Dachau

Thursday we went to Dachau. We walked to the Munich train station and bought a ticket for around 12 Euros ($15) that the 4 of us could use the entire day on any bus, commuter train, subway or tram. We then took a commuter train to the town of Dachau. From the Dachau train station we took a city bus to the Dachau Concentration Camp. We stopped at the visitors' center and picked up an audioguide.

We first saw where the SS lived, and then turned 180 degrees to see the main gate into Dachau with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate. When you enter through the gate, you stand in the roll call area, where the prisoners would have to stand and be counted a few times each day. Sometimes this took hours. The workhouse was on the right and the barracks area was on the left. There are a couple of reconstructed barracks, one of which we could enter. The conditions in the early years weren't so horrific. In the mid 1930s, the prisoners (mostly political prisoners from Munich, some priests and Jews) had their own designated space in the long bunk bed with a small wooden divider and a little shelf above each space for personal items. The was a space to hang one's towel and colorful bedding. In the later '30s the barracks were divided into a sleeping room and a room with individual lockers and tables and chairs. No longer were there individual sleeping areas in the long bunk. Then by the 1940s the living conditions resembled those that one commonly thinks of when imagining a concentration camp. 30,000 people crowded into space built for 6000.

We then walked down the lane between the two sets of barracks (now only the foundations survive) to the religious memorials. From left to right there is a Protestant chapel, Catholic memorial, Jewish memorial. A Russian Orthodox chapel is elsewhere in the camp.

We then had a look at the deterrents to escape. First there was a grassy area between the walkway on the perimeter of the barracks and a concrete trench. Then there was an area of trip-wire followed by a fence. Next came a gravel area with a watch tower, then a wall. On the other side of this wall there was a stream/river, followed by another wall. I'm guessing not too many people escaped this way.

We crossed a small bridge to the west and looked at the crematorum and gas chambers. Officially no one was gassed at Dachau, but there is some evidence to the contrary. Of those who were executed, most were killed with a bullet to the neck. Many, many Russian POWs were executed without being processed (therefore not officially counted) after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

We then watched a documentary film about Dachau, and toured through the workhouse which is now an interesting museum. I think we spent about 3 1/2 hours at Dachau. It was worth the trip, but needs some money put into it, as many of the outdoor display boards were faded to the point of not being able to see them. They are building a new visitors' center that will be a great improvement over the one that exists now.

We took the bus back to the train station and ate sandwiches and salad at a small cafe across the street. We were on an express train back to Munich and arrived in about 15 minutes. We had planned on a "Third Reich Walking Tour" but got back too late from Dachau, so we went to Olympiapark instead. This is where the Olympics were held in 1972. It is now a lovely park. You can swim in the Olympic swimming pool where Mark Spitz won his 7 gold medals, go up the communications tower for a look around Munich or eat in the revolving restaurant. There is ice skating, a place to go to concerts, a beautiful lake...it's a very pleasant place. The village where the athletes lived during the Olympics are now apartments.

We spent a couple of hours in the Sea Life aquarium at Olympiapark. It was well done with nice exhibits, but overpriced.

We then took the subway back to Marienplatz and ate dinner at Riva Bar Pizza. We each had our own pizzas, and they were very different and very good. We ate outside in view of the Isar Tor, one of the gates of the old city. After this exhausting day we walked back to Marienplatz and took the subway 2 stops to Theresienwiese, the stop closest to our hotel.

Wednesday in Munich

Wednesday April 8th was our day to explore Munich. We walked from Hotel Uhland to Sendlinger Tor. On our way we passed an 18th century Rococco church, Asamkirche. Fantastically gaudy and facinating. It isn't a free-standing building; rather a "store-front" church.

When we got to Marienplatz the first thing we did was go up in the tower of the Neues Rathaus for a nice view of Munich. Then we went back out to Marienplatz to watch the figures on the Glockenspiel dance, as they do 3 times a day. They tell the story of a wedding of a Bavarian duke in the 16th century, and also do a little dance to keep the plague away. After this, we went to the Viktualienmarkt to have a snack before going on our bike tour. Again the weather was upper 60s, bright sunshine. How lucky are we!

I had read about Lenny's Free Bike Tour in Rick Steves' Germany 2009 travel guide, and thought that the price was definitely right, as the other bike tour that leaves at the same time and sees the same sights costs 24 Euro per person! We had a good guide, Connor, from Ireland, and there were a total of 11 people on the tour. We went to the Hofbrauhaus, Odeonsplatz, saw some old and new government buildings, and some other places. We stopped at the Chinese Tower Beer Garden in the English Gardens for about an hour. Karl ate a fried pig's knuckle, Caroline ate french fries, Jana ate bratwurst and sauerkraut and I had Leberkaes, a kind of Bavarian meat loaf. It was ok, but not great. The English Gardens are famous for the nude sunbathers, and we did see some in the distance. There are a couple of them that frequent the spot and like to dance for the bike tours--I'm glad they weren't there on Wednesday!

On our way back to central Munich we stopped at the end of the English Gardens to watch the surfers. You can watch a YouTube video of it here. After World War 2, the American soldiers put some concrete barricadesAfter the bike tour we went into the Hofbrauhaus to see the inside, then decided to go to Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet to see the Sophie Scholl memorial. Sophie Scholl was arrested and executed in 1943, along with her brother and others, for distributing literature speaking against the Nazi Regime. If you haven't seen the movie, "Sophie Scholl--the Final Days", I would highly recommend it. The memorial itself is very clever. It looks like the fliers that Sophie and the others distributed and they are embedded into the pavement outside the building where she was arrested. There is a photo of it on my Flickr page. Inside the building there is a bust of Sophie, and a plaque commemorating the "White Rose" resistance group that Sophie was a part of.

For dinner we met a friend of mine at Augustiner Braeustuben. Margot was an Austrian girl whose father was a professor in my hometown. My friend Mary and I befriended her and had lots of good times. Margot returned to Europe in the early '80s and once came to visit us in 1988. I hadn't seen her since then, and actually I had lost touch with her from about 1996 until about a year ago. I Googled her brother and found him living and working in Vienna, sent him an email, and shortly afterwards had a reply from Margot. So we have been in touch for about a year now, and it just happened that she moved to Munich in February, so we were able to arrange a dinner together. It was so fun to see her again, and we really had a nice time chatting. The food was traditional Bavarian fare. Karl had sauerbraten with red cabbage, Margot and I had Schwaebische Maultaschen (a meat ravioli with onion sauce) and sauerkraut, and Jana and Caroline had turkey breast with rice and tomato sauce. We are eating very well on this trip. I'm hoping all the walking is counteracting the food intake!

Monday at Neuschwanstein

On Monday April 6 we left Jana's house (with Jana in tow) and set off for Bavaria. We stopped along the way for a snack and to get gas, then continued toward Neuschwanstein. The weather was warm (60s) and sunny when we arrived. We decided not to tour Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, the former being King Ludwig's childhood home and the latter being the castle he had built in the 1890s, I think. It was already early afternoon when we arrived, and if you want to tour the castles you tour Hohenschwangau first, then Neuschwanstein 2 hours later, and in between you have to hang out in the town where most of the shops are owned by the same people that own the castles. Kind of a nifty racket for them! So we took the bus up the mountain to Marienbruecke, where everyone gets the fantastic shot of Neuschwanstein that you always see on posters and in tourist publications. We were disappointed to find that that entire side of the castle was covered in tarps and scaffolding. We took the obligatory photos of other tourists with the castle in the background, and other tourists took our photo, too. We then walked to the outside of Neuschwanstein just to look around. Definitely a nice view; no wonder King Ludwig chose that spot for his castle!

Instead of taking the bus back down into the town we decided to walk down. I had read about Poellat Gorge, and the beautiful walk it was, and while I was talking to Karl and the girls about finding this path, an Australian man overheard me and told us that it was closed because of rock slides. So we found a different walking path.

It was interesting because while the ambient temperature was somewhere in the 60s, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Jana and Caroline made a little snowman and for some of our hike we had merely a footpath that was clear while the rest of the trail was snow/ice covered. The mountains looked quite nice wearing their snow caps--very picturesque.

After our hike we drove a little ways to the Sommerrodelbahn at Tegeberg. The Sommerrodelbahn is somewhat like a luge. You sit on a small sled with a stick in front of you. If you push the stick forward you will go faster and if you pull the stick towards you, you will slow down. A cable pulls you uphill, then you are released in a stainless steel chute-like track. You wind your way downhill. It's very fun!

We stopped for more photos after the Sommerrodelbahn and then set out for Munich. We are staying at Hotel Uhland, which is located on a quiet street about 15 minutes by foot from the main train station. Hotel Uhland was originally a mansion built in 1889. We have a large room with a king size bed and a full size bed, nice sized bathroom, table, chairs, TV, and a wardrobe. There don't seem to be too many other guests around. The first morning the breakfast room was packed but nearly empty the other mornings--so it's quiet.