Europe Part 7: Germany

Sunday, July 19: By this point, the journey was wearing on everyone. We woke up early, ate breakfast, and then once again hit the road, heading for Rothenburg, Germany. On the way, we stopped at Dachau Concentration Camp.

 There aren't words to describe this place. It is sacred. It is harrowing.

 It was sobering seeing the footprints of the all the building barracks. Suddenly numbers that I had heard and places that I read about took on a whole new reality.

 I put Brian in charge of the camera. I didn't feel like taking pictures of this place. I didn't feel like talking at this place. Too often, I had to hold back tears.

 Especially back in here. Nestled in these beautiful trees is a crematorium and a gas chamber. It is also home to several mass graves and a beautiful, winding path that was once stained with blood. And it was a strange contradiction. I had always pictured concentration camps as wastelands, places completely devoid of beauty. But the area surrounding the camp was covered in lush foliage and surrounded by singing birds. Yet, between 1933 and 1945 it was a place of unspeakable horror.

 It was interesting to see the progression/changes in the barracks as the war dragged on. At first, prisoners had more room to sit and converse.

 But by the end, the "beds" were just three-level planks for people to sleep in piles because the camp was so over crowded.

Of our two Sundays in Europe, this is the one that felt the most like Sunday. After Dachau, we headed to a restaurant for lunch. While waiting to commence our journey again, it was easy for me to want to pull out my scriptures and drown myself in the goodness of God. My soul was starving and harrowed up after Dachau, and I felt comfort from the scriptures, despite the throngs of high schoolers being, well, high schoolers.

Soon we were on our way, and after several hours, we arrived in Rothenburg. Chelsea loves Rothenburg. She has a huge painting of Rothenburg on her mantle. She was crazy jealous and excited for us to be able to visit this city. It was easy to see why she loves it so much. Rothenburg is charming, historic, quaint, and exciting. It's like stepping back in time. It is an incredibly preserved medieval city.

 After checking into our ancient hotel and eating our dinner, we went on the famous Night Watchman's Tour. He was hysterical! Best tour of our whole trip!

  

 Monday, July 20: We had breakfast and then headed out to explore some more. We walked around the city on the city wall:

And took lots of pictures for Chelsea:

 Then, we did a little shopping and checked out the Criminal Justice Museum. Some of the things were horrifying--I can't believe the things that people will do to each other--but other things were hilarious, like these shame masks they used to make people wear:

 We spent a little time in the stocks:

We had a schnitzel sandwich for lunch, helped with the band concert, checked out the Katy Wohlfahrt Christmas shops, watched the city cheer for our band and our favorite director, getting an encore after "The Stars and Stripes Forever". Our regret was that we missed the final choir concert. We heard it was just amazing. We finished up our shopping, making sure that we got something for all those folks back home that made this trip for us possible. Then, after dinner, we got to work packing, hoping that we were okay on our weight. We met with Kirt and Julie to discuss the next days' flight home. Kirt, a human scale, checked our bag weights. Then, we headed to an old barn for the final, farewell party. Each bus performed a skit recapping our trip together. It was a great way to end things. Our city host and friend, Dave Fulmer, pleaded with the students to keep being good and not take the approach that "Hey, what can they do to me now?" He said the kindest, sweetest, and most well-deserved things about Kirt and Julie, and I got to join all the students in the European style way of asking for an encore (a hearty synchronized clap) to show appreciation for all the work they did in making this trip possible. 

Tuesday, July 21: We woke around 3:20 a.m., showered, finished the last minute packing, and loaded our luggage onto the bus. We ate breakfast, and then headed to the Frankfurt airport. Ours was the last flight to leave, so we waited to make sure the earlier flights got checked in before we did. Check-in was a little rough. One of our travelers, a Mexican Citizen who is an American Citizen, forgot to bring her VISA with her, and they almost didn't let her fly with us. It was a headache, and almost proved to be the end of Julie, but they finally got it sorted. We said goodbye to Kirt and Julie, who went on to explore Austria for another 2 weeks, and began our last leg of our journey: the flights home! We did roll calls 2 or three times to make sure that everyone was accounted for and on the airplane. We watched movies, ate, and slept. Eight hours later, we began our decent into America, and I got a good look at the Atlantic and the Coast. 

Everyone was excited to land in New York and be back in America. Those who hadn't paid for an international plan were stoked to have data and coverage again. We got off the plane and headed into customs. We wanted to kiss the ground. I don't think Brian realized just how American he was until we landed in New York. We again had the logistical/frustrating mess of trying to make sure such a large group ended up where they were supposed to go, and we ran into more trouble with that one traveler over her VISA. They were going to put her in detainment. We all cheered when she made it back through security to join us on our flight to Salt Lake. A couple of girls in our flight group wanted a picture with us. They were some of the best girls in our group, so even though we looked exhausted, we agreed. 

Finally, it was time to board our final plane. Everyone got settled and the plane started pulling away from the jet bridge and heading to the runway when we came to a stop. The pilot informed us that the entire airport was shut-down for a V.I.P. He then directed us to look out our window to see Air Force One take off. It was another hour before we got moving again. By this point, I was tired, cranky, and super angry that they whole airport had to shut down so President Obama could take off. I mean, aren't airports already secure enough? Mr. President, you cost me an hour of sleep! (And I found out later that he was in New York to see a play).  I was exhausted enough that I fell asleep waiting for the plane to take off, but I woke up in time to enjoy take-off. The flight went quickly since I slept for most of it. We arrived in Salt Lake just before midnight, MST. After making sure that all the over-sized instruments and items made it on the trailer and that all our students had rides, we headed out. Ethan kindly picked us all up again. We made it back to our house by one, and to bed by two (I had to clean poor Spike's tank--those vacation feeders did a number on it, and I felt so bad for him).  We were so grateful to be back in the land of air-conditioning, free water at dinner, and free public restrooms. Our trip was amazing--once in a lifetime--but we decided it was the perfect length of time because we were ready to be home.