Our short trip to Munich and Fussen in Germany
this weekend was a blast!
I’m trying to shorten these posts; I tend to
rant, so here is my attempt at Germany in a nutshell:
Friday, Feb. 10
- 9-hour train ride to Munich
- Marienplatz Square for
shopping and chocolate-covered bananas. And a look at the Glockenspiel!
Intricate architecture, to say the least
- Hofbräuhaus– the official site of
Oktoberfest each year. With 1-liter beer mugs as the standard, it’s safe to say
the place was wild! We got a taste of traditional German culture with a live
brass band, men in feather-flecked hats with shorts and suspenders, and hefty
beer garden women serving fresh pretzels.
- First stay in a hostel (thanks for the mems, 4you)
Saturday, Feb. 11
Visiting Dachau was difficult, but necessary. It was completely different
than visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., something about entering
the guard gate marked with “arbeit macht freit,” walking through the stark
white halls, seeing where they slept, where they lived, where atrocities were
carried out for 12 years – it just hits you. I left with a lot of things on my mind.
-Deutches Museum - beautiful view of Munich from the museum's top floor.
- Olympiapark and the BMW museum in the afternoon. Olympiapark, site of the 1972 olympics, was SO cool. I liked seeing the 'Schwimhalle' best.
- Night train to Fussen! And a night out with the whole group (9 of us total).
Sunday, Feb. 12
- Neuschwanstein Castle (the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle!) This was one of my favorite mornings! Fussen is, hands down, the cutest European town we’ve visited so far. It was a winter wonderland – pure sparkly snow, huge pine trees in a little valley surrounded by mountains, and cute café’s in the town center. We stayed in a little house/hostel, got breakfast, and then took a bus up to the castle.
The 20-minute hike up to the castle was
BEAUTIFUL! I can’t even describe it. I’ll have to just leave you with the
pictures. After the castle tour (very obscure on the inside, and has spent most
of its existence as a museum rather than a monarch’s residence), we literally
RAN down the mountain to make a bus to the train station... hilarious, but I
have never been so cold in my life.
We got back to Maastricht late last night.
This weekend was such a blast. It was freezing
(a chill 5 degrees in Fussen yesterday), but beautiful and I love the people
who I’ve been privileged to travel with.
The only
downer this weekend was the loss of my beloved backpack, containing my
clothes, toiletries and makeup, homework, and room key for the dorm. In a moment of rush,
I left it on a train going from Koln to Aachen (the train’s ultimate
destination was Paris). We are in the process of trying to track it down right
now, but recovery is not in my odds.
In order
to process my loss, I’ve written a modified haiku:
Backpack,
Where have you
Gone to?
France.
Check the full Germany album HERE!
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