Munich, Germany - Take Three!

Since my in-laws were still in town, we had a five day weekend, and the in-laws had to fly out of Munich for their big trip to Italy on Saturday, we took the train down to Munich on Thursday to see some more sights.  At first I was a bit grumpy, thinking we had seen almost everything in Munich, but that is almost never the case in any great city of Europe.  There's always more to see!

It's so much more fun to take the train down to Munich, rather than putting the miles on your car and having to pay for five days of parking!  Todd and the kids played Dungeons and Dragons, while Warren and Carole played some cribbage.  I sat behind them and did what I love to do on the train:  listen to music and watch the German countryside go by!

The Marienplatz (did you know that this is pronounced, "Marine-platz?") still looks pretty even in October.  Next time, we want to go to the top of the tower!  (Listen... we have to save SOME things for later!)

The famous Glockenspiel in between the hours.

Believe it or not, this is actually the Old Town Hall (the photo above this of the Glockenspiel is the New Town Hall).  Although it was built in the 1300s, it served as the town hall until 1874.  I always think this town hall looks much newer than the new town hall!

This is kind of the coolest wreath ever.  Hops and pretzels!

We made our way over to the original Hofbrauhaus for some dinner and beer.

The band played us some tunes while we ate.  Nice threads!

The Hofbrauhaus is loud and colorful and I always love being in there. I'm such a people watcher, so this is always good fun for me.  We met a guy who was originally from New England (he saw Carole's Mass Maritime jacket and came over to chat with us!)  Such a small world!

Grant is cheering me on!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and played a rousing game of Heads Up.  It's difficult to put into words how bad we all are at this game.  Cucumber!

None of us had ever been to Dachau Concentration Camp, so since it's just a 20 minute train ride outside of Munich, we decided to spend a few hours at the memorial site on Friday.

Once you enter the camp, you see the remains of the train line that brought prisoners directly to the front gate of Dachau (see below for a picture of that).  Dachau had originally been set up as a work camp for political prisoners such as Communists and those who opposed the Nazi viewpoints.  Later, regular prisoners (like, actual felons!) and prisoners from other countries were sent here.  On the prisons opening day, the press statement said that it was meant to house 6,000 prisoners but at the time of liberation, there were approximately 30,000 prisoners.  The total number of inmates at liberation may never be known, since about 10 days before liberation, approximately 6,000-7,000 prisoners were sent south on a death march.  Overcrowding was a massive issue that led to a major typhus outbreak near the end of the war that killed nearly 15,000 people (or roughly half the Dachau population).  The figures are staggering. 

A hint of fall at Dachau.  To everything there is a season. Above is the Jourhaus, or the main entrance and exit to the camp.

The barracks behind Roll Call Square are not original at Dachau.  There were 34 barracks that looked similar to the two you see in the above photo.  All that's left are the pads, but two were reconstructed for the purpose of the memorial.

The opposite side of the Jourhaus, which was constructed by prisoners in 1936.

Todd and his parents opted for a slow stroll through the maintenance building, which now houses the museum.  At the time of the war, the maintenance building housed various storerooms, the kitchens, laundry and the shower facilities (actual showers, not gas chambers).   The Shunt Room (where the museum begins) was the room that prisoners were registered.  Here, they were disrobed, stripped of their possessions and given a prisoner number.  But listen... no smoking!

I tried to hit some of the highlights for the kids so that they didn't think of this as another boring museum.  We didn't read or see everything, but they did really well listening to stories and understanding the atrocity that had occurred here. Here we see one of the prisoners lockers.  In it, we could see all of his possessions, which consisted of a very thin striped shirt and pant set, and their eating utensils.  

Each prisoner was given a plate/bowl, mug and a spoon.  As the sign says, it was vital to survival.  The spoon has an interesting story... it was used by an inmate who had typhus, and after he died, another inmate got it!  (Geez, gross...)

I caught this picture of Natalie looking at a footprint of the camp as a whole, as it was back during the war.  In front of her, and outside of the window is the sculpture by Nandor Gild, made to look like prisoners trying to escape the barbed wire fence.

Overcrowding was a major issue that led to illness.  Although Dachau wasn't an extermination camp, almost 32,000 people died between 1933-1945.  These figures are the documented figures... the untold number is likely much higher.  Most deaths were due to illness, lack of food and proper clothing, and just being flat out worked to death (literally!)

After we saw the museum, the kids and I started to head over to the barracks.  Todd met up with us and took Natalie to see a short movie about Dachau back in the museum that was only airing in English at certain times.  So Grant and I checked out the barracks. 

All of the original barracks have been torn down, but two were rebuilt in the same style and furnished in a manner consistent with history. There are different room showing the way the barracks were laid out during different periods.

All of those people and only two wash bins. I didn't get a picture of the toilet room but there were about 6 toilets lined up along the walls, and zero privacy. 

The maintenance building, as seen from the barracks across Roll Call Square.

Grant and I decided to stroll down Camp Road, as he counted the building footprints on each side.

The foundations of the original barracks still stand.

At the other end of the Barracks area are several churches!  And believe it or not, actual church services go on here.  This one happens to be a Catholic chapel.

Interestingly, most of the ditches and barbed wire have been removed at Dachau.  However, they do have a small section of it still in place to show you how very difficult it would have been to escape.  First, you would have to get down into the deep trench, and then up again (not happening) and then go through several layers of barbed wire before getting to an electric fence.  If for some reason you made it to here, you were likely to be killed by one of the snipers in the towers.  Even if you SOMEHOW got through all of this, there was a roughly 4 meter wide river flowing behind this that you would have to cross.

The Crematorium was the last place we visited on our tour.

The Crematorium was in use between 1938 and 1944 to dispose of the dead who had passed away while being held here.  This is actually the second crematorium, which was much larger than the first.  Even still, by 1944, this crematorium was overworked and could no longer do the job of cremating the dead.  There were simply too many.



The inside of the crematorium.  Bodies could be burned 2 at a time.

I walked into this room with no signs and immediately knew what it was.  I never wanted to get out of a room so fast.  Dachau wasn't a death camp.  However, this gas chamber had been built and WAS used on occasion.  While Dachau doesn't make this widely known, survivors have testified that the Gestapo did use the gas chambers to murder individuals and small groups.  (Colleen shudders).

Brausebad translates to "showers."  People actually thought they were going to get a shower here.  In this room, they would disrobe and get ready to take their "shower."  The room even had fake shower spouts so the victims were very unassuming. In 15-20 minutes, approximately 150 people could be killed via prussic acid poisonous gas.

The Crematorium was known as "Barrack X."

The original crematorium, in a building that looked something like a barn.

Rainbow of colors going up this tree.  The circle of life.

Nestled in the back, next to the Crematorium was a little pathway that we decided to take, not knowing how special and sad this area was. 

What exactly did they do with the ashes of the tens of thousands who died?  They buried them underground.

Pistol range for execution.  This entire area sits way back (out of hearing range) from the rest of the camp.

This is another large area where the victims ashes were buried.

Y'all!  I totally caught him praying and it was totally unprompted!  He was praying at the Grave of the Thousands Unknown.

Execution place with blood ditch. I. Cannot. Imagine.

The back side of the dreary crematorium. 

That's a pretty deep ditch.  You can see the small tower where the snipers would keep watch, ready to fire.  In all, only one man ever escaped and managed to remain uncaptured.  Several escaped and were recaptured, and untold numbers died attempting the escape.  Many people who died trying were said to have been attempting suicide.

 

Wide view of the dark and very sad Dachau.

The entrance to Dachau says, "Arbeit macht frei" or "Work will set you free." 

Best hat ever!  I think Todd saw this on the way to dinner.  Pretty darn funny!  It was nice to have a bit of levity after a very serious day.

Also important... pizza and bier!

And time spent with rarely seen (these days) grandparents.  Grammi was showing Grant how to play solitaire!

Warren and Carole left very early on Saturday for their flight to Rome, but we still had a couple of days to explore in Munich.  Grant was begging to go to the BMW Museum, so that's where we went!  We were totally laughing at the (irony?) of one of the employees Audi breaking down as it left the underground parking garage!

BMW HQ and the museum. Inside, you can learn more about the company history, design and about the different series of BMWs.

Beemer art!

I'll take one of each, please.

There's a neat exhibition about the history of motorcycles, too!

The BMW company actually started out as a company that built engines for airplanes.  They later bought Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach in 1929, a car manufacture that made Austin Sevens.  BMW was required to stop production of cars and motorcycles during WWII, and for a time ONLY produced airplane engines. After the war (because supplies were nearly extinct), they produced bicycles and pots and pans.  It wasn't until 1948 that they restarted their motorcycle production!  Automobiles followed in 1952.

A super cool CLAY model of a car!  This is how they do part of the design process.

We were totally laughing at this picture.  "Yes to Diversity" (yet it's all white men!)  Ummm, you might want to consider a different picture!

The kids loved this video that played (in German).  They were so cute sitting on the floor watching it.

This thing was so cool... the 1955 BMW Isetta.  You get IN the car via the front!  (That's on the right in this picture... hard to get a feel for where the front or back are on this!)

No seriously. If you want to buy me this Rolls, I'll take it.  Love the powder blue color.  I dream of taking some fancy car out on the Autobahn!

No, no THIS one!  The M1 was only built between 1978 and 1981.  Only 453 were built!

Oh fun, a little BMW racing diorama. 

Really though, BMW?  Ladies in bikinis showing cars and sexy female photographers?  Sheesh.  (This display was from 1979/1980, so that might explain it!)

BMWs are hanging from the ceiling!

This thing was AWESOME!  It's a concept car, and the driver can move each of these panels for optimal driving conditions!  That makes it more fuel efficient, not to mention interesting to look at!  It's called the Lavos, and there are 260 identical, individual components that make the car more aerodynamic.

It's not a DeLorean but the doors open just like the DeLorean!  This is a BMW Turbo concept car.  Only two were ever made!

The Three Series room.  I wouldn't mind a cute little 3-Series!

After our tour of the museum, we decided to skip the BMW Welt which has some awesome exhibitions... because we were all starving!  We took the kids to the Hard Rock Café for the first time ever for mediocre food and good music (seriously... we heard Death Cab for Cutie and the B-52s when we were in there!)  My favorite piece of COURSE is the autographed guitar from my favorite band of ALL TIME!!!!  REM!

Playing some Tic Tac Toe with daddy at the Hard Rock Café.

Before we went home for the evening (because we had some Auburn football to watch!), we stopped into St. Michael's church.  It's the largest Renaissance church north of the Alps (check!), and was built in the late 1500s.  We stopped in because we wanted to see the burial place of our old pal, King Ludwig II (of the Bavarian palace fame).  But it was closed!  The Empress Elisabeth (Sissy) is buried here too!  I was really disappointed.  Thankfully we live only a couple of hours from Munich!

Sunday was our last full day in Munich, and we learned that the Munich Marathon would be happening around town.  We are kind of marathon viewing experts (!!) and it was a beautiful day, so why not!

We went down to the Marienplatz to watch the marathon.  How fun for the runners to come through when the Glockenspiel was moving!?

While we waited for the runners, the kids went crazy for this pigeon that was on the race path.  They started cheering for him as if he were competing!

Not to belittle what these guys (the two leaders) are doing... because if I had run this marathon, I'd still be running... but the winner finished in 2:27:10.  Compare that to Berlin (2:04:00), Chicago (2:11:23), Boston (2:12:45, and that was SLOW this year) and New York (2:10:34).  These guys wouldn't have even placed in the top 15 in Boston!  I wonder if the cool weather had anything to do with it, although I know runners usually prefer the cool to the heat.

This is Grant.  He is 6 and gets bored easily watching people run for fun.  I turned around at one point and he was in this still pose.  I love this little clown!

Truthfully, this wasn't as much fun to watch as Boston.  So many people dress up for Boston and it's so much fun for the spectators.  But we saw this man running with a turkey on his head!

Hello there good Viking!

Ummm... sir?  This is not a bike race!

Lots of people on the Marienplatz watching the race, but still plenty of space along the race path to watch the runners go by.

We wanted to go to the English Garten again for our favorite pastime:  drinking beer while the kids play at the playground.  The sun was out and felt warm during the mid afternoon at the Chinese Tower.

Before we had our fun, we wanted to explore the English Garten a bit more than we had before.  It really is very pretty!

On top of a hill is the Monopteros.  It was finished in 1836, and was built using leftover materials from the construction of the Munich Royal Residence.

The Monopteros is on a big hill, which the kids immediately wanted to roll down (with some other kids). Natalie would go FLYING down this hill!  They both went home VERY dirty this evening.

The view of the park (and downtown Munich to the west-southwest) is really very pretty from up on the Monopteros!

As we walked back to the Chinese Tower area, I snapped this pic of the Monopteros to show you how high the hill is!

A river runs through it.  The English Garten, that is!

Flood control structures and a seemingly very old bridge!  Oh and some Baileys up there...

The English Garten area around the Chinese Tower was somewhat packed today (compared to when we were there this time last year).  Everyone was out enjoying the last bit of sun before fall sets in and every day is cloudy, foggy and cool.

We ladies got what we were looking for.  Heisse Schokolade and bier!

I don't know why, but I loved this girl.  She was soaking up EVERY ounce of that sun!

The kids discovered the Carousel in the English Garten and I took a few pictures of them... although Natalie made friends with a little American boy (but his parents were definitely not military!) and they rode in the carriage together!  This Carousel has been around for over 100 years!

Until next time, Munich!