Christi and Eddie Kunkle visited London and Germany in late 2023. The trip was a surprise for Eddie. His wife Christi and his Citadel classmate, Mike, secretly planned the trip for almost a year. Christi hoped to celebrate Eddie’s birthday and their 10th wedding anniversary. Mike and his wife, Monique, live in The Netherlands and were excited to explore Germany with their Charleston friends.
“ I went behind Eddie’s back to his supervisor and did his time off request,” explained Christi. “Keeping it a secret for that long was very hard.”
LONDON
The couple’s London days were a non-stop exploration of London’s most beloved landmarks including Covent Garden, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the River Thames, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Christi’s enthusiasm for London was so strong she has since planned a return trip with her mother scheduled for later this year; her mother’s first overseas adventure.
GERMANY
In Germany, the couple’s first stop was Wittenberg. “As lifelong Lutherans, no trip to Germany would be complete without a stop there to see the tomb of Martin Luther and where he nailed the 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church / Castle Church,” said Christi. From there, Christi, Eddie, Mike and Monique drove to Munich for Oktoberfest, a bucket list-worthy celebration that Christi referred to as “amazing!”
From Munich, the group took a very somber tour of Dachau and the former concentration camp, the first concentration camp established by the Nazi government in 1933.
After that, they ventured to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps. “They still have the ski jumps from the 1936 Winter Olympics and we watched some kids with the local ski jump school practice. We also got to see the locals bring the cows down from the mountain for the winter, that is a big production with the large bells around the cows’ necks and the herdsmen walk them through town,” she explained.
In Garmisch, the group made a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle and through Oberammergau. After they left Garmisch, they spent a night in Rothenburg ob der Tauber walking the walls that surrounded the town and admiring the beautiful medieval structures.
Christi and Eddie were impressed by the rich history of both England and Germany, a stark contrast to the relative youth of the United States. Even Charleston, a historically-significant American city, paled in comparison to the sites they visited on this unforgettable voyage.
By Isabel Alvarez Arata
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