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Background: As Europe's largest economy and most populous nation, Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

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By Christine and Kim
June 12th 2008

Day 59: Munich/Dachau, Germany

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Gate in Dachau Concentration Camp
The translation is: "Work will set you free."

We went to Dachau Concentration Camp on a tour today. It was extremely depressing and made us both sick to our stomachs to hear all about the torture and murder that had happened there and to be standing in the buildings where it happened. Dachau was the very first concentration camp and one of the last to be liberated. Our guide took us through the museum and the rest of the concentration camp: the barracks, yard, gas chamber, crematorium, check-in area, original gate, sculpture memorials, electric fence, and church memorials. We couldn't bring ourselves to take any pictures beside some [View Full Entry]

By Christine and Kim
June 10th 2008

Day 57: Munich, Germany

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Badger
Here is a butcher in his butcher shop. On our free walking tour we thought that our tour guide was saying "badger" when he was talking about how they moved all of the butchers outside of the main squ... [more]

Our tour today was a walking tour to important historical Nazi and Hitler places throughout the city (Munich was the birthplace of the Nazism). We heard the story of Hitler's life and his part in the Nazi Party. When the tour ended we went to the store to buy food for lunch then went back to our hostel to eat. After relaxing for a little bit we went out to find the opera house because we heard on our first tour that they sometimes have cheap student priced tickets. We wanted to see the ballet that had been advertised on the [View Full Entry]

By 57eev
June 9th 2008

Beer Halls and Insane Buildings, Germany

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

LETZT GEHT'S LOOOS!
Euro 08 was huge over there in May

Hallo for the next little story about Germany. We visited Germany 2 times on the trip, Munich was the first stop and we returned to the Northern Wine Valley called St Goar a few days later. 18/5/08 - Hopfgarten to Munich (München) After our much needed early night in Hopfgarten, we awoke to a slightly rainy day for our departure to Munich. Our first stop was back in towards Innsbruck where we visited the Swarovski Crystalland museum and the amazing showroom that followed. This was probably one of the most weirdest exhibitions I've ever seen, full of surreal artwork that had [View Full Entry]

By Christine and Kim
June 9th 2008

Day 56: Munich, Germany

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Crazy Tour Guide Lady
Here she is explaining for the 40th time where and when to meet!

Today we woke up and checked out of our room, put our bags in storage and left the hostel for our tour. We went to the Grayline office to see about validating our tickets and climbed to the fifth floor to find that they weren't open. We walked to the tour meeting place with our confirmation of payment and hoped to not get "spoken to" again for not exchanging our vouchers for tickets. We were put on a bus with another tour group heading to Eagle's Nest. There were only 9 others going on our tour to Herrenchiemsee Castle on the [View Full Entry]

By emilyjh
June 8th 2008

Auf Munich

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Made it to Munich safe and sound. Much to say, much to do, much to see, including the Germany-Poland game that starts in 20 minutes. I take back everything I ever said about soccer being boring. Turns out it´s only crazy people who make you watch it at 4 AM that MAKE it boring. Longer post to come later. Love you all! [View Full Entry]

By Christine and Kim
June 8th 2008

Day 55: Munich, Germany

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Fountain in the Center of Munich
This fountain was installed to help clean the air in the city of Munich.

We woke up to our 3 roommates from Australia frantically packing to get out of the hostel on time so that they wouldn't get charged for an extra night. Christine had already had a terrible night of sleep because of her snoring bunk mate. She had to wake Kim up in the middle of the night to get ear plugs. However, she could still hear the snoring through her ear plugs. We got up when the three left and got ready for a free walking tour provided by the hostel. The tour was three hours long and took us to many [View Full Entry]

By Christine and Kim
June 7th 2008

Day 54: Amsterdam to Munich

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Last evening we left Amsterdam by train at about 6pm. It was a little over 2 hours to get to the train station in Brussels. We sat across from each other (with Kim's big bag overhead and Christine's on the floor). The arch in Christine's bag does not allow it to fit overhead, we learned when traveling on the night train to Granada that it is not worth the effort and getting it stuck. We had a free seat next to each of us at first. The train got crowded quickly as it stopped at places along the way to Brussels. [View Full Entry]

By Zachariah
June 5th 2008

Munich!

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

P1000810

Munich is great city. I started Munich full of worry that the rain would destroy my one day there. Seriously The rain is following me. It rained in Vienna, all 3 days in Hallstatt, in Munich, and even now in Interlaken it's raining. Enough already! But the walking tour (neweuropetours.eu) still went even with the rain, and my lovely Broken Umbrella (TM) is still going strong, so no stupid rain is gonna stop me ;) The tour is great, as it's purely tip-based and therefore requires the guides to be excellent in order for them to make moneys. And I tipped [View Full Entry]

By matt_werner
June 5th 2008

Best 6 Euros Yet

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

So far the best €6 I have spent was today on the tour at BMW. Went through their production facilties, seeing how things on 3 series cars progress from the start when steel is delivered as rolls, through different stages, finishing with testing the car on the dyno. Took a couple of hours and the guide was pretty funny, with a dry sense of humour and Austrian accent. Well worth the money. Checked out the Olympic sie was I was out there, pretty ordinary stadium by today's standards, didnt bother with the tower as it was a bit cloudy and the [View Full Entry]

By matt_werner
June 4th 2008

I Like A Town That Smells Like Beer

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Arrived here in Munich 2 days ago and its all good so far. First night had a few at a beer hall after arriving late, then yesterday did a walking tour and spent the afernoon wandering around until going to my couchsurfing host's place. Going to do a Third Reich tour this morning then go to Dachau this afternoon, cach an early train tomorrow and go out to Neuschwanstein and surrounding area for the day. Then the BMW museum and a few other things in Munich. Tried to have a Bavarian brekkie at a few place this morning but they werent [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich