Doe, a Deer....

Today we went to Salzburg, Austria. As previously mentioned, this town is famous for being the scene for The Sound of Music and the birthplace of Mozart. Since I am not a big fan of either and most things to do in the town revolve around one or the other, I was a little unsure of how I was going to spend my time.

The train ride is about 2 hours. I was a little surprised/disappointed to learn that even though you’re going to a different country they don’t stamp your passport- Salzburg is a popular day trip from Munich and they must have some deal worked out. We were equally entertained on the ride by our sleepy classmates Bobblehead Brian’s and Dan’s growing love for each other:

As we were by the absolutely beautiful views- these are some of my favorites and they were both taken out the window while the train was moving!

When we got to Salzburg, we walked to the city center and had lunch at a café. It was right in the middle of the city and the food was great, probably the best food I’ve had on the trip. Kaydee, you would have loved it. Mark got a Greek Salad complete with sheep cheese and I got spaghetti noodles with parmesan and olive oil. We also got what they call “pizza bread” to share- it was fresh, hot bread that was sort of like pita bread, but flavored with garlic. It was scrumptious and was welcome after a week of sausage and fast food.

We learned on the train ride that Salzburg has been protected by a fortress for many years, and that because of that they were largely untouched by war until WWII.

Here’s what it looks like from the town- we were pretty close when this was taken.

The fortress was amazing. It was so cool to run your hands over walls that had been there before our great-great-great-great grandmothers were thoughts- the building of it began in 1077 and continued for centuries. And the views were breathtaking. You could see the whole city, as well as the Alps behind it. I took more pictures today than any other day of the trip. We took the tour and got to climb up in one of the towers- that offered the best views of all.

Here's one from a window in the fortress:

And one from the main part of the fortress:

And from the tower- a storm was brewing in the Alps!

And me pretending to fire a cannon on the enemy:

And Mark riding a bull- I don’t remember specific details, but Salzburg was once in a battle and they were hurting badly- everyone was starving. The whole town had one ox. The leaders of town paraded the ox in front of the enemy. The next day, they painted the ox black and paraded him again in front of the enemy. The enemy thought they underestimated Salzburg and surrendered!

After the fortress Mark and I wondered around on our own for awhile. He needed a hoodie because he didn’t pack very many warm things, and besides the first two days when it was unbelievably hot, it has been pretty chilly. We found him one, got a gelato, and walked to meet our class at Augensteiner, another beer garden. Augensteiner was a bit of our walk and it started POURING on us. We finally got there, but I was cold and could only think about the sauna at our hotel, so I left before too long to go back to Munich with some classmates. Mark stayed. One thing that is unique about this place is that rather than having the waiter bring your drinks, you can grab a glass, rinse it out, and take it to the counter for a beer. Then when you’re finished, you just rinse it out again and ask for a refill. It’s a cool thing to do, plus it's about $1.40 cheaper!

Tonight marks the end of the formal study abroad part of our trip. The next three days are an optional “post trip” that us and 8 other classmates will be sticking around for. Then on Monday night Mark and I will be leaving on our own. I must say that I am looking forward to that. We like the people we are traveling with, but traveling with a big group can be challenging and, at times, downright annoying! Up to this point, we have been at the same hotel, but starting tomorrow we will be changing hotels frequently, so I am not sure when we will have internet access. Hopefully everywhere, but there’s a possibility we could not. In any case, I’m going to keep writing in Word and posting whenever I get a chance. Thanks for reading! Miss you guys (but not work :) )

Mo Business and Mo Observations

Went to English Garden last night- it was beautiful!  I wish we had bikes because we could not see much of it on foot.  No nude sunbathers- it was too cold.  We did see horses, bazillions of bikers, tightrobe walkers, soccer players, and many more interesting people.  We got dinner last night at the park- they have several beer gardens there.  Here are some pretty pictures from the park:

Today we had another company visit.  We traveled to the nearby town of Augsburg to visit manroland, a company that manufacturers printing presses.  We started off the day with a tour of the museum and then enjoyed being treated to lunch in their cafeteria (more sausage).  Then they gave us a seemingly endless tour of their plants.  We had to wear hard hats.  The tour got to be REALLY long- it was almost 3 hours.  About machinery.  Not really my thing.  The whole day, including travel time, was over 8.5 hours….way longer than any other visit!  Other than being long, the trip was okay.  Mark’s dad repairs printing presses so he would have loved it.  They talked a lot about how the recession is affecting them; they are hurting pretty badly.  They are also somewhat aware that they are in a dying industry- with the internet, people are not needing/wanting printed things as much anymore.  However, I got the feeling that they wanted to change that mindset and encourage people to use printed material more often rather than reinventing themselves and figuring out a new or supplemental way to compete.  And I’m personally not so sure that is going to work.  Talking about those things was probably my favorite part of the day; otherwise this was probably my least favorite visit.  

Some more observations about Germany:

They do not serve tap water around here, and there are no water fountains.  Luckily my coworker Michelle warned me about this so I brought over a Nalgene bottle, which has come in very handy.  You can order water, but it is very expensive- about $4 a glass.  Also, it is carbonated unless you specify you want it without.

They do not use ice.  Anywhere.

They are very efficient.  Escalators only run when people step on the platform and/or push a button, and they can go both directions.  The lights in our hotel hallway only come on when someone is walking.   My dad sent me an article that said Germany is one of the most “green” countries in Europe, and I’m definitely noticing that.

There are always church bells going off at random times.

Munich is a very safe city.  We have not really seen any bums.  I have never felt nervous or scared.  The train stations are very well lit and there are always a bunch of people around.

When you get condiments such as ketchup, dressing, etc with your fast food you have to pay extra.  A packet of ketchup is about twice the size as in the US and cost .2 Euro, about .30 USD.

Beer/wine at grocery stores is very cheap.  There is a penny market by our hotel and bottles of wine (not super fancy, but nice ones), are about 1.99 Euro, or about $2.78.

I’m sure there’s more but that’s it for now.  Tomorrow we go to Salzburg, a town in Austria where Mozart was born and Sound of Music was filmed.  I’m not really a Mozart or a Sound of Music fan, but I’m sure we’ll find something to do.  Any suggestions?

One nice thing is that we have been spending way less money than budgeted for.  This will likely change after we are done with the class part and go off on our own- but that has been a nice surprise!

Peace.

A Dark Day

Finally got some real food last night- Mark and I went to the main train station (which is almost like a mini-airport) and got some Burger King and pizza. It was heaven!

Today was not so heavenly…just the opposite in fact. We went to visit the concentration camp located in Dachau, a small town nearby. This is a very significant camp because it was one of the first to open and served as a model for all the other camps. People (animals) who ran the other camps were trained here.

We paid for our audio guides and then walked down the gravel road that so many unlucky souls had marched down before us. We entered through the same gate that they had 60 years ago:

The words on the gate say “Work will set you free.” We walked into a big open area:

This area was used for roll call. Every morning and night, everyone had to assemble into this area for roll call. They had to stand at attention until everyone was accounted for. If someone was missing- usually dead- they had to continue standing until they found that person. Some people were so weak they would collapse and die. If someone tried to help another person, they were severely beaten. It was erie to walk on the same grounds where these horrible things had taken place in the not-so-distant past.


We got to tour one of the barracks. The original barracks had all been torn down, but they reconstructed two for the memorial site and one is open to walk through. The prisoners slept and used the bathroom in very close quarters:

It actually got worse. Towards the end of the war, this camp experienced severe overcrowding. These barracks were made for 200 men, but at times housed 2,000. There were 50 barracks in all, mostly used as bunks, but some had other functions.

One of the barracks was called the infirmary and it was one that the prisoners feared the most. They didn’t really take care of the sick. They conducted medical experiments on the prisoners. For example, the Nazis wanted to know if one of their pilots were shot down over water, how long they should look for the pilot before it is useless. So they would put monitoring devices on the prisoners and put them in ice cold water to see how long it would take for their organs to shut down and eventually die. They also injected prisoners with malaria to see how the body responded.

From here we passed on to the most emotional part of the memorial- the crematorium and the gas chamber. It makes me sick just to think about it. When they wanted to gas the prisoners, they told them it was time to take a shower and the prisoners would strip nude. They would all shove into this small room, where they would be locked in and gassed. And killed. The gas chamber at Dachau was not used for mass killings, but it was at multiple other concentration camps.

There are actually two crematoriums because the original one was not enough to fill their needs. They would just dump dozens or hundreds of corpses in there to burn, and would then bury the ashes. We got to see the memorials where the ashes were buried.

I cannot imagine how a human being can do this to another human being. We talk about spiritual warfare in our church group a lot, and about how God can let something this horrible happen if he had the power to stop it. I thought about that a lot today- if this memorial made me this sad, and it did…I was overcome with emotion at times…how much it must sadden Him. That is a whole other post….or a whole other blog….but all I will say is that I truly believe the powers of evil were at work here.

Finally, they had a museum to go through. They had a lot about the history of the war. I’ve never been a history buff and am a little ashamed to say I know very little about the WWs, but at a place like this it really comes alive. Certainly at Dachau, but also at Germany in general. Besides history, they had some art work, excerpts from letters and journals, and some old artifacts.

If anybody reading this gets the chance to tour a concentration camp, I would highly recommend it. Several people from our group did not go. It is sad- very sad- and it leaves you with a lot of questions and concerns. How can this go on for 12 years without somebody stopping it?? 12 years!! What can I do to stop similar (alas different) circumstance in places like Zimbabwe, Darfur, or Burma? It left me feeling a little helpless. But it also made me very grateful for my rights and the things that I usually take for granted. It’s important to embrace learning about this stuff. Differences need to be appreciated.

I feel like I am rambling now so I will stop. This evening Mark and I are going to English Garden, which is one of the largest parks in all of Europe. It’s bigger than Central Park. Apparently there is a lot to do there and nude sunbathers are the norm, but it is cloudy today so we will see. Thanks for reading...I am loving all your comments….show love to your best Jewish/Polish/Homosexual/Austrian/immigrant friend.

Another Business Day

We had a busy day today. One thing that is annoying about this trip is that our professor worked out some deal with a local restaurant owner by our hotel to provide us with breakfast each morning for 7 Euro, or about $10 USD. He promised the guy we would by at least 20 meals; there are about 24 of us on our trip- so we basically have to go. Their breakfasts are much different than the US- no bacon, pancakes, french toast, etc. Basically it's cereal, fruit, cucumbers/tomatoes, and a lot of bread. This morning I had a yogurt, a banana, and an egg- not really worth $10! We eat there every morning.

After breakfast we went to Siemens world headquarters. They gave us a presentation and I feel asleep (oops)!! They are an interesting company but that part was boring, plus we had already studied it before we left. Siemens is comparable to a GE- they basically do everything. They have over 400,000 employees. They make everything from CT Scanners to trains to refrigerators. I cannot really comprehend a company doing so many things. It’s also amazing to me that they operate in so many countries. Imagine having to know the local laws and customers of hundreds of countries well enough to do business in them. One issue that comes up with this is that some developing countries use a lot of bribes and paybacks in business. Siemens has got into big trouble with this in the recent past; they were using bribes and writing them off their taxes. Now they have strict policies against this. They are pretty excited about Obama’s energy plan and the potential for a contract to update our energy grids.

Here is a picture of their headquarters building and their museum. The building looks old, and probably is, but is very high-tech. They have remote control blinds. The museum was very interesting; it had Siemens products going back to when they first started doing business in the mid-late 1800s.

After Siemens we got on a train to a small town called Erding. It was about an hour trip. There is a large brewery called Erdinger here, and we toured their facility and drank their beer. It was comparable to an AB or Boulevard tour. Some parts of it were so hot (remember no AC here) that I could hardly concentrate. It was really interesting to see the level of automation and their bottling lines. Here is a (not great) picture of one of their lines.

I don’t remember how many countries they export to, but it is a lot. You can find it in KC liquor stores. They only have 80 employees, which I think is amazing given the amount they produce. One thing that was disappointing is that we didn’t really get to have a question/answer session with them. After the tour we ate a very german meal in their meeting area- pretzels, sausage, and beer. If I never have to eat another sausage again that will be okay with me. Their pretzels are cold here and not served with cheese.

We have a free night tonight, but it is storming pretty badly so I’m not sure what we’ll do. One thing about being here is that we are constantly on our feet. I walk a lot at home but am not used to standing all day, so my feet are very sore and I take advantage of every opportunity to sit down. Good thing my shoes are comfortable or I’d really be in pain.

Tomorrow is a free day as well (after the stupid breakfast). Mark and I will be going to the Dachu (Daw-cow) concentration camp, and I’m really looking forward to it….does that make me sick and twisted?

BMW and Beer Garden

This afternoon we visited the BMW world headquarters. Again, we could not take pictures inside. I can just tell you that almost everything they do is very automated! It was so cool to see the robots they use and learn about the processes they use on every step of assembling the car. This is a picutre of their headquarters building. They also have a museum and a technology center we got to explore. After we toured BMW we got to go to the one of the oldest beer gardens in Munich- it has been here for almost 700 years!!! There is a professor in Germany that used one of our professor's textbooks. As he was researching it, he found that our professor was traveling to Munich this summer and arranged a meeting. It was really neat to meet that professor and his students, not to mention see the oldest beer garden in this area! It has over 5,000 seats!

The beers are 1 liter each! They also have these drinks called radlers that are lemonaide mixed with beer...that is what I get, if I get beer at all. Here is our waiter carrying a bunch of drinks at once:

And here is what our food looks like. Not great! I got a cheese and bread tray and Mark got a sausage sampler tray. Not bad, but definitley not good!

Hospital Visit

We just got back from the hospital. We had question and answer for a little over an hour and then toured the trauma unit. The question and answer was fascinating- the German health care system is so different than the U.S. German employees and employers pay into a "health fund" that is run by non-profit companies. These non-profit companies then work with the insurance companies to provide coverage. It works really well because although it is government regulated, it is not managed by the government and thus does not have many of the drawbacks of "socialized" health care like poor care, long wait times, etc. The hospitals and doctors are very competitive because the people have free choice about where to be treated. It is required that everyone has coverage, but if you make above a certain amount you can opt for private coverage. Private coverage affords the same medical benefits as public, but offers better am entities such as private rooms or shorter wait times. Many people who qualify for the private coverage choose to keep the public coverage. You cannot be turned away for a pre-existing condition or denied coverage.

I think this is all so interesting. I've always thought that the US health system has some major flaws but wasn't sure what a better option would be. I believe in limited government...I think this system is great and think it could work in America IF people get over the mindset and propaganda that it is "socialist"....which could be next to impossible. If people studied this system and looked at the statistics (longer life expectancy, better survival rates, etc), I think it would make an excellent model for U.S. health care.

Now we have about 20 minutes before we leave for the BMW tour....more later!

Castles in the German Alps

This morning we met our group and hopped on a train to Fussel, a small town about 2 hours by train from Munich. Fussel is famous for its castles, especially the Neuschwanstein, which was the inspiration for the Disney castle.

The train ride was enjoyable. We got to know our classmates a little better and the scenery was beautiful, especially as we drew closer to the German Alps. One thing we noticed was that everytime there was construction, there were cranes, even if it was just a house. Our professor's wife, who is from Germany, told us that German houses are built with concrete blocks and then covered with stucco. Because of this, houses are very expensive- a very basic house would start at about 250,000 Euro, or close to $350,000. That’s one reason why many people live in the city or in shared complexes.

When we got to Fussel we had about an hour to burn before the bus arrived. We broke off into groups to get lunch/snacks. We also found our first bathroom that charged- we knew that Europe does not have many public bathrooms and that some charged, but had not actually seen one yet. You have to pay .50 Euro, or about .70 USD, to use one.

We then started to hike to the castle. It is quite a hike- a mile up the mountain, and it was pretty warm today. As we wrappd up the mountain, the castle teased us, becoming closer and closer. We also had the beauty of the Alps to enjoy.

The castle has a fascinating history. King Ludwig almost bankrupt the country during his reign by building lots of fancy castles. This one was built over 17 years from the late 1860s to early 1890s. Imagine building a castle in the mountains at this time, before modern technology or cars! King Ludwig built it to honor a person in the oprea he liked. Ludwig lived there for only 165 days before he died under mysterious circumstances. The castle was only 1/3 finished at that time and remains unfinished today. It opened to the public for tours 6 weeks after Ludwig's death. It is the most photographed building in Germany and draws up to 6,000 tourists a day in the summer.

The pictures below do not really do the castle justice. It, and the surrounding scenery, is truly breathtaking. We paid about $10 USD for a tour and it was well worth it. We only saw a small part and were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I had never seen anything like it before. The floor in one room was a mosiac made of 2 million tiles. The chandlier in that room weighed 2,000 pounds. The kings room had so many intricate wood carvings that it took 14 wood carvers 4 years to complete it. The walls were masterpieces of art. Words cannot describe it. It is amazing, but it also made me think about the role that money and greed play in a persons faith. Most of the artwork was biblically based, and there was a shrine to Christ in the main room. I can certaintely appreciate, and did appreciate, the beauty of the castle, but I wonder if that is how Christ woud like one to spend their resources when they are people that go to bed hungry every night. That being said, it was truly beautiful, and the views from the castle were even more beautiful than the views on the way up. See for yourself:

We got back to the hotel about 9:30. We were starving and were worried about finding food, because almost everyplace is closed on Sundays, especially Sunday evening. We walked about 5 blocks from our hotel in a direction we haven’t been, and finally found a pizza place. It was good, it came with some kind of cream on top that looked like ranch but didn’t really have a flavor…it just gave it a creamy taste. I am not a big fan of the food here- it’s not bad; it’s just a bunch of meat plopped on your plate. We ran into a soldier who was stationed here and asked him what he missed the most about the states, and he said Mexican food!

We’re going to take it easy tonight. We have to meet the group at 8:00AM tomorrow (1:00 AM CST) and will visit a hospital and BMW World Headquarters. Should be an interesting day!!

Observations

Our hotel’s  location is great; just  a short walk from the train station.  European hotels are known for being small, as people here are not as accodomated to all the space that Americans are.  Our room is no exception, but it is not too bad.  Another thing that is not standard in European hotels is air condition.  Some hotels have them, but many do not- including ours.  Mark is not very excited about this as he gets hot really easily.  The rooms also do not have alarm clocks.  All that being said, we are happy with the hotel and it has everything we need; it’s just different than American hotel rooms.  And different isnt always bad.

A few things we have noticed about Germany:

Boys wear capris

There are dogs everywhere- at restaurants, on the train, walking around city center

They really do speak German!  Seems funny, but everyone told us that it would be no problem to find someone who can speak English, and for the most part it has not been.  But German is definitely the language they use, and not knowing much at all definitely makes you feel like a foreigner.

They love bikes and have dedicated bike lanes, and you’ll be sorry if you stand in them when they come by.  There are hundreds of bike all over the city, some parked, some for rent.

I’m sure there will be more as the week wears on.  That’s all for tonight, time to catch up on some sleep!!

Arrived!

We are in Germany!  We have actually been here for several hours now, since about 4:00 AM CST.  We had a short layover in Duesseldorf and then flew into Munich.  From Munich we took a train to our hotel.

The trains are very easy to navigate.  We had an easier time getting around in Germany than New York!  Our class was waiting in the lobby when we got to the hotel.  We checked our bags at the desk and left immediately for the town center, known as MarienPlatz.  It is a very busy place!  Lots of local vendors and some American ones, such as Mcdonalds and Subway.  There is a huge soccer game going on today so there were small  but loud pep rallies all over the place:

People really love their soccer here.  There is a beer garden in MarienPlatz that was packed.  We finally found an empty picnic table and sat down next to some people we did not know.  An older man, probably in his mid-40s, sat across from us.  Our friend Evan asked where he was from and he puffed his chest out and said “Old Germany.”  He then started telling us how he was from Berlin and he did not like America, in fact he HATED America.  He said this over and over again and would not answer why.  We weren’t looking for trouble so we just got up and left.  We found a small sidewalk café and stopped there for a drink and ice cream.

Then we walked around town for awhile and found the oldest church in Munich- it’s over 1,000 years old.  It has been rebuilt after the wars.  We climbed about 300 steps to get to the lookout point up top.  The steps were very narrow and the building was not air conditioned!

However, this view made it well worth it.

After this we came back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.  We headed to the Hofbrauhaus, which is one of the oldest beer gardens in the area.  Hitler loved this place- the Nazis held meetings here, some of the first violent attacks against Jews were here, and Hitler proclimed the 25 theses that established t Nazi party here.  Today it is a happy place where people from around the world gather to have a good time.  Our group paid for the buffet and sat in the huge upstairs room with live entertainment.

All of those seats got filled up and we had a night full of singing, dancing, and laughing.

Well, mostly. I think the jet lag is setting in and have been in a pretty grouchy mood this evening (sorry Mark).  But after a good night's sleep all will be fine.  More to come.....