Reisen mit Eltern, Teil 1: Bayern

During the last two weeks of April we had a visit from my (Betsy's) parents from Minnesota. It was their first trip to Germany and I had two shorter 4-day trips planned, punctuated by time in Tübingen, and followed by them getting to help us move to a new, permanent apartment. Here is a recap of our first trip.

Mom at Kloster Bebenhausen

We got ready for the parental visit by joining our local carshare program, "TeilAuto". Joe and I took a car to the airport one Sunday morning to "practice" driving on the Autobahn with a manual transmission. The big day came and things went mostly smoothly picking up my parents from the airport in Stuttgart. The first two days we stayed in Tübingen to get them acclimated to the time change, give them a chance to see town, and for me to finish up some unavoidable work obligations. We took a nice trip to our local Kloster Bebenhausen (former monastery) followed by my parent's first "Kaffee und Küchen" (coffee and cake). They loved it.

View over Neuschwanstein

We couldn't resist taking a detour to Schloss Neuschwanstein, possibly the most famous castle in the world, on our way to Munich. Joe and I had both been to crazy Ludwig's digs as teenagers (separately, of course), but it was fun to go back. We had a lovely day in Munich that alternated between seeing the famous churches, drinking coffee, watching the Glockenspiel, drinking beer, a bit of shopping and walking along the river, more coffee. Finally we tired and hopped on a streetcar and saw everything that way with our public transport day pass. It was kind of awesome. We ended the day with Schweinshaxen (pork knuckle) at the Schneiderweisse Brewhouse our friends Chris and Rachel tipped us onto. We got our fill of "Hopfenweisse", one of the few hoppy beers we've found in Deutschland, and took a 6-er for the road.

Famous Nazi camp greeting

We stopped off in Dachau for a more reflective day at the memorial. We learned a lot through our guided tour with a German historian of the "1968 generation", or the generation that began to talk about the Holocaust and question their parents' active or passive role in it. I had not known before that it was mostly a camp for political prisoners, and was not one of the "death camps" that were later established at places like Auschwitz. It was a good experience to put the pieces of history together in terms of events and situations that led to the founding of these types of camps.

View of Rothenburg from wall

We then headed toward Franconia, the region in Northern Bavaria. We spent the night at a wonderful family-run brewery hotel, where I taught my family to play an Italian card game (much to their dismay). We had a great time and finished our tour with a trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a gorgeous, medieval walled city on the Tauber River. I'd heard it's quite touristy, but since it's not high tourist time yet it didn't feel so overrun. We climbed to the top of the Rathaus (town hall) bell tower for a beautiful view of the region, circumnavigated part of the city in the wall itself, and ended the day by poking around a 700-year old "Fachwerkhaus" (Half-timbered house) that had never been renovated. Once again I am thankful to be alive now and not in the middle ages!