Day 6 | Europebound

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Oh it is always sad to say goodbye. We left Dinkelsbul today and headed to Austria. It’s the first day that it’s rained since we have been here. Which is fitting since we are headed to Dachau.

Also just to clairfy- I've combined Germany and Austria only because even when we stayed in Austria we spent the day in Germany. I didn't combine them because they are similar just because we spent so little time in Austria.

Today’s wow moment was standing in the concentration camp taking in the view of the barracks, the memorial, and the gas chamber. Trying to sort out where to put the emotions I felt as they didn’t seem fit anywhere.

Germany & Austria

Dinkelsbul to Dachau to Reutte

May 10, 2013

Tour Day 6

Food

Wow Moment

I realize that I have totally neglected breakfast in the food section. Each country has unique variations to their breakfast but there were many similarities. In most of the countries granola, cereal, yogurt, juice, fruit, cold cuts, and some kind of bread were available. Today we enjoyed just that.

For dinner we ate together at our hotel. We had salmon fillets, potatoes soaked in butter, spinach with foam, asparagus soup and a salad. For dessert we had ice cream folded in a crepe topped with berries. Let’s just say that we may or may not have had to loosen our belts by this time in the trip.

Travel Tip

Don’t be afraid to do laundry. Doing laundry while traveling is part of the adventure. We brought an all purpose cleaner and washed our clothes in the sink. We always felt our clothes got clean enough and were relatively dry enough by morning.

Dachau Concentration Camp

On To Austria!

From my journal-

“We just got done at the concentration camp. It’s hard to know what to write. It was a fairly overwhelming experience. It’s so hard to recognize what happened. It’s hard to learn of the suffering that so many experienced. Mike just said- “I don’t know if there are any words that could ever explain it or excuse it, it is just profoundly sad.” One thing Reid said before we entered the camp was to explore the purpose of the camp for us. I don’t totally know what it is for me except that I want to be kind to people and to be as aware of my biases towards others as I can.”

We have been driving in the Bavarian country side for the past few hours and just stopped for a potty break. At this rest stop there was a huge church. Reid gave us the back story:

Sometime in the 1500s someone carved an altarpiece that was considered a bit extreme. It was put away for a couple hundred years. At some point it when it was revisited the altarpiece was observed to have been crying. The Vatican was called to confirm whether it was a miracle or not. It was determined that it was a miracle. Afterwards people came to witness it and made donations. Eventually they had enough money to build a beautiful church with the original altarpiece.

It was quite the experience to visit this beautiful church in what felt like the middle of nowhere.

Eventually we made it to our hotel in Austria. When we arrived, there was no city wandering for Mike and I - it was laundry time. We happened to be on our last pair of… socks and were in desperate need for a fresh set.

Afterwards we joined our tour buddies for dinner. There is really something special about a group of people that you get to see the world with.