I see London, I see France!

I am slow getting around to blogging because I needed a vacation after the past week!  I say that in a good way!   My dear friend and sister in law, Donna came to visit.  We had both been looking forward to this week of travel, laughs and girl time!  

I picked her up at Frankfurt on Friday afternoon.  She looked SO good (especially considering she had been in airplanes and airports since Thursday and her flight from Paris (she actually saw the Eiffel Tower from the air) had been delayed for about an hour.  No worries...we jumped in the mini and our week of complete craziness began!

 Saturday morning we went to Luxembourg with Mike.  We explored the Casemates and had lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant called....ChiChi's...can you believe it!?!?  It was actually really good.  I think Donna was a real sport about it or else she had some hidden desire to travel half way around the world to an exotic country like Luxembourg just to eat chain style mexican food.  Silly Americans.

The Palace in Luxembourg

Donna taking photos from the top of the Casemates

The Casemates

Looking down from the Casemates

A Casemates resident

Mike on one of many staircases

 After touring the casements, we stopped at this patissier near the main square. The macarons here were not as good as the Laduree in Paris, but still..who would pass up a macaron from ANY Laduree shop?  Not me!

Donna on the main square

 On our way back home, we stopped by the Luxembourg American Military Cemetery.  The main memorial and chapel was covered with scaffolding and plastic which was a bit of a disappointment.  It was still a beautiful place to be and we had it all to ourselves.  We spent quite a bit of time looking at the different grave sites and paying respects.

I love the tradition of the stones on the Jewish grave markers

The marker with the star is a Medal of Honor recipient

The next day was Sunday and we took it easy all day.  We went to church at our ward in Kaiserslautern from 1-4 then came home to some yummy crock pot chicken and dumplings. Donna and I packed our little backpacks for our Ryan Air flight to London.  We had to leave the house at 3:30 A.M. to drive up to Frankfurt-Hahn airport for our 6:30 flight.  No problem!! 

We arrived at Stansted bright eyed and ready to go at 6:30 a.m. (one hour flight, one hour time change) and hopped on the Stansted Express train for the 45 minute ride into London.

On the train.

 When we got off the train at Liverpool Station, it was the peak of morning rush hour.  We decided we didn't want to get crushed in the crowds or trampled by the very fast Londoners, so we grabbed a little bite and just waited it out for twenty minutes and people watched until we were ready to brave the Underground.  It was still packed when, after a few wrong turns and finally having to ask, we got on the line to Kings Cross station.   We had to ask around again to find what we were looking for...the obligatory photo op at Platform 9 3/4!!  Harry Potter fans know what I'm talking about here.

Our next stop was Leicester Square to go to the official half price ticket booth.  We were hoping to get tickets for Les Miserables.  We got there about ten minutes before it opened and were sixth in line.  Yes!  We scored some great tickets for that night.  

In line for half price tickets

We had another little bite to eat.  No snickering!  I keep telling myself.."When traveling, food is part of the experience!" and so one must stop as often as possible and not worry about calories.  Self talk is a good thing.


When we came out of the little cafe, it started to rain.  It's London, it rains.  We decided it might be a good time to take the Hop on Hop off bus around town and hopefully get one that had a covered portion up top.  After a little wait for one bus, we were told that around the corner was the bus we actually wanted, so we walked over and up pulled a bus with the first five rows covered up top.  We were first in line, so we got the front row and thought since we were so lucky, we'd better just ride the whole 2 1/2 hour loop unless it stopped raining.  Which it didn't.  I didn't take many photos due to the rain and because I've done this tour a couple of other times and those photos are in previous blogs.

 Donna did take a few though and provided endless entertainment as she would jump up, run to the back of the open air portion of the bus and try to get a shot in the rain whilst the bus was weaving back and forth.  Hilarious! 

After the tour was complete, we took the underground over to Victoria Station and found our hotel.  Boy were we surprised when they told us they had upgraded us to the "apartment".  We were led a few doors down to a doorway that said "annex" on it.  Inside, we went up a flight of stairs and through another door.  This was the first floor of our apartment. A living room and a very nice modern kitchen.  Then we were shown the way upstairs to two bedrooms with their own bathrooms!!  A whole London flat all to ourselves for the price of a double room...amazing!  We were so excited, we forgot to take pictures, darn it!  Here is one of the view out of one of the bedroom windows.  This is the backside of the building, they were much nicer looking on the front.

After we rested up just a bit, we went out to find a place for dinner then made our way by the Underground to Piccadilly Square, did a little shopping and then went to the Queen's Theatre to see the show.  It was SO good!!  I loved every single minute of it.  I've seen it several times, but this time was magic!  What a thrill it was to sit in such a beautiful, old, historic theatre and see one of my favorite productions in London's West End.  Pinch me, please!

We made our way back to our flat and spent a restful night.  The next morning, we headed over to Tower Hill Station to spend some time at the Tower of London.  

We took the Beefeater Tour.  It was given by the only female Beefeater or Yeoman Warder, as they prefer to be called.  She was great!   That is not her in the photo above, that is a guard.

Donna looks sad because we had to leave London. 

We had to catch the train back to Stansted at noon, so I grabbed a pasty to go and we were soon waving good-bye to my heartland once again.  I get misty every time I leave England.  I hope to return again someday...

The next day was Wednesday and Donna and I decided to go for a hike to see Burg Eltz.  We drove to Moselkern, a village on the Mosel river, had a nice little lunch and then hiked through the woods about thirty minutes to the castle. If it looks familiar, it's because I have blogged about this one before...it's my favorite castle!

It was a pretty muddy and raining just a little.

First view of the castle in the woods.  First time I've seen it without scaffolding!

In the castle courtyard.

They had to life flight a lady out while we were there.  I think she had a heart attack.

 On Thursday, Donna packed up everything and I packed a small bag and we jumped in the trusty mini.  Destination...Bavaria!  

 We both wanted to see the Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich.  I've never been able to get the boys to go and so I was so glad I finally got the opportunity to see it with someone who really wanted to appreciate the history and significance of such a place. It took us about four hours to get there and we had two hours to do a self tour through the museum and the grounds before it closed. 

 In the photo above you can see the remains of the train tracks and platform where the trains full of prisoners would arrive.  Then they'd be marched to the white building and through the iron gates.

 Inside the gates there was a huge building that was once used to process the prisoners, take their papers, strip them naked and then force them to the showers, give them their prison clothes and then assign them to a barracks.  It's now the museum.

 This camp was one of the first.  It was first used for political prisoners as a work camp.  It then was used for detainees from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia and Austria.  Eventually they used it for the medical experiments that were carried out by the Nazis.

The processing center

The showers

The barracks.  Two have been restored, the other were destroyed

Never Again

 Inside the barracks

Prisoner's lockers with stools above

The prisoner's washroom

 I had mixed feelings about posting the next few photos out of respect.  But the more I thought about it the more I felt that if I had been a victim of the Holocaust, I would want people to see evidence of what took place and to always remember and never forget what happened so it may NEVER happen again!  In remembrance of what those thousands of men, women, children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters endured, I will share these.

The Crematorium

The Gas Chamber

It was hard to walk around what is now at times a beautiful, peaceful memorial site and yet the horror of it is still all around and I felt the presence and at times even the voices of those who were here.  It was a haunting experience and one I will never forget.


After Dachau, we drove down to Garmish and stayed at Edelweiss Lodge.  We had a nice dinner and relaxing evening.  


On Friday, we drove over to Oberammergau to see this cute town where the building are all painted up and where they hold the famous Passion Play every ten years.  We did a little shopping and were entertained by an interesting band in the square.

An almost life sized wood carving

Our next stop was Neuschwanstein Castle.  We got there about 12:30 and picked up our tickets, looked around town, and then decided how to get up to the castle. 

 Option 1: Walk.  I did this with Codi and Palmer in January. It's steep and takes about an hour because I have to stop and suck in large amounts of air every so often and rest my jello legs. 

Option 2: Take the bus. This wasn't an option in January and while it was tempting, it just seemed wrong to get on a tour bus versus being among nature while in Bavaria.  

Option 3: Take a horse drawn carriage.  Bingo!..only problem being having to fight off thirteen tour buses full of Asian tourists. It's not their fault, they aren't trying to be annoying. They just don't queue in Asia, so they of course the don't do it in Germany.  While all of the rest of us are waiting patiently and quietly in line...as soon as a carriage pulls up thirty of them swarm the carriage and get in ahead of every one else.  Uh-uh...not on my watch!  I elbowed my way to a seat and even saved one by sheer force and determination for Donna.  

The castle had a lot of scaffolding around it.  Can you see it on the mountain?

Looking from the castle toward Mary's Bridge

One of the turrets in the castle.

We had a very nice but rushed tour of Mad King Ludwig's Castle.  This is the one that Walt Disney used as his inspiration for Cinderella's Castle.  The art work is my favorite thing.  So many murals and paintings depicting scenes from some of Wagner's operas. The scenes depict knights, dragons and fair maidens.  I'll admit it...I love that time period as much as Ludwig did.  I hope I'm not as crazy as he supposedly was.







After touring the castle, we had a nice meal outside.  Donna got a great Käsespaetzle and I had a yummy salad.  Then we got in the mini and started our four hour drive to a hotel by the airport.  Our four hour drive turned into about a seven hour drive due to two, hour long staus and another 45 minute stau.  It was miserable!  We got to our hotel very late at night and it was in a "questionable" part of town.  Just a little scary.  We had a quick night.  I don't think Donna even slept.  She got up at 4:30 and we left at 5:30 to get her to the airport for her long flight home.  

I don't want to even think about it, I'm so sad she's gone.  It's too quiet.  I miss her.  The end.

love and miss you all,
-corri