So I am going to write today. See? You've already read a paragraph. I'm sitting in a hostel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. I came to this town due to a post on Reddit. It was in the travel subreddit and it showed photos of a Wreck This Journal. A person had traveled here and dropped the journal (directions to do so are on one of the pages) from a high place on a ropes course. They did happen to mention that it's the Kletterwald ropes course. This is the reason I came to this town. I found out that the ropes course is right near here.
I only booked a full day here because I figured all I'd do is that course and that's it. As it turns out, only having a day here means I'm not actually doing the ropes course now because I don't have time. Go figure. It's a town in the south of Germany set in the German Alps. And it's amazing here! You guys don't even know.
Today I spent way too much money to go to the top of Germany to the Zugspitze. You can see other countries' mountains from up there, you can see the valley from up there. You can see birds below you up there. It is so amazingly beautiful.
For the first time since I've come to Europe I'm totally at ease here. Fewer people speak English here and I don't care. I walk around with my wallet in my pocket and not guarding it constantly. I relax by the river and have a picnic. I met some Americans today, quite a few actually. And when they asked how I was liking this place I told them I felt like I was home. I feel like I'm getting a big hug from the mountains.
See, where I'm from, we are surrounded by mountains. I'm slightly uncomfortable in wide open places (think midwest America or the rest of the European cities I've been to) but I'm at home when there are mountains on the horizon. Here, I am surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Some of these ranges remind me of home, they look like mountains at home but greener. Some of the ranges and peaks are distinctly alps and nothing like what we have at home. And they all overlook this lush green valley and its cute Bavarian homes. I love it here. Honestly, if I was going to Amsterdam tomorrow I would book more time here. The only reason I'm not is because I'm heading to the Swiss Alps in Interlaken tomorrow...soooo...I get more mountains and I'm happy with that. Plus I get to stay in a tent hostel village that is only available in the summer. I'm so excited.
So on another note, Munich. I went to the Dachau concentration camp memorial my first day there. It was a very cold very wet day. I actually had to buy a sweater and an umbrella before going which saved me from dying of hypothermia. The sad thing is, people had to stand in weather like that and worse weather in thin cotton prison clothes for hours at a time, sometimes all day in these camps.
Given my love of reading anything Holocaust related I really expected to be overwhelmed with emotions when I walked from the railroad tracks through the gate with the sign "Arbeit macht frei" which means "Work will set you free." But I wasn't. It was just a gate, albeit a historic one. It took me wandering through the museum in a building that was once used for prisoner needs, such as a work shop, sewing shop, kitchen, and the like. I got to the displays about medical experiments and pretty much nearly lost it. I realized there that I was in a building that these thousands that died at this camp probably had walked through. These people shown in the photos being tortured with inhumane medical experiments. These people that once had a future which was reduced literally to ashes, I was there. After that, everything was much more surreal. I saw where they stood in the cold and the heat. I saw the fences and death zones keeping them in. I saw where they ate, slept, and used the bathroom. I saw Poplar Road where the prisoners had to walk every day to get to roll call square. I saw where the murdered (included in that word are the people that died of illnesses too) were cremated. I saw the gas chamber where people were murdered. Fortunately this gas chamber was never put to extensive use as it was built near the end of the war. It's believed only a few hundred ("only" a few hundred) were murdered there due to a typhus outbreak then the liberation of the camp. I got to see the mass grave where the ashes of thousands were buried after liberation. I even got to meet a survivor of the camp who happened to be there that day. His entire family was killed in Auschwitz, he only survived because he lied and said he was 17, so they shipped him to Dachau to work.
The next day I went to a happier place. Neuschwanstein castle. Not sure you're familiar with it? Think about the infamous Disney castle. It was modeled after Neuschwanstein and now Disney has to pay bucketloads of money every year to the state of Bavaria for royalties. Ha ha! This too is set in the amazing German Alps and is truly a fairy tale castle. The completed rooms (as not all of them were completed before Kind Ludwig II died) were decorated in various themes of Wagner's operas. It's gorgeous inside and out and the views from the castle are incredible. I could handle living there.
Then finally, I saw historic Munich before I left for Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Beautiful. It turns out Hitler knew it would be destroyed in the war, it is after all where he started his Nazi party. So he sent out photographers to take pictures of the city so it could be rebuilt exactly as it had been before after the war was over. It's where he wanted his capitol to be. Well, he lost the war, but those photos helped the city get rebuilt exactly as it was before. Therefore, the buildings themselves are not really as old as they look. And they look old. A cannonball from another war was even put back into a church when it was rebuilt. Amazing.
Now I'm in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, listening to the sounds of a summer thunderstorm and the river. It's really quite peaceful and I'm really glad I got to see this place. Only 15 more days of my adventure. I'd better live it up.
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