Sleeping Beauty's Castle

One of my favorite trips I've ever taken was to the Neuschwanstein Castle. 

My sister and I grew up on Disney and when we got wind that the castle that Sleeping Beauty's castle was based on was within Germany- we HAD to go. I waited two years to take this trip and I would only take it with her. :)

This castle is a nineteenth-century Romanesque revival palace in southern Bavaria. It was created by Ludwig II of Bavaria out of his own pocket. Sadly, Ludwig only slept for 11 days within his palace. On a more positive note, it was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle. 

 Full History Here

I love Bavaria. 

I also love horse and carriage rides. My first one was magical, it was taken up to the castle by these two beautiful beasts! 

I was pretty pumped. 

I think Christina was too! 

Breakfast: Cheesy Pretzel

On the way up.

I asked her to take this photo with me, and because she loves me so much, she did! 

First photos up close of the castle. It's a gem I know.

This is what it looked like to get the guided tour. We took the line on the left.

Happy Christina!

Here's the sad part about this wonderful tour: no photos inside. I cannot begin to tell you how phenomenal it was to see. In the wikipedia link above you can see all the ornate furnishings within, but I have no photos of my own. 

This was at the end. We could take pictures of the old kitchen. It was some very exciting stuff.... as you can tell.... yeah.

Even though we didn't get photos inside other than that glorious piece above these words, the view started to make up for it. Here is Chris looking out at the view from the back of the palace.

It can't get much better than this!

Last minute photos before we left.

Crepes we had for "brunch" after we toured the castle. 

I'm so so thankful I got to see such a marvelous structure. It has put every castle I've ever seen to shame. If you're ever in the are, please take the time to see it! Get a guided tour, our guide was pretty funny and was super helpful in answering all of our questions. 

Goodbye you beautiful castle, you!

Seeing Southern Germany

One of the last trips Christina and I took together was to the Munich area. We didn't spend much time at all in Munich, but were there to fulfill both of our wishes to see Dachau, which was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany. I took a lot of pictures, but only selected a few of them to share, since this is such a sensitive and heartbreaking topic. 

We shall start lightly and see the drive to Munich, which was gorgeous. 

Every turn was picturesque.

We stayed at Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, which was also quite beautiful. The Lodge is there for military members and their families, so Christina and I were able to stay a few nights to see the sights. They offered shuttles to places and guided tours. The only tour we took with them was to visit Dachau. 

Upon entering- this sign is up outside of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate.

"Arbeit Macht Frie" meaning working will set you free. 

In the camp, they had rows and rows are barracks that prisoners were kept packed into. When the camp was liberated, the buildings had to be destroyed because of the infection and diseases that were within them. Now, to remember those who lived, suffered and died in those buildings, they have concrete outlines of each buildings foundation. The buildings are numbered and those who were inventoried, have their names put to what building they were located in. To this day, people visit and leave flowers for loved ones, people past, and people unknown. These flowers were fresh from the day we got there.

There were a lot of building. Here a picture of some of them.

While being in Dachau was hard, seeing signs like this were difficult too. The translation roughly means, look- remember those who died here. 

This building housed the first "ovens". 

Below is a photo showing prisoners welcoming American liberators.

The photo below is of the Jewish memorial. 

 The Catholic memorial. 

  Not featured- the Russian memorial and the Christian memorial.

Leaving Dachau you can see the remains of train tracks they used to bring in prisoners.

The drive back to the Lodge.

View from our room.

Brussels, Belgium

While this will be the first time I'm posting about Brussels, this is the second time I had been. The first was with my very good friends/neighbors and WE HAD SO MUCH FUN. A girls trip- if you will. Now, this second time was special because it was only in one day, and it was with my sister. We only had the day plus 8 hours of driving, 4 each way, so all the photos were of the most memorable moments.

The Grand Place. I'm not kidding, that's it's name. Google it. 

Grand, indeed!

Belgium waffles in Belgium!

Beer, because Belgium is my favorite place to drink it. 

As you can see. :) 

She looks so cheerful! 

This is Manneken Pis. There are several legends around this peeing little boy. Some include royalty and war, some include a lost little boy, and some include fire. I'll let you look them up. They are all pretty silly, but all somehow end with a statue being made of a little boy peeing. He's super little too, like only a foot tall. Ridiculous. 

The previous trip I had taken to Brussels, I didn't know about this bar. This bar now holds so many memories for me, but the most cherished was the first time visiting with my sister. We had the bar practically to ourselves (it was like 11am) and we just had a blast. 

I drove to Brussels, and out of the kindness of her heart Christina drove home.... I wonder why?? 

Grub.

This was in a random mall, I don't remember the name, but it looked really fancy. 

Eating in the Grand Place. Those bags next to my purse are full of chocolate and beer. This is obviously why I am beaming.

She's beaming because ONCE AGAIN, she orders better than I did.

I dream about these meatballs and even though I've been back a couple of times, I've never been able to find them again :(

They have horse and carriage rides, and I wanted to be friends soooo badly. I still haven't gone on one. Sigh. 

Other than that, this place was pretty magical.