Location: Dachau, Germany

So once more, I took a trip with my brother, Cody. The final leg of the trips. Be prepared for this, when Cody and I lived in Germany before we lived closer to Dachau and so of course we went to take a gander at it. I was about 6 or 7 at the most. It's scary, but I still have vivid images in my head from that trip. Dachau has changed a lot. One thing that has not changed fortunately is the gate walking into the concentration camp. Dachau was a concentration camp during the Holocaust. It was actually the biggest camp used during the War, but Auschwitz is the best known. Some of the most important people were sent here, such as the man who attempted to kill Hitler with a bomb during a conference. Too bad he left early.

So the gate says, "Arbeit Macht Frei". Not the best picture, but I was trying to take it and people wouldn't let me shut the gate to take it. The gate's inscription means, Work will make you Free. I don't think it ever did.

Cody and I wanted to show Wendy, his friend who came with him, the living conditions of Dachau. We walked back to the barracks for the "special prisoners" who were put there because they did something to annoy the Nazis. So the tower to the right here is just one of the towers put in the corners to keep an eye out. To help draw out the picture, when Dachau was up and running and when Cody and I went the first time Dachau had little around it. It was in a wide open field. Now there are houses around it, with businesses coming a new. What's more interesting is around 1998 they uncovered tracks that revealed prisoners were trained in and immediately got off and walked right into the gates of Dachau. There wasn't really much other place to go.

The next three pictures are words written by prisoners to describe how they were treated and the conditions of living, I am going to post them without any commentary, hopefully their words are strong enough to do the feeling that is present there justice.

As you walk down the long hallway in this building you can't go into many of these rooms, but as I was wandering around I happened to glance down and I noticed that someone had come and placed a flower in a room. Not 100% sure as to why, but perhaps it's where a family member stayed or just because a family member was sent to Dachau.

I had to lean over the glass that keeps you out of the rooms, but I had to get a picture of the toilets. I remember these from the first time. How utterly nasty they look, and they still look the same. Imagine what they looked like 60 years ago.

In one of the rooms is a portable alter, why they were given permission to have a portable alter I am not sure. I think it was for the religious leaders who were caught trying to help Jews and so they still needed them to perform services and to perhaps lead the Jews to the "right path". I am not positive what was going through their minds, but perhaps this is a good thing.

On the opposite side of the barracks is the holding cells for SS members who were charged and sentenced to imprisonment. A much higher percentage of them were executed than even the Jewish population.

One of the most powerful aspects of the camp is the wall with the enscription of different languages all saying the same thing. I realize it isn't easy to read, so it says, "May the example of those who were terminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men."

The next few pictures are inside of the museum, just a heads up that the information is sad and can get disturbing. This first one however is just the best shot I could get showing all the camps in Western Europe.

This is an etched glass that shows what Dachau looked like back in the day. Can you see the people standing in the background? The constatina wire? Just how plain it looks?

In the main room where they would "in-process" the prisoners after some excavations in recent years they found this under paint that was added after the end of the war. Rauchen Verbotten means "Its forbidden to smoke". They just took everything from them didn't they? Not that not being allowed to smoke is a bad thing, but man.

A form of punishment at Dachau. The prisoners were stretched over the table while two SS men beat them with a bullwhip. The prisoner had to count the blows outloud. What pains.

Ever wonder what happens to people who are imprisoned by a dictator who thinks they are not good enough to live? They end up nothing but skin and bones. Sad pictures, but I feel for some people they need these pictures to admit that the Holocaust actually happened and it is not a made up event.

This next man I don't think made it. How young he looks and so sweet. Can anyone honestly think it was right to do medical expirements on him or any other person?

Picture evidence of medical expirements. This one I believe they pumped air bubbles into his brain. The first shot before the bubbles reached him, the second during the time of impact, and the third, well after. I can't remember for certain, but I don't think he lived to see another day.

A sculpture done by a man who lived through it all. What a deathly march. People falling by the wayside and you unable to help them, bone pertruding from your skin, so many tribulations.

As you exit the museum another wall with more enscriptions in different languages; symbolizing the united front to "Never Again" let this happen.

This modern art was not here the first time I came, but how good is it to know that the world is recoverring from this tragedy and is able to move on; yet we are remembering the past so as not to forget those who did not make it.

Finally the one image that burned into my memory and even gave me occasionaly nightmares. When I first saw this as a young child the air was dead and snow was on the ground, everything around me looked like death and after going through barracks and the museum this sculpture shows you the true struggle it was for so many to try and stay alive here.

One final look at Dachau. The empty plots are where other barracks used to be. They were torn down after the concentration camp was taken over by US forces. Out in the distance is what I believe to be the old church place. I used to think it was the gas chamber, but they tore that down after the US forces took over as well. Thank goodness for that.

All in all, Dachau is a place that I believe everyone needs to go and see. I'm sorry if you do not handle situations like this well, but it really paints the picture for what was going on, and how lucky of a life we have. If American, count your blessings that now you cannot be mistreated because of your religion, skin color or ethnicity. I know good ole America is nothing near perfection, but I think we can all say that we don't have it as bad as any of the persecuted groups did.

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Now you know.

Location: Neuschwanstein, Germany

Continuing on with my journeys with my brother and his friend Wendy, we headed down to Bavaria to enjoy in the wonderful, yet hated culture down there. Our day had originally been planned to start in Munich and then go on from there, those plans were shot due to our late start, so we continued on to Neuschwanstein. More on Munich later.

While driving to Neuschwanstein Cody and Wendy fell asleep on me, at 0700 and with the clouds covering the morning sky, so it was hard for me to stay awake. I still loved the way the sky looked and could not help but to take a picture anyhow.

This next picture was taken for Cody. He and I could not understand why in Germany, in a place where Americans are not present, the stop signs still say, "STOP". I recently found out it's because it's been intergrated into the German street signs to help keep people sure as to what signs mean. As if an octagon doesn't mean that already.

After parking I immediately had to take a picture of the castle from the bottom of the "hill". What a pretty day. Unfortunately you cannot take pictures inside the castle, so we could only take shots from the outside, but I think I still fared well in that endeavour.

As we walked up I noticed another castle up there. I had never even heard of a second castle up there. Nobody ever talks of it. What a strange occurance. I don't know who's castle it is, or when or why it was built, but here it is anyhow. Anyone care to help me out?

As Cody and I walked we noticed Wendy a little out of breath. I found a nice place to pause for a minute, it worked for her to catch her breath, and me to take an amazing photo of this cool waterfall!

There isn't much I can tell you about these photos, so I will just post them and comment on them as we go. I definitely have a story to tell about my gecko friend.

So I was trying to take the above picture and cody decided to put his fat head in it. I got the picture I wanted to, without his head, but thought this would be better. I started to scald him and some passer byers began to laugh at me. Hey, it was funny.
Heads on the castle... SCAWY!
Say hello to Gheico the Gecko. Cody thought he was dead and told me to step on him, he started to move after a while. I wasn't sure if he was trying to be all stealthy, or maybe he had frozen like that. I dunno.

And then the final picture before saying goodbye and closing this wonderful adventure, sorry I have such little to write!

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Now you know!

Location: Heidelberg, Germany

So I went to Heidelberg! Finally... I've been trying to get there for quite some time. Since September really. I took along with me, Cody, Wendy, Mo and Steph. It was quite fun, but I was smart and took pictures of everyone while on our train ride up there before we all got soaked, you will have to watch the change of the moods and expressions. So first here is a picture of Wendy, Cody and Mo; Mo was totally stoaked to be able to go with us. He loves Cody, and was happy to get this one time to hang out with his older brother!

Then we have the ever glamorous Stephani, what a sister she is! Yeah, we've gotten closer in the last few months, but I've always thought she is going to be way cuter than I could ever pull off. I've had some friends who agree as well.

So silly me, I directed everyone to get off at the wrong stop. So we ended up walking across pretty much the whole City, Heidelberg may not be one of the bigger cities, but it is a big city. Luckily we got to the area we needed, I piped off and asked stephani rhetorically, "Where is Sister Gabler when you need her?" Sis. Gabler served in K-town for a while last year and was recently transferred to Heidelberg. No more than a few seconds later I hear, "What is this???" I turn and see, none other than, Sister Gabler.

I love her man, she is the bestest sister in the world, this is sister as in missionary sister, until I get out anyhow :) It was so crazy to run into her, but so cool, because they then told us about the closer, WAY CLOSER, train stop up by where we wanted to go.

We continued our walk and hiding behind some buildings we found a jesuit church. Amazing building, but I always feel guilty trying to take pictures when people are in there praying, so I went out and took exterior pictures, here is one of my favs.

So after taking pictures of the jesuit chapel we went out to the street and turned up to where we were directed for the castle and what a sight we got to see it truly was cool, but because it was raining I ceased taking pictures for a while and just hiked up the stairs, when we got there, we were caught with another amazing view or two.

So the view, even with the rain coming down, it was a good day for scenery shots. Heidelberg has this river that runs right through it and the castle was an old fortress on this river.Still has one of the best views of a river I've been able to see while in Germany.So after this view I continued to take pictures, Oh I'm a picture-taking-holic! I don't know what it is about bridges, walls, churches, architecture really, but I love it. I fell subject to wanting to take pictures of the bridge that spanned the river I wanted to go and walk to it to take some more pictures of the castle, but by the time we left the castle most of us were soaked, so there went that thought.

I looked out another window and saw a cannon sitting there, I like to mess around and see if I can mess with the way I take the picture to make it look more appearling because it captrues the side of a gate, or a tree, or in this case, the top of a wall at the bottom of a picture, so yes, I did do it on purpose. Check it out! Ah, well, the blogger just stopped allowing me to upload pictures. So for the rest of this for now, it will be without images, and I will upload them when it stops acting stupid.

So after this point you had to turn up and go up more stairs, you were then faced with the main building of the fortress, what's in there? I dunno, we can't go in unless you have extra special permission I guess. Anyhow, the building was just cool. Not to mention the Gargoyles that were posted up on there, I will talk more of them in a minute though.

They have a gazebo, a couple of them actually up there, and as I walked to one of them I got an amazing look at the main church in the center of Heidelberg. Not the jesuit one, but another that was not opened to let us in because it had a service going on. Look how it towers over the whole rest of the city. Amazing!

Now we see the affect rain can have on an ever so beloved sister of mine. Poor girl. We offered her the umbrella though, and she didn't take it. So it's her fault. Later we'll see another picture of her again, Mood change? Perhaps!

Now here are these gargoyles I was talking about, gold dragons. Steph pointed them out to me, I may have missed them all together, but I got it, scary no? ;)

Oh look, an obelisk. I'm coming to believe everyone wants to be an Egyptian and that's all there is to it!

This is the main gate, it's clock on top fascinated me, why? I do not know, but it just struck my fancy. So you know I had to get a few pictures of it.

Steph and Mo, I will stick up for her in this picture, Mo was standing on a stone, but he is getting taller than her, soon. Poor girl, still soaked, but at least she is now smiling.

This is a picture of the same main building but an opposite view of it. Stinking tourists wouldn't get out of my way! Darn them! Way to almost ruin a completely great picture!

So who can tell me how on earth this sundial would ever work being on the side of a building? Is it a sun dial? or is it a map of the planets? That's one of life's mysteries I suppose.

So my final picture from Heidelberg is one final picture of the main building in the fortress. Again, I messed with the surroundings to give it a different edge. Did it work?

Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Now you know!