Munich/Berlin

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Gruesse aus Muenchen!!!

Fräulein Pipaya reporting from Bavaria. So, in Munich ve vere introduzed to zhe concept of free valking tourz - ve know vhat you´re thinking, but NEIN, ve did not have to eavesdrop.... they vere actually FREE!!!
Coming here, ve didn´t really know vhat to expect from Munich, other than a major Oktoberfest hangover.... but the city has so much more to offer than sitting a table in a tent for twelve hours, drinking liters of bier while listening to silly polka music. Now, ve are not implying zhat ve did not sample zhe local offerings (incidentally, dark wheat bier is the way to go ..... see photographic evidence below). But this is only because through our valking tour ve began to appreciate how major events in Munich´s history somehow always seemed to involve beer (ie... beer hall putsch). It´s amazing how many important historical stories begin with "After a few beers...." Hmmm... makes you think....

But in all seriousness, being in Munich has been such an eye-opening and thought-provoking experience. It´s so unlike many of the cities we have visited so far. Many of the events that occured here are not ones that are to be celebrated, but do need to be remembered in some way. So, you don´t find major monuments here commemorating achievements, instead there are subtle reminders of both the atrocities and heroic acts that took place. This was more powerful than any monuments we had seen thus far. We were overcome by how a city with such a dark past is able to transition and heal without trying to forget what happened. This is a sentiment that seems to reflect Germany as a whole. From talking to various locals (yes, at the Beer halls), we repeatedly heard about last year´s world cup held in Germany and how it was really the first time you saw Germans freely waving the flag unabashedly showing their patriotism.

We actually visited two other cities between Munich and Berlin, but we felt it would be more appropriate to include Berlin in this entry, as the events that took place in Munich served as a precursor for all that was to follow in Berlin. So much of what we associate with 20th century history - the end of World War I, World War II, the holocaust, the rise and fall of Communism - is centered within these few square miles. Maybe because of the proximity of the events that took place here and the fact that we can remember and see in our daily lives the impact that they had, seeing remnants of the Berlin Wall, walking through Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and standing over Hitler´s bunker where he commited suicide were particularly profound and emotional experiences.

This entry barely does justice to all that Berlin has to offer.. - unfortunately, we can´t yet properly articulate everything that we´ve experienced. We still need more time to work through and make sense of all that we´ve seen within these last 3 days. When we come back, buy us a dark wheat beer, and we´ll spit it all out very eloquently 😊 Until then, we hope we´ve been able to convey that everyone needs to come to Berlin!!!

Pipaya

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Comments

[hehehhe]

UmMM
I WANT A DARK WHEAT BEER. Hmmmmm. Careful around the Germans.

[moozers]

i love it. :)

[tory]

hi
I just want to tell pipaya that i miss her. I LOVE your german.

[vicky]

hey
Love your blog. Loved it at Cinque Terre and thought I'd commented but turns out I didn't so I'm trying again at Tory's urging. Great accordion picture. If you see a street organ, take a picture for me. Love, Tory's mom

[Cynthia]

Sehr toll!
Ah, the Hofbräuhaus - one of my faves! Reading this entry brought back a lot of fond memories from our last trip to Germany!