Well, needless to say, this week has definitely been a highlight of my stay in Europe so far! My family came to visit me! I met up with them at the Dachau Bahnhof, and even after multiple hours of travel for both parties, we managed to arrive within minutes of each other! Our first destination was the concentration camp in Dachau. That was a place that I felt was necessary to go to while I was studying. It was an intense experience and pretty sad. After we finished that, we drove to our hotel in a small town in southern Germany, within eyesight of the Neuschwanstein Castle, otherwise known as the Cinderella Castle to Disney lovers. We went to dinner in Fussen. I was having a huge craving for Weiner Schnitzel so I was finally able to satisfy my craving! The next morning, we drove near Neuschwanstein and another castle, Hohenschwangau.
We then went on a castle tour at Linderhof. All of the three castles that I mentioned were owned by the same king, and all were quite spectacular. I also introduced my family to the traditional Bavarian bratwurst, called “Weiss Wurst”. Weisswurst is essentially a white brat, with more spices than a normal brat. They are normally eaten with mustard and a giant pretzel..and are SO delicious! We then moved onto Oberammergau, the town known for putting on the “Passion Play”. The Passion Play was started in the 1600s and is produced once every ten years, with everyone who lives in the small town playing a part or working behind the scenes. Then my mom spontaneously decided that we should go to Munich and see the Glockenspiel ring, so we did! We then drove to our final destination of the day, Salzburg, Austria. Its was very nice to be able to travel with my parents because they rented a car. It would have been virtually impossible for me to see all that I did, had I only been able to travel by train. One giant downside of our weekend…RAIN! It was raining and really cold (you know its really cold when we think its cold…and we’re from Minnesota!). The next day we toured a Salt Mine (where we got to dress in silly white suits and go down slides into the mines), went to Mozart’s Birth house, went to Mirabell Gardens (which is where “The Sound of Music” is shot during the song “Do Re Mi”), and took a “Sound of Music” bus tour. The Sound of Music tour was definitely the coolest for me. I took after my mom and am very into musicals. It’s one of her favorite musicals, which meant we listened to it non-stop as a child, so I know all of the words…to every song. The tour was four hours; it took us to various sites around Salzburg where the movie was filmed, and we drove outside of Salzburg into the country, which made for some great views. The picture of Emilie and I is in front of the house in the movie. This is only the back of the house though, the house in the movie actually was two separate houses, one for the front shot and one for the back! That night we ate at a church/brewery where in older times, the Monks brewed beer, so I don’t know how much of a church it is anymore ;)
Our Monday was spent driving across the full country of Germany to Cologne, just in time for me to get back for class. That night, we took my German buddy, Cosima, out to dinner. My buddy has been the BIGGEST help and I couldn’t have asked for a better buddy. I have no idea how to repay her for all that she has done for me. My family loved her also, so it was a great time. The next day, I had class but was able to meet up with my family in between for a bit of sightseeing. That night, we went over to my relative’s house. Johanna and Volker are the greatest hosts and I always have such a good time when I go there. We showed them a bunch of pictures of our family, and told their curious daughters as much as we could about America! I was even able to converse a little bit in German with them too! I could understand a lot of what they were saying, but I’m definitely not too great at speaking back to them in German.
On Wednesday, we traveled to Bonn in the morning and toured Beethoven’s birth house. Bonn, the former capital of Germany, was okay. Just the fact that it was cold and rainy made it not as pleasant as it could have been. But, the cathedral in Bonn was really cool on the inside. When we got back, I headed off to class and my family headed to the Zoo. We met up later at night for dinner with another of my relatives, Loretta. She has a two-year-old daughter named Mathilda, who Emilie successfully taught how to “pound it”. It was pretty funny, and Mathilda wanted to pound it to everyone for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we are heading to Heidelberg, and then to Karlsruhe to visit more relatives. It has been so action-packed with my family, and it’s really nice not having to plan everything for ourselves when I travel with my friends! Not to mention having a car too! The time has gone by so fast with them here, and I’m already getting sad about them leaving because I won’t see them for the next three months! But that is what Skype is for, right?
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