Germany: June 18 Church in the Meadow

Our tour today was to Neuschwanstein and the Church in the Meadow.  Everything was so gorgeous!  We went to the Church in the Meadow first.  This church is one of the most famous Baroque churches in the world and is considered one of the most beautiful.  The church is located in the rolling foothills of the southern Bavarian Alps.  The history of the church here began on June 14, 1738 when it is said that tears were seen on a wooden statue of the crucified Christ situated in a field in the small hamlet of Wies. The news quickly spread and masses of pilgrims from all over the world began traveling to Wieskirche to see the statue and to worship and pray. So, in 1740, a small chapel, still on the property today, was built to house the statue and to accommodate the visiting worshipers.

A couple of pictures of the front of our resort before we left.  It was another gorgeous morning!

 I could sit and look at this ceiling all day!  So pretty!!

We also had the most amazing homemade doughnuts right across from the church - I still am dreaming of those things!  I've never had anything like it!
It was definitely a farm - the Shetland ponies were so cute!

As was this little German man in his lederhosen!  We asked him if we could take a picture with him :)

Then it was back on the bus for the trip to Neuschwanstein!

Germany: June 17, part 2

After we got back from Dachau, we toured around Garmich for a bit.  It is just so breathtakingly beautiful here!  We had pizza at an Italian restaurant - it was amazing.

Germany: June 17

Today we went into Munich to visit Dachau.  It was a very sobering experience indeed.  It is just unfathomable how many people suffered, and how much they suffered.  It makes my heart hurt.  Dachau was mostly a work camp, not an extermination camp.  But, they still had exterminations as you can see by the pictures.  The thing I found really interesting was that after the camp was liberated, a lot of the people stayed and lived there for a few years because they had no where else to go.  The camp was the first Nazi camp opened in Germany in 1933 By Himmler.  It was liberated by the Americans in 1945.

 The bunks have been rebuilt to show what it would have looked like.

 Original toilets.

 Where the original cell blocks were.  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the Jewish memorial!  This is the only picture I have of it, and you can hardly see it.  It's back in the top left corner of this picture.  It kind of looks like a slanted brown roof.  That's the Jewish memorial. 

 This is one of the religious memorials at the camp that was built after the liberation.  The two pictures below are the Catholic memorials.  The first memorial doesn't have a cross on top, but more of a crown of thorns, like Jesus wore.

 This is a bell that is rung every day at 2:50 p.m. each day to commemorate the exact time that the Dachau camp was surrendered to the 42nd Rainbow Division of the U.S. Seventh Army.

 This is the Protestant memorial. 

And the Russian Orthodox memorial

 Then we went into the crematorium.

 The "shower" rooms.

 The entrance gate.  It says "work will make you free." 

 The day of liberation.  I can't imagine the emotions those men must have felt!

Germany: June 16, 2012

Jet lagged though we were, we drug ourselves out of bed and hopped on the tour up to the Eagle's Nest and Beirchgarten.  It was a long drive, and made a very long day.  But, it was totally worth it.  I LOVE history and especially WWII history.  This was amazing to me that I was actually standing where Hilter would go stay.  It was so gorgeous!

 The tunnel leading up to Eagle's Nest - still the original.

 They have now turned Eagle's Nest into a restaurant. 

 After Eagle's Nest we went to the nearby town of Beirchgarten for lunch and some sight seeing.  It was a very quaint little German town.  Of course we had to get our gelato...I'm just holding TJ's, I didn't really eat 2!  Not in one sitting anyways :)

 I also love cemeteries and enjoyed a stroll in the local cemetery browsing headstones.

Then it was a long drive back to the resort.

Germany: June 15, 2012

For our 15 year anniversary and the end of our 4th deployment, we celebrated by taking a trip to Germany.  We shipped the kids off on the airplane to Colorado to spend time with their grandparents.  It was awesome - seriously an amazing trip.
We left on June 14, we flew from Jacksonville, FL to Philadelphia, PA.  We had a few hours there and then left for Munich.  It was over 8 hours of flying from PA to Germany.  When we arrived in Munich it was June 15.  

This is how I felt after all that flying and traveling:

 This was our room at the Edelweiss Resort in Garmisch, Germany.