St. Goar

Before leaving Munich that morning, we did something surprising and stopped at Dachau Concentration Camp. It was the first concentration camp, started before the war in 1933, and it became the model for future concentration camps. It was emotionally moving to see rows of barracks and monuments to all the people that had suffered and died there. What was worse, were the stories of the living conditions. The Nazi's had stuffed 2000 people in buildings meant for 200 and expected them to be competely spotless or face punishment. The allies had also left the gas chambers standing which was one of the saddest parts. The monuments around the camp all mention how they stand as reminders so that hopefully it will never happen again.

That afternoon, we drove through the Black Forest in Germany's Rhine Valley. Along the river Loreley, there are century old houses and random castles popping out of nowhere. There was even one on a small island in the middle of the river. We ended up in this little town called St. Goar. St. Goar a small town with cobblestones and dark alleyways. It doesn't even show up on this map. All the stores are lined up along one street, which you can walk to the end of in about 5 minutes. However, despite its size, St Goar is famous for its crafted beersteins, teddy bears, cuckoo clocks, and birkenstocks (pretty much anything german). I think the cuckoo clock shop freaked Tracie out a little.

After dinner which included black forest cake (Yummm) we went for wine tasting in a 700 year old wine cellar. Apparently, this area is also famous for its white wines and ice wines, which is amazing because this area is mountainous so they had to grow all of their grape vines on the slopes. It was kind of surreal because the only way they lit the cellar was with candles sticking out of wine bottles. The proprietor looked very much like a mad professor with a white coast and dishevelled white hair and german accent. Ok I'll admit that the 4 glasses of wine I drank didn't help.

We spent that night in a tiny hotel, which we thought was a luxury because there was a bathroom INSIDE the room. By this point we had become friends with Christine and Alexi from Australia who we roomed with most of the time. Stupidly, we forgot to lock to the door and in the middle of the night a German guy walks into the room looking very disorientated wanting to know where his friends were. It was kind of a shock, but Christine handled it very well and got him to leave. I put a chair in front of the door after that (a little late I know). Tracie was the least affected because she just rolled over and went to sleep. She has no recollection of it whatsoever... glad to know she has my back :) We found out the next morning that the same guy had walked into 3 other rooms looking for his friends... who says small towns are boring?

Joan