Adding Branches And Leaves to the Family Tree and The Stories That Go With Them: December 2014

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Day 10: Travel day to Paris and the City of Lights Tour

We got up a little earlier today than yesterday to catch our train to Paris. We learned from our mistake on the London-Paris train and brought our own breakfast since there really wasn't anything breakfasty on that train.

Day 9: Skiing in the German Alps

We made it today to the German Alps!

Day 8: Busted plans lead to an adventure!

Our plan was to spend the day in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to ski and board. We decided to not get up so early this morning but we still left around 9. We got to the train station to buy our ticket and the next train left at 10:32. We had a leisure breakfast before catching our train.

Day 7: The Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria

We had an early start today as we needed to take the team to the central train station. Just outside the train station we were to get on our bus to take us to Mad Ludwig II castles. We got to the pickup point at 8:00.

To make our day more magical it had started snowing overnight. There was a couple inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing.

Day 6: Dachau and Munich

Christmas in Germany

We awoke this morning and decided to have Starbucks for breakfast. Better and cheaper than the continental breakfast offered by our hotel. We grabbed it at the train station where we caught a local train to Dachau. In Dachau we switched to a bus for the short ride to the Dachau concentration camp. We arrived about 10 minutes late for the only English tour of the camp, so we did the audio tour.

Dachau was the first concentration camp built. It opened shortly after the Nazi's took over in 1933. It served as the model for all concentration camps the Nazis built and it was the only one open the entire time of the war.

Day 5: Munich

It's Christmas Eve in Munich. Not much planned for the day today.

We started the day going to the Munich Christmas Market. It's a wonderful collection of booths of all different sorts of things. Some had food, some had drinks, most had Christmas ornaments and decorations. The area was in a large open market.

Day 4: Travel Day

We were able to get up a little late and take a taxi to the train station. We boarded our first train that took us from London to Paris. Unfortunately, it was not a very scenic trip. For most of the trip the train tracks were below the ground level. So we spent most of the time looking at the banks of the ditch the train was in. And when we went through the Chunnel, We didn't even know it. We had gone through many tunnels already so we didn't even know any different.

Day 3: London

This morning started with a subway ride to get to Kensington Palace. Outside the palace was another statue of Quenn Victoria. They sure love her!

Day 2: London

We must have been tired since we slept till 10! This was past when we needed to be up. We rushed to get ready, called for a taxi and quickly made it to Buckingham Palace.