Bonnie Friesen's Galleries of Adventures

Alex is an amazing artist and likes to role play

Zach loves to drum and play video games

Jason is the Manager of a local music store, Long & McQuade Music and Instruments.

I’m a Member Services Representative of a local Credit Union, Coastal Community Credit Union.

All of our pets are rescues. Either from a local shelter or in Cate’s case a Mexico rescue.

Cate was found on the streets of Mexico in Puerto Vallarta. She had Parvo and was very sick. The Parvovirus is a contagious virus mainly affecting dogs. It’s spread between direct or indirect contact with their feces. She was quarantined and hospitalized for 6 months. She must of come from an abusive family too, because she can get very nervous with yelling or hitting (which makes a great little Police Officer, as she will bark and nip at the perpetrator - one of the boys or when the cats get pissy at each other). She will tolerate my husband but she prefers to be with me. She has come a long way, and she is very happy.

Asha is a mix of Greyhound and Black Lab. She’s a rescue from the Victoria Humane Society in Victoria BC. She has the body of a Greyhound but the heart of a Lab. She is very fast with her Greyhound legs, we clocked her going 35 km/h. Racing Greyhounds run 45 km/h. She makes the perfect pet, all heart and legs.

Andy is a rescue from a local farm in Calgary AB. He can be quite ornery but when he wants to be petted, you know he is there when he grabs your arm and aggressively rubs his face on it.

Lelu is our only female cat and she was a rescue from a local shelter in Calgary AB. She’s so gentle and can be very vocal when she wants to be petted.

Jimy is a rescue from the Nanaimo SPCA, in Nanaimo BC. He picked Jason right at the SPCA, wouldn't leave his side. To this very day Jimy suckles on Jason’s shirt every night. He is a very shy cat and hides most of the time, except for his snuggle time with Jason.

I can’t wait to go to a new country and get a Starbucks so I can see how they will spell BONNIE. Not that hard right??? Some of my cups are repeats but this is what has come up so far….. I did get a BONY but it was close enough so it didn’t make the cut.

We got married on July 8 2018. It was both our second marriages so we decided to elope. We wanted something different and exciting. Jason loves aviation and neither of us had ever been to Las Vegas, so off we went.

My Adventure: We were married in a helicopter, over the Vegas Strip, at night!

July 2018, Las Vegas, Nevada USA

My Adventure: As this was our first time here, I was completely floored with how over-the-top everything was. Vegas is a place to be yourself and no one cares, there is so much to see and do here. I loved it.

The History: Las Vegas was founded in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. It is internationaly renowned as a major resort city, primarily known for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and nightlife. In 2018 the city had 650,000 residents and the metropolitan population of over 2.2 Million.

July 2018 Las Vegas, Nevada USA

My Adventure: We took a small guided tour to the West Grand Canyon Rim and a quick stopover to see the Hoover Dam. I was shocked to see that there weren't any ropes, gates or fences from keeping people away from the edges of the Canyon. I was so scared turning my back and taking a selfie overlooking the Canyons edge. They did have a sky bridge, where you can walk on a huge circular glass walkway but it was a cash grab, you had to lock up all your personals including all camera devices before going out on it so they could take pictures and sell them of you.

The History: Boulder Dam was constructed 1931-1936, it’s a concrete arch-gravity dam. There was great debate on its name, finally in 1947 it was officially named The Hoover Dam, after former President Herbert Hoover. The Dam controls floods, provides irrigation water and hydroelectric power to Nevada, Arizona and California. The Hoover Dam is the largest reservoir in the US by volume.

The Grand Canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It’s located on the Hualapai Indian Reservation. The Hualapai’s want to keep the Grand Canyon as pristine as possible, that’s why they don’t have any ropes, gates or fences up in the tourist areas. There have been at least 55 people who have fallen to their deaths there.

July 2018 Arizona USA

My Adventure: I absolutely LOVED Paris, It was super easy to get around, the people were friendly (as long as you tried to speak French), and the architecture and the history were top notch. There is SO much to do and see.

The History: In 250 B.C, the Parisii settled in an area they called Loukteih (Celtic for “a marsh”) or Lutetia the Latin name. In 360 A.D Julian the Apostate, the emperor of Rome renamed Lutetia, Paris.

Paris’s proud motto for the last 4 centuries is “she is buffeted by the waves but she does not sink”. Which is true, as their history of invasions include the Romans, Huns, Normans, English and Germans -just to name a few.

March 2018, Paris France

My Adventure: I love cemeteries, I don’t know what it is about them. I could’ve spent days here, it was so huge, but we got kicked out instead. Lol, we didn't realize that the cemetery closed at 5pm! The lady was so grumpy, she actually followed us in her car all the way to the exit, to make sure we left. Luckily we did manage to spend enough time there to get the feeling of the cemetery before being kicked out. I just loved how old it was, sometimes stopping to look inside the mausoleum’s at the stained glass windows or the decorations that were left inside or even just how desolate a grave was. The map provided at the entrance wasn't super helpful because the graves are so cramped together and their numbering system was terrible to figure out. There were hardly any signs but we didn’t care because we just love to wander around.

The History: The largest Cemetery in Paris is the Père Lachaise Cemetery, which opened in 1804. It’s 110 acres hold more than 1 million bodies buried and 2-3 million human remains in the Aux Morts Ossuary. (An ossuary is where a body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary). There is a waiting list to be buried there but in order to get a spot, you either have had to have died in Paris, lived in Paris, or have a family plot there (where they will reopen a family grave and put another body on top of the body already there).

It has now become so over crowded there, that your family can lease space for 10, 30 or 50 years. If the family doesn’t renew the space, the remains can be removed and put in the ossuary and a new burial can take that space.

There were many famous people buried here but we found Chopin, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison’s Graves.

March 2018, Paris France

My Adventure: OMG! If you ever get the chance and aren’t claustrophobic, DO THIS! We did a skip the line small group tour and it was so worth it, because we did a tour, we got to go behind doors that the general public doesn’t get to see. I think going to the Catacombs changed me, it shaped how I view other potential trips. It’s like I received a very highly addictive drug, and now I’m chasing the way it made me feel the first time. So far….. the Catacombs can’t be beaten.

The History: Initially cemeteries were always built around a church, and thru growth, the church would became the centre of the community. With growth comes death. In 1780 Parish cemeteries were condemned to the outskirts of the city after a basement wall collapsed from the weight of the mass grave behind it It was then decided to amalgamate most of the cemeteries into one central one. But by 1785 the central burial ground was a two meter high mound of earth, filled with centuries of Parisian dead. Neighbours began getting sick with infectious diseases due to the unhealthy conditions of the cemetery.

Paris sat directly above 200 miles of labyrinth like tunnels, tunnels that had been carved out to provide the very stone in which the city was built. The tunnels were so extensive that the weight of the city was creating giant sink holes in which entire buildings and blocks were collapsing in. In 1777 the King’s architect Charles-Axel Guillaumot was given the job of reinforcing the tunnels to save the city. By 1785 the tunnels were deemed stable and it was decided that the remains of the dead be moved there. A Catholic Priest accompanied every wagonload of remains in order to chant the Office of The Dead prayer to ensure the remains would remain at peace. Despite the ritual with which they were transferred, the bones were simply dumped in large heaps. It took 2 years of nightly work to empty the majority of Paris’s cemeteries and relocate the remains of 6 million people into the catacombs.

In 1810, Louis-Ètienne Hèricart de Thury a director of the Paris Mine Inspection Service, had renovations done that would transform the underground caverns into a visitable mausoleum. Both whimsy and to convey deeper religious messages, the quarrymen lined the walls with femurs, tibias and skulls, and arranged bones in various shapes, like hearts, circles and crosses. They erected signs, plaques and arrows on the ceiling so that people wouldn’t get lost. One of the quarrymen was a man named Decuré who was a former soldier of the French Army. During the Seven Years’ War, Decuré was imprisoned by the English in a fort near Port Mahon on Menorca. When not working on the tunnels, he would sneak away and carve his memories of the very fort in which he was imprisoned. He was killed in a tunnel collapse while carving his creations.

March 2018, Paris France.

My Adventure: I love imagining myself in the Palace, I look around and wonder if I could have lived there at that time, what it would have been like. The museum part has so many famous artworks here, and to actually see them in person, is truly wondrous. There was some protesting going on inside the Louvre while we there, but they maintained it by shutting down the floor to the public and bringing in the military police, it was kept pretty discreet and professional. We were a little bit disappointed that we couldn’t see that floor, but the Museum is so large that we had lots to see. The history can’t be denied. It was amazing.

The History: The Louvre Palace, which houses the Louvre Museum, began as a fortress made by King Philip II in the late 12th to 13th century to protect the city from English soldiers. Due to urban expansion , the fortress eventually lost its defensive function. In 1546 King Francis I decreed the Palace was to be used as a main residence for the French Kings. Over the years the Palace was used to display the royal collection. Each king that lived there added to the Palace, with their own design ideas. With the French Revolution (1789) the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be a used as a museum to display the nation’s masterpieces but it didn’t take effect until 1792 when King Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection became national property. The museum opened on August 10, 1793, the first anniversary of the monarchy’s demise.

You can still see remnants of the Fortress in the basement. There are heart shaped drawings on the stones that were once in the moat. Some people couldn’t read or write so they drew figures or pictures to prove who made them so they would get paid for their work.

March 2018, Paris France

My Adventure: We actually lucked out and got to see a Vespers service at Notre-Dame. Hearing the organ and the acoustics in the Cathedral was a goosebump experience. The giant stained glass windows and the arches on the ceiling were my favourite features of the Cathedral.

The History: Notre-Dame de Paris (“Our Lady of Paris”) is a Medieval Catholic Cathedral built 1160-1260. As a Cathedral of the Archdiocese, Notre-Dame contains the Cathedra (chair) of the Archbishop of Paris. The Crown of Thorns, a sliver of the true cross and a nail from the true cross are preserved here, as they are the most important relics in Christendom. Notre-Dame has flying buttresses or ribs that allows it to have higher ceilings, thinner walls and much larger windows.

in 1789 Notre Dame was seized and made Public property until 1793 when it was rededicated to the Cult of the Supreme Being. During that time much of the church had been destroyed, plundered, used as a warehouse to store food or used for other non-religous purposes.

In 1831 Victor Hugo wrote the Hunchback of Notre-Dame to save the church from being demolished and because popular interest in the cathedral blossomed after the book was released, King Louis Philippe ordered the church to be restored in 1844. Over the years it has been restored often, most recently in April 2019 when undergoing renovation and restoration, the roof caught fire and Notre-Dame burned for over 15 hours and sustained serious damage.

March 2018, Paris France

My Adventure: We paid to go all the way to the top (of course!) and it was well worth the money. Jason made me walk on the glass floor on the second level, I thought I was going to faint, but after the fact, I was secretly proud of myself for actually doing it. It was super windy at the top but the views were to die for! I loved seeing the mock up of Gustave Eiffel’s apartment. At least we rode the elevators up.

The History: The Eiffel Tower was constructed from 1887-1889 as the entrance to the World’s Fair to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. It was named after the engineer company owned by Gustave Eiffel, that designed and constructed the Tower. It’s 1063 feet tall, has 3 floors and is the tallest structure in Paris. When the Tower opened at the exhibition, the elevators weren’t installed yet, but still nearly 30,000 visitors made the 1 hour trip up the 1,710 steps it took to get to the top. Eiffel invited Thomas Edison to his private residence at the top of the Tower and was gifted Edison’s new invention, a phonograph that had been one of the highlights of the Exhibition. Eiffel made use of his apartment at the top of the Tower, carrying out Meteorological observations and using the Tower to perform experiments on the action of air resistance on falling bodies.

Gustave Eiffel had a 20 year deal. He was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the Tower during the exhibition and for 20 years thereafter. In 1909 the Tower was set to be dismantled after the permit expired, but the City deemed that the Tower proved to be too valuable for communication purposes and it was allowed to remain.

During the time Gustave had his deal (and after the elevators had been installed), the 2nd floor of the Tower had a French newspaper office, a printing press and a pátisserie. The 3rd and top floor had a post office where visitors could send letters and postcards as a memento of their visit. After dark the Tower was lit by hundreds of gas lamps. The lights on the Tower in present day, have been copyrighted, so that it’s illegal to commercially publish photographs of the lit Tower at night without the permission of France.

It takes 60 tons of paint, every 7 years to keep the Tower from rusting. It has completely been painted over 20 times in its lifetime.

March 2018, Paris France

My Adventure: Vienna was so lovely, we only spent a day and a half here but it felt very quaint. We were quite jet lagged, as this was our first stop on our Journey AND there is a 9 hour (ahead) time difference but, I think I see another trip to Vienna in my future….. I think it would be well worth it.

The History: St Stephen’s Cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, it was built between 1137 to 1160. It was built on several cemeteries and in the basement are Bishops, Provosts and Ducal Crypts. There are 78 bronze containers with the bodies, hearts or organs in the Ducal crypt and a catacombs where they threw in over 11,000 people that had the bubonic plague. Emperor Frederick III has a tomb on the main floor.

Its roof is covered by 230,000 glazed tiles that make various mosaics. The Cathedral has 23 bells in total, one of which is the largest in Austria and the second largest swinging bell in all of Europe.

May 2019, Vienna Austria

My Adventure: Jason and I traveled with his parents from Zaporizhzhia to Molochansk where we visited a hospital and the Mennonite Centre, then onto Tokmak where we visited the maternity ward of that local hospital. The aim was to see how the funds from the Mennonite Centre had been utilized and to see if they needed funds for anything else. My husband’s father, Art Friesen is on the board of the Friends of the Mennonite Centre. I was truly saddened with how poor the region was, it was an eye opener and made me realize how truly privileged I am in life. I was so shocked to find that they have squatting toilets and they don’t flush their toilet paper. Plus a lot of people don’t have extra money - for anything.

The History: Just to give you a little background on the Mennonites. They are a Christian Anabaptist denomination that came together in the 16th Century after a split with Martin Luther and John Calvin over such issues as pacifism and the separation of church and state. The Mennonites takes its name from Menno Simons (1496-1561) of Friesland, who was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest. Through his writings, Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders.

The Mennonite Centre in Molochansk, is a Ukrainian humanitarian organization that was created to provide community development programs for people in south-eastern Ukraine. The Centre was established in 2001 after the Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine, purchased the former Mennonite Girls’ School in Molochansk. The one-storied schoolhouse, which was constructed in 1905 and converted to a secondary school in 1910, was restored to its original condition and adapted as a multi-functional center. The projects that they help with on a yearly basis are….

1. Seniors: hosting three free lunches at the Centre, supporting two homes for seniors and providing food packages for needy shut-ins.

2. Education: scholarships for post-secondary studies, funds for educational materials, computer technology, and building maintenance for schools, kindergartens, music and sports schools, support for schools in teaching and integrating students with special needs.

3. Medical: paying for four medical practitioners to hold regular consultations at the Centre, funding various individual medical emergencies, eye examinations and glasses, providing funds for computers, medical supplies and equipment for hospitals and clinics as well as building repairs.

4. Community: providing funds for local fire departments, police and probation services for computer technology, vehicle maintenance and general community support. The Centre also maintains close relations with the local Mennonite congregations in Molochansk and Zaporizhzhia and their outreach programs.

5. Internally Displaced Persons: providing funds for food and medications for individuals in war-torn communities and assistance for IDP’s (International Development Programs) in Zaporizhzhia.

May 2019, Ukraine

My Adventure: Oh My Goodness! The children were so adorable, they sang us a song and allowed us to take their pictures. The staff here have such huge hearts and you can tell, they truly love these kids.

The History: This daycare is for children with learning and social developments like ADHD, Autism and Down Syndrome. They are being taught, at their pace, in the hopes that they can go to regular public school. It also teaches the public that they can’t ‘catch’ these ‘ailments’. The daycare has a good success rate and gets some of its funding from the government but mostly from generous charities and churches, such as the Mennonite Church.

May 2019, Zaporizhia Ukraine.

My Adventure: The churches were so ornate and very traditional. I had to wear a head scarf in all of the Churches, as is customary for women. People from all walks of life come to these churches daily. There was a blind man that was leaving at the same time we were and he didn’t have anyone to help him. We watched helplessly as he tumbled over a flower bed and hurt himself. We picked him up and tried to ask where needed to go but there was a major language barrier! We ended up walking him to a major intersection and flagged down a young lady that had English writing on her shirt and asked her if she could translate for us. She gracefully took over and we knew he was in good hands.

The History: We went to 3 churches in Kiev. There are 2 denominations that claim to represent Ukranian Orthodox Christianity - The Ukrainian Church, a church with autonomous status under the Moscow Patriarchy, and the Ukranian Orthodox Church which is of Kiev Patriarchy. A head scarf is mandatory in all of the churches.

St Volodymyr’s Cathedral is of the Ukranian Orthodox Church and was built from 1859 to 1882 to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Kiev Rus’ by St Volodymyr. Narrowly escaping damage during the Polish-Soviet War, it closed in 1920 and served as a museum of religion and atheism until after WW2 when it was re-opened.

St Sophia’s Cathedral was built in 1011 or 1037 but it took 2 decades to complete. In 1934 Soviet authorities confiscated the structure from the church and designated it as an architectural and historical museum. In the 1980’s Ukranian politicians promised to return the building to the Orthodox Church but the return has been postponed as all Orthodox and the Greek-Catholic Churches have laid claim to it. Although all of the Orthodox Churches have been allowed to conduct services at different dates there, at other times they are denied access.

St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery is a functioning Orthodox monastery in Kiev. It was originally built in 1108 to 1113 but due to Soviet authorities in the 1930’s it was demolished but reconstructed and re-opened in 1999. It was originally modeled on the Pechersk Lavra.

May 2019, Kiev Ukraine

My Adventure: The Lavra was beautiful, we went on a whim and was lucky enough to come across an english speaking guide. I found it very “touristy”, it seemed that everything cost money. Although the difference between Hryvnia (pronounced Grieve-na) and Canadian dollars is really cheap (at the time we went - 1 Hyrvnia was equivalent to .05 cents so an example, a 2 Litre bottle of water was only 14 Hryvnia - .70 CAD) it irked me. Even the bathroom cost 30 Hryvnia to use it, which I didn’t, based on my stubbornness. I needed to wear a head scarf and when we went into the caves I was provided a long skirt to wear out of tradition and respect. Over all, it’s quite beautiful there and I was amazed at how self providing they were.

The History: The Perchersk Lavra is an active Eastern Orthodox Christian Monastery built in 1051. The 59 acre Lavra is overlooking the Dnieper River and is home to at least 8 other Churches and Cathedrals, a Monastery and a Theological Academy and Seminary. They grow their own food, harvest honey and have horses, chickens and goats. There are over 100 Monks in residence and over a hundred burials in the Lavra in the caves below, all of them are monks or saints. Some of the monks still lay where they chose to settle (some as long as 14 years) to pray to God. The caves are only 1 & 1/2 meters wide and 2 & 1/2 meters high, and are made out of loess ground. Loess is a type of sediment made of wind-blown dust. These caves are the most extensive in the world and there are many people, monks and students that come on a daily basis to go into the caves and pray.

May 2019 Kiev, Ukraine

My Adventure: I love abandoned places and this was THE most ULTIMATE abandoned place that I’ve ever been to. We got a private tour. It was well worth the price, it was just the tour guide, the driver and Jason and I. It’s still dangerous here but our tour guide steered us clear of the higher radiation zones, like the Fireman’s clothing on the basement floor of the hospital. We wore a Geiger counter, protective gear and a radiation measuring tool. This tool measured the level of radiation that we were exposed to during our time in the exclusion zones, and it measured with the same amount of radiation that you would get from a 1 hour trip on a plane for the whole 8 hours we were there. My overall feeling was sad, I was looking at what could’ve been, but Jason was looking at it in a positive way, how nature is taking over, and the beauty of it. I think we’re both right.

The History: The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on April 26 1986 at the number 4 nuclear reactor. The cause was a reactor design flaw and breach of protocol during a simulated power outage safety test. The accident occurred during an experiment scheduled to test the viability of a potential safety emergency core cooling system, which required a normal reactor shutdown procedure. They didn’t start to evacuate until 3 days later. The people in the 10 kilometre exclusion zone were told to bring only what was necessary because they would be able to return in a couple of days, because the people were lied to and the explosion was downplayed as to the severity of the radioactivity, it only took 2 and a half hours to evacuate 53,000 people. 10 days later they extended the exclusion zone to 30 kilometres. The people were never allowed to return again. Over 600,000 people were affected by the radiation, the reports state that only 33 people have died, when in fact its been in the thousands.

May 2019 Pripyat, Ukraine

My Adventure: We decided to spend the beautiful day on a boat ride tour around Lake Zurich. The Lake is 40 kilometres long and you can get off at any of the stops for shopping and exploring. We got off at Rapperswil-Jona to explore the the medieval town of Rapperswil. While there, we came across the Rapperswil Castle and the Stadtpfarrkirche Rapperswil Roman Catholic Parish Church located next to the Castle. We were surprised that the castle had been turned into a Polish Museum of all things, but it was very interesting to learn about Polish experiences thru the centuries. I found Switzerland to be SO expensive, especially after how rich we just felt in Ukraine but the boat tour was surprisingly cheap. While waiting to catch the next boat back, we saw the reason why Switzerland was such a clean city. A mini road sweeper garbage truck thing came by to each of the garbage cans, we saw them empty the bag, hose the cans down with soap and water and dry each can. It was quite the process and we were very impressed.

The History: Rapperswil Castle is surrounded on 3 sides by Lake Zurich which when built it was well protected and the Castle controlled the waterways at that time. It was erected by Count Rudolf Rapperswil in the 12 century. When the Counts of Rapperswil became extinct, the Castle changed hands and eventually was given to the citizens of Rapperswil in 1442. During 1458 to 1798 however, the Old Swiss Confederation took it over and it became an administration site for a military base and a prison. Over the course of time the castle fell into disrepair so in 1870 the castle was leased for 99 years by Polish emigrant Count Wladyslaw Broel-Plater from the local authorities and he fixed it up and reopened it as the Polish National Museum.

The Rapperswil Church was built around 1220 to 1253 and its surrounded by a cemetery and an ossuary. An ossuary is a site made to serve as the final resting place for human remains. They are used when burial space is scarce. It means that a body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years moved and placed in an ossuary. The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it’s possible to store the remains of many people in a single tomb than if the original coffins were left as is.

May 2019, Zurich Switzerland.

My Adventure: I’m not a super religious person and have always believed that I don’t have to go anywhere to pray to God, because he’s always with me. Nor do I feel that I have to prove to God how much I love him by giving him an enormous structure made of beautiful handiwork and gold. So sometimes I’m in awe of the these huge beautiful structures. These churches were no different, just beautiful.

The History: St Peter’s Church is a Roman Catholic Church in the inner city of Munich. It is the oldest recorded parish church in the district and presumably the originating point of the whole city. Built near the end of the 12th century, it burned down in the great fire of 1327 and considered anew in 1368 when it was reconstructed.

Ashamkirche church is a baroque church that was built from 1733 to 1746.

May 2019, Munich Germany.

My Adventure: There was so much to see and do here. I loved the open markets and all the old buildings. So much history all in one place. I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get to see the glockenspiel clock moving, but we were on a time budget and didn’t really want to wait the 2 hours till it would play again.

The History: Marienplatz square (Mary’s Square) has been the city’s main square since it was built in 1158. In the Middle Ages, markets and tournaments were held here. It didn’t get its name until 1854 when a Marian Column was erected. A Marian column is a religious monument depicting the Virgin Mary on the top. It’s often built for the ending of a plague or other reason. This was the first one to ever be erected north of the Alps. It was erected to celebrate the end of the Swedish occupation.

May 2019, Munich Germany

My Adventure: We took a small group tour to the castles. We rode on a huge and very comfortable bus, the tour guide was very knowledgable, keeping us informed with all the areas that we were driving thru. We had free snacks, hot coffee, cold water and beer on board. Which I thought was pretty amazing. I had my first Bavarian beer on the bus and it was free! It was POURING rain (the only day on our whole trip) to make things better, we got a free poncho from the bus driver. Overall I was a bit depressed with the precise militant movement of us thru the castles as we couldn’t wander thru at our own leisure but I realized they had to do it this way as there were A LOT of people wanting to come thru the castles. On a short stopover at one of the small villages, we decided to go on our own and investigate a small church that we had spotted. I absolutely loved the church, it smelled like old books.

The History: King Ludwig II was the King of Bavaria. He was in power from 1864 until his death in 1886. He built 2 lavish palaces, Neuschwanstein Castle and Linderhof Palace. Ludwig spent all his royal revenues on these palaces, borrowed extensively, and defied all attempts by his ministers to restrain him and this extravagance was used against him to declare him insane. Once declared insane, he was taken to Berg Castle and the next day it was said that he committed suicide by drowning himself.

St Peter and Paul Parish Church in Oberammergau, Bavaria Germany was built in the 18th Century. It has the skeleton of St Amandus, the Patron of Brewers and Breweries.

May 2019 Bavaria, Germany

My Adventure: You know how you learn about something but can’t fully comprehend it? Being at Dachau was so surreal, imagining what people went thru was gut wrenching to say the least. I’m glad that we went on a guided tour because being able to go thru at my leisure and seeing all the artifacts would’ve wrecked me. The guide kept us moving, keeping it relevant and talked about everything in a way that we could digest it enough to understand the horrific occurrences that happened there. Overall I felt emotionally drained but it’s a must see, as it’s such a huge part of our history that still affects people to this very day.

The History: Dachau was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in 1933, it was a forced labor camp intended to hold political prisoners and eventually the imprisonment of Jews, German and Austrian criminals, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholic priests, Communists and eventually foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The camp was liberated in 1945. There were 32000 documented deaths at the camp and thousands that are undocumented. May 2019, Munich Germany.