After our 4 days in Munich, we spent the next 3 days driving to Berlin with many stops on the way. This was perhaps the hardest part of the entire trip because at the time Sugarplum (5 months old) hated being in the car and we drove for hours listening to her high-pitched scream and most of the time couldn’t do anything to soothe her. We took turns sitting with her but unfortunately my mom got the brunt of the baby duty so I could be up front to help hubby navigate.
After departing Munich, our first stop was the Dachau Concentration Camp. I’m sure it will seem strange to many people that we took our children (Honeybun was 2 ½) to a concentration camp but I had visited before and knew it wasn’t scary. Most of the buildings have been destroyed and those that remain are mostly empty though they have put in some pictures and written information. We have never tried to hide history or really any truth from our children, if they ask us a question we answer as truthfully as we can within the limits of their understanding. We had discussed death with Honeybun previously and I was amazed at how well she grasped the concept of everything. We did choose, however, to not take her in the crematorium and took turns viewing it so an adult could stay outside with the kids.
After Dachau we drove towards Nuremberg. On the way into the city we stopped at the Reichsparteitagsgelände which is the large rally grounds Hitler had designed (but were never finished). I have always been fascinated with this part of history so was really excited to go to the museum. It was a bit much for the girls who had already been holed up in the car for a few hours but we tried to relate it back to what they already knew about Hitler and World War II and we all got to enjoy the visit.
We then headed into Nuremberg and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Burghotel, right in the Old City. We had to get 3 rooms as each room only sleeps 2 people so hubby took Honeybun and I took Sugarplum. The hotel had amazing views over the city and Castle was a short walk into the main square where the Christkindlmarkt is held.
The Christkindlmarkt in Nuremberg is considered to be one of the best in Germany and we actually wandered through twice, once the night we arrived after checking into the hotel and again the next afternoon before leaving Nuremberg. The Christmas Markets are amazing with handmade crafts, mulled wine and traditional treats, music and tons of holiday spirit. The Nuremberg market was different than most of the others we visited in Germany because it is held in the old town whereas many others are held in newer areas by shopping centers and the like. In Nuremberg we alternated wandering through the market and warming up while browsing the shops lining the square.
The day we were in Nuremberg we visited the city’s castle which sits high up on a hill and the hike up was an amusing challenge for all of us on the ice with me carrying Sugarplum in the sling and my mom who has trouble balancing and staying on her feet on flat, dry surfaces! When we finally made it up, the views were amazing. We did the full museum and tour including climbing up to the top of many of the towers and Honeybun really enjoyed this stop on our trip.
That afternoon (after wandering through the Christmas market again) we headed to Leipzig. We arrived in the evening again, checked into our hotel and headed out to the Christmas Market. The market in Leipzig was small and it was chilly so we also went to the Pramenaden which is the train station turned shopping center. Hubby and I got some Christmas shopping done, the girls were excited by the trains (it’s still the city’s main, working train station) and my dad was fascinated by the model train display.
I had originally put Leipzig on our itinerary to take my mom to the Bach Museum but no one was really that interested so the next morning we decided to go to the Runde Ecke museum which is in the former Stasi headquarters in Leipzig. The building has been largely untouched since it stopped being used in 1989. The museum was fascinating though a bit long for the girls since we did the audio tour (all the written signs were in German) so it took us longer to get through and though we shared our guides, the girls weren’t interested in standing around as long as we needed to listen so I spent a lot of the visit discussing with Honeybun what we saw and what it all meant.
That afternoon we headed to our next stop in Berlin. We decided on the way to make an impromptu stop in Wittenberg to visit the Luterhaus where Martin Luther lived as an adult where a large portion of the protestant reformation took place. While I’m not well educated on the reformation, the house/museum was very interesting. I always love seeing how people lived in the past and seeing places where history happened. In addition to the rooms where Martin Luther lived and the chapel where he preached and prayed, there is also an excavated cellar which housed Luther’s study, kitchen and toilet. We had a lot of fun exploring the ruins since no one else had ventured out into the cold and Honeybun could be a little louder and run a little. During this time, though, Honeybun had a strange fear of statues and I’ll never forget stepping out of the elevator in the museum to a statue of Martin Luther that was the same height as Honeybun which caused fear and panic!
