A Scrap of Life

Today, Brian and I hit the road so we could see more of the German countryside. We grabbed our rental car in Munich and then drove up the Romantic Road stopping at some of the most adorable villages on the way.   Near the big city it looked like it could have been Oregon, but as we drifted further and further away the view changed. We saw soooo many fields of yellow, which google tells me are rapeseed, grown for the oil in the seeds. We also started seeing these little towns on the hills and even some castles popping up. You won’t see that in Oregon! First up was figuring out all the road signs! Brian had studied up but there were a few he didn’t know - especially the one that tells you the speed limit has ended. We figured out quickly that was a bit of a free for all. But we soon had the signs and road marks figured out. Right before our first trip to Europe I was talking with Darin Knight and asked him if he ever got tired of looking at architecture and visiting churches. He...

The weather was cold and somber this morning, very befitting of our visit to Dachau Concentration Camp. This memorial, including a museum full of photos, personal experiences and memorabilia, tells the story of the camp and those who were imprisoned and killed there. We spent three hours walking the grounds, reading the stories, and listening to the audio tour. Most impactful were seeing the bunk houses (and the foundations for the rest of the bunkhouses that no longer stand) and the crematorium. The scale is massive and indescribable to think that over 200,000 people came into this camp. Many of them never came home. It was our first time to a concentration camp and there were times when it felt very haunting. As much as it was sad, it was also an important reminder of the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis and why we cannot let this happen ever again.  The tracks that the trains would pull up to when arriving at Dachau Inside of a bunk house Each of these concrete outlines is wh...