My last few weeks in Germany....

We have been busy since the last time I blogged (sorry it took so long for me to catch up)! Thanks for everyone for all the kind words regarding our engagement.  We have not really been able to start with wedding arrangements because we have so many other things to get together in the next month or so, but stay tuned- who knows? Maybe life will settle down and this will become a wedding blog? Haha

Anyway, have had a few phone interviews and are waiting to see how everything pans out. Most importantly, I cannot wait to get back and see all the wonderful people and celebrate all of the wonderful things that have happened while we are gone!

So- what have we been doing besides job and house hunting? Having fun of course! We celebrated the 4th of July with Nathan’s fellow American brewing students- we had a bbq at his school with hamburgers, french fries and cool ranch Doritos- very American!

Also, my mother arrived a few weeks before my scheduled departure to visit Germany and help me pack up and fly back with me. I did my best to do all of the “tourist” activities as well as show her all German life. It was really great- the weather was perfect to visit all of the local gardens, the open air food market and drink German beers in a biergarten.

We visited both Neuschwanstein Castle in the romantic village of Fussen in southern Bavaria and Nymphenburg Palace located just north of our apartment in Munich. Both were homes to King Ludwig II and Bavarian royalty. I saved these day trips for my mom’s visit- I knew she would be into this kind of thing. Neuschwanstein Castle served as a fortress in the mountains where they lived in the colder months, and Nymphenburg Palace served as their vacation home, surrounded by miles of beautiful gardens, where they lived in the summer. Visiting these places is like stepping into a majestic fairytale. Adorned chairs, beautiful fabrics, and giant works of ancient art are around every corner. One of my favorite parts was the museum of horse drawn carriages and sleds- these things are straight out of a gawdy Disney movie!

On a Friday afternoon when Nathan was out of school, we went to Weihenstephan in Freising. Weihinstephan is the oldest brewery in the world and is also the Brewing Technical School of Munich. This was not only a beautiful place on the top of a hill, but also very special because many of Nathan's professors studied there and take great pride in their alma mater. The campus is covered with beautiful landscaping, the biergarten is lovely and the beer is great! Our visit was a perfect way to kick off my last weekend in Bavaria.

We also made a trip out to the Dachau concentration camp memorial sight. We visited the meaningful monuments and the heartbreaking museum which depicted life in the camp very graphically. Of course this was not as fun as going to the biergartens or castles, but it was an experience we felt would complete our trip to Germany. Dachau concentration camp or Konzentrationslager (in German) was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany, intended to hold political prisoners. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, outside of Munich. Opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler, its original purpose included imprisonment and forced labor of enemies or the dictatorship, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, ordinary German and Austrian criminals, and foreign nationals from countries which Germany occupied or invaded. Many people died of illness, exhaustion and starvation over the years. It was finally liberated in 1945 after many long years of suffering. The camp itself was shockingly small and simple- especially considering it housed over 32,000 people at one time. When asked about my experience here, it is hard to explain in words. It was just as depressing as one would imagine. Nathan and I have traveled in eastern Europe extensively now, so we are not unfamiliar with the horrific actions of the Nazis and Soviets in the last century and how these counties are still recovering today. I suppose the difference is, after living in Germany for a few months, it is hard to even imagine such terrible things happened there because life today seems so peaceful. It is understandable that the Germans are very fearful of large intrusive government (and the rest of Europe is also fearful of Germany being the most powerful country in the EU). It was a sobering learning experience, but I am really glad we made the trip. 

On our last night, we went with Nathan to buy the best souvenir ever- lederhosen! It was really fun finding him a Bavarian costume that will last forever- and he looks pretty handsome in it haha. We ate my last German meal at Schneider Weisse- a Munich brewery and restaurant that specializes in wheat beers of all varieties. We dined on pork knuckle, fish and cheese spetzel (similar to German mac and cheese). It was a lovely way to spend my last night in Bavaria with two incredibly important people. 

My mom and I then headed to Paris for the weekend and flew out of Frankfurt to Dallas- which deserves an entire blog post in itself. I will work on that in the next few days and post some pictures. I was really emotional leaving Munich- it was a really great place to spend 3 months and was beginning to feel like home. It was a life changing experience and I will value the memories and pictures for a lifetime. I am still in shock that this adventure is over but we will be back!!! Stayed tuned...