We arrived in Munich after a 6 hour-long quiet train ride from Berlin. The Hotel Leopolt could not have been closer to the train station. Checked in the and bags gown, we walked a few blocks to the Third Street Promenade of Munich, a pedestrian mall and main square called Marienplatz. Then dinner at the Hofbräuhaus , a high energy, touristy Munich beer hall complete with an oompah band. The band would play a song, drink a beer, play a song... It was incredibly loud and had streams of tourists coming to take pictures. The food was surprisingly good and dessert even better: we shared apple strudel and "dampfnudel," which was basically challah bread in a pool of vanilla pudding. Delish.
Thursday we visited the Residenz (Wittelsbachs' palace; the family that ruled Bavaria for 700 years) all morning (there were over 100 rooms), then went to the top of the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) tower for the highest view of the city. Then we took the touristy hop on-hop off bus tour of Munich recommended by RS in the afternoon. The bus stopped near the BMW "Welt" (world), location of the global corporate offices, museum, and one of the 23 factories. I had tried to make reservations online for a factory plant tour, but was unsuccessful. Since the bus tour was hop on-hop off, we decided to look at what BMW Welt had to offer, perhaps see about tour. As luck had it, there was room in the English speaking tour starting 30 minutes after we arrived. The 2.5 hour tour was great but the super automated section had these robots that were huge, nimble, intelligent-looking arms that made Terminator seem very near. It was freaky.
Friday morning was spent at the Dachau concentration camp memorium. Wow, what a powerful site and museum, experience. The people who created the museum, which consists mainly of written explanations on giant posterboard, did a thoroughly effective job of explaining the history leading up to Hitler and his party's rise, then the creation of the concentration camps, mistreatment and murder of prisoners, and eventually liberation. They wove Dachau's individual history with information about the war and the camp system. The information seemed very honest and direct, with many quotes and interviews from former prisoners . Then we walked outside to see the reconstructed barracks and original crematorium. The physical space of the memorial is a fraction of the original Dachau camp. The crematorium looked like any German train station in its verdant green setting. It was breathtaking in its ordinary appearance. I'm glad I went to Dachau near the end of my time in Germany because it's already so common to think about WWII and Nazis when you're here. Every time you here someone yelling in German, for example. It's a weird country to visit because there's so much history to see and modern life to enjoy, yet those 12 years under Hilter were so ... incomprehensible. How the same precision that BMW employs today to create cars could be intentionally employed to murder and torture millions to innocent people is beyond my understanding. And knowing that so few of the people involved with the camps were bought to justice, especially because the Western world was too busy fighting Communism is really crushing. And still we live in a world where governments , such as in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, that are free to commit genocide against their own people, not through the same Nazi methods but actions or inaction that leads to mass disease and/or starvation. It's hard to believe in justice and the goodness of people after visiting Dachau.
On the train from Dachau, Dad started talking to a German woman who was about his age in a combination of German and English. She was carrying a large flower that we learned she grew herself. When she learned we had just come from Dachau to see the concentration camp, she frowned said, "Dachau [something in German], Bush and Iraq." I was a little taken a back that she was so on the offensive so quickly. I guess if I heard someone had gone to Washington DC and only looked at the Vietnam memorial, I would be surprised. The town of Dachau that we saw from the bus looked idyllic. And I can't argue with anyone who opposes the US invasion of Iraq. But she seemed irked that we went to the camp. Maybe she felt it as an applied attack on her as a German. (In the interest of fairness, my dad did not think she was irked we went to the memorial, that she was just saying the memorial is a sad place to visit.)
When you hear/see a lot of German, you realize how many German-origin words are in English.
We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called La Vecchia Masseria that operated on the chaos theory. We sat at a table that was basically in the major pathway between the kitchen and tables. I had minestrone soup that was very German: 1. It was half potatoes and 2. the waiter left the bowl of parmesean for me to garnish. Then Spagetti Napoli. Dad had the tasting menu and it was quite a gourmet choice.
