Traveling around Europe

It’s pouring rain again and it’s making everyone cranky. It makes traveling less exciting and we are not as motivated to be walking and exploring, yet we’re doing it anyway, frizzy hair and all.

Bruges is a beautiful city, with quaint architecture, curved and narrow streets, tasty food and great beer. We found the chocolate store everyone talks about and sampled a few flavors, loving the bacon and chocolate mix!!

Here are a few pictures from the town and the castle.

In the castle, they have a small chapel and bar!! How crazy is that? It’s an honor system bar where you pick your drinks and write down what you had. No lying in a church!!

Rainy canal ride.

Delicious Belgian chocolate from the Chocolate Line.

What a great job!

Famous photo op in Bruges of the canal and The Belltower.

The markt with beautiful gabled houses.

Relaxing at the castle, looking across the moat at the cows in the field. So quiet and bucolic. Awe….

In the castle lobby.

All is well. Hope you enjoy the weekend! Happy anniversary today, mama and papa!! Can’t wait to see you again. xoxo

Part One: What a day of contrasts. I really wanted to see Dachau today. We were so close and I wanted to walk on the sacred grounds of a concentration camp before we leave Europe. I was filled with anxiety before we arrived. I was scared of what I might feel. And I did feel it. Tears were falling down my face and I felt sick to my stomach, but I wanted to see more. I wanted to connect the bits of history I’ve read about and I wanted to know more about the pain and suffering that was experienced by mainly Jews, and those who didn’t fit with the expectations of the the Nazi regime.

One Love. That’s all I have to really say. If we all loved each other and saw ourselves in each other, maybe we would have more peace. Really does it matter what we believe if we are all practicing love and kindness and compassion, tolerance and acceptance of our struggles and differences?

The survivors of Dachau believed in each other and held on to hope and brotherly love, across religions and nationalities and political parties. Solidarity and love still existed despite the horrors they experienced and they were all united by a common cause – survival. In the end, we are all the same. One love. Love each other. Surviving day by day and making life the best it can be. Choose the harder right. Namaste.

“Arbeit Macht Frei” Work makes you free. History’s worst line of bullshit.

The prisoners expressing joy when they realized the U.S. Army arrived to set them free on April 29th, 1945. Can you even imagine what they were feeling?