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Show Page 10 The Ogden Valley news Volume XXI Issue V June 15, 2013 A European Adventure—Teenage boy style! After the tour of the interior of the palace, we of the homes of Hitler and the executives of the onto the buildings. We stayed in a hotel right in By Jennifer and Brock Hanni A year ago, my 13-year-old son Brock and I were preparing for a three-week trip to Europe. With the sky miles my husband accrues from his business travels, we were able, to some extent, minimize our travel costs. My husband and I decided when our kids were very young, that we wanted to have one very memorable traveling experience, alone, with each child the summer after their seventh- or eighth- grade year in school. They are allowed to choose where they want to go in the world, and which parent they want to take (with a promise of no hard feelings regarding which parent they choose!). Our son Austin chose to climb to the Machu Picchu ruins with his father three years prior. As I love to plan, I was determined to have Brock and I plan his entire trip ourselves. I didn’t want to go with a big group or a tour guide; I wanted to have a feeling of adventure where we could call the shots, and choose the tempo of our trip. I spent many evenings doing research on the internet, reading travel books, and watching travel shows. I also talked to several of my friends who had traveled to Europe. I really wanted the trip to support Brock’s interests and provide adventure at every corner. Believe it or not, we only planned on one art museum, as I knew museums would bore him to tears! I consulted with Brock on every decision, and after many rough drafts of itineraries, and, I’ll admit, some disappointment on what he chose to skip, we narrowed the countries we would visit to France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. I had a really uneasy feeling about Italy, for a reason I wasn’t sure of, but Brock really wanted to see the Roman Coliseum, and begged to keep this part of the trip on our itinerary. On June 3, 2012, we took a red-eye flight to Paris. When we arrived, we immediately boarded a train to Normandy so that we could be there on D-Day, June 5. It was a very solemn trip getting a glimpse of what the military endured and learning about the many lives taken during this heroic landing. I was clear with Brock that he needed to keep a journal of his experiences throughout the trip. A portion of Brock’s first journal entry reads: “Today we visited the beaches in Normandy that the United States invaded. The ones we saw were Omaha, Juno, Utah, and Gold. My favorite part of the tour we took was seeing the cemetery of all the soldiers who died and the names listed of some who were never found.” After a solemn stay in Normandy, Brock and I took a train to Paris where my sister and nephew met up with us. Brock said, “We went to catacombs way under the ground in Paris. It was full of bones and it was amazing, but creepy. The bones were stacked in neat rows because all the cemeteries were full and they needed a place to put all the remains. We then went to the Rodin Museum. It was cool seeing all the sculptures, but crazy as a lot of the tall statues were outside and it was pouring rain. We went up the Eiffel Tower for dinner and my cousin and I fell asleep right at the table because we had such bad jet lag. Our moms couldn’t wake us up and so we didn’t get to eat our dinner. So, after, we bought crepes at a crepe stand. They were yummy.” In addition, my sister and I took a 45-minute train to Versailles and learned all about the French Royal Families and the French Revolution. I had researched the life of Marie Antoinette prior to the trip, and was intrigued with the entire palace, but mostly Marie Antoinette’s room and the Hall of Mirrors. took a golf cart tour throughout all the enormous gardens; it was so magnificent and pristine. We also visited the Musei Dorsei, Champs de Elyse, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. The restaurants we found were delicious, but so very expensive. A dinner consisting of a crepe and soda for each person and a dessert to share was $120 for four people, including the tip, and we could easily have eaten more. After a few days of shocking restaurant bills, we discovered how much we liked buying baguettes, cheese, and deli meat from the grocery store near our hotel. We said Jen and Brock Hanni with Jen’s goodbye to sister, Wendy, and nephew, our family as Charlie, in the catacombs in they left to fly home, while Paris. we boarded a train heading to Germany. We splurged a little to get a first-class month pass for the trains, which was well worth it. When we arrived in Frankfurt, we rented a car and that’s when the fun began on the Autobahn! With our European GPS with English translation, driving was a total RIOT! As I am constantly trying to control my ‘lead foot,’ it was thrilling to drive just as fast as our little rental would allow. The fastest I was able to go was 180 kilometers/hour, which is equivalent to about 110 miles/hour. Ya, don’t judge me… it was legal there, remember? Later that day we arrived in Rothenberg, Germany, by car. I was immediately enamored with the cleanliness, and the beautiful flowers and vegetation, which was, literally, everywhere you looked. The town of Rothenberg was my favorite destination of our European trip. Each of the buildings within the town was completely surrounded by a stone wall, was ornate and bright, and had cobblestone roads. Brock wrote: “We walked through shops and went to a torture museum from medieval times, which displayed all the different equipment they made to torture people for really weird reasons. It was very interesting, but sad. Then we drove two more hours and went to the Neuschwanstein Castle, which was built by King Ludwig. He was partially done building it when he was found mentally ill, so he got booted.” After we went to the gaudy, but fascinating castle, we stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast with a view of the castle. After a short rain, a beautiful rainbow appeared on the hill by the castle. Brock loved the food in Germany. Everywhere we went he was looking for fresh pretzels and sausage. I was doing my best to try and eat light to avoid having to down the Pepto Bismol, which was quite difficult as the food was very heavy everywhere we went in Germany. The next morning we drove to Berchtesgaden, Germany. We took a bus tour of Hitler’s Eagles Nest, and drove through the mountainside, which had been completely occupied by the Nazi regime. All of the residents were forced to leave their homes so that the Nazi leaders could live there. Although all 9th Annual Valley Market Guest Appreciation Breakfast Saturday, June 15 from 8 a.m. - 10 a.m. We’ll be serving pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and more. It is free to all. Please join us for some great food and fun. Nazi regime have been completely destroyed, the tour guide pointed out where the homes were once located. The Eagles Nest was the only exception. The building was built as a birthday present for Hitler. As the building was at the very peak of the mountain, Hitler only went there a handful of times because he was deathly afraid of heights. There, endless halls of bunkers were built under the ground for the Nazi’s to hide in, if necessary. They still find more bunkers under the ground, even today. We walked through them with our tour guide and visited the museum. It was very interesting, but so sad. Brock wrote: “I learned a lot on the Eagles Nest tour. I didn’t know that Hitler lived some of his life as a hobo before he became a ruler. I also learned that when the war was almost over, he married his girlfriend of 16 years, Eva Braun, and then they killed themselves before they could be captured. My mom and I walked around the train station Jen and Brock Hanni in front there and we of the Neuschwanstein Castle, learned that otherwise known as ‘King one entrance was closed Ludwig’s Castle.’ and locked because it used to be Hitler’s private entrance to the train station. “We then stayed in a really cool hotel and we swam there. We went to a nearby grocery store and got bread, cheese, and meats and we ate it back in our hotel room. It was so yummy. We got up the next morning and went to a salt mine. We had to dress in these one-piece zipper suits and then we got on these little trains. They took us way under the ground and we got out and went down slides, crossed a river on a little boat, and learned a lot about the salt they mine under the ground.” We then drove several hours to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Brock wrote: “I didn’t like to see how they tortured them. The camp had 28 bunkers there, that each should have only fit 50 people. Instead they put up to 500 people in each bunker. It was very disturbing to see how all the people had to live. All the prisoners had jobs to do, and some of the prisoners had to burn the bodies of their friends and relatives in ovens. That would be so horrible. They would dump their ashes behind the building. We looked at the graves of where the U.S. soldiers buried all the ashes.” After Dachau, we drove a little over an hour to Oberammergau, which is where the “Passion Play,” a play depicting the life of Christ, is performed every 10 years. The beautiful, mountainous area is full of quaint inns, shops, and restaurants, with beautiful murals painted right the middle of town and enjoyed walking around town. The town is also famous for their handcarved wood figurines. I wanted to purchase a wood carving so badly, and was lucky enough to find a wood nativity set that was 75 percent off, with additional removal of the local tax if the nativity was shipped to my home in the United States. Even with the discount, I told my husband that it would count as my birthday and Christmas present as it still wasn’t cheap! I treasure that purchase and have displayed it in my living room ever since it was shipped to me. We then drove back to Frankfurt to drop off the car and catch a few trains to nauseatingly expensive but breathtaking Interlaken, Switzerland. Brock wrote: In Switzerland we first walked around the shops. We then rented bikes and we went on a long bike ride and found a forest and walked in the river. It was the coolest bike ride ever. The fields and cows and old-time houses were so different than anything I’d ever seen before. The next day we took a paragliding tour where they drove us to the top of the Swiss Alps and strapped us into harnesses with one guide. He helped me do lots of tricks gliding through the air as I looked at the cool Swiss town. The next day we went canyoneering. We drove hours into the Swiss Alps. When I first looked down into the town, I thought I was going to throw up. We rappelled down a huge cliff, which was so scary. Then we jumped off cliffs into the freezing waters. We could look up and see glaciers! We zip lined and jumped into the icy waters for hours. The wet suits and helmets worked well to keep us warm, but our faces were blue from the cold!” We then took a train to Rome, Italy and discovered that they were having a heat wave. It was 115 degrees and we felt quite miserable! Brock wrote: “We first went to the Roman Coliseum and it was amazing. It still had lots of ruins from the battles that happened there and there were tunnels under the stage that the people of the battles would get lifted out of onto the stage from holes hiding in the stage. We then went on a Segway tour. My mom fell and skinned her arm pretty bad, but we kept going on the tour. But then I fell and the ambulance had to come take me to the emergency room because they thought I broke my arm. I was okay and didn’t break any bones, but I was still quite hurt. My mom’s camera also got lifted right out of her backpack, so we lost hundreds of pictures. Luckily, we had a few other cameras with us. We spent the next few days in the hotel that had great air conditioning and my mom and I watched movies for a few days so we could recover.” Although the end of the trip didn’t exactly end as we had hoped, we had a marvelous time and really had some neat conversations, especially on the trains between countries as we played cards for hours. We have reminisced throughout the year and have decided that our favorite part of the trip was definitely traveling through Germany. I will forever treasure this special experience with my son, Brock, and will always cherish the memories we made. RAGNAR RELAYcont. from page 1 for a good cause.” Ragnar will also be hosting a special event on June 19 at SCHEELS in Sandy, Utah, where local dignitaries will make a special representation. For more information before the race, visit ragnarrelay.com or call (877) 83-RELAY. During the race, you can reach us by text or call the community hotline number at (661) RAGNAR-9. on Friday, June 21 to 1:00 a.m. Saturday, June 22. “We invite you and your family to help us showcase your city by supporting our runners. Cheer them on as they jog past your home. Help them cool down with a spray from your hose or with a Popsicle or can of lemonade (just make sure that edibles have a wrapper). You can even set up a fundraiser 801-745-4000 2555 WOLF CREEK DR. 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