A four hour train ride in the morning brought me from Vienna to Munich. Coming back to Germany was like hugging an old friend. I know the language enough to say hello, please, thank you and goodbye, I know the sausage and beer is good, and the metro is always on time.
I rolled in on a Sunday, when nothing in the Bavarian capital was open. I checked in quick and headed to the two big national museums for 1 euro entrance on that luckily were open on Sundays.
I had muddled though an unreal amount of religious work, but made it through to find some wonderful pieces. After some lunch I headed into the city center to walk around and see how it was all laid out. I ended up calling it a fairly early night as I was exhausted from the train in.
My second day in Munich, I took the tour with the company I had before. Hoping Prague was a fluke in the system, I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful guide. I was lucky enough to meet a nice girl from San Fran and we ended up walking around together, grabbing lunch at one of the original brew houses in town and chatting a ton. We met up with two Aussie girls who were staying in my dorm for a night at THE Hofbrauhaus. We had a lot of beer, good food and wonderul conversation! A great night it was!
This next paragraph is my day at Dachau. Don't read it in the morning or if you feel sad. It's best read with a beer and some chocolate nearby. Ye be warned.
I woke up early the next day for what I knew would be the most emotional, and worst day in Munich. Dachau is located an easy 25 minutes on the metro outside of Munich. I arrived and strapped in for what lay behind the iron gates. The museum that is on display gives a detailed account of the beginnings of how, why and when the camp was constructed. It then detailed the beginning months, moving into the war times, prisoner treatment, food and health, prisoner experiments, torture and death. It provided photos, survivor testimonies and the horrifying facts of the camp. Next was a barrack, set up with beds inside to show he overcrowding that occurred. Dachau was built as the example camp for the Nazis. It was intended to hold 6,000 people. In 1945, when the Americans liberated it, there were 35,000 prisoners living there. Only two barracks still stand, the rest are commemorated with stone outlines. As you walk through the now quiet and cold camp to the back, the air changes. And everything you thought had been horrible before just got worse. Beyond the bar wire fence, lies Barrack X. This was the building used for cremations and gassing. While they are not sure if the gas chambers at Dachau were used regularly, the rooms still raises the hair on your arms. You walk into into the first room, and it's a disinfecting room for clothes. The second room was where the prisoners would have been told that they were about to 'shower'. They would have been stripped and hair shaved in this room. The next room appears to have shower heads, it's really a gas chamber with hidden gas openings and fake water spouts. The next room, was used to hold the bodies until there was room in the crematorium, which was the next room you walk through. This last room was used. There is a path that follows behind this building that has three stone memorials. Two are mass graves and places where thousands of peoples ashes were dumbed. The last is where Soviet soldiers were methodically shot by SS guards. The quiet of the day didn't help the emotional overload that came with this visit. It almost made it worse. I made my way through the tour, and at the end of the tour, I left feeling weighted and emotional. You can read all you want about what happened in Central Europe during the time period, but to see it changes your perspective completely. This seemed fit for a good time to go back into the city with people as my emotional health was on the line.
I spent the rest of the day walking around the market, window shopping and tower touring.
I went into the tower at the New Town Hall and St. Peters Church. The first had an elevator which was really nice, the second one did not, but I braved it and managed to make it to the to. I was rewarded in both towers with spectacular, clear, views of Bavaria.
The next day, I went on a tour of Neuschwanstein castle about two hours outside of Munich. It is the castle that inspired Walt Disney himself in creating the castle in Sleeping Beauty! We hopped on a train that dropped us in the town Füssen and started our tour up the hill, learning about King Ludwig of Bavaria, his life and his mysterious death. We then took a tour of the inside of the castle which was fantastically decorated by Ludwig with themes of operas, folklore and swans. The town had received a nice bit of snow, so the towering mountains sprinkled white provided the most outstanding background of this fantastic castle. This day long trip was a welcome quiet from the hustle of the city center. I loved every minute of it! I spent the rest if the evening relaxing in the lounge of the hostal.
The next day I made it to the Munich Residence which was a residence o the royal family for many years. While most of it was destroyed in WW2, they've managed to redecorated in a manner that fits in with what the style was from other castles in Germany. The rest if the afternoon I walked around in shops and the local market.
My last day in Munich was full of my last bratwursts, German accents and trying to fill my lungs with as much Bavarian air as possible.
I had an amazing time in Munich. I loved the tradition of the south, the cuisine and the gorgeous castles and buildings. I was sad to leave not only Germany and Bavaria but my tour.
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