Moving is no fun

But friends visiting is!

So we'll start with that.  School got out Friday, June 28th.  The 29th we headed to the airport to pick up our dear friend Bill.  He arrived in spite of delays (his luggage did not).  Sunday we headed over to the Dachau concentration camp--first visit since we've lived here despite its only being 20 minutes away.  After this somber experience we headed up (after some decompress time) to the Weihenstephan for another goodbye get together with friends.  Fun times.

These trees were smaller then, and the barracks were on the slabs you now see on either side.

 Crematorium

This section is very peaceful.  Many of the ashes were scattered and bodies buried here, and it has a quiet feel to it.

Monday we did the standard Munich tour--Marienplatz, Viktualienmarkt, Englischer Garten, etc.  We finally went up into the tower in the Rathaus.  No pictures of that for now since I have posted about a million of Munich.  Tuesday we headed to Regensburg, which is a fantastically well preserved (read: not bombed to pieces during WWII) medieval city not far from us.  We spent the day wandering around, crossing the Danube, and looking at their cathedral (which, to my mind, is even more impressive than the Frauenkirche in München, which is saying something).  Lovely town!

Wednesday was a down day as we all weren't feeling well.  Thursday was no better for my husband, so Bill and I headed to Neuschwanstein ourselves.  This was my 6th trip this year!  Each guide includes slightly different information on the tour, so by now I was able to supplement the tour.  We also walked along the Marienbrücke, then hiked down the Pöllachschlucht, which we had hiked up with the grade 4 field trip.  Then we drove a few kilometers down the road into Austria just because.

Gnomes in Hohenschwangau

We spent the remaining days hanging out, running a few errands, having a cookout, and doing 3 other trips.  The first was Rosenheim to the Alexander the Great exhibit.  I skipped this as I was not feeling well.  Then we headed to Landshut for the Landshuter Hochzeit, which is a giant Renaissance festival.  It was weird, though--not many vendors other than food (though they did have a giant ox and cut hunks off to serve).  They also had normal people "observing."  It was a bit like a zoo--a bunch of people in costume and in period set ups interacting with one another behind a fence and people looking at them.  Weird.  We were not able to get tickets to the joust, but we had fun nonetheless, and Landshut is pretty, too.

 People in the "zoo"

Yep, they cut hunks off and served them.  It smelled fantastic!

The final trip we took was to Berchtesgaden, where we went up to the famous Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest), Hitler's mountain retreat.  Contrary to popular belief, he did not actually spend much time there.  Anyway, the fog was not kind to us.  We walked around, ate on the terrace, wandered quickly through the house, and realized it really is on the end of a knife-edge cliff and quite high.  Unfortunately we couldn't enjoy the view.  We had fun nonetheless, though the bus ride was creepy (based on the sounds and conversations around me and the road viewed from above and below--I can't say that my eyes were actually open).  Afterwards we headed over to the Salzbergwerk, a working salt mine, and did that tour.  We enjoyed that immensely.  I had done it as a child, but it's been over 20 years.  To get to the lower levels you can go down the wooden miner's slides.  SUPER fun!

Anyway, Bill left on the 12th.  We spent the weekend getting the dogs squared away, including getting Jimmy shaved, getting them to the vet for health certificates, etc. and packing.  Monday the 15th the dogs flew out.  Nerve wracking for all involved, and our neighbor's daughter was heartbroken, but they arrived safely and only mildly traumatized in Seattle, where Bill picked them up.  They are safely in Eugene now.  I can only say good things about Leanflex logistics and particularly about Lufthansa Cargo.  Wow, did we feel as comfortable as one possibly can in those situations.  Nice people who knew what they were doing and clearly had the dogs' interest in mind.  Awesome!

Another exhausting day of packing and our stuff was ready to go.  It was picked up on Wednesday the 17th, and again we can only say good things--this time about Werner Böhm shipping.  They provided boxes and even a giant roll of bubble wrap!  Talk about stress relief while packing!  We had planned to leave for vacation on Thursday the 18th, but since we had not had time to plan ANYTHING we delayed a day.  It was a lot of work getting everything boxed and wrapped and such!

Getting started . . . 

Yep, a giant roll of bubble wrap.  The carefully placed hangers were put there for size comparison, of course, and were thoughtfully laid out.

Gradually . . . 

 . . . getting everything stacked.  Boy, we I have a lot of stuff.

The house is empty, both of our stuff and of life--no warm, fluffy dogs bouncing to the door to greet us.  No pictures on the walls.  No future plans.  Just memories, friends we are leaving behind, and a finality that we didn't have when leaving Oregon.  Sadness and sterility.  Ugh.  Vacation is the way to go in cases like this.  That's the next blog post.