On the 8th Day of Christmas...

Our final destination on this day was home, but we had many stops to make and things to see before we got there.
Morning brought with it cold, crisp air. We had so far been very lucky to not be rained or snowed on and appreciated it--especially with all the driving. By day's end, we were snowed and rained on. I prefer snow because the rain was VERY cold and wet. Thankfully, the rain part was at its worst while driving.
We started out with a tour of Munich--Tasha as the tour guide. She was great! I was quite impressed with her knowledge of buildings and history. Soon after we got out of the car to start our foot tour, it started to snow.
We passed the area where Hitler gave one of his speeches. Near that is the statue with the discolored nose. It's supposed to be good luck to rub the nose.
She took us to a square where we found a little cafe to eat breakfast. Yum!
Lots of pictures later, we parted ways: Tasha took the subway home, and the rest of us climbed in the car and headed to Dachau.
Dachau is the site of one of the many concentration camps during WWII. I really went back and forth on whether we should include this on our trip. On the one hand, it (concentration camps in general) is such a HUGE part of Germany's history. On the other hand, I didn't want to damper our spirits with something that was potentially depressing. I spoke to my sisters about it before they came to Germany, and we decided we did want to see it, but not take an entire day to do so.
We arrived at about 10:30am. It is free to tour, but we each rented the headset to get more information at each post. There is so much information there (in English and German), the headset was unnecessary, but still gave good information.
I had studied a bit about WWII before we came. I was still shocked by some things, and seeing things in person made it so much more real.
The third Dachau picture (with the bell) is of the open space where the living quarters for prisoners used to be. The ghost of each building is depicted by a simple outline frame on the ground.
Overall, I'm glad we went. I won't go into more detail about the things I saw and read because I think it is a very personal and reverent experience.
We'd made a goal to only spend a couple of hours in Dachau. After that, we left for one of Germany's oldest, most famous cities: Rothenburg ob der Tauber!
This city is amazing!
We stopped in a couple of little shops first, then made it to the large clock tower square.
Then, we went into the Christmas museum. Quite an awesome place! I think there is no such place as large that is entirely Christmas! Emily had some specific things she was looking for, and we found them here. Never have I seen more beautiful (even hand-made!) ornaments and decorations than in Käthe Wohlfahrt. Unfortunately, no picture-taking allowed inside. We spent so much time there, it started getting dark. We had to hurry to our photo-op before it was too late!
My Sedgwick relatives will remember Grandma's framed puzzle of a famous point in Rothenburg called the Plönlein. Such a charming place with the Spitzhäuschen (1/2-timbered crooked house) just beyond the fork in the road. We were all excited to see the place in person, as we grew up seeing it at Grandma's house every time we went to visit. We were sure to take many pictures of this for Grandma. I think the photos taken at dusk are even more beautiful than the ones during the day. I think because there are no people.
We made one last stop back to Käthe Wohlfahrt (Poor, sad, broken, expensive, glass ornament! We were all sad you didn't have more integrity, but very glad there was but one more just like you!).
Before leaving the city, we braved the city wall. By day, this isn't too treacherous. But at night, in the rain, it was a little scary! The wall was built nearly 800 years ago! They did not have the same construction codes back then as they do now. The steps are very steep, uneven, and different heights. Today there is an added rail to hold onto. Atop the wall, I got out my little book light (it happened to be in my backpack) and so did Julie. It was so dark we couldn't see where we were stepping. It was very cool to see the city from such a height, but also to realize the immensity of the wall!
The drive back home was pretty long--about 2 1/2 hours. It was nice to be home. We had one more full day scheduled with travel and fun, so we found our welcome beds and had a rendezvous with sleep.