Saalburg & München

After graduation and the party, we were ready for a quiet, peaceful day trip on the last day before dd#1's boyfriend, Joe, and his mother, Jane, returned to the U.S. With my sister Kate, we all went to the Saalburg Roman Fort, which is about 1/2 hour outside of Frankfurt and once stood at the northern end of the Roman Empire in continental Europe (obviously, the Roman Empire extended further north in England).

We had a beautiful day to explore the ruins and reconstructed fort, as well as the museum and fortress walls and the Lime, the earthen barrier wall of Roman times. It was a lovely afternoon, with a delicious lunch in the Taverna, and just enough of an excursion to give us some nice memories of the last day before Joe & Jane had to fly home.

After putting dh on one plane to IL, and Joe & Jane on another plane to IL on Monday morning, Kate, the girls and I headed off to Munich for a last-minute trip before the move. Although the girls & I had been to Munich before, we had not visited Dachau Concentration Camp and dd#1 really wanted to visit a concentration camp before leaving Germany. Plus, Kate hadn't been to Munich, or many places in Germany, before, so we wanted to get in some quick sightseeing.

We arrived in Munich Monday afternoon and checked into our hotel, which was right next to the Haupbahnhof. After dropping off our stuff and parking the car, we headed down to Marienplatz to stroll through the center of Munich, see the clock chime at 5 p.m., and head over to the Hofbräuhaus for dinner.

Munich was hot, hot, hot and our hotel was not air conditioned. With the windows open, it was a noisy spot, opposite the train station, even with a fan going all night, so I don't think any of us got a lot of sleep. Tuesday was a long hot day, but full of interesting sights and information.

We started the day with a tour to the Dachau Concentration camp memorial. Many of the original buildings remain or have been reconstructed for the purpose of the memorial. We had a great tour guide who helped keep us in the shade as much as possible, as it was very hot and sunny and the tour was long. As no food or drink is available on site, we bought our Subway lunches before we left and carried them around to eat at free moments and on the train back to Munich.

After that tour, we had about 1/2 hour to get rehydrated before we began a walking tour of the Third Reich in Munich with the same guide. We saw the places where the beginning of Hitler's reign of terror began and covered a great deal of the city. Again, our guide thankfully kept us out of the sun as much as possible, but some of us did get sunburned. By the end of that tour, we found a quiet, cool Italian restaurant in a courtyard and had a relaxing dinner and rest for our tired feet. We were all so worn out, it was an early night for everyone.

On Wednesday morning, we were up and out of the hotel early to get to the Deutsches Museum at opening. We knew that Kate would love the exhibits of musical instruments as much as dd#1 loves the chemistry section and dd#2 loves the ships. It's a great museum and we had a nice visit, including a chemistry demonstration (all in German, of course), before hitting the road back to Frankfurt. While there was some rain and a lot of traffic on the way home, we got home in plenty of time to get everything packed and read to go.

Thursday morning found us making 2 trips to the airport to get Kate and dds #2&3 there with all their luggage for their 11 a.m. flight. Once they walked through security, dd#1 and I returned home to our nearly empty house to prepare for the move and dd#1's trip to Taiwan. On to the next phase....