Germany - Day 4

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Today was a great day - but also sad.

We didn't set an alarm because we didn't have any set plans. Our bodies woke us up at around 6:30am as usual, but we decided we wanted to just laze around more so we went back to sleep. I literally don't think we've done that since before Nora was born! We woke up at.....get this: 11am!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. I couldn't believe it when I woke up the second time and looked at the clock. We totally missed breakfast and went straight to lunch!!!! Insanity!

After showing and heading out, we decided to just grab something quick and cheap from the train station (which is right across the street from our hotel). Randy got a couple slices of pizza. I felt kind of rumbly in the tumbly, so I felt like having veggies. I got a salad and a green smoothie. I'm telling you what - that food was SO GOOD! We both really enjoyed the food and we got it at the freaking train station!!!

We hopped the next train to Dachau (the name of the town, actually) and took a bus to the concentration camp inside the town of Dachau.

I don't even know where to go from here, honestly.

We walked around the Dachau camp on our own, reading the plaques and seeing inside the various buildings. It was sobering. Humbling. We saw the building of individual cells for "special" prisoners, such as clergy and political men. We saw barracks, which showed how tightly-quartered the prisoners were. We even saw the gas chamber and crematorium. Every building and landmark had a plaque, which didn't hold back on the information. Blunt facts and photographs everywhere, which truly exemplified the magnitude of the holocaust.
It was truly incredible, to stand in the same place that so many lost their lives a mere 80 years ago. To me, the most humbling takeaways were:

a) that it was only 80 some years ago. Not even 100. It was less than a century ago that all these horrendous crimes took place.
b) I can't fathom that so many SS men/Nazis partook in these actions voluntarily and happily. Out of the thousands of Nazi soldiers....did NONE of them really think about their actions? Did any of them have a second thought about it, like "hmmm this feels wrong", or sick in their stomach to treat other humans this way? It can't be true that SO many thousand of them just followed blindly to Hitler's power and ideologies.
c) I also think a lot about the US citizens so far away. When the news broke that the concentration camps were actually DEATH camps for so many, what was the reaction? How did people take that news and what did they do and feel? How would WE feel today if news like that broke one random morning?

In short - we were very humbled by the things we saw and learned today. The day was incredibly rainy and dreary, but so far I think we appreciate this day the most. It was incredible to stand on the grounds of something so historic and learn from it. Everyone on earth should go to one of these camps in their lifetime and learn. It's important.

When we finished the tour, we took the train back to Munich and immediately went to a bar. Randy found the Augustiner Keller - big beer hall in town - and we had a lovely dinner & several large steins of beer. The atmosphere was so much fun, similar to Oktoberfest, but not nearly as rowdy. Great time and great food!

Tomorrow we are heading to the south again - to the Alps! More to come....

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