Europe--Day 8

Last installment! I recognize the overkill with these entries, but I wanted a play-by-play for us to look back to.

The last morning of our trip, we woke up and drove through Austria to Italy. We were able to see countryside, the Alps, castles, churches, and small communities everywhere. I didn't realize when we planned our trip just how much I would enjoy this segment.



Our destination was a castle that they had seen several times driving by, and had not ever visited. After a hike up, we found out it was actually a working monestary!

Hudson was our pal the entire trip. We adored him, and he was quite a little hiker!

My aunt Chrysta was also the trooper, carrying her nine-month old son, Cannon, all the way to the top.

Rick Steves told us that we would see these symbols all over Germany, but this was the first time we did. This is a chalk marking about Epiphany (Jan 6), the holiday that celebrates the entry of the Magi to see the Baby Jesus. The initials C, M, and B stand for the three wise men, and also for the phrase "May God bless this house." The crosses show that the house has been blessed in the year 2007. Epiphany includes donating to charities, and those who contribute are shown thanks with these markings.

No day out with boys would be complete without throwing rocks--even in Italy.



Here are more castle ruins and churches typical of the tiny towns we drove by.

The drive left us feeling like we easily could have spent our entire trip in just this area. Whew, it was pretty! The next morning, we headed over to some Christmas shops, and then to the Munich airport to await 22 more hours of travel.

It was a good trip.

Europe--Day 7

Nyquil is amazing. Seriously. Amazing. We got 6 uninterupted hours of sleep on the train ride back to Germany.

We headed into Munich, and our first stop was St. Michael's Church. Ludwig IV's tomb is in the back of the church. The funny thing is it used to be at the altar--likely an attempt at making people see association between royalty and God.

A huge highlight in Munich was The Residenz, the palace of the Wittelsbachs (who ruled Bavaria for 700 plus years). It was heavily bombed during WWII, so many of the rooms are remodeled, but there are quite a few exquisit originals displayed in the rooms.

Brady loved these Shell Grottos, and all the shells were donated by Bavarians during the reconstruction of The Residenz.


This is the Antiquariam, and is composed of the busts of Roman rulers, and used as a banquet hall. Above the busts are paintings of the 120 original Bavarian villages as they looked in 1550, Historians love this room.

This "Onyx Service" of porcelain was commissioned by Ludwig I. It has 717 pieces, each of them painted individually. Porcelain was a big deal here, and often given as gifts of alliance and marriage.

Tapastries like the one below are everywhere in the palace. 10 originals have survived, and the colors are still rich because they were only brought out for special occasions. The cost of creating and commissioning these works was enormous, especially when you account for the fact that the average tapstry-maker created 0.44 square meters per month. Three men had to work for 4 weeks to make one square meter--whew. That's a lot more effort than our tie-quilts, eh?

This is the Portrait Gallary, and furnishes pictures of the Wittelsbach family through 738 years. All guests were reminded of the royal legacy because they were forced to walk through this room on their way into the meeting rooms. In 1944, the pictures were sliced out of frames and hid as quickly as possible before the bombings began. You can see the cut marks (not in these pictures, though).

This was all boring compared to the Residenz Treasury. Yeah. Jewels--diamonds, rubies, saphires...everything you can imagine! I felt "obsessed with treasure" (and I really am excited for Pirates III). The oldest jewels are 200 years older than the city of Munich.

This is the crown of the English queen from 1370, and it was eventually passed down to the Wittelsbachs by marriage.

This crown, sceptre, and sword of the kingdom date from 1809, and were commissioned by Napoleon. They were never used, however, because Bavaria decided to not side with Napoleon after all. Apparently they declined to return the treasure after they called off the deal.

Love, love, love this Statuette of St. George. It dates from 1597, and shows St. George killing a dragon using more than 2,000 precious stones! (Rick tells us the dragon actually represents the "evil" forces of Protestantism.)

After that display of wealth, we headed to Dachau, the concentration camp outside of Munich famous for it's role as the first concentration camp (1933), and because it was the training grounds for Nazi guards.

The entry states, "Work will set you free." What a lie. This camp was not an extermination camp (those were only outside of Germany), but the inmates were used for slave labor. Any concerned citizens were told that if they wanted to know what was going on, they could stay in the camp for an unlimited amount of time. That tactic worked, and the citizens of Dachau were oblivous to the heinous crimes and torture that occured here.

The conditions were overcrowed and terrible. The AC was turned on in the winter, and the heat was used in the summer. The rooms to the right contained the "standing cells," which were so small that only standing was permitted, and for days at a time.

These are the grounds of them camp. When the site was turned into a memorial, many of the barracks were torn down.

Even though this was not an extermination camp, 32,000 were killed here. These ovens were rarely put to use because coal was in short supply here. The room right before the ovens is where gas chambers were built, with a sign that said "Showers" over the entry. Usually, the killing was done by hanging right next to the oven, and then they were stacked in. They were often about 70 pounds at the time of death. (Below is our tour guide.)

The tour was done well, and mostly reminded us that this did not happen long ago. In school, studying WWII seems like studying ancient history. After touring so much European history, though, it was put in perspective for us, and we realized just how recently this all happened.

After returning to Munich, we ascended St. Peter's tower (another church) for views of the city. This is New Town Hall, rebuilt after the war. That was fun, but seeing a 2nd century skeleton dressed up inside was even better.

Europe--Day 6

Jogging in the rain in Paris...not nearly as romantic as it sounds. Actually, it's just very, very cold.

We felt so lucky to have the weather we did throughout the week. We had talked to some travelers in Germany who said Paris hailed and rained on them the entire time they were there. At least our foul weather came on the last day, when we did more travel and less walking.

We started at the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. In 1870, Otto von Bismarck (from Prussia) seiged Paris for 4 months. People were eating dogs, cats, and rats to survive. The religious believed it was punishment for the country becoming too liberal. haha They raised the money and built it as a gesture of humility.



Here is the view from the highest point in Paris.



Look closely: the gargoyles are performing one of their functions as rain gutters.



We headed to the Place de la Bastille, a strong fortress that was overtaken by Parisians during the Revolution. Today, only a monument stands. From this point, we visited the Hotel de Sully, a historic private mansion.



Next is the Place des Vosges, which Henry IV built in Marais (the area of Paris we are in this picture) to turn the area into an exclusive neighborhood. It worked, and people like Victor Hugo camped out here.



We ended the day by touring the Carnavalet Museum, which focuses on French history. It was practially vacant but full of interesting pictures and artifacts, so we ate it up. It especially focused on the Revolution (all three of them) and the rise (and fall) of Napolean. There is nothing like reading about a nation's long history to make you think about the future of your own nation.

Finally, we walked through the Jewish Quarters of Paris, and stopped for a moment at the Holocaust Memorial. Each point on the Star of David represents one million lost.

Europe--Day 5

Brrrrr...we set out early on Thursday with no sun and cold temperatures. The Arc de Triomphe was our first stop, the 165-foot arch that was started in 1809 by Napoleon, celebrating his title as emperor of a "New Rome." ("This guy thinks highly of himself," commented Brady a few times as we walked around this monument.)



Basically, the Arc is intended to celebrate French armies, and inscribed on the Arc are lists of generals and battle victories. It is the location for military parades to pass through and a swastika flew here in the 1940s.



This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The flame (yeah, good luck trying to see it in this pic) has been continuous since WWI.



This makes us sound uncultured, but this view was our favorite part of visiting this site. Looking down on traffic, it seems CRAZY how the laws work. Thankfully, good ol' Rick Steves (the book I'm holding in practically every picture on our blog) cleared this mystery up for us. Anyone in the roundabout around the Arc must yield to all incoming traffic coming from any of the 12 boulevards. It is hilarious to watch cars work through the mess. All accidents here are split 50/50, so it doesn't really matter who was "right." Yikes.



We walked down the Champs-Elysees--the home of elegence, big-name shopping, and dozens of cafes. We cruised through quickly, stopping only briefly to check it out. At the end of the boulevard is the Place de la Concorde, where 2,780 people were beheaded during the Reign of Terror (including Robespierre, the man in charge at this time period). The guillotine--thought of as more humane and advanced than previous forms of torture and capital punishment--was located here, and ended the lives of famous individuals like Marie Antoinette and King Louis the XIV. On the site, there is now an obelisk that came all the way from Egypt in the 1830s to remember the executed.



This is Tuileries Garden. I'm sure it is more beautiful when there are leaves on the trees, and the sun is shining. In our rush to get to the Mona Lisa, we forgot to take pics of the outside of the Louvre the day before. We walked all the way down just to capture these famous views.





We planned it right so we could see Monet's famous water lilies in the Orangerie. Whew! He painted these 6-foot panels when he was 80 years old and nearly blind. The museum contains many Impressionist works, and reminded me that I really love Impressionism! The interplay of light and realism is gorgeous (although if you stand close to these works, they just look like fuzzy blobs).



Next stop, Orsay Museum. This used to be an old railway, as you can tell from this view. This museum contains works starting in the 1800s, and works through Conservative/Classical art (very repetitive), Realism (makes you feel it), Impressionism (yay!), Post Impressionism (van Gogh), and Primitives (ick). This was our favorite museum.



Another Monet with brilliant colors.



Finally, we hit the Rodin museum, the best sculpter since Michelangelo. This sculpture is The Hand of God, and shows Adam and Eve as they are created.



We had a spare hour, but Brady shot down the idea of hitting the Pompidou Center (modern art). In all fairness, we did a TON of walking this day. Instead, we grabbed a bit at our favorite pastry shop right next to our hotel.




We closed out the day with a dinner cruise down the Seine River. It poured on us all the way to the boat, and of course stopped the minute we stepped on board. The food gave us a great taste of French delights--several appetizer bites and desserts.



In France, it seems that you can't find any potable water. On board, you also could not get tap water. As a result, we ordered the cheapest drinks on the menu, and you are looking at our $5.20 Diet Cokes (no refills).



After dinner, we headed up to the roof for the ride back. Very romantic!

Europe--Day 4

We set two alarms, but neither went off, and we woke up in a panic on Wednesday morning. We were still able to see everything we wanted to, though, starting with Notre Dame.


One thing to note...on the right portal, the kings of Judah are pictured. During the French Revolution, the people thought they were the French kings, and they cut off all their heads. A woman hid them in her yard, and they were discovered in 1977.

The gargoyles were entertaining, but the stonework on the building was the most impressive. In the center portal, Christ sits on his throne of judgement. Below him (see the picture), an angel and demon weight souls. The demon is cheating by pressing them down. Funny.



The inside matched the outside in decor. The place is set up like a cross with the building, and the gothic architecture is easy to identify. I LOVE stained glass with the lighting and color.

We walked through Historic Paris, and this picture overlooks some of the priciest areas to live in Paris--the Ile St. Louis, and the Seine River.

This is the Place St. Michel--where intellectuals, revolutionaries, liberals, poets, hippies, etc. gathered. In fact, in 1830 and 1848, citizens put up barricades here to fight the government as part of revolutions. This is also where the French students were nailed with tear gas in 1968, when they declared France an independent state.

My absolute favorite part of the city was Sainte-Chapelle, a gothic church built in 1248 with incredible stained glass. The outside is not very impressive, but the inside was jaw-dropping. The glass show scenes from the Christian history of the world, starting in Genesis, and working through the end of the world.

We headed back to the Deporation Memorial. We actually viewed quite a bit of Holocaust history on our trip, but this carried the most impact. Their are 200,000 lighted crystals, one for every French person who died in WWII. At the end, you see the eternal flame of hope. "Forgive, but never forget."

We booked it to the Louvre, where we spent three hours gazing at famous paintings. The Mona Lisa did not disappoint, but I was glad I learned how small it was before I viewed it in person. My favorite painting was a Raphael--the La Belle Jardiniere (1507). It has Madonna, Child, and John the Baptist in a pyramid.

Winged Victory of Samothrace, 190 BC, used to be on a hilltop to commemorate naval victory. She is blowing in the wind, and used to have a "we're #1" finger, that is displayed in a separate case.

Venus--the perfect balance of opposites in a contrapposto pose, her weight on her right foot. 100 BC.

We spent the evening hanging out at Trocadero and viewing the Eiffle Tower. Brady caught a few great views with our new camera.