Advertisement
Dachau
The main gateTrain to Munich and another Harry Potter carriage, this time with 6 seats all to ourselves the whole way, was awesome I could put all the armrests up and really stretch out.
Arrived in Munich early afternoon, managed to walk past our hotel without seeing it, walked about 10 minutes before working out we had missed it retraced our steps and it was a 30 second walk from the train station....idiots! Checked in and was advised that not only was our room ready but we had scored a luxury upgrade.....YAY! The room is huge the bed is huge and it has a big mustard coloured leather chair that Stephen would like to put in his suitcase if he could fit it!
Unpacked and headed out to explore, I'm not sure if it's because it's Friday afternoon or its usual but there are people everywhere, the streets are packed, we seem to have found one of the main shopping areas, its a pedestrian area so at least you aren't avoiding vehicles but there are so many people and its so hot that after grabbing lunch and wandering in and out of a few shops, a few 'normal' and a few
Dachau
Work will set you free touristy (you will be all pleased to know we decided against the cuckoo clock) we decided to walk back toward the hotel. Stopped at a bar with outdoor seats on the way back and sat in the sun to enjoy a drink, Stephen has been battling a cold for three days and feeling absolutely miserable today so he had lemon, ginger and whiskey while I had a London chocolate.....chocolate with baileys..delicious! I think the term 'bitchy resting face' was invented for German woman they do it so well.......and they are very very snappy when you ask them something, at lunch I wanted to use the restroom, after traipsing down miles of stairs to get to it I couldn't work out which was his or hers...no pictures and words which didn't contain any clues, I also realised I needed a code for the door....so went back up the millions of stairs and asked one of the staff the code, she frowned at me, then reeled off a number very quickly ...Sorry? EINS FUNF EINS SECHS she yelled at me writing it down illegibly.....that one years German I had in college sure came in handy! Still struggling to work out which was
Dachau
An original uniform the ladies, and wasn't prepared to ask old grumpy boots I took my best guess and must of got it right cos as I left another woman came in. The ladies here make me look positively amiable!
As Stephen was feeling so rotten by the time we got back to the hotel we decided that a room service hamburger and chips was our best bet, some cold and flu medication and an early night.
Day 2
Had arranged a tour of Dachau concentration camp memorial for today, so a quick breakfast of railway pastries and a cuppa and we met up with the rest of the group. The guide was an Australian who has lived here 8 years so very easy for us to understand, the other good thing is the group is very small just 7 of us. We catch a train (2 levels underground, I'm already in panic mode that it's going to be underground all the way, but no only a few minutes before we are back on the surface), to the township of Dachau then onto a bus to the camp. James, the guide gave us heaps of information on the way, he's
Dachau
The memorial sculpture very knowledgable and very interesting. I can't say it was a visit I enjoyed, parts of it were interesting, parts horrific and most of it really really sad. Walking through the gas chamber was probably one of the most gut wrenching things I have ever done in my life. Very hard to get a handle on what emotions you are feeling, none of them pleasant. I am glad we went, I am pleased we did the tour rather than doing it on our own as we got a lot more information than just looking at exhibits but it was a really difficult day in lots of respects.
A late lunch, a drink in the bar downstairs and a wee nap to recover from the heat, before a scrummy dinner at an Italian restaurant down the road to finish the day.
DAY 3
Up early as we have to meet the bus to take us up into the mountains for our tour of Linderhoff Schloss, Neuschwanstein Palace and including little stop at Oberammergau for ice creams, toilet and tourist shops.
The bus is a very new two storey job with a loo (hooray), it's nearly
Dachau
An original guard tower full to capacity with one or two free seats downstairs. The guide is ok, bit grumpy and really does the basics, tells us a little information on the way, collects our money and buys the entrance tickets, shows us where we should line up and what time we should be back on the bus.
It's a stunning summers day and very very hot. We arrive first at Schloss Linderhoff, which is a small palace built for Ludwig II who was the king of Bavaria, it's modelled on Versailles, a miniature version and is full of gold gilt and very very shiny. The palace guide we had was an odd man, he spoke like he was telling a story at times and at other times he acted like he was the King. There are NO PHOTOS as Stephen got quite firmly told! I could see no reason other than they want to sell you their photos for the ban , as long as your flash is off it should be all good. We have been inside all sorts of stately homes and palaces around the world this is the first we have been in that completely bans indoor photography. Anyway
Dachau
The parade ground can't change the rules so there are NO PHOTOS of the inside of the palace other than the first one Stephen took! The tour took half an hour and was really interesting, the palace is still fully furnished and was fun to see all the ornate wall decorations and heavy antique furniture. The grounds were just beautiful, reminded me a lot of home, lots of trees, hills and very green.
Our next stop was as I said earlier Oberammergau, this is the town which every ten years holds the Passion Play. (Google it) I had heard of it but only because I did some school project on the Beer Fest and it's usually held around the same time. Had a very yummy Italian ice cream served by a typical grumpy German lady, found a loo, put my head in the door of one shop and thought not dealing with that massive crowd of people and got back on the bus.
About an hours drive to Neuschwanstein castle. This is the castle that Walt Disney modelled the Disneyland castle on. It is stunning, every angle a picture. Apparently the aim was always to build a fairy tale castle and
Dachau
The crematorium that's exactly what it is. The tour bus can only go to the village at the bottom of the hill you then either walk up, horse and cart up or bus up. We have arrived at about noon and our tickets give us an entry time of 3.05pm, this sounds like heaps of time but the place is packed! By the time we find a toilet, then a seat to get lunch, get served, eat, pay and get a bus ticket to as far as the castle bus can take us it's already after 1pm. We manage to beat a huge crowd who turned up in the bus line straight after we arrived so only had to wait about 15 minutes for the next bus and got on no trouble. A ride up the narrow windy road, then a walk up to a bridge to take pictures of the castle from that vantage point.
Get there and the bridge was packed and a massive queue waiting to get on, we get in line, soon notice the line is taking forever to move and it's because groups of one nationality of people who shall remain nameless consider the
Dachau
The gas chamber....it gives you chills queue is not for them and constantly walk straight past all of us waiting and push into the front, most around us are just muttering about it, I'm VERY VOCAL trying to make them stop but they just completely ignore you, pretend they are deaf dumb and blind, a lady behind me was getting really angry as well said I'm trying to block them but they just push past and I'm only one person. It was just crazy, there was a guy at the front controlling how many could go on the bridge at any one time but he obviously was powerless to stop these pushy pushy people. Eventually made it onto the bridge the view was spectacular, and was on the bridge for only about three minutes after all that wait, long enough to take a couple of pics and then let someone else on, also when faced with a man made structure and huge amounts of people on it I always think of the Cave Creek disaster and freek myself out!
A 5 minute walk down to the castle proper and a short wait, chatting with some other kiwis (from Chch) also on our bus and we
Linderhof
The fountain, Stephen is in the orange shirt are inside. This castle is quite differently decorated to the previous palace, it's darker inside and it's not like castles we have seen before, it has the wall paintings etc but the plasterwork is painted in blues and yellows and gives more of that fairytale type finish. Lots of circular stairs to take you up the towers and fantastic views over the valley from the windows. The tour again took half an hour, was probably enough but could have lingered in places if given the opportunity, however they have so many hundreds of people to get through in a day that if the tours were much longer you just wouldn't get the chance to get in at all.
By the time we get out the temperature seems to have risen another few degrees and it's unbelievably hot, we have a 20 minute walk down the hill to the bus, we manage to buy an ice block on the way but are both ready to melt into a big sweaty puddle at the end of it. A big nap on the bus and we are back in town by about 7pm, a huge day!
DAY 4
Thought the
Linderhof
Outside of the palace past few days were hot, today is ridiculous, caught a bus to Englischer Garden. Stopped and watched the river surfers, then went for a massive walk round the park, stopping for lunch at a beer garden where Steohen struggled to drink a litre of beer and I had a much smaller coke and shared a plate of chips between us. They give you tokens to claim back your deposit on your glasses but when Stephen went to find out where they should go the lady was less than helpful, the glasses were left on the table, the tokens now reside in my handbag! The gardens are massive and we got lost a few times trying to leave. Did get a good walk round as a result, the place was full of sunbathers, both dressed and fully undressed! Mums and their kids, cyclists, elderly people, people walking, reading or just sitting, obviously a well used place. Not gardens as we would picture but mostly mature trees and open fields for people to use for whatever.
We left the garden just after 2pm intending to go to the museum at one end of the park, when we got there found it
Linderhof
NO PHOTOS! was closed so found the bus stop headed back to the hotel for a cold shower, read of our books, and a nana nap ......its way too hot to do anything else outdoors!
Found a restaurant down the road for dinner and found ourselves sitting next to people we had met on the Tapas tour way back in Barcelona....it really is a small world!
After dinner decided to try one of the Munich pokie rooms.....don't ever bother....you put your $20 in then it loads 2 euro into your spending account and holds the rest loading .20 every minute or so. You spend ages just sitting watching ur money loading into your spending account so you can play. Good for not spending money but you seem to have no show of winning either and it's soooooooo boring!
Train to Zurich tomorrow, so a big night repacking the bags.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.138s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0413s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
