Germany Day 2 Downtown Munich

Our second day in Germany was a Sunday so we walked around the city center and admired some beautiful churches.  Services were going on so we couldn't take pictures in most of the churches.  There are a lot of pictures, more for me than anything else, but scroll through them if you wish.

The May Pole that is up on display January through May.  It advertises the vendors of the area.

This is the "Old Town Hall"

This was a botanical garden that we walked through.  It was just a city park basically.

Courthouse

Since it was a Sunday the shops were closed--restaurants were open, but the streets were deserted until close to lunch time when people started coming out of the woodwork.

Karlstor-entrance to the pedestrian area.  The gate to the original city.

St. Michael's Church.  The choir here is very good and we enjoyed listening to them sing the opening song before we slipped out to let them worship.

On the street you can see a curved line in the street.  When Hitler was taking power there was a Nazi memorial that you had to salute every time you walked by.  Even in the early 1930's not everyone agreed with Hitler's politics so they created this line in the road to show where you could go down another street to avoid having to salute at the memorial.

Odeonsplatz

This is the "backyard" of the Residence--the Hofgarten.  The Residence is equivalent to our White House.

The Residence

Fun little German streets.  The streets were so narrow.

These next few pictures are at the Marienplatz where the New Town Hall is.  The town hall has a huge glockenspiel that goes off 3 times a day at 11, 12, and 5 pm.  We were able to watch the statues go around and it was neat.  It lasted 12-15 minutes as it told the story of a wedding banquet from the 1500s.

It's moving, I promise!

Little shops and delis like this are really popular in Munich and probably all throughout Europe.

Here was another fun shop window filled with candied fruits and vegetables.  It was so pretty.

This is the inside of the Asam Church.  It is a small church built by two brothers for their own personal worship.  It was very ornate and almost over the top.  It was built for these brothers to worship, but also for other people to come and see different aspects of the church to use as a model for building other churches.  It was basically a "show home" for churches.  

Another original city gate.  

An Orthopedic clinic....Joseph almost applied for a job.  Just kidding.  As much as I loved visiting, I don't think I would be ready to uproot my family to a foreign country.

A good portion of Munich was bombed in the war so a lot of Munich was rebuilt with an "old" feel to it.  The Marienplatz with the new and old town halls weren't hit though.

Trip to Germany Day 1 Dachau Concentration Camp

Joseph and I just returned from the trip of my dreams!  We went to Munich,Germany, and the surrounding area, for a week. With travel we were only in Germany 5 days, but they were wonderful days.  The flights were long, but more manageable than I thought they would be.  We were tired, but I didn't feel the jet lag quite like I thought I would.  

Here's all about day 1.  We arrived in Germany about 10 in the morning.  We dropped our luggage off at our hotel, but couldn't officially check in until the afternoon.  We spent the day at the Dachau Concentration Camp with is just outside of Munich where we stayed.  Adolf Hitler was from Munich so this concentration camp was considered the model for all other camps that were set up.  This camp had all of the atrocities that you have heard about in the other camps.  There was a gas chamber but it was never used.  The guards found other ways to demean, demoralize and breakdown the prisoners in the camp.

The camp opened in 1933 and originally held political prisoners and religious leaders who were too outspoken.  The prisoners originally worked for a set period of time and where then released.  The death rate at the beginning was very low, but once WWII started the death rate increased until it was over 50% at the end of the war.  

The camp was designed to hold 5000-6000 prisoners, but by the end of the war there were 31,000 prisoners being held.  The camp truly shows mankind at its worst.

Joseph is taking the picture from the end of the train track where the prisoners would have walked from the train cars to the main gates.

This was the gate to the camp.  The words mean "Freedom through Work". 

Most of the buildings are just empty shells with plaques and pictures on the walls.  The buildings would have been full of prisoners being processed as they entered the camp.  Physicals, showers, and haircuts took up most of the room in the buildings.

This is a picture of the shower rooms with prisoners and the next picture shows the actual shower room.

We are outside on the large quad where the prisoners lined up for roll call. The buildings behind us were the museum where all of the new prisoner processing took place.

The barracks for the prisoners.  Each bed was designed for 1 person, but as more and more prisoners arrived the bunks held multiple people.

Twelve toilets for about 300+ prisoners.

This long rock slab shows the original foundation for the barracks.  There were two rows of probably 15-20 dormitories.

This was the walk between the two rows.

This sign shows what the rows would have looked like originally.

The crematorium.  This area was the first area that was memorialized for the prisoners of the camp.  The memorial was set up shortly after the war ended.

These ovens usually held 2-3 bodies at one time and took about 20 minutes.  I don't even like writing about this part of it.

These were fumigation rooms for the clothes that were removed from the prisoners.  

Different view of the quad.

This iron artwork is a tribute to those prisoners who were kept at this camp.

One last tribute.

This was a very interesting part of our trip, although not a favorite.  I was glad we could see this camp because it gave me greater appreciation for those who suffered here as well as at the other camps. 

Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta

In mid-March Kimball's Cub Scout troop held their "Raingutter Regatta".  It is similar to a pinewood derby but the boys race boats instead of cars.  There isn't too much to do with your boat to make it a "winner".  We discovered that the key to winning is blowing on the sail in the right place.  Kimball seemed to enjoy this activity.  He won a few races and lost others.  At least he wasn't disappointed.

Fun baby moments.

Our babies are at a fun stage right now.  I love watching them learn and experience the world around them.  Their joy brings me joy.

A few weeks, maybe even months, ago Lincoln gave Annika a ride in the dump truck.  Both of them thought it was great fun.  Lincoln pushed the truck up and down our family room for probably 30 minutes. 

Manual labor.  All in the name of love!

"Why yes, I deserved to be driven around!"

Lincoln is at the scrunched up smile phase. 

Annika just loves to sit on this little ledge.  It's almost as if it was made for her bitty body.

Her hair is getting long and I really should start doing more with it.  

 Lincoln loves our little toy vacuum and the big vacuum for that matter.  If I want to snap him out of a post nap tantrum I just pull out the vacuum.  I tell him to go find his vacuum and before long we are vacuuming side by side.  He also has made it his duty to unplug the vacuum when I'm finished.  It's the little things the bring him joy.

Annika has taken an interest in Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  Both babies have, but especially Annika.  She loves to go through all of the pages and imitate how Joseph reads it.  

Joseph really is a good dad.  He always lets the babies tag-a-long when he works on projects and he has fun playing with them too.  He likes to pretend to be stern with them and tells them to "Come here right now!" and as he says that he points to the ground right in front of him.  If they obey they usually get tickled.  Well, Annika has turned the tables on him and when Joseph starts pointing in front of him Annika bends down and points in front of her.  Sometimes she will even instigate the teasing by pointing first.  It's her way of saying "let's have fun".

Annika loves shoes.  She loves to find any shoe she can and put it on.  She usually can't get her own on, but if she finds an empty shoe she fills it with her foot!  Here she is walking around in one of Joseph's shoes, but yesterday it was Rebecah's rain boot.  She is no respecter of shoes!

Last but not least, Rebecah has been losing quite a few teeth lately.  I think she has lost 3 teeth in the last month.  If she loses too many more teeth she won't be able to eat anything!

Dining Room Project

Carpet and food don't mix very well.  I'm not sure why houses are built with carpet in a dining room.  We have lived in our house 3 years and our dining room carpet needed to be replaced.  In addition to the babies regularly throwing banana on the carpet someone else spilled hot chocolate and there were other food stains, too.  The carpet needed to go.  Last year Joseph started researching the process to install hardwood flooring.  

In January Joseph ripped out our carpet and started the process to level the floor.  It took us  many trips to various flooring stores to finally decide on the floor for us.  We ended up going with a mid-color bamboo.  Not too light and not too dark.  The bamboo is supposed to be much harder than oak floors so we hope to avoid scratches, even though scratches are inevitable.

Annika (above) and Lincoln (below) "helping" Joseph with the project.

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The felt underlay.

Laying the floor.  All of the kids had to be involved.

We are pleased with the end result and it is much easier to clean up after the babies have eaten.

Finished Product