Dachua Concentration Camp--Day9

For those who might be following this very long process of getting our holiday blogged, you may have noticed Day 8 is not blogged.  The Schmidt's had left to meet up with him mom who had just moved to Germany.  We stayed at camp all day! We swam in the pool, played games and just had a day of 'rest'. Day 9 started with packing up camp and heading a bit north towards Munich. We stopped at the Dachua Concentration Camp, and was so grateful in our decision to take the kids here. Carter has studied WWII in school and we knew he would understand enough to feel the impact of our visit. We weren't sure about the others, but felt it an important time to teach our children how important it is to love one another, always, and no matter what. The site itself is set up with a museum, and one block built with examples of what room and board would have been. There is also the actual gas chamber rooms and crematorium still standing.

A memorial for those lost at the camp. 

The entry gate...so many lives changes beyond this gate. I still am humbled as to how blessed my life is when I look at this picture. 

A chapel that is built on site as a remembrance. It is said it was built of concrete and was circular to break from the uniformity of the structures that were at the concentration camp.

Mike and the kiddos are standing at what would have been the roll call area and common meeting area. Then it is one of the guard towers.

It was just Taylor, Carter and myself who went into the crematorium building because some other needed the toilets. However, I think it was an eye opening experience for them both. I didn't leave any details out when explaining the different rooms. Each was labeled with what the room was used for including the 'shower' room. Carter and Taylor are standing in the stripping room, and both said they didn't really feel like smiling because it was such a sad thing that happened in these rooms. I do have to mention that it was recorded that Dachua never participated in mass killings in the gas chamber room, but the effect was enough to feel the reverence that these spaces radiated from them. The above crematorium was one of the newer built furnaces to keep up with the death toll. The lower furnace was the original on the site before they had to expand. I can't remember the exact numbers that they did give but there were tens of thousands of people who were cremated here.

A statue on site that is dedicated to all those who's name we will never know who lost their lives at the concentration camp. 

A sculpture outside the museum.

Few things make our children pause and reflect how blessed they are. Although some of them may not have understood the degree of inhumanity they were remembering, I don't know that I can comprehend it, they did feel something different. This was a moment on our trip that taught us to be ever so grateful for what we have been given. Including the trials we might face, because there are others in this world who suffer to a deeper degree that we may never understand, or ever want to understand for that matter. 

Neuschwanstein Castle Day 7

We were camping about an hour from our next stop the following day and we were shocked to find the crazy parking that was taking place around the castle. Another moment where I thought I should have investigated a bit more for some better strategy in getting to the castle. The above picture is the castle across the way from Neuschwanstein Castle. Our tour wasn't until later in the day and so we killed some time walking around and looking in the shops. The village at the base of the mountain was called Hohenschwangau and we decided that we would take the bus to get up to the castle, which was good because we had to walk back down and the kids were down after that. 

Mike's back was done, so it is a good thing we have 'Uncle' Jacob that can come to the rescue. The kids also had some fun finding some sticks to make the hike a little easier. :)

This castle was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle and we could tell why by the end of the day. It was a magnificent castle and had so many rooms with over the top features. The kids made it down near impossible to get a lot of information from the tour, but it was an interesting and fun day out.

Travel Day--Day 6

Day 6 of our travel was a driving day. We were leaving Switzerland and headed to Germany. We decided to stop and have lunch at the Bern, Switzerland temple grounds while we were so close. Bern doesn't have a huge garden area, but it was still lovely to sit and spend time with our little family at the temple.

We went through a whole 7 miles of Austria and somehow I got out voted and had to eat at McDonald's while there. Putting in our order was hard enough with no English being spoken so I failed to tell them no mustard on the cheeseburgers. Mike was very quick on his feet when Taylor complained about the mustard and said, "That is not mustard, it is Austrian sauce, isn't it great?!" She declared, "oh good, cause I love this sauce!" She ate every last bite.

We had out first campsite problem when we reached Germany. We thought we were doing great because it was only 6pm, and we had already eaten. We thought to ourselves that this would be the night that would give us time to relax for a bit after setting up. Well, the site I had booked we pulled up to and discovered that sardine packers learned the skill from this campsite. Carter threw up in the van while I was waiting for Mike to check us in(we hadn't discovered the size problem yet). It was a great time in that 15 minutes. Then the gentlemen took us to where our site was. We politely declined the spot and told them we were going to find somewhere else. We found something near by and after calling found they had room for us. As we drove to our new location we were still pretty excited that we were going to be setting up in the light and would have time to relax, then we ran into this problem. Tractors, hay, and a queue on the road with no other way to go in. Needless to say we didn't set up in the light and didn't have time to relax. Then Mason started throwing up as well, it was an adventurists day for sure.