Munich--The Festive Capital of Bavaria

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Munich
Munchen is the German name for Munich. I searched high and low for the Munchen Carpet store, but couldn’t find it—I knew right away that this town was nothing like Brussels. If you didn’t get it, that’s ok, move on.

On Thursday, 7 August, Dan dropped us at the train station and we parted ways with the promise to reconnect in the future and not wait so long to visit each other. After a short train ride, we arrive in Munich. Our stop at this destination would be a short two days before moving on into the heart of Bavaria.

Munich is a festive capital of Bavaria. This summer Munich celebrates its 850th Birthday. Wow, imagine all of the history packed into 850 years and compare that to the brief history in America. Upon arrival, we get our bearings, head to the Tourist Information Center to get our local maps and propaganda. Our tram picks us up right across from the train station and we head to “The Tent”. The tent is a campground, but also provides accommodation in two large festival tents. One of the festival tents has about 100 bunk beds and the other has no beds, but you can make a bedroll on the floor. Each of the tents has wall lockers to secure your possessions.


Lynne and I will be camping in the campground. We find our spot and pitch the tent. While we were setting up, Dominique, from the campground came over for a chat. He explained that this campground was pretty carefree and people enjoyed staying there because they did not have a lot of governing rules. He even said that an elephant was welcome as long as they cleaned up after themselves. We both got a big kick out of that line. After getting camp set up and securing the bags, we headed off to the local grocery store to pick up dinner. The campground has a kitchen so we picked up the essentials to make our own schnitzel and spatzel. Dan, we even found some rham sauce. Dinner was superb—we pulled off a great German meal and enjoyed it.

Shortly after dark, the rain began. It was pretty heavy at times, but tapered off into a light rain for most of the rest of the evening. There was a large group of Australians and another group of Brits at the campground. For those of you who may not know, Aussies and Brits are well known for their ability to party and have a great time. These folks were no exception. After dark, the staff fires up the bonfire and the festivities begin. It is pretty comical watching groups of folks breaking into a chorus while accompanied by an out of tune guitar. On another note, why does everyone who picks up a guitar in a group setting like this think they can actually play? I guess alcohol plays a major role in the musical tuning compensation factor—much like the beer goggle effect where ugly woman get more beautiful with the onward consumption of alcohol.
Lynne and I head to the tent and attempt to get to sleep, but the drunken serenading continues. Shortly after hearing a very loud and distorted version of “God Save the Queen”, we decide to visit with our good friend Ambien to help us get a little rest.

Although this campground was extremely loud throughout the night, Lynne and I fully understand and do not get agitated. We fully appreciate these youngsters having a great time. We are the outsiders in this type of environment and can deal with these types of distractions.
We awake on Friday, 8 August and decide to take a short train ride to visit Dachau. Dachau was the very first German concentration camps during WWII. It represented the beginning of a sad and tragic outcome of this war. A visit to Dachau will certainly change anyone’s outlook on the war. I had previously been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, but I never got the hair razing experience from that place as I did while standing on the grounds of Dachau. I could state a bunch of factual information here, but it would not do any justice to the range of emotions we experienced while walking through this site. Although Dachau was not a primary death camp like Auschwitz, it still represents the brutality of people and the atrocities of this war. Dachau still had more than its share of unnecessary deaths due to the horrific treatment on conditions these folks had to endure. The museum features firsthand accounts from survivors that put things into perspective.

After leaving Dachau, we return to Munich. The day presents more rain but it is intermittent. Lynne and I finally breakdown and buy two umbrellas. We had weighed this option previously, but decided the extra weight would be a worthwhile investment for the comfort factor.


Back in Munich, ee found the Marionplatz (plaza). This place was crawling with tourist and is the heart of high end shopping in the city. I marvel at the number of folks from the Middle East flocking to these upscale shopping stores. Everywhere we go, we see women in their burkas (traditional black grab). They are accompanied by the husbands (sans distashas) and a tribe of kids. Most of the guys are loaded down with shopping bags from their wives’ shopping sprees. I have not mentioned it until now, but there has been a large percentage of Arabs in most cities we have visited in Europe so far. I am surprised that there are any left in their home countries at all. After living in Kuwait for nearly two years, we know why Arabs descend upon Europe in the summer months. They escape the brutal heat of the desert which can reach a whopping 130F.

In Marionplatz, there are a number of street performers, but the most impressive is the 7 man band which features horns, an accordion, a violin, and an upright piano. These guys were completely portable and moved to various locations around the plaza. Another comical street performer was the melon head man. You can see his photo in this post. Again we were bombarded with panhandlers, but we paid them little mind as we worked our way through the crowds. This plaza proved to be a great place to just sit and watch people passing by. People watching has become a great source of free entertainment. I am working on a feature about people watching, but this one will be a “works in progress” until I get caught up on the rest of these posts.

While in Marionplatz, we happen upon a peaceful demonstration and curiosity drives me right into the midst of it. Keep in mind that today is August the 8th. The Olympics officially kick off today in China. The demonstration is a Free Tibet demonstration. Here we are in Bavaria, Germany and we are witnessing a peaceful demonstration about human rights in Tibet. I stick around for a few moments and observe the crowd as they chat and sing songs. I can understand anything they are signing, but their message is loud and clear. I take a few photos and move on.

As we are heading back to the campground, the skies get dark and it begins raining very heavily. We break out the new umbrellas which do a great job of sheltering us from the downpour. We arrive back in camp to find things a little more quiet. Little do we know, but the residents of this little tent city are now in town partaking in the Bavarian spirits. We cook dinner and relax under the deck for a while. The crowd filters back in and they are ready to commence with the party action. We both know that our friend Ambien will help us sleep again tonight. During the night, the giys in the tents behind us decide they will attempt to party until the sun comes up. Just about the time I was going to invite them to go back to the pavilion to party, I heard another neighbor go over and settle them down. They quite down for the remainder of the night.

Throughout the night, the rain beats a constant pitter patter on the tent. I wake up in the morning and curse to myself. I do not like packing out a wet tent. I immediately am relieved as the sun breaks through the clouds. I know that if I wipe everything down and lay it in the sun, it will dry pretty quickly. After laying everything out, we get a quick breakfast, get showered and begin the pack out process. All is dry for the final pack out and we move on to our next destination—Oberau, Bavaria.

I will add a few notes on our general travel experience. Lynne and I continue to adjust our routine and are getting very good at functioning. I failed to mention that while visiting Dan and Marianne, we did some tweaking to our gear list. Lynne picked up some different clothes and shipped some back home. I retired my messenger bag and picked up a small backpack to use as my day bag. The small backpack is proving to be a wise investment already.
Our Eurail Pass is proving to be an extremely smart investment. Rail travel would be extremely costly if we did not pre-purchase this before leaving the states. It also afford us to ride in first class which is certainly a nice way to travel.
We have modified our diets tremendously and have gotten into the routine of buying stuff for our midday meals. We are eating lots of cheeses, breads, salami, and various other meats. We have cut down on our soda consumption and tend to drink lots more water. We are both on the RTW (Round The World). We are burning a tremendous amount of calories, but our caloric intake has been reduced. As you might guess, both of us are losing weight and we are both getting a great workout—particularly on those days when we are humping the fully loaded packs around. Our endurance increases daily.

Stay tuned for our next post from the Bavarian Alps.

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Photos

Dachau Gate
Work WIll Set You Free

Melon Head
SOme people will do just about anything to make a buck. At least he isn't panhandling.