Winter Vacation - Phase 1

I had an amazingly wonderful holiday vacation.  Granted, I truly missed spending Christmas with my family, but I had a great experience in Germany and the UK.  I am extremely thankful that I am able to travel and visit such culturally and historically rich countries.

Departure and Arrival in Germany

My trip to Germany began Sunday, December 15.  I had a 9:30 am flight on Monday morning, so Alexandra and I decided to spend the night in Abu Dhabi to avoid leaving Al Ain at 5 in the morning; we thought that was a smart decision.  Alexandra and I weren’t on the same flight and didn’t go to the airport together, but we did run into each other at the airport.  In retrospect, I should have gone to the airport with her, but I didn’t.  I arrived at the airport at about 7:15 am and only made it to the gate about ½ an hour before it closed.  The lines were unbelievably long.  I guess I should have expected that since it was the Christmas holiday, but I figured I was leaving later than the crowd, since schools finished on the 12^th, so I thought I would be fine.  I made it to my plane, but I didn’t have time to join Alexandra for a coffee while waiting; all my waiting was spent in line. 

My flight to Amsterdam wasn’t full and I was able to change my seat to one with extra leg room.  The flight was fine and it arrived on time which was good, because if it would have arrived any later than it did I probably would have missed my connecting flight to Munich.  I had to go to the transfer desk to make sure that my luggage was being sent directly to Munich (I didn’t want a repeat of what happened in Toronto).  I was directed to transfer 9; which of course was at the opposite end of the airport.  I walked to transfer 9 only to find out that they didn’t handle KLM flights at that desk and that I needed to go to desks 2-6.  So I headed back in the direction that I came from.  When I got to transfer desk 6 I stopped to ask about my luggage, hoping that it was being sent directly because I didn’t think I’d have enough time to get it and re-check it.  Thankfully it was being sent directly so all I needed to do was proceed to my gate.  I arrived at the gate just in time for boarding; no time to sit and have a coffee.  The flight to Munich wasn’t full either so I got my seat moved to an exit row seat.  I arrived in Munich on time and was totally surprised to not have to go through passport control.  Evidently Europe is like the States; once you’ve entered you can cross borders without a passport.  Since I had arrived in Amsterdam there was no need to go through passport control again.  Once this was explained to me I felt much better.  I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to leave Germany because no one knew that I was there.  With that issue being settled I grabbed my bag and headed out to get a taxi to the hotel so I could meet Alexandra and get some dinner.

Germany

View from the hotel

The first things that I noticed about Germany were that it was cold and dark.  I kind of enjoyed the cold; it was refreshing.  The temps were probably in the upper 30s when I arrived.  It was also dark; I arrived around 4:30 and it was already getting dark.  Yes, it was winter but I thought that was a bit early to be getting dark.  Turns out I would be wrong as it gets dark even earlier in northern England.  I got to the hotel a little after 5 and got settled in and refreshed before heading out with Alexandra to get a bite to eat.  We got a city map and asked for directions to the famed Haufbrauhaus and began walking what we were told would be about a 10-15 minute walk.  After walking for a bit and not finding the pedestrian street that we should have found we asked a pedestrian and he said it was “the big building all lit up at the end of the street.”  We could see that so there was no way we were going to get lost!  On the way to the beer hall we walked through an Arabic section that had signs for Dubai and, believe it or not, Al Ain.  I had to take a picture of the sign for Al Ain!!  I mean come on, I’m in Germany and they’re advertising an Internet Café in Al Ain.  How odd!  We reached the beer hall and sat down at an available table and enjoyed the pretzels that were available while we waited for our waitress to take our orders.  Alexandra and I ordered beer with lemonade and after tasting mine I had to ask for more lemonade in mine.  The waitress gave me a “are you crazy” look, but took it back to the bar where they added more lemonade.  With the extra lemonade added it was drinkable, definitely not totally enjoyable, but drinkable.  I ordered a sausage platter that came with 4 different types of sausage, mashed potatoes and gravy, and sauerkraut (turns out I really like original German sauerkraut; it’s not super sour like the stuff that you can buy in a can in the States).  Alexandra ordered pork roast, and we shared our supply of pork products for dinner.  After dinner we walked around for a bit, but decided to save a lot of our sight-seeing for when it was daylight, so we headed back to the hotel around 9pm and just spent the time relaxing and trying to adjust to the 3 hour time difference.

Nymphenburg Palace

Our first full day in Munich included our city tour on the hop-on, hop-off bus and a train ride to Stuttgart to meet Alexandra’s friend and walk around their Christmas market.  We walked to the central train station, where we boarded the covered double-decker bus.  Once on the bus we were informed that all the buses were full and that it would be difficult to get on another bus if we chose to get off and explore at one of the stops.  That was a bit annoying since there were a few stops that I would have liked to get off at and explore, but I didn’t want to risk not being able to get on a future bus.  We saw a few pretty neat sights such as Nymphenburg Palace, Olympic Park, BMW Museum, and the old city walls.  The rest of the sights on the tour were museums and fountains.  It wasn’t the best tour I had been on, but I think that was because I was afraid to get off the bus and explore, so we basically just rode the bus until the end of the tour.  At Nymphenburg Palace we were allowed to get off the bus for 10 minutes so I used that as an opportunity to get out and stretch.  After the tour we had lunch and then walked back to the train station for our 1:30 train to Stuttgart.

Stuttgart's Christmas Market

 The 2 hour train ride to Stuttgart was very nice and comfortable; nice scenery, smooth ride, and a decent amount of leg room.  We arrived in Stuttgart about an hour before we were to meet Matt, Alexandra’s friend, so we walked around the Christmas Market for a bit.  When Matt arrived we continued to explore the market before heading to the food stalls to get some dinner.  I had a salami and cheese crepe while Matt and Alexandra had apple and cinnamon crepes; they decided to have dessert first.  We also had the traditional Christmas Market drink of gluhwein (mulled hot wine), which I did not like at all.  Warmed up and full, we continued to explore the town of Stuttgart before we headed to a local café for apple streusel and tea.  We sat enjoying the warmth of the café until we had to head back to the train station for our 8pm return to Munich.  The return trip wasn’t as comfortable; the train was more crowded than the trip to Stuttgart and it wasn’t as new as the one that picked us up in Munich, but it was warm and we did return on time.  Once back in Munich, we decided to return to the hotel so I could get some rest for my 7:30am tour to the Linderhof and Neuschwanstein Castles.



Snow covered Alps

My tour left Munich at 8:00 and made its way north to the town of Bavaria.  On the way north I was stunned by the snow-covered Alps in the distance.  I spent most of the time looking out the window focusing on God’s amazing creation.  The first stop was at Linderhof Castle.  Linderhof Castle was built by King Ludwig II in 1886 for a total of 8,460,937 marks ($5,975,953).  King Ludwig II was very private so this castle was also quite private.  He didn’t do entertaining there or invite guests; it was more like his private house.  Although Linderhof is a relatively small castle, it is still quite impressive with a hall of mirrors, a grand bedroom, large chandeliers, and sculptures of peacocks and swans.  The gardens are supposed to be magnificent, but since I was there in the winter they were covered in snow; which I thought was quite beautiful. 

Linderhof Castle

 



Bavarian Town of Oberammergau

After touring the castle we headed to the small Bavarian town of Oberammergau.  This small Bavarian town has quite the history.  It is known for hosting a passion play every 10 years, and all of the residents participate.  The first play was in 1634 after the residents made a vow to God that if He spared their town from the Plague they would perform the Passion play every 10 years.  The town survived and the residents continue with this tradition only slightly altering the dates so that it occurs every 10 years ending in a zero.  The next one will be in 2020, and if anyone would like to go let me know; we have a few years to save some money!  I enjoyed doing some Christmas shopping in this small Bavarian town nestled among the Alps. 

 

Neuschwanstein Castle

The short stop in Oberammergau was over and we continued further north to Neuschwanstein (pronounced Newschvaanstein) where I had a fantastic bowl of homemade Hungarian goulash soup before walking 20 minutes up the mountain to see the castle.  The walk was spectacular, as it offered amazing views of the Alps and the castle in the distance.  Neuschwanstein Castle was built by King Ludwig II using his private fortune in addition to extensive borrowing of more than 14 million marks.  It was never completely finished as construction stopped after his death in 1886.  Six weeks after his death the castle was opened to the public.  This castle is much more impressive than Linderhof and served as the model for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle.  Neuschwanstein is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe with approximately 1.3 million visitors per year!

 

After finding out that the beer hall where Alexandra and I had dinner the first night wasn’t the Haufbrauhaus, we decided to try again.  We were able to locate the pedestrian street and followed it to the end until we found the Haufbrauhaus.  Alexandra had a massive mug of beer and I had a nice glass of spiced apple juice.  We shared a table with tourists from Canada and enjoyed sharing our stories as we ate dinner.  For dinner I had meatloaf; traditional Bavarian meatloaf.  I have a certain picture of meatloaf in mind and that was what I was expecting, but not at all close to what I was served.  Traditional Bavarian meatloaf kind of resembles Spam, but it was good.  I also had traditional German potato salad and that was delicious, which is surprising since I don’t like potato salad.  With dinner finished we walked around for a bit and then headed back to the hotel.

It was nice to get a late relaxing start since our plans for the day consisted of exploring the local Christkindlmarkt (Christmas Markets).  After a late breakfast we headed to the main one at Marienplatz, where I was able to get quite a few Christmas gifts as well as delicious cinnamon roasted almonds.  We wandered around and fought the crowds for about 2-3 hours before we headed back to the hotel for a break.  After a nap we walked to the ethnic market at Tollwood where we had dinner and got braided hair extensions put in our hair.  After Tollwood we went to another local market for crepes and a hot drink.  I got almost all of my Christmas gifts at the local markets where they are all handmade in Germany.  I also got a few souvenirs for myself as well. 

Munich's Christmas Market

Our last day in Munich was the most sobering as we toured the Dachau Concentration Camp.  The weather for the day completely matched the mood at the concentration camp; it was freezing, gray and overcast, and there were periods of rain intermixed with snow.  Dachau was originally built during WWI as an artillery camp, but it was transformed to a concentration camp prior to WWII to house political prisoners who opposed the Nazi rule of Germany.  It was built in 1933 to house 6,000 men with 34 barracks, a crematorium, a gas chamber, an infirmary (which was not used to take care of sick patients, but was used for medical experiments where prisoners were intentionally made sick), and watch towers, and was completely surrounded by barbed wire that would kill immediately on contact.  Dachau was considered the model concentration camp and was used as a training ground for future camps.  Although it was only built to house 6,000 men, when it was liberated in 1945 there had been approximately 200,000 men, women, and children at the camp at some time.  This tour was a sobering reminder of the horrific treatment of the prisoners at various concentration camps.  May we never forget.

Sculpture that is supposed to represent 3 evils at Dachau:
starvation, barbed wire, and death

The last Munich tour was a night ghost tour.  It was simply a nice walk around Munich at night with some interesting stories about the deaths that occurred in Munich.  After the tour we stopped at Marienplatz for crepes and a hot drink before returning to the hotel to repack our suitcases for our departure the following day.  I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Germany and would love to return one day!