Wow. So much has happened in the past month that my brain is having a hard time comprehending it all. I’ll try organizing my thoughts and memories into a series of posts, each covering a different aspect of my trip. This first one will cover the first two days, which were spent in Munich and Hohenschwangau, Germany.
We left Tulsa and flew to D.C., then from D.C. to Munich: about 11 hours of travel altogether. We arrived in Munich in the morning, so immediately after landing, we ate breakfast at McDonald’s (nutella, a croissant, and a cappucino: delicious), checked into our flat, and hopped into the car for a road trip to Neuschwanstein Castle in Hohenschwangau.
We stopped in a tiny town on the way to grab a schnitzel sandwich and stretch our legs, so I snapped a few pictures of it. The name of the sandwich shop was Weilhain, but embarrassingly, I don’t remember the name of the town!
Neuschwanstein is located at the top of a tall hill, so we took a long hike up to the top. The walk was difficult, as the hill was very steep, but incredibly beautiful. We arrived at the top breathless, partly from the hike, but mostly because the castle was breathtaking. It was like we’d stepped out of the 21st century back several hundred years into a fairytale or a story book. The castle looks like one you’d see in a movie: hundreds of windows and dozens of towers which overlook a waterfall that drops into a lake surrounded on all sides by tall trees.
We spent about an hour at the castle before heading down the hill (I stopped and bought some banana crunch ice cream to eat on the long journey :). I fell asleep on the car ride home, and woke up once we arrived back in Munich. We wandered around the older part of the city for a while, looking for a place to eat dinner, before deciding to eat at Schubeck’s Orlando. I ordered Nüremberg sausages with puréed potatoes and chili sauerkraut in an effort to be adventurous and loved every bite. Afterwards, we returned to the flat to sleep for the night.
The next morning, we popped into a bakery for some streudel and apfelschorle (a drink made of sparkling water and apple juice) before going to the town of Dachau, home of the first concentration camp built during World War II. There, history came to life in a very sobering way. It was hard to comprehend the horrors that happened within the walls of such a normal-looking place. There I understood for maybe the first time that the Holocaust was real: it was not only in history books that such things happened. People, real people, with families and homes and lives, were tortured and killed. I think sometimes we forget that people in the past were no different from us and that history is not just a story.
After touring Dachau, we drove back to Munich to eat lunch at a Biergarten, or pub, called Hofbräahaus. I ordered the beer roast with sauerkraut and potatoes and a nonalcoholic beer, just so I could have the complete German experience. The food, yet again, was delicious, but there was no time to linger because we had a plane to catch.
Every single aspect of my short time in Germany was amazing. The people were friendly, the architecture was gorgeous, the food was incredible, even the McDonald’s was a really neat experience. I hope to return to Germany someday (hopefully for longer than two days) and reacquaint myself with each aspect of its remarkable culture.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my adventure in Germany! The next post, which should be up sometime within the next few days, will be about Mozambique and the time I spent there, so be on the lookout!
Hello! I’m Elizabeth, a freshman GEF studying history and German. I’m hoping to study abroad in Germany next year & this post makes me super excited (your photography is awesome!! And your blog in general. You’re really cool). I hope I can meet you at a GEF event soon & I look forward to reading your future posts.
I’m really interested in travelling to Germany (although I have no German experience yet), and your blog and photos only make me want to go more! I like that you discussed some of the fun, adventurous things you experienced but also some of the serious stuff you thought about while there. I think it’s important when travelling abroad to have both aspects.
I visited Schloss Neuschwanstein two years ago while studying abroad in Germany; I’m so glad that you took the time to visit it on your short visit, because it is absolutely magical! Also, a funny anecdote about apfelschorle: while I was studying abroad I wasn’t allowed to speak English for most of my trip. One of the first times I ate lunch in a German cafe, I realized that since I was 16 years old, I would have been legally allowed to purchase beer (according to German laws). I started worrying that I would accidentally buy an alcoholic drink if I chose a random beverage off of the menu, so I spent an entire month drinking nothing but water and apfelschorle 🙂 I’m glad that you were able to be more adventurous with your orders!