This weekend turned out to be very different from my other trips so far. I would have never thought to do a trip like this, luckily someone else did. It started off Thursday afternoon by train. We went through Luxembourg on our way to Koblenz along the Rhine River in Germany. We got there at about 20.10 and then found an ATM, food, and then a hotel.

Only half of the group went on Thursday night. The rest took a train in the middle of the night so they could arrive in Koblenz just before the boat left Friday morning. We thought the other group didn't make it because we got on the boat one stop down the river from where they were going to board. The boat ride up the Rhine lasted about 6 hours with a brief stop along the way at St. Goar where we went and toured a ruin of a castle. There were many castles and fortifications along this boat ride. Many were in very defendable positions at the top of mountains above little towns. It was something that we could have never seen by train. At the last stop we spent some time in the little town of Bacharach. Had dinner there and also went up to a castle that has been turned into a youth hostel. What a view! You could see a few towns up and down the Rhine from where we where. There were barges on the river pushing their cargo upstream. We then got on an inter-city train to Frankfurt. We found a place to stay in Frankfurt and called it a night.

On Saturday morning we went and found the tour bus that goes along the "Romantic Road" between Frankfurt and Munich. We stopped briefly along the way at different towns for what the driver called a fifteen-minute bathroom and picture break. Basically you run off the bus to take your pictures and then if you have time left you find a water closet. We stopped at Rothenburg for a while. There was a town wall there that was still standing. We climbed up one of the towers to take some pictures. If I can find some stitching software I will make it into a panoramic picture. The bus tour was fabulous. I don't think any of my other trips so far have come close to viewing the real countryside like I was able to here in Germany. The bus took us to downtown Munich where we found a hostel to stay at on Saturday night.

On Sunday part of the group went on a tour of Dachau. I really couldn't believe what I saw. It rained a little while we were there. The rain just made it all more real. The tour guide was very good at explaining the items they had on display. We also watched a short film on what happened at Dachau. I just couldn't believe the way they lived in there for so long. The Americans who freed the camp couldn't believe that anyone could survive living that way. Some of those there at the end had been there since the opening of Dachau in March 1933. It's just hard to explain what seeing a concentration camp does to you. You learn about these things all through school, and it was just so much more than what you could ever learn in a book. After Dachau the tour stopped for lunch and then went on to some of the royal palaces. We were able to go inside two of them and see how the rooms looked. Most of the gardens were modeled after other gardens in Europe. I guess they didn't have that much originality. We then hoped on the bikes and rode back into town. The last place we went on the bikes was the Olympic Park from the 1972 Olympic games. Of course everyone remembers the Munich Games for the terrorist attack that killed Israeli athletes. It was a very large park with a stream and lake. Much nicer then the 3 blocks that Atlanta set aside in downtown.

On Sunday evening we caught a train back to Metz that arrived at 3:34 Monday morning. Caught a little sleep and went to class. My trip is a day or two over half way now. I still have 4 weekends of travel left during the semester and an entire week with my parents and brother after school is done in early August. I am still trying to get to Spain, Czech, Denmark and maybe Austria during school and my parents, brother and I are going to Paris, Normandy and London afterwards.