Long Overdue Rough Draft at 1:34 AM

Well, I've finally gotten my hands on a new desktop that can handle the kind of video editing I want to do, and that means it's time to go poring through many hours of footage that needs to be cataloged, edited, compiled, and produced. Just for fun, I went through the footage from the Nashville trip the guys and I took a couple of years ago that I said I was going to edit, and I threw this together. I forgot to add transitions, so it's a bit rough, but it's a jumping off point. Oh, and you can watch in HD, which is also cool.

(Side note - guys, I'll send you each a copy of the DVD I'll make from this once I get it all put together and trimmed up.)

European Odyssey, Part 3 at 9:55 AM

Alright, after another overnight train to Vienna followed by the reason we got to go to Europe in the first place (the annual Manager Meeting), I'm on a plane from Amsterdam to Memphis with some time to write. There's a little baby up front who is not enjoying the flight much at all, so I'm going to put on some Explosions in the Sky (good writing music – or at least better ambience than small babies crying) and get down to bidness.

After Nuremburg, we took the train into Munich, where we stayed the night. We were booked for two nights in Munich, after spending only one night each in Berlin, Dresden and Dusseldorf, so it was a relief not to have to carry our bags around the next morning. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it got a bit old moving from place to place – even with only one piece of large luggage for each of us. So anyway, the next day we were slated to go and see King Ludwig's castles. That is, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.

The castles were about a 45-minute train ride from Munich, in a town called Fussen. Fussen is a small place that looks like it hasn't changed much for a long time, at least as far as outward appearance. There were the little houses that you think of when you think of little dorfs in Germany, and of course there were the castles up on the hills. The feeling of oldness was slightly marred by newer restaurants and souvenir stands, but we're forgiving of that.

The castles were awesome. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed inside, but here are some shots of the outside.

Here's Hohenschwangau.









We took tours of both castles, which were possessed by the aforementioned "Mad" King Ludwig. He grew up in Hohenschwangau and commissioned Neuschwanstein to be built during his final years. He died young, in his mid-twenties, so he only got to live in the castle for about six months total if I'm remembering correctly. But hey, if you're interested in that, there's always Wikipedia.

The things that stand out about the inside of the castle were the throne room (which was incomplete, having never actually gotten a throne) and the cave room. Yes, a cave room. Adjacent to the King's bedroom was another room that had been fashioned into a cave. Using plaster, the builders had made it into a rather convincing-looking replica, complete with stalagmites and such. Having been in a few actual caves, I thought the façade was quite impressive. So this was apparently where Ludwig would go sometimes to be by himself. Sure, there were 60 rooms in the castle, but who wants to be alone in a regular room when you can be alone in your own personal not-actually-subterranean lair? And of course, here are some pictures from the outside:

From the town below




From the Gatehouse


View of the Gatehouse from the Inside (they let you take pictures out the windows; just not inside.)


And a few more for fun. This place was enormous.






After the tours, we stopped at a shop and bought a nutcracker. How can you be in Germany and not buy a nutcracker, right? At this point the day was pretty much over and we headed back to the hotel, where there was sausage for all to have. Or at least me. I tried the Munich white sausage, which I hadn't had the pleasure of tasting before. It wasn't bad, despite the frightening color. I didn't have it again during our stay in Munich, because the taste wasn't good enough to overcome the fact that I was eating white sausage. It's rare for me that the appearance of a food causes me not to consume it, but such was the case here.

Speaking of the white sausage, that reminds me of the breakfasts at the hotels where we stayed. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but we stayed in all of our hotels for free because of the points I'd saved up during my time living in a Fort Wayne Marriott. So it was Marriotts all the way. The breakfasts came with the hotel stay, and they were unbelievable. I think I was probably more of a fan than Jessica since I'm used to European food, but they weren't too shabby by any standards. Think of your American continental breakfast at a hotel. You've got your eggs from a carton, bacon, sausage, toast, fruit, maybe some muffins, and cereal, right? And usually it's not actually all of those things. Well, that was all there. Plus there was about 4-5 different kinds of bread (German bread rules), 5-6 different kinds of pastries, a bunch of different yogurts (and quark, which is like yogurt with extra bacteria), a whole lot of fruit, and meats. Lunch meats, different kinds of sausage, sometimes there were meatballs, and usually at least one or two kinds of potatoes. This is not to mention the fact that they have Nutella in Germany. If you're not familiar, Nutella is a chocolate spread that they use kind of like peanut butter. That is, putting it on bread and whatnot. I'm not a big Nutella guy, but Jessica was pretty excited. So yeah, the spreads in ol' Deutschland were pretty impressive.

So the next day was our last in Munich (and Germany), and we took a day trip to the Dachau concentration camp. There's not much history to add here, as you all know what the deal is with concentration camps. I've got to say, though, that knowing about them and visiting one are two very different things. Going to Dachau wasn't what I would call an enjoyable experience. It wasn't fun, by any means. But I definitely don't regret going. Knowing what happened at these places lends the grounds a gravity that you have to experience to understand.

Germany requires all students to visit a concentration camp as part of their curriculum, which is an admirable thing, and certainly not unnecessary for a country with its history. If there ever was a way to keep history from repeating itself, that is it. So there were some students on the grounds when we were there. They were kids, and they didn't always act so seriously obviously, but you could tell at certain times that most of them were impacted. This was especially true in the museum portion of the grounds, which was the former registration building where prisoners came when they arrived. This was the only part of the grounds which gave a history and an accounting of what went on there, and the rest stood largely in silence to be observed. I'll finish this portion with pictures. I tried to get as many pictures as possible without people in them. It doesn't completely give the feeling of stark coldness that you feel in certain parts of the site, but I think that this place, once teeming with thousands and now standing empty as a reminder of what humans did to other humans, has a certain weight even just with pictures.

Entrance


Roll Call Area


Bunker


Former Barracks Site (Every plot is where a building stood)




The Crematorium




Inscription: Remember How We Died Here


Memorial in Front of the Museum


This is probably a long enough post for now, so I'll be back later with more.

European Odyssey, Part 2 at 10:01 AM

The whole "tomorrow" thing didn't quite work out as planned, because now we've been through Dresden, Dusseldorf, and Munich, and I'm typing flat on my back on an overnight train to Rome. I don't know how long this will last, but we'll give it a shot.

After we spent the night in Dresden, we woke up the next morning and took about an hourlong walk through the city. The picture is of a statue of Martin Luther - a Dresden native - in front of Frauenkirche, which was the largest Protestant church in the world upon completion. It was largely destroyed when Dresden was flattened by bombs during WWII, but has been restored very well. We have a tour book for Germany (if you're ever traveling abroad, bring Rick Steves' tour books – they're fantastic,) and it has a detailed description of a bunch of the sites along a walk in the main part of the old town (Altstadt.) So we did that first, and then it was time to get our bags from the hotel and go to the Historic Green Vault.

The Green Vault was amazing. It was basically a treasure trove of showing off all of the Royal treasure of Augustus the Strong, the Crown Prince of Saxony and King of Poland during the Baroque period. It's pretty much everything you would expect from a bunch of rooms full of treasures. There was a room full of nothing but things made of ivory, a room for bronze, a room for silver, etc. There was also a room (the most impressive to me) full of jewels. There were sets of sapphires, rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. The jewels were all in sets. There were swords with scabbards containing these jewels (one sword had a scabbard completely coated in diamonds), along with broaches and buttons for royal robes, etc. All very cool. The whole thing was explained with an audioguide that came with the tour. You walk into the room, and hold the guide up to your ear (it works like a telephone) and it explains what exactly you're looking at. That makes the experience much more enjoyable, because it gives everything context. We've found that to be the case at most of these German museums. They've all been really impressive (outside of the Checkpoint Charlie museum, but maybe that's because we were sleepy.)

After the Green Vault (which unfortunately did not allow cameras inside), we got on the train (6 ½ hours) to Dusseldorf. That was another one where you just don't think of the travel time involved with the trip. But in the end, we got into town at about 8:00 or so. It was pretty cool getting back to the Hauptbahnhof of one of my old stomping grounds. A lot has changed over the time that I've been gone, and everything seems a bit more modern.

The plan in Dusseldorf was to hit the hotel and drop off our stuff, then head back into town for dinner. But by the time we found the hotel (we happened to run into a couple of girls that were staying there and they showed us where it was,) we were too tired to go back out, and the rowdy crowds downtown make Jessica a bit nervous, so we went down to the hotel restaurant. They said it was open until 11:00, but when we got down there at 10:30, the guy said they were closing up because business was slow (a slight difference between German businesses and US businesses – they just kind of close when they want.) He told us to go to the bar and get something to eat if we wanted. So we did. I saw a bunch of stuff on the menu that looked like it was worth eating, so I got the mixed plate, which under the description said "a little of everything." I cannot tell you what was on that plate, my friends, but none of it was on the menu that I was looking at. So that was obnoxious, but it ended up being okay. I can't honestly remember what it all was, but there was bread involved, and some peppers stuffed with cream cheese, and something else. Perhaps I've blocked it out. But Jessica got a cheeseburger, and in hindsight that probably wasn't a bad idea given the other options.

The next day the plan was to get up early and go into the pedestrian zone to take a walk before getting on the train to Nuremberg to see the museum there. We really were going to do this, but just couldn't get going early enough in the morning. I had even set an alarm, but I ended up turning it off. It didn't end up being a big deal really, as mostly what I wanted to do was just see one of the areas where I was as a missionary. At this point I haven't been back in almost 10 years, so there isn't really anyone here that would remember me, and there aren't a lot of sites to see in my old areas, so just seeing the Hauptbahnhof, and walking by the taxi area where we used to pick up and drop off new and old missionaries was fun. So we didn't get to take the walk downtown, but we hopped on the train to Nuremberg.

The museum here was also fantastic. There was an audioguide again that provided a lot of helpful details about the exhibits and also narrated some of the videos that were being shown. Seeing as how we've been in Germany, we've seen a lot to do with World War II, obviously. This museum probably did the best job (understandably so, since this was one of their main headquarters) in showing how it was possible for the Nazis to come to power. It's not as though it couldn't have been avoided, or that the atrocities that they eventually committed are understandable, but the social and especially economic conditions of the time were such that Hitler's propaganda machine and his public demonstrations were very effective in winning over the people. Not to mention the fact that Hitler created tons of jobs by starting to build the Autobahn and beginning Volkswagen (which means "car of the people".) Inflation had gotten to the point where it cost 8 billion Marks for an egg. They had actual million-mark bills on display from this time period. Unbelievable stuff. Inflation, folks. When it gets that bad, that really sucks.

Nuremberg played a huge part in the rise of the Nazis and was one of their bases of power. Seeing the architecture of the places the Nazis built totally reminded me of the old emperors and their fortresses and amphitheaters. Everything was concentrated on building the mythos of Hitler and his ideas. This showed us the social and political part of Hitler and the Nazis, and two days later we would see the human cost of their reign in Germany. But all in all, this was a fascinating museum.

On that note, it's getting late. So I'm taking a Tylenol PM and seeing if I can get some sleep on this train. Till later.

European Odyssey, Part 1 at 4:49 AM

Note: We're on our third and final day in Italy right now, and this is the first hotel where we've had free internet, so that's why I haven't been posting. As for why I didn't post the last couple of days...well, Rome's kept us busy. So here's the first post I wrote when we came to Germany. I'll continue to update as I'm able to.

We're in Dresden now, and there is no free internet here. Hence, you will not see this post until we get to Dusseldorf. But the timeline is beside the point. Let's talk about how we got here, shall we? (Boring stuff first.)

We left Indianapolis's fabulous (seriously) new airport on Wednesday afternoon, and flew to the magical land of Detroit. From there we caught our long flight on a big giant A330 to Amsterdam. Now, on my last trans-Atlantic flight, I was still set apart as an LDS missionary, and as such I did not partake in any media goodness that was available at the time. However, this time I was able to do so. Let me just say this: Holy crap, does that make an 8-hour flight more bearable. I mean seriously. We watched Slumdog Millionaire, which was fantastic. Then we tried unsuccessfully to get some sleep and avoid extreme jetlag, followed by me taking out the ol' laptop and plugging it in (we sat where there was power) to watch some Friday Night Lights. And then the flight was done. So yeah, it was not that bad.

We ended up getting into Berlin around noon. After taking the bus to the Hauptbahnhof (central train station), we took way too long to figure out what trains we needed to take in order to get the Courtyard, where we were staying that evening. By the time we actually made it to the hotel, we were pretty wrecked. But we still fired up the Interwebs to get on the webcam and talk to the boys. (As a side note, big thanks to the in-laws, who came out from Delaware to watch the boys while we're gone.) If you've used webcams before as we had, you may think that they're always choppy delayed. This was not at all the case when we used the gmail webcam service. There was no delay at all in the picture, and the quality was great. So we're using gmail's webcam service from now on. Since you're extremely interested in that.

So the first actual sight we saw was Checkpoint Charlie. This was the American Sector of Germany when it was separated into four parts after World War II (for those that don't know.) It's right next to where the Berlin Wall used to be. The museum was good, but a bit nonlinear. We felt like we walked in and were suddenly in the middle of things. There wasn't much of an explanation of origins, or logistics, or anything like that. The first thing we saw was how people attempted to escape East Germany. It was cool, like I said, but just a bit disorienting. The other problem was, as we realized partway through the museum, we were freaking tired. We sat down at one point to look at something and almost fell asleep. So we walked back to the hotel and got some dinner (keeping it easy at this point – Jessica had a club sandwich and I had some mushroom ravioli. It was most excellent.)

All these details and I forgot to mention how my German is. It's actually still pretty good. I can get along just fine, although it took a few times talking to people to get comfortable. I think one problem I still have is that once people are aware that I speak German, they get excited and start talking too fast. Then I can't understand them and I feel kind of dumb when I have that look on my face like, "Ummm…..I know I was speaking German to you just now, but I have no clue what you just said." But largely it's been fine.

So today we started off in Berlin. To get around, we had a Welcome Card, which gets you all your train and bus fares within the city, along with discounts at museums and such. We've also got the German Rail Pass, which gets us four days of travel anywhere in Germany for two people. So it's a lot of public transportation for us, which I love. I like being able to walk through the train stations and walk along the streets to wherever we're going from the smaller stations. It brings back a lot of memories of how we got around as missionaries, and plus I just enjoy the atmosphere. You get to really see the city, and you enjoy the company of the people. You almost feel like you fit in somehow. It's getting the whole Germany experience, since a lot of people get around like that. The downside, of course, is that it's murder on the feet. Since we don't walk nearly this much at home, we're not quite accustomed to the beatdown that the ol' dogs are currently receiving. But the good part is that we're walking off all the food that we're bound to be eating over the next few days.

So anyway, Berlin. We went to the German History Museum, and let me tell you, it was fantastic. It was a complete history of Germany. From about 100 BC until today. There were two floors worth of exhibits. Artifacts, paintings, written history, etc. And we also got the audio guide, which gave us further details about specific exhibits. Our guidebook says that there's six hours worth of information in the audio guide should one choose to listen to every part. There's certainly enough to keep you busy in the museum every day for a week or so. We were a bit worn out by the time we hit WWII, but we got a pretty good dose of that at Checkpoint Charlie, and we're hitting Nuremberg and Dachau later as well. So we've got that covered.

After the history museum, we went over to the Reichstag through the Brandenburg Gate. The Reichstag is the German Parliament. We were going to get in there and have a look around, but the line ended up being too long to get in and we had a train to catch to get to Dresden, and we still had some lunch that needed to be eaten.

Speaking of which, one thing that we didn't factor into our plans was travel time. You know, you watch these guys on The Amazing Race, and you kind of lose perspective on that sort of thing. It's like, "okay, we're starting in L.A., and the first stop is…Scotland!" And then they're in Scotland. Not that we thought we'd be teleporting or something mind you, but still. You look at Berlin and Dresden on a map of Germany, and you don't think "two-hour train ride." But that's what it is. So we hit the train to Dresden, and now after walking around for way too long again, we're in the hotel. It's actually 1 am right now. We hit the hotel restaurant for dinner, since the place we were going to go to was closed. I had a duck salad (bad idea, since I remembered I'm not a fan of duck, but it was still edible), and Jessica had a Hawaiian pizza. Before you boo that decision, I'll just say that pizza tastes completely different here. Forget your canned pineapple, pre-shredded cheese, and pre-made spaghetti sauce. Everything is fresh on these bad boys. And they're good.

I also forgot to mention that Jessica had her first Doener today. What is that, you ask? Well, it's a kind of sandwich with lamb, lettuce, cucumber, and zaziki sauce on a piece of flatbread (not the kind of flat bread you're thinking of – better.) You can also get goat cheese on it, but that's gross. It's a staple of missionaries in Germany, and it is delicious. I was very pleased that she enjoyed hers. Staying on the food side of things, I'm thinking brats and pommes tomorrow. Pommes is French fries, but different because you get curry ketchup, mayonnaise and onions on them. I know what you're thinking, but trust me, it rules. The caveat is that you cannot try this at home, because it's not the kind of mayo that you buy at the store in the States. That's just wrong. Don't do it.

So this is way too much detail right now and I need to get to bed, so I'm going to stop. More tomorrow.