Since its been a five day trip with much to see and do, I'm only going to post the highlights from each place, and provide pictures :) explaining would take too long, but I do have a full account (about five pages per day) in my journal if you are dying to know on a deeper level of what I thought about a certain place. This should be long enough though ;)
Mauthausen
Our first stop was actually very sobering. We stopped at the Mauthausen Concentration camp which is (according to experts) probably the best preserved concentration camp from WWII. This concentration camp was a little different from others (namely Auschwitz) in the fact that it was primarily used for labor. I'm not going to go into all of the details we learned while there because it turned out to be a very sensitive subject for me, and you can look up stories and such on google if you want to know.
This is the outside of the camp.
The inside of the camp.
Three to four people slept in each bed. Can you imagine?
This is the view From Mauthausen. The tree on the right is a memorial to all those that died there.
This is the quarry where stones were cut - about 50-60 lbs each - and from there, taken up the stairs to the camp. These are actually not the original stairs, they were later replaced, but the concept is the same. And this is only a segment.
There were a lot of tears shed during the presentations and walk around the camp, but it was a harsh reminder of what happens because of hatred and evil. Even though it wasn't a pleasant experience at all, I feel it helped me appreciate my life, and what Ive been given.
Sorry to start out with a really sobering story. Life went on, and I was able to see some really neat things!
Mondsee
The lovely town of Mondsee
Any of you Sound of Music lovers would recognize this as the church that Maria gets married to Georg. Very beautiful!! Pictures below :)
We love Dirndls. (Traditional garb in Germany and Austria)
And Lederhosen :)
View from the bus
Salzburg
We are now in Salzburg, visiting a palace used in the 14th century
The palace turned out to be a fun park :) full of hidden fountains and tricks! Its like Disneyland for the 14th century!
Funny attraction in one of the rooms
Professor Minert resisting the spray from the elk.
Awww well aren't we just a great looking team?
A little ways down the road, we come to:
Marias gazebo. Same one used in the movie, they just decided to move it closer to the road so people wouldn't go trudging through their wonderful fields.
How much do I love Salzburg??
It's to become my pathway of life ;)
This is Becca. My lovely redheaded friend from Logan that is oh so adorable. And basically the best picture in the world.
And here she is closer up. Ain't she cute?
We stayed the night in Salzburg, and woke up to this :)
This is Mirabell gardens. Super beautiful!
Looking from Mirabell gardens to the Obersalzburg Castle.
Every palace in Europe has a unique feature. Schönbrunn has a maze, and Mirabell has a dwarf garden!
So it turns out that I liked Dirndls so much...
I bought one :)
And looked like a real Austrian so much, these men wanted to take a picture with me! ;) kidding, I wanted a picture with men in real Lederhosen.
I guess I could have waited for Stephen to get into Lederhosen, but he is not a real Austrian. We could pass though, right??
We walked up to Obersalzburg Castle from here. It's giant. Quite a hike, but 100% worth it!
Cemeteries in Austria are gorgeous. Since the ground is so moist, the entire coffin decomposes in about 20 years, so the grave turns over every 25-30 years. People pay to keep the spot in the family and who wouldn't when your spot is under a castle??
This is a view from the hike up. It's one of my all time favorites so far!
My very first castle :)
Part of the castle. This is from the tower
Overlooking Salzburg from the castle.
München (Munich)
Our first day in Munich was our "relaxation" day, of sorts... We had a lot of time to ourselves, but we were in Munich, so we found a few things that were pretty rad.
Like... OKTOBERFEST!!!
No, we did NOT drink any beer, but we had a blast. There were carnival rides, booths with caramel and candy coated everything, so after a ride, a few of us got candy apples :)
There were also a lot of Dirndls and Lederhosen walking about which was fantastic.
And my favorite...
After Oktoberfest, we had a while to walk around the city center of Munich, so Becca and I took off and saw some neat things.
A bookstore with a view
A truffle shop :)
A fountain to sit down and eat our truffles
And a wedding next to the Rathaus!
The wedding party released balloons as the couple came out and this was what we saw :)
Weird flowers? They're called Lampenblume which is actually a very fitting name. I had never seen them before and was very intrigued!
Day 2 Munich
We went to Herrenchimsee Palace on Herrenchimsee island. The Palace was built by King Ludwig II, who actually ended up bankrupting the monarchy because of this project. It's built to look like versailles, but was never finished because Ludwig ran out of money. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed photos inside, but I'm sure you can google it. Our tour guide (which turned out to be professor Minert! He worked there after his mission, so he got permission to take us around the palace) told us that everything that looks like gold is actually gold. No wonder it went bankrupt. The palace was also never meant to be used as living quarters, so the king stayed in the castle behind the palace... Oh the life of luxury.
One of the many fountains in front of Herrenchimsee.
We had to take a boat to the island, so on the way back, this is what we saw:
Turns out it was sailing day for the entire town of Stock!
We hopped back on the bus and went up to Obersalzburg to see Kehlsteinhaus, commonly referred to as The Eagles Nest.
This is for real. I'm serious. We saw this on the way.
This is a portion of the view from The Eagles Nest.
The Eagles Nest is Hitlers tea house, and is literally perched on top of a mountain. No wonder Hitler wanted a house here. It's absolutely gorgeous.
During World War II, Hitlers house was bombed, but this remained intact, so it's a big tourist site in Obersalzburg.
One of our classes this semester is about the LDS church and how it came t be in Austria. Naturally, we visited some sites associated with the origin of Mormonism here.The church in Austria started in a little town named Haag. Since most of the group is enrolled in Religion, we went as a group and toured a few of the sites. It's really neat because the church in Austria isn't very big, so they're not dedicated church sites. Our Professor got in touch with the family that owns the Huber farm (Johannes Huber was the first Latter Day Saint in Austria and went through years of trials and persecution including a judge deeming it illegal that he be a Mormon) and we were able to tour it!
This is the main street in Haag. Since it's an out of the way town, there's not a lot of tourism, so basically everything is purely European.
The early saints in Austria literally met in a tool shed. What you see here is the extent of the building. Very small, but it served a purpose.
Graveyards in Europe are so different and extremely beautiful! This particular one is where Johannes Huber is buried. His gravestone isn't here anymore because it was given to his family when the grave turned over.
This is one side of the Huber farm. It encloses a little courtyard like area and I certainly couldn't get on the roof to take a picture... Most of it is original brick and mortar.
Opening to the courtyard
This bible is the same one Johannes Huber read from in the 1800s. I'm not quite sure when it was copyrighted, but I do know that this book is older than America.
The Huber farm was our last stop, so we rode back to Vienna.
You'll be happy to know that I finally watched the Sound of Music in Austria. It was very cute and I had fun recognizing places we had just visited.
Sorry this is so long! I have about 700 more pictures from this trip alone and had a hard time deciding what ones I wanted to share...
