The Mother Land

Ben and I spent a fair amout of time outside on our trip to Germany. We drove through and climbed some of the Alps, saw rain and snow in the Black Forest, camped in a gorgeous river valley, and hiked everywhere we could. Some of my favorite hikes were around old castle ruins, but we also walked around in the urban centers of Heidleburg, Mannheim, Rothenburg, Munich, and several small towns.

I'm learning the difference between baroque, rococo, renaissance, and modern castles, as well as details about Roman and Gothic archetecture thanks to my boyfriend's Art History minor. Some of the buildings we saw were recently re-done and had changed a lot since World War II bombings. It was also really interesting to visit Dachau, the first concentration camp. It was eerie to walk around the grounds, and the exhibit was expectedly sad and disturbing.

I was curious to visit the camp, and I think it would have been wrong to skip it, but it provided a huge contrast to the rest of our trip. We ended up seeing lots of typically German things (beer halls, the Alps, Christmas shops, and castles) throughout the southern regions, and marks from WWII are still everywhere.

All in all, Germany is a pretty incredible country, especially Bavaria. I think I appreciate beer more, now that I've been to the Hofbrauhaus. We also bought some good wine and saw the acres of vineyards. The general attitude of most of the places we visited was home-y and more at ease than much of France.

Both Ben and I have a lot of German blood in our families, so we had a running joke about being back in the homeland. (I think I threw one of our hosts through a loop with the French liscence plate, American passport, and my German name.) We also seemed to fit in better physically than we do in France, and much better than we did in Spain and Egypt. Fashion didn't seem to be such a high priority, and there were lots more blond heads and blue eyes. As long as I didn't open my mouth (my German accent is terrible), I fit right in.