FURSTY DOWN!!!

Hey Dad - before I tell you about our time with Wes so far, I wanted to let you know that I have been missing you terribly recently.  There seems to be a song that comes on every morning and night that reminds me of you... Coldplay, Fix You - Bon Iver, Perth - Sarah McLachlin, Angel - Sarah McLachlin, I Will Remember You - Eric Clapton, River Of Tears - James Taylor, Fire & Rain - Train, When I Look to the Sky... I could seriously go on and on. Sometimes when I am with someone, I imagine if they will ask me about you. I act out in my head what I would say about you... and it makes me cry.

"I never knew what it was to be alone, no, 'cause you were always there for me. You were always there, waiting."

I hate when this happens. I know it would hurt you so much to know I am unhappy at times. I am not playing victim, or "poor me"... I just miss you. I just want to hug you once more. I just want you to know that I did grow into a successful woman, who is so happy and so loved, and not causing trouble for Mom anymore. I am so thankful, and I wish with all my heart you could be a part of it.

So onto our time with Wes... Wes has been studying in Valencia since May, and he came to Germany once his studies were finished to spend some time with us.  The boys (Billy, Wes, and Kyle from Billy's football team) went to Amsterdam for three days, and when they returned, we went to Munich for the weekend.

We started in Marienplatz with a beer and a brat.

This is the Asam Church.

At one of the city gates...

We made it to the Hofbrauhaus. The Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München (state court-brewery in Munich) is a brewery owned by the state government. The Hof (court) comes from the brewery's history as a royal brewery in the Kingdom of Bavaria. It is one of Munich’s oldest beer halls. It was originally founded as the brewery to the old Royal Residence. It was also one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold functions. On February 24, 1920, Adolf Hitler proclaimed the twenty-five theses of the National Socialist program at the Hofbräuhaus, which reconstituted the German Workers' Party as the National Socialist German Workers' Party, known as the Nazi Party.

I mainly like it because we managed to gank two of the mugs that have a big HB on it (HANNAH & BILLY <3 )

Boys acting up on the train.

Me annoyed with boys...

In the English Garden / Englischer Garten (Munich's Central Park)...

We also took a trip just outside the city to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany.  The 30,000 Jewish deaths that happened here is not considered "severe" compared to the other death camps.  I cannot describe how sick and depressed I was here.  I picked up a rock to keep with me and remind me what can occur with blind patriotism, not thinking for myself, and jumping on a bandwagon.

The camp courtyard.

Crematorium... the sign outside the Crematorium building says in German: "Think about how we died here"...

I didn't get choked up until I came to this plaque.  I am not sure why it hit so hard...

The "Brausebad" (Shower), the Dachau gas chamber.

The main gate at Dachau where prisoners walked through marked with the sentence Arbeit macht frei (Work makes you free).

After we left Dachau, we went to the Olympic Park for the Tollwood Festival (Munich's hippie festival)... The park is amazing, and was constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics. We somehow ended up in the wrong area of the park and walked in on a church service.  It was soooooo awkward.

View of the swimming hall and tower...

TOLLWOOD!  Awesome crafts and art!

PIPPI!!!!

Moroccan Tent...

So, long story short, the boys spent all of the money we had for a second night in the hotel.... so we were just going to return to Nuremberg.  However we got SUPER lucky and found an amazing Holiday Inn just outside of the city for dirt cheap (they didn't even charge us for Goose!), and we got robes and slippers to hit the sauna with!

Apology flowers for spending all of our money...

McDonalds CAPPUCINO!!! Hahahahah...

MAYPOLE! It is a decorated tree or tree trunk that is usually erected on May 1. It is usual to have a ceremony to erect the maypole on the village green.  Just before the Maibaum is erected, depending on the region, there may be a procession through the village, usually ending up at a central place and/or restaurant and usually watched by crowds of spectators and accompanied by a brass band.

One of my favorite aspects of Germany is that there are ALWAYS festivals.  This one we happened to run into when trying to get to Königsplatz (King's Square).  It appeared to have a sport theme, as there was all sorts of dancing (even country line dancing) and sports (lacrosse and football included!).

This building is not celebrated in Munich, but my thrifty Rick Steve's guide told me that this was the original Third Reich adminitration building and home to Hitler.

We ended our weekend at the Fursty / Nürnberg game.  Nürnberg won!!! Wes was absolutely hilarious, and I got completely cussed out (but that story is for another blog... I am not sure I have emotionally recovered... luckily my knight in shining army heard about it and confronted the person after the game for me)...

So what would you think of me now?

So lucky, so strong, so proud

I never said thank you for that

Now I'll never have a chance