German Exchange 2018

The past few days have been a whirlwind. Yesterday morning our group headed to Dachau Concentration  Camp Memorial site for a tour. It was a long time standing in the sun, very informative, and most of all, tiring for the mind to take in. We each had a different reaction to the experience, but we all learned more about the reality of Germany's history. After our visit to Dachau we headed into the city's center for lunch and free time. Many of us did our last minute shopping and exploring. A couple of students climbed up the 306 steps of the church tower of the Alte Peter to look down over Munich and Marienplatz. In the evening we went to Therme Erding, which, as it turns out, is the biggest water park in the world. We rode plenty of water slides and soaked in the salt baths. After a few hours furthering our exhaustion, we headed back to the hostel. Today we had two activities. It differed for everyone, as we got to choose what we did. The options incl

Today was our castle day. We took a coach bus to Füssen, where we walked up to Neuschwanstein Castle. After the tour, we hiked up to Marienbrücke - it is a little bit scary to go out on the wooden bridge so high up, but you have an amazing view of the castle! Then we got back on our bus and drove to Oberammergau in Southwest Germany. We toured Linderhof palace - it is an amazingly elaborate structure - it is particularly of interest because King Ludwig II actually lived there for a number of years. When we went back to the youth hostel, we went across the street to an Italian restaurant and ate dinner all together. We finished the dinner with some dessert (mostly Apfelstrudel) and a rendition of Happy Birthday for Blake's birthday. In this picture you can see the bridge form the castle In this picture, you see the castle from the bridge!

There was a tearful goodbye on the platform in Untertürkheim, as we waited for the S-Bahn to take us to the train station. A lot of great friendships have been formed and many of the students are already planning to return to Stuttgart next summer. After checking into our rooms at the youth hostel in Munich we went on a bike tour of downtown Munich. The tour was run by Mike's Bike Tours and was entertaining and informative. Among other things, we biked through the Englischer Garten and saw the part of the river where people surf! We then ended  the day with some time at the Tollwood Festival at the Olympia Park.