Day 11 - Dachau, Trains, Boats and Planes

---

Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802

Today was the day for us to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp. After spending a lot of time in Berlin at war related places, we had deliberately had a break during our time in Munich. However, there was no way we could not visit this place, so today was the day.

As all things seem to be in Europe, it was very easy to get to. We went to the station and purchased the correct daily tickets that covered the train from Isartor to Dachau and then the bus from Dachau station. As our hotel was literally right next door to Isartor, we simply caught the train from there – too easy. It is also very economical, from memory we purchased a partner day ticket which allows groups of up to five adults. We needed the Munich XXL ticket to cover the outer areas of Munich, I think it cost around 14 Euros for all of us!

The train took around 30 minutes to reach Dachau station and the bus was already there waiting. What wonderful service! Here in Melbourne, if the bus drivers see a train coming they quickly take off – no wonder we never use public transport here. The bus then took about ten or fifteen minutes to reach the Camp.

We went first to the Visitor's Centre and decided that we would use audio guides rather than join a guided tour. We then set off with our audio guides and provided maps in hand. It was actually a lovely day weatherwise, considering that it was the middle of winter. A little chilly but quite pleasant and sunny. I struggled a little in the beginning using the map and guide, fortunately Gary and the boys fared a lot better and explained it all to me! As with the memorials that we visited in Berlin there was an incredible amount of information and almost all of it very depressing.

We probably spent around three hours looking all around the site and the documentation centre. We missed the opportunity to see the video, but again, had seen similar in Berlin. It was a very interesting day and I am glad we went. We caught the bus back through the town of Dachua, which actually looked like a very nice town, and back on the train to Munich.

Once back in Munich proper, we decided to revisit the Hofbrauhaus, as the boys had not yet been and it is probably a "must do" whilst in Munich. We ended up eating lunch there as we hadn't eaten yet – while it wasn't the best food we had in Germany, it wasn't too bad either. We all shared a Mixed German Sausage Platter with a basket of various breads, yummy. The boys and Gary then naturally had to buy a souvenir at the shop.

We really only had two or three hours left after our late lunch so we thought we would visit the Deutsches Museum. It too was only a short walk from the Torbrau so we walked to Museuminsel for our visit. We focused primarily on the aeronautic, astronautic and maritime sections as naturally all three men love boats, planes and spaceships!! It was a really good museum and I can well see how people could spend hours here, but as with all museums, we found two hours to be plenty for a single visit. If we ever come back to Munich though, we would certainly visit again and explore some of the other sections.

We finished off our last night in Munich with dinner at another casual pub style place just down the Tal a little way from the Torbrau named the Zum Durbreau. Since Gary and I hadn't really had any traditional foods other than lots of sausages and schnitzel, we decided to go with the Pork Knuckle or Schweinshaxe served with potato dumplings. It was totally delicious! The pork had beautiful crispy crackling just the way that I like it and the meat simply fell off the bone, beautiful. I was not such a fan of the potato dumplings, I would rather have had a serve of mash, but seeing as mash is pretty much my favourite food that is not surprising. We finished off with a serve of Apfelstrudel served with custard.

After dinner we headed back to the Torbrau for a final glass of wine at the bar before an earlyish night. We had an early start the next day for our train trip to Salzburg.

---