Castles, Museums, & other cool German architecture like Fachwerk

The trip to NeuSchwanstein Castle was well worth the view, even if as I was told, "That's not a real castle -- it's only decorative."

Our trip to Munich and the Odenwald area over Christmas was really great.  It was a bit odd spending Christmas in a hotel, but hey, it was better than a stable!  Our tradition is to go to church and have a special meal on Christmas Eve and we were able to that in Munich.  We went to a Krippenspiel (Nativity Play) in a downtown church which was mainly for quite young children.  It suited our level of German perfectly!  I particularly liked the real sheepskin costume for the kids acting the sheep and the fact that the shepherds and Joseph wear broad brimmed round hats instead of dish towels or armrest covers as my sister Dorothy reminded me that we had used.  Afterwards we planned to find a nice restaurant for the evening meal.  Apparently the nice Christmas Eve dinner is eaten at midday not evening, and most of what was open were Döner stands (similar to Gyros).  Pablo insisted that we were going to sit down to eat, even if it was only McDonald's.  Vicente & Miguel were quite happy about going to McDonald's, but even that was closed!  Fortunately we finally found a restaurant that was open and had a fine German meal for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day in Munich was the warmest on record in all of Germany - around 68 and beautiful!

We went to some museums as well.

Pharmacy museum with floating crocodile

Robotic library microfiche retriever

Outside a toy museum

 
After Christmas we descended for a few days upon an old friend of mine who lives close to Mannheim in what I believe is the Odenwald area.  In any case it is a rural, hilly area with castles everywhere you look.  Having grown up fascinated with all things to do with knights, castles, King Arthur, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Seeing Vicente & Miguel chattering away in German with my friend's daughter was also quite fun.  I might still have the edge on them when it comes to vocabulary, but there's no doubt that they can interact in regular daily conversation more comfortably than I can at this point.  More than anything though, it was really good to reconnect with an old friend and meet each other's families. They drove us all over, fed us good German food and Miguel's new favorite:  raclette, took us to church and in general showed us an aspect of Germany that we would never have been able to experience otherwise.

Giant (55,000 gallon) wine barrel in Heidelberg Castle.  If the castle was under siege, at least the inhabitantsy would be able to drown their sorrows.

This style of wood & plaster is known as Fachwerk.

Philosophical ramblings on Christmas peace in the face of Newton Connecticut and Dachau

Please be warned, what follows are merely philosophical ramblings likely to bore most, so feel free to disregard them utterly.  Also, there's no doubt it's all going to end up getting pretty religious....

We also visited the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial the day after Christmas.  Coming on the heels of what happened in Connecticut, it's hardly conducive to the Christmas spirit.  It begs the questions - how on earth are we supposed to have peace and joy at Christmas or any other time of year while all this is also happening? What is the point of Jesus' birth when nothing has changed and mankind, myself included, is still capable of such horrible acts?

The human race is pretty messed up; I don't think we need to look very far for evidence of that.  The worst part of going to Dachau is thinking that so many normal people participated in the atrocity of the Holocaust by just ignoring what others were doing.  It must have been easy to look the other way in some senses, since the alternative for all those who protested was that they themselves were imprisoned in Dachau.  Then there were the people that actually worked at Dachau - the guards, the soldiers, etc. - it would be more comfortable if I could think that they all must have been psychotic or something, yet there were SO many who were involved, I don't think it likely that in the beginning they were any more psychotic than I am.  Now that is a sobering and unpleasant thought.  I'm left thinking that given the right circumstances, there is no reason to believe that I would not have done the same exact thing.  There, but for the grace of God, go I.

And that's just it: but for the grace of God.  So why didn't he extend some grace to Hitler and prevent him from going there?  Why not some grace for the Lanza family to have something intervene to help Adam before he went off the deep end?  I am not the first to conclude that God allows evil to occur because we have free will, but I occasionally must object that us having free will is perhaps not worth all the misery that we cause.  I guess that's where faith comes in; even if I don't understand, I can choose to believe that God knows what he's doing and is not only capable of redeeming evil into good but is actively doing so.  That's when I come back to Christmas.  Any God crazy enough to choose to limit himself as one of his created beings and let them subsequently put him to death is a God that I will clearly never fully understand.  I would have started over again long ago and wiped out the pesky problem of free will.  Yet consistently expressed throughout the history of the Bible, is God's love and patience as we humans screw up, again & again & again.  He is constantly there to pick up the pieces, point us in the right direction again, and redemption is always offered for whenever we're willing to take it.  If it were only in the histories of the Bible, then perhaps I could ignore it, but I've seen the same thing in my life too.  (Yes, maybe I'm imagining it all and indulging in the opiate of the masses, but then again, maybe I'm imagining all of my life and we're really in the "Matrix".  You just can't know for sure!) Anyway, this love & patience are enough to bring me peace & joy, even in the face of visiting Dachau.  Sometimes it takes me a little while to remember that, when I am so clearly confronted with evil, but that's the whole reason we have Christmas in the first place - he wouldn't have come if we didn't need him. 

Advent in Dresden

My favorite part of the parade

The Giant Christstollen!!!! 

We thoroughly enjoyed our Advent season here in Germany - somehow the fact that the Christmas decorations are different makes them seem more festive, I think.  Halfway through November Adventskalendars made their appearances in stores everywhere. With the reasoning that chocolate improves concentration, we bought one with various chocolate confections and read our Advent verses each night while sampling the chocolate.  Dividing one chocolate among 4 people just adds to the Christmas spirit of sharing...or so I maintained to the kids.  Vicente objected slightly to the fact that the Adventskalendar goes from Dec 1 to Dec 24 and this year Advent technically began on Dec 2, but you can't have everything and it's not as if he wanted to give up his taste of chocolate on Dec 1.

Right before Advent, Dresden center fills up with the Weihnachtsmarkt. It was really quite something to see:  any available open space it seemed, was full of small huts vending Christmas wares such as Gluhwein or Gluhbier, gingerbread, sausages (okay that's year round, not just for Christmas!), Nutcrackers, large stars that remind me of porcupines (Herrnhuter Sterne), Christmas tree ornaments, handcarved Nativity sets, etc.  We tried going in the first weekend it opened, but turned back after venturing past 3 huts.  When it is so crowded that even I feel claustrophobic, you know it must be packed!  Pablo & I did go in again one weekend morning while Vicente & Miguel were making Christmas cookies at Pfadfinders (German Co-ed scouts, although there seems to be only 1 girl that ever comes).  However, we were able to see the Giant Stollen Fest Parade which was a lot of fun.  We did not actually participate in eating any of the special Christstollen - it's extraordinarily heavy white bread chock full of alcohol soaked dried fruits.  It's baked in a form that's supposedly reminiscent of the swaddled Christchild, which didn't make it anymore appealing in my eyes.

A not-so-crowded morning!!

Porcupine stars in the mall

These aren't just any old fair booths, but substantial huts topped with decorations that are tourist worthy even without the contents...

....though the contents of the booths weren't bad. Gluhwein is hot, spiced wine and is great on a cold night.  We weren't adventurous enough to try Gluhbier though.

These apparently double as Christmas tree ornaments AND doughnuts.  I don't think they'd last very long on our tree.