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Published: June 11th 2017
After yesterday's long day of sightseeing through the Bavarian Alps, today was another busy day of sightseeing in the Munich area. To make it ever better, it was an unseasonably warm day today with temperatures approaching the upper 80s. We caught the train over to Dachau, located in the northwestern suburbs of Munich. Surprisingly, the subways and trains here in Munich seemed to work on the honor system. There were no checks to ensure that people paid their train fare prior to boarding. Being the cheapskates that we were, we all boarded the train to Dachau without paying, hoping that there would be no enforcement officers on board. Dachau is best known for the concentration camp that is located here which was the first of the Nazi concentration camps in Germany. Upon arrival in Dachau, we made our way over to the concentration camp and reserved our tickets for the 1pm tour of the camp. After having lunch in the cafeteria, we embarked on a roughly 2 hour tour of the camp. Starting in the prison area, we were shown the claustophobic rooms where prisoners were held. Then we were led into an exhibition area where we were given some history
of the Dachau Concentration Camp, shown some Nazi propaganda posters and photographs, and provided with some very insightful information on how they identified the prisoners and how they systematically stripped people of their individuality. From here we were brought back outside into the sweltering heat where we walked around the roll call area and were shown Dachau International Monument. Sculpted in 1968, this bronze sculpture features barbed wire and skeletons symbolizing the emaciated victims of the concentration camp. We made our way over to the barracks where the vast majority of the prisoners were housed. Most of the barracks had been torn down. However, a few remained standing and we were allowed to walk in and out while wondering how people could survive in such cramped and claustrophobic conditions. From the barracks, we walked around ther perimeter of the camp where we were shown some of the guard towers, trenches, and barbed wire that lined the perimeter. The tour culminated in the most disturbing area of the camp, the crematorium. Here we were allowed the enter the gas chamber where thousands of people must have entered to meet their final fate. It was a moment of quiet reflection for almost
everyone here. Most people were undoubtedly thinking of man's inhumanity towards their fellow man. Of course there is always that one insensitive person unaware of the inappropriate nature of their actions. One visitor had the audacity to pretend like he was being gassed as his friend was taking his photo. The tour ended here and it was a long hot walk back to the main entrance of the camp. The long walk definitely gave me some time to think about the atrocities that had occurred here only 70 years ago.
After that somber visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp, we chose to spend the evening in the small town of Andechs outside of Munich. Andechs is best known for their monastery which I've been told has the best beer around. This was reason enough for us to pay the town a visit. We caught the S-Bahn train as far as it would go down to the town of Herrsching and from there we caught a taxi over to the town of Andechs. We arranged with the taxi driver to return for us in 1 1/2 hour and we were off to grab dinner cafeteria style and enjoy
Gate To the Prisoner's Camp
Translated as "Work Will Make You Free"some beer. Almost immediately, I was approached by an obviously drunken German guy who proceeded to give me a big wet kiss on my cheek. We all got our pork knuckle dinners and huge steins full of beer and enjoyed the warm evening out on the patio surrounded by a good number of Germans dressed in traditional lederhosen and dirndls. Sylvia really liked her stein and wasn't in the mood to purchase one at the gift shop, so as we were about to leave and explore the grounds of the monastery, she refilled her beer and decided to walk out with her stein. There was some time to kill before our taxi driver returned to take us back to the train station so we decided to see if the monastery was still open. Unfortunately due to the rather late hour, everything was closed up. It was a quick hour and a half here at Andechs. Our taxi arrived to bring us to the train station and we were making our way back to Munich for our final night in the city. It was also Churro's last night of the trip as he was flying home tomorrow and we were heading
over to Stuttgart. We spent tonight at a nearby Irish Bar called Kennedy's where we danced the night away and listened to some great American rock music.
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