a lie. It was the gas chamber. I stood in there for a few minutes noticing all of the holes and grates around the room where the poison would have been released. After that room was another room for the bodies before they were put in the ovens. I continued my way through the building and took pictures of every room. I exited as went to the smaller crematorium, which was the original one before the larger one was built. I wandered behind the large crematorium building and saw the places where the ashes were laid. I walked to every one. Had a moment of silence at each remembering those who had been killed. Along the path of the ashes were also the spots where prisoners were executed on the spot. Horrible. I continued wandering around the area and met back up with Olivia and Kelleen. We decided it was time to leave and move onto our happy activity of the day. BMW museum!!

We had to take replacement busses to the BMW museum since there was construction on the U-Bahn there. We got off the bus and I could see the building. I began running to it making Kelleen laugh. I didn't care! I was ready to see beautiful cars!

We walked towards BMW Welt and there were multiple motorcycles outside that you could sit on. I sat on one, had my picture taken, and walked towards the doors of BMW Welt. I was so excited and thrilled to be there. I was a little too excited and the next minute I knew I had caused a problem. My vertigo was set off and things began spinning. I immediately took my medicine and asked Kelleen and Olivia I walk me over to chairs nearby. I sat and stared at an engine in a glass case for a couple of minutes waiting for the dizziness to go away.

When I felt like it was gone, I went and got a keychain for Michael. I knew right away when I saw it that he would love it, especially since it was from the BMW plant in Munich. That's the headquarters of BMW in Germany. We walked over to the museum since we needed to make it through the museum before it closed. We got the student discount and I headed towards cars nearby. Kelleen and Olivia wandered on their own because they knew I would have absolute ADD while in there. I couldn't focus at all. Car after car I fell in love with BMW all over again and took a ton of pictures. I took pictures of just about everything! I loved the museum, but was disappointed they didn't have my favorite concept car there to see in person. Oh well. It was an amazing day full of history and gorgeous cars.

After the museum, I had to have my picture taken in front of it! Kelleen took a few pictures of me in front of the sign and the buildings before we went back into BMW Welt. That building was somewhat like the car dealership part where you could see and sit in most of the current editions of the cars. They had a Wii gaming station for te kids along with giant pillows and Nintendo DSs for kids to play with. The building even had an indoor rock climbing wall. Kelleen wanted to do it, but it was for kids only and they were closing all of the kid stations.

Everyone seemed tired from the day and we decided to head back to the hotel and relax. The next day we'd be spending the whole day in Schwangau to see castle Neuschwanstein.

The train ride to Füssen was two hours. We then had to take a bus from Füssen to Schwangau for Neuschwanstein. We got there late morning. It was obvious that it would be a touristy day. Pretty much everyone on the train was going to Neuschwanstein as well. Olivia an Kelleen wandered slowly while I headed directly to the ticket office. We stood in line for a while an watched the listings for the tours in English vanish. It was finally our turn to go up and purchase our tickets. We had decided on only seeing Neuschwanstein with the amount of time we had there. I asked about student discount, which saved us some money! Originally, we were going to make the trek up to the castle. We were hungry and decided to get lunch at one of the places there. Delicious. Bratwurst and French fries is always a great lunch in Germany! While we ate, people started playing the giant horn-like instrument. It was cool! I recorded them playing. Then it began to rain... which became baby hail... which eventually turned into snow. Weather here is just as unpredictable as Nebraska's! All three of us were already sick and decide we should take the bus up to the castle instead of the long walk. We had 2 hours before our tour, but didn't know what else to do! We went up to te castle and sat inside the gift shop for 2 hours. As we were standing outside waiting for our tour group number to be shown for entrance, a bride and groom walked up. The girl had to e freezing!!! It was snowing and she didn't even have a coat on! They took several pictures on the stairs of the castle. Our tour group number appeared and we headed over to the line. One of the castle employees came over and let us in. We began our tour that only lasted 30 or so minutes. It was nice seeing the castle again. This time it wasn't as pretty though, but that was only because of the scaffolding that covered a huge portion of Neuschwanstein.

We hadn't really planned very well. We didn't pay attention to what time the train from Füssen to München was!! Luckily, we didn't have that long of a wait. We did get back to München late and everyone was exhausted!

Kelleen and I stayed up fairly late the night. The next day meant Easter and that meant Kelleen would be able to have chocolate again! She had given jt up for Lent. What a ridiculous thing to do in Germany! As soon as my phone showed 00:00 I told Kelleen and she immediately ate a piece of chocolate. I laughed and continued watching the movie on TV. The next thing I knew, Kelleen sprang from her spot on her be and took out her giant thing of Ritter Sport chocolate. We finished the movie and went to sleep.

Easter! We planned to see the Glockenspiel play and then eat lunch at the Hofbräuhaus! I was excited! The sun was actually shining. We went to the Rathaus and waited for it to be noon. A huge group of people gathered to see it play as well. I recorded it and was happy that I had finally gotten to see it play.

We walked to the Hofbräuhaus and tried to find seats. It was packed!! We ate delicious food and I drank delicious German beer, so lunch was very successful. We wandered a bit around Munich and went to a church that Kelleen had wanted to see. Afterward, we all agreed on being tired and headed back to the hotel to enjoy our Easter chocolate and chill. We would have to be up at 4am the next day to head to the airport and then back to Berlin.

Oh! While on our way to Füssen, we were able to witness a German bachelor party. Later that night in the main train station, we witnessed another one! It was definitely a fun weekend and break from school.

Now the countdown is only 6 days until I return to America. It's crazy how fast time flies and all of the things I've had the privilege to see. It's been a great semester so far and will be strange to be back in a country where everyone speaks English!