Lübeck

Since everyone was still getting back in and settled from Christmas vacation, five of us decided to take just a day trip to Lübeck, in Northern Germany, on the Baltic Sea. Lübeck, the second largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, and the largest German port on the Baltic Sea, is full of rivers and canals. It is also world famous for one of the largest annual ice sculpture exhibitions in the world, known as Ice World. Every year, Ice World is held in the Lübeck Convention Center, inside a giant refridgerated tent. Since the event was only showing between Christmas and the end of January, we figured this would be our last chance to go.

We woke up very early, and caught the 6:20 am train out of Braunschweig to Lübeck. At the train station, we ran into a friend and his girlfriend, who just happens to be from near Lübeck, and she said that Ice World was something that we did not want to miss. After a 4 1/2 hour ride to Lübeck (at least I got to see a bunch of deer in the fields), we finally arrived at the main train station. We asked for directions to Ice World, and started towards the Convention Center, which was merely 500 meter away. However, when we got there, the entire building was empty. Noone could point us in the right direction from there, so we took a lunch stop at Subway instead. Afterwards, we asked about Ice World at a nearby hotel, only to find out, that for some reason, the event was not taking place this year. They have it every year, just not this year. Go figure. Anyways, it was a nice day, so we made the most of it and walked around the center of town for a few hours. The town is beautiful, and we got to see the Holstentor, the town hall, and handfuls of rivers and canals.

Unfortunately, we had to head out pretty early, as we had a long trip back. The way back had four connections, and we had no problem up until the last stop. When we were about 1 1/2 hours outside of Braunschweig, we waited at the final station, but our train never came. It was listed as arriving, but it never showed up. So, we had to sit at the station for 2 1/2 hours until the next train, and didn't end up making it back until after midnight. To make it worse, one of the people on the trip with us lost her wallet on the train. So, it turned out to be a pretty unlucky day. But, the town of Lübeck itself was amazing.

At least we got rid of all that bad luck in one day. The next day, the Pats had no trouble moving on!!!!!!

Family Trip To Hannover

We woke up early the next morning, grabbed breakfast once again at the hotel, and then took the S-Bahn to the nearby Munich main train station. Once there, we found our train to Hannover no problem, and dragged our luggage on for the long, 4 ½ hour journey, to Hannover. By the time we made it to Hannover, it was already starting to get pretty late. We checked in our belongings at the Best Western Hotel, and bought a drink in the pub while we decided what to do with our remaining time. When we were finished with the drinks, we headed out to the Bahn stop out front, and rode into the city. We walked around for a while, and Rachel got to check out a handful of stores along the way. Once it was dark, we headed to another Block House for our final family dinner together in Germany. The supper was great, and we headed out for a bit more shopping once we were finished. We also stopped at a bakery, as well as an ice cream shop on the way back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, we organized all of our luggage for my family’s plane ride home in the morning. I ended giving them my large suitcase to take back for all of the gifts and souvenirs.

In the morning, we made it to breakfast at 6:15, ate very quickly, then jumped on the Bahn for the main train station. From there, we caught another train the rest of the way to the Hannover airport. We were a little early, so we waited around for about half an hour until the gate opened. Then, we said our goodbyes, and they were on their way. Luckily, everything went well. My family made it home no problem, and I had no trouble getting back to Braunschweig. It turned out to be a great family trip!

Family Visit To Munich, Day Four

We woke up the next morning, our final day in Munich, and decided to head to the Dachau concentration camp. We hopped on the U-Bahn, and then took a bus the rest of the way to the camp. As one would imagine, the atmosphere was much different than that at the castles a couple of days earlier. Though the atmosphere was pretty gloomy, it was a neat trip, and we learned a lot about the history of the area. We were able to walk through many of the building that the Third Reich used as a concentration camp from 1933-1945, during which time over 32,000 of the captives died. First, we walked through the barbed wire gateway, to the first building that had been full of cells. The building was left as it had been found, and we were able to see the horrible state in which the prisoners were forced to live. They even had smaller, solitary confinement cells, where one could not even have room to sit down. In addition, this first building contained the cell of Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the officer who unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944. The second building we went in showed the normal housing in the camp. Each prisoner had a tiny bed, and they were packed in shoulder to shoulder in bunk-beds stacked three high. Hundreds and hundreds also shared one public bathroom at a time, and they also had a small locker, which if had so much as a fingerprint on it, they would be sent to solitary confinement or punished even worse. Many of the remaining buildings had been turned into a museum, dedicated to the horrible events that took place in Dachau. The museum even showed numerous scientific tests that were performed on prisoners in the camp, including hypothermia tests, low pressure experiments, infecting prisoners with malaria by strapping a cage of mosquitoes to their limbs, and even hitting prisoners with hammers to see how their bodies reacted. A lot of the exhibits at the museum were pretty gruesome just to look at. From there, we went to one of the final buildings, the gas chamber, and then to the mass gravesite behind it. The weirdest part was that right next to the gated camp and barbed-wire watchtowers were three separate churches. It’s strange to try to figure out how they thought the two different aspects were somehow connected. We headed out from Dachau and back into central Munich, and I think were all glad to out of there.

On the way home, we heard about a hunting and fishing museum near the Marienplatz, and asked the concierge at the hotel more about it once we got back. He thought we were talking about the Deutsches Museum, and sent us in that direction. The museum sounded really neat, and is surprisingly Germany’s most visited attraction. One of the largest technology museums in the world, it even houses entire submarines and ships. Unfortunately, when we got there, the museum had already closed. Come to find out, the hunting and fishing museum is completely separate, so it will give me something to see when I get back down to Munich. Since the museum was closed, we headed off to look for something for dinner. We wanted to try the Chinese Bier Garten at the Chinese Turm in the Englisher Garten, and started walking in that direction. We found the Englisher Garten, and asked for directions from there, knowing we were within one block. However, the Turm was in the center of the park, which was not lit at night, so we doubted we could ever find our way. Instead, we went to a small grill near the Marienplatz for schnitzel cordon bleu, and it turned out o be great. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel, and packed up our things for the next morning’s trip to Hannover.

Family Visit To Munich, Day Three, New Year's Eve

As it was getting near dinner time, we decided to check out the Tollwood Festival, a well known, New Year’s Eve celebration sight. When we arrived at the grounds, it looked like a lot of fun with live bands, shows, bonfires, and fireworks. However, we all decided to get something for supper instead of going in. We headed back towards the Marienplatz, and checked out the Hard Rock Café Munich, but it was only serving drinks for the evening. We found the same thing at a handful of restaurants, before we ended up back at the Hofbräuhaus. We tried to get a seat downstairs, but the Hofbräuhaus was packed beyond belief. I have never seen so many people. So, we tried the upstairs again. Luckily, most seats required reservations for the special night, but we got one of the last open tables available. They even had live music and dancing in the next room over, so it was a great atmosphere. Plus, we got to have the famous one liter beers again! The roast pork salad for dinner was excellent, and we topped it all off with vanilla apple strudel.
After dinner, we decided to go back to the Marienplatz for the fireworks at midnight. As soon as we got there, the place was crazy….almost out of control. We squeezed our way into the crowd, and watched the commotion for about an hour. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. People were so packed into the square that you could not even move. Everyone was shooting off their own fireworks by holding them over their head, and others were down the street shooting them out off beer bottles. The fireworks were everywhere, bouncing off of buildings, off of the Glockenspiel, off of people. It was amazing to see, but seemed to be getting pretty dangerous by the time we left. We headed back to the hotel after a great New Year’s Eve, where we could hear fireworks going all the way up until first light the next morning.

Family Visit To Munich, Day Three, Morning

While we knew the castle tour would be hard to top, we expected another great day in Munich before the New Year’s Eve celebration. We decided to get up pretty early again, and catch the first city bus tour of the day. Unfortunately, the bus tour was not the greatest. The double-decker bus was freezing, and not all of the headsets worked. But, we did get to see a lot of the city. As we neared the Marienplatz, we decided to get off of the tour and visit the famous Viktualienmarkt. The open air market is full of stalls, all selling fresh bread, fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses, as well as the occasional shop selling beer and gifts. It was packed with people, even on a winter’s day. While the market was neat to check out, we only walked through shortly, as we headed off to see the Glockenspiel come to life in the Marienplatz at 11:00. We made it back to the clock tower with a couple of minutes to spare, and found a nice spot among the crowd. We were all shocked by how many people were waiting. As soon as the clock struck 11:00, the life-sized knights on their horses in the clock tower began circling around, and the character on the bottom row began dancing. While I’m glad that we got to see the much talked about Glockenspiel, I think that we all thought it was definitely very highly overrated.

After watching the Glockenspiel in action, we decided to hop on the U-Bahn and head to Olympiapark. We got off at our stop, and headed towards the BMW tower, where we found BMW Welt, the new BMW Museum. The museum looked awesome, but unfortunately, it was closed until the day we had to leave Munich. So, we made our way to the Olympic stadium, passing by the Olympic Tower. We walked through much of the park, before looking into the stadium itself, as well as going into the Olympic poolroom. As we walked a bit further, a band was playing and we could hear loud music coming from up ahead. Apparently, a huge race was scheduled through the park on that day. Within minutes, the empty park was filled with thousands of runners and onlookers, and we stayed and watched for a while before heading back to our hotel.

Schloss Neuschwanstein

After taking a family picture outside the castle, we headed back to the bus, and were on our way to Schloss Hohenschwangau and Schloss Neuschwanstein. First, we passed Schloss Hohenschwangau, which was King Ludwig’s childhood home. However, we did not enter the castle, as more time was allotted to the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein, after which the Walt Disney castle was modeled. From where the bus dropped us off, we could see the amazing castle high up amid the mountains. We had a couple of hours to visit, so we went to get a quick lunch before going up, and decided to get chicken sandwiches and fries. However, after waiting in line for 25 minutes, the chicken sandwiches were given to us, still inside their microwavable bags. We all were brave and tried them, but no one was able to take more than one bite. Pretty gross! We tossed the rest of the lunch, and began the mile-long hike up a trail to the Schloss Neuschwanstein. On the way, we passed the Jägerhaus, decorated with stag antlers, as well as many horse drawn carriages. Once all the way up to the castle, the view of the Alps, the village below, and the castle itself was amazing. The castle, built between 1868 and 1886 and dedicated to the Wagner operas, is only partially completed, but nevertheless looks like something out of a fairy-tale. On the castle tour, we were able to walk through the 15 completed rooms in the castle, which were even larger and more elaborate than the ones in Linderhof. In the dining room, the dinner table was built on a lift, so that it could be sent to the kitchen below. King Ludwig’s servants would place food on the table, and it would be lifted back up to him. It seems like he went through a lot of work just to avoid his servants! While the castle looks amazing, it was never completed due to the king’s death. Evidently, King Ludwig was suspiciously found drowned in a pool of water. After his death, the castles were opened to the public, to help pay off some of his debt. The tour turned out to be really neat, and we got a good view of the Marienbrücke from a top floor window inside. The bridge spans a valley between two peaks, and would have given us a great view of Neuschwanstein if we had time for another short hike. However, we had to head back down the trail, which looked beautiful in the dark with the castle lit up behind us. We got on our bus after stopping in the souvenir shop, and headed back to Munich.

Once back in Munich, we decided to go back to the Marienplatz to find a restaurant for dinner, and we ended up at a small Italian pub. We all got pizza and salad, as well as Lowenbrau, before my mom went to grab her coat and pulled down a support beam along with it. After getting out of there pretty quickly, we headed across the street for Häagen Dazs ice cream to finish off a great day.

Schloss Linderhof

From the tiny village of Oberammergau, we hopped back on the bus and headed 5 miles further south, until we came to the first castle, Schloss Linderhof. Schloss Linderhof, set in a beautiful location amid the Alps, was built by King Otto Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm, King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It was completed in 1878. We walked up a short, dirt road to the castle, and waited for our tour, while we admired the scenery. As beautiful as the castle and location was, it must be even more amazing in the spring and summer. The pools, fountains, and waterfalls surrounding Linderhof had been shut down for the winter, and were covered in snow. Once inside, it was easy to see how Kind Ludwig had compiled such debt in building his castles. Built in the French style, all of the rooms were elaborately decorated with gold, tiles, sculptures, and paintings. There was an enormous master bedroom, crystal chandeliers weighing a half ton, and even a room for parties, yet we learned that the king never allowed anyone but his servants in the castle the entire time he was there. Evidently he liked to be alone.