Day 32 - Saturday, August 31st München sites

Up around 8:45 and meditated for 30 minutes. Blue sky this morning with a forecast of a high of 23 degrees and occasional clouds. Banana and raspberries for breakfast in my room.
My plan is to get to Marienplatz for the Sandemans Munich walking tour that begins at 10:45 and runs for three hours. This is the link to their Munich "free" tour and itinerary: http://www.newmunichtours.com/daily-tours/munich-free-tour.html
I took their Hamburg tour last Saturday and really enjoyed it.

Here is the U/S Bahn map of Munich. I am staying in the southern part of Munich near the U1 (green) station Wettersteinplatz.

Check out this picture of my key to my basement room in Munich. It is a skeleton key. I had no idea they still existed! It is fairly dark where I enter and not always the easiest to get this key to open quickly. Plus, these skeleton keys are heavy.

Arrive at Marienplatz about 10 minutes before the 10:45 start of the tour. Register my first name and email address. The english speaking group is huge and we divide in two so there are about 28 people with Scott our tour guide. He is originally from Perth, Australia and met a German girl and is now living in Munich. Very informative and a great sense of humour. The first information is how when the Thirty Years War ended in 1638 they built the tall statue that stands in the middle of Marienplatz. The Thirty Years War was between the Protestants (North) and Catholics (South). Munich is strongly Catholic. The most famous tourist site is the Glockenspiel located in the Rathaus in the Marienplatz. Also, described as the second most overrated tourist destination in Europe. Learned that the Glockenspiel contains two stories from the 16th Century; a royal wedding with jousts and the plague creating the Coopers' dance. We watched the Glockenspiel which becomes animatronic at 11/12 and 5 pm.

Munich became a town in the 8th Century and was begun by French monks who started a monastery. What made Munich rich and large was diverting the salt trade from Salzburg to the rest of Europe through their town over the newly built bridge. 90% of Munich was damaged by Allied bombing towards the end of the war. Ironically, the reason that Munich was able to replicate what it lost was that Hitler ensured that everything in Munich was catalogued well before the war so the records enabled the post-WWII builders to reconstruct exactly. Fraunenkirch has 100 metre twin towers that were not bombed as the Allies used those towers as landmarks in bombing the rest of the city. Actually, the Allies did this with each German city. The population of Munich is now 1.3 million people. It is the capital of Bavaria.

 Typical street in the Altstadt (old town area)

 Scott (with the beard) was our tour guide .

 Frauenkirch footprint tile for the builder who never saw the church completed before he died.

 Alterhof (original home of the Bavarian kings) and where Hitler painted prior to becoming a Nazi leader. He sold his paintings as his livelihood.

These three pictures are out of sequence with my day as I took the stairs (100 metres up) to the observation deck at the end of my day. 1.50 Euro to hike up the many stairwells and stairs. Gridlock on many stairs with people trying to get down against people going up. Mostly, only wide enough for one person. The views are spectacular and nobody is allowed to build anything taller. My fear of heights was tested here as the side of the platform was a long drop to the street.   :-)

 Views from St. Peter's Church observation deck.

 Views from St. Peter's Church observation deck. Frauenkirch is seen clearly.

Views from St. Peter's Church observation deck.

One of the highlights of the tour was time spent outside the famous Hofbrauhaus which is known for Oktoberfest. It was built in 1589 and receives 35,000 visitors per day! Originally built for the royal family and nobles to drink beer. Then other males until more recently in history they allowed women to drink there. Germany/Bavaria follow the German purity laws so there are no preservatives in their beer. One of the fun pieces of info was that centuries ago rather than getting up and losing their spot they created drains under the tables so the men could relieve themselves and not have to get up. Of course, some men had poor aim and that led to more fights. Some Bavarians have their own steins stored in special spots. We didn't go in. Way too busy! I have learned though that BAVARIA = BEER. They love their beer here and lots of it. The origin of Oktoberfest was a royal wedding that was celebrated each year and led to what we know today.

Hofbrauhaus pic from Internet

Also, learned that many German citizens did resist the Nazis before and during the war. Their are various memorials around the city (Munich was the centre for the Nazis and Hitler) attesting to their resistance which either met with death or being sent to Dachau. 

Our three hour tour ended at Viktualienmarkt. This is a place where you can buy your vegetables and fruit and other products, plus drink beer and find restaurant food = beer garden. The photo shows their maypole and many stories about this tradition in Bavaria. The place was packed. I found a spot where I bought a herring sandwich bun for 2.50 Euro. I love herring and it was delicious. The only problem is no matter how many times I washed my hands I still smell like herring!

Decided to get to Munich's Olympic village/stadium. Take the U3 to the station of the same name: Olympia-Zentrum. Easy to find the Olympic site and they charge 3 Euro to enter the stadium. I was 18 years old when the tragedy (1972) occurred with the Palestinian terrorists who got into the Israeli athlete's apartments on site and killed a number of them before they were killed. That event fixated the world and led to a very sombre Olympics.

 Map of the Munich 1972 Olympic area.

 One of the Olympic venues.

 Olympiastadion. The green seats get very hot in the direct sunlight. All seats have great views of the field and of course in 1972 the track and field events. 

 Olympiastadion

 Olympiastadion

 You can zip line at Olympiastadion from one side across to the other side. Takes about 15 seconds. The start looks scariest as you are up top along the perimeter. Lots of people were having fun at it. 

 Another Olympic venue.

Another Olympic venue with a lake, boats, restaurant on a wharf and beautiful hills/grass/trees surrounding much of the Olympic property.

BMW is beside the Olympic site and you can take a number of tours, inclusive of their plant. I am not a fan of BMW so didn't want to give them my money.  ;-)

The day has been very warm and mostly sunny. The Altstadt area was filled with people when I returned around 4ish to take the stairs up to St. Peter's Church observation deck. It was hard to get around. Everyone enjoying themselves. Back to my basement room around 5ish. Upload all my pics and do most of my blog. I make the twenty minute walk to the same restaurant I went to the first two nights. I can't resist this place given the Bavarian food is so good. I am in the beer garden again and before I find a table, I get a 0.5 litre dunkel (dark but not black) German beer at the side bar where everyone gets their beer. I find a table. The lady who served me on Wednesday night seems to want to disregard me. Eventually, another server comes in my direction and I show him my notes which provide the name of my meal from night one. About 7-8 minutes later my excellent meal arrives. Yup, just as good as night one. Probably, my last authentic Bavarian meal for a long time. I savour every minute and the dunkel beer is a good match. I give the server a fantastic tip, given he actually took my order. He was very appreciative. I return my stein with the blue token and get my 1 Euro deposit back. 

It is around 8:30 pm when I leave and it is dark. The paved trail I have been taking is now lit up by lights about every 30 metres. A little spooky as I am surrounded by trees in the middle of nowhere. Eventually, I come across four young people walking the same direction as me so I feel more comfortable. Back to my dungeon around 9 pm. FaceTime with Lana. Another good day in Munich. This is my last day of a long blog given tomorrow is a travel day and Monday night I return to Vancouver. Looking forward to Monday afternoon as our German friend Markus is taking me flying.

Day 31 - Friday, August 30th München

Up around 8:30 and outside by 9:45 on my way to the Deutsches Museum. It is about a ten minute walk from the closest U Bahn station to the museum. Another fantastic day in Munich. Beautiful blue sky and bright sun. The museum is more than a hundred years and located on an island in the middle of the Isar River. It is the world's largest museum of science and technology with 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology! It was very impressive. A ticket is only 8.50 Euro so very good value. A couple of downsides is there are no audio guides in the museum and any organized tours are in German only. Oh well. They do have an english pamphlet/map that is helpful to navigate this huge physical space. It has six official floors of exhibits and many sub-floors, but great signage. For some reason there are not a lot of people where I seem to be.

Thanks Wikipedia!

I start at the third floor for Astronomy and slowly make my way up to the smaller fourth, fifth and sixth floors for more astronomy. They cover the history of each and every subject. It really is an outstanding collection and appeals to anyone interested in science and/or technology subjects. 50,000 square metres and they have three additional branch museums located in other parts of Munich. I spent a lot of time in the Astronomy section, but no pictures given it was pretty dark for good reasons. 

 Satellite

Glass beer stein from 1600s

After about 90 minutes, I broke away for lunch in the Museum cafeteria. The schnitzel and fries were excellent. I ate outside on their second floor veranda soaking in the warm sun sitting under another blue sky. You need to take a break otherwise you get overstimulated in this type of museum. In astronomy, almost everything has an english translation. Even their movies have a choice of German or English. Much appreciated. This doesn't happen though on most of the other floors or exhibits as they focus on German. I can't blame them as the vast majority of their visitors are Germans. I got to go into the fuselage and get very close to the cockpit of a Boeing 707. By 2:45 I am getting too much information so decide time to head out. 

My next destination is to Englischer Garten where I was yesterday except this time I will start at the north end of the park and work my way south. I get off at the U6 Munchner Freiheit station. It is a five minute walk east along Feilitzschstrasse and then into this massive park. I come into the Kleinhesseloher See (Lake) area and it is pretty beautiful. Lots of boats on this small lake that can be rented at the one end. They have a Seehaus where you can eat and drink beer in the sun beside the lake. Check out the photo.

One thing that was similar to Canada or at least the lower mainland of Vancouver is the geese. In Vancouver we have a problem with the Canada Geese. Here they have the same challenge with their geese that are as aggressive, noisy and busy on the grass pooping like our Canada Geese infestation.

Don't get too close to these geese as it is attack mode. Poop all over the grass.

My next destination is the famous Chinesischer Turm (Chinese replica pagoda 1600s). It is a Friday afternoon around 4 pm when I arrive hearing the sounds of Bavarian music. The musicians are on the second floor of the pagoda entertaining the beer garden below. Tons of people sitting at the green tables mostly drinking one litre beer steins and eating huge bretzel (pretzel in english). Again, the weather is perfect. Hot, sunny and blue sky. When I sit down I wasn't sure the protocol with the beer and food, but figure out you go and get the food and beer at a restaurant just on the perimeter. 

OK, this is the life! I didn't go for the one litre but got a 1/2 litre mug and ate the whole pretzel. It was delicious as it is crispy/salty on the outside and so soft and tasty on the inside. Very casual vibe at the tables. One thing I haven't avoided here is the wasps. Yup, put my travel diary on top of my beer stein so the wasps don't climb in. At first, they are over your food and trying to climb up your stein and then into your beer. Flick and scatter them away and they go looking for other suckers. I know that beer is not good for my system, but this is a perfect setting. If I was with Lana or friends, for certain I am getting the one litre beer stein. I had their "summer beer" although they had other flavours like 'white' beer and 'radler' (shandy style) beer. Shade starts to cover much of the beer garden so sometime after 5 pm I need to get going. You get a blue token with your beer order. Return the empty stein with the blue token and you get your 1 Euro deposit back.

Walk back to the subway station and that is at least a fifteen minute walk through the shaded paths in the park. Find the subway station and navigate to Odeonsplatz. My friend Ernst had recommended spending some time there. I do find the Hofgarten and spend some time enjoying the scenery. Check out the flowers:

Inside the pavilion are a couple of guys playing a violin and guitar to classical music stylings. There were very good and I gave them some change. It was enjoyable just relaxing and listening to the music. I felt proud of myself later as a couple of American girls were unsure of the sign near this 'water fountain.' It said Kein so I knew that meant DON'T drink the water (wasser). 

Well, given the fact I had a huge bretzel and some beer, I wasn't going to head out for dinner tonight. Lucked into reaching Renée/Georgia for FaceTime and then Lana. Church bells on the hour heard in the neighbourhood. Another interesting and enjoyable day in München.   

Day 30! Thursday, August 29th "Life, Death & Surfing"

OK, I thought the title of my Day 30 would grab your interest, but you'll have to read through to get to the surfing part. Up around 7:45, showered and caught up on emails. On European time, emails from Canada are arriving while I sleep. I have my plans for today and pretty excited about everything. Get to the U1 station before 9 am and purchase a three day pass for 14.30 Euro so save a few Euro versus getting a daily pass. Plus, buy a shokocroissant (chocolate croissant) for 1.30 Euro at the U station. Arrive at the Hbf in about 10 minutes. The U Bahn is very deep under the Hbf station and a few escalators to get to the surface. Need to get to DB Bahn for some U/S Bahn maps of Munich so I can safely navigate around. Get in a queue for a small and a larger map. Pick up a bottle of Vittel water for the day. Follow the signs to the S Bahn platform past the construction. S2 train found and the correct direction. A blue sky sunny day although not super warm around 9 am.

BEWARE AS SOME OF THE PICTURES ARE QUITE GRAPHIC

My destination is Dachau concentration camp located northwest of the centre of Munich. After you arrive at Dachau train station, you get in the queue with the other tourists for Bus 726 towards Saubachsiedlung and a drop off at the Dachau Memorial site. About 15 minutes on the S3 Bahn and there is a huge lineup at the bus stop with many tourists trying to get to Dachau. Many english speakers and a few private tour groups. Bus about 10 minutes to the Dachau memorial. Purchase a 3 Euro ticket for the 11 am english guided walking tour. Plus, an english pamphlet will be helpful. I am a little early for the tour and sit in the cafeteria to update my travel diary and chow down on that croissant. I am envious of Lana as she has already been to Dachau a few years ago when she was in Munich on business.

Our guide is Stephan. The best 3 Euro I have ever spent. Very emotional, sobering, reflective and just shocking at how inhumane man can be. The German ability to strategize and then execute the tactics to achieve this evil is mind boggling. Despite my own education in this aspect of inhumanity, I learned a lot from the 2 1/4 hour tour and from physically being in Dachau. I will list some of the details I learned and let the pictures speak for themselves:

• the only camp to be used for the entire 12 years until liberation by the Allied troops April 29, 1945
• 42,000 recorded deaths at Dachau
• 200,000 men passed through Dachau during the 12 years
• one huge section beside the concentration camp was a training ground for the SS and the buildings now are used as apartments
• it was a "school of terror" for SS officers
• Dachau was a concentration camp and not an extermination camp
• What is the difference? Extermination camps were not in Germany and only found in Poland and were for the sole purpose of systematically killing Jews and others
• Auschwitz was the only one where there was work for some prisoners otherwise the rest were systematically murdered
• WWI circumstances made the German populace leery of politicians thus making it easy for Hitler and his Nazis to create their lawless state
• Why did they use Dachau? Formerly it was a powder and munitions factory
• The original barracks (renovated in the 60s) were to house only 5-6 thousand prisoners, not 30,000!
• 28 barracks in total
• some of the prisoners made German military weapons and ammunitions
• all prisoners were put to work and if you couldn't work then death was a result
• while the site has a crematorium and the building and technology for systematic killing they did not use Dachau for that purpose
• only male prisoners
• no escapes over the 12 years due to the water filled ditch, barbed wire fence and the final deterrent was the electrified fence
• many prisoners committed suicide by jumping onto the fence
• the crematorium was a killing factory as you will see from the pictures, but again it was not used for that purpose according to the records
• the killing factory was shower first, remove clothes, gas chamber, then into the crematorium 
• concentration camps were found in Germany and were labour camps involving political enemies of the Nazis, gypsies, deviants, criminals, religious persons like priests, homosexuals, Jews, psychological deviants and given your group you were assigned a specific colour for your blue and white striped outfit
• three huge memorials for three different religions given the Nazis persecuted many religious officials
• this physical site is simply gigantic
• very poor hygiene conditions in the barracks and the camp
• the Bunker was used for occasional showers and torture of the prisoners using a whipping tressel with bull whip while the prisoner had to count the lashes correctly or else to be repeated
• pole hanging involved a gruesome hanging from your wrists and shoulders thus injuring yourself beside the pain and if you couldn't work after then death would follow

 the entrance to Dachau concentration camp that all prisoners went through and many never went back through the gates. 

 scale model of Dachau - this site is immense and had a fence around every piece of property

 all prisoners were first documented - typical German bookkeeping diligence

 Our intrepid guide Stephan in blue against "The Bunker"

 One of the barracks although the originals fell apart in the 60s and were then rebuilt. From 1945 to the 60s German refugees lived here - how is that for irony?

 Memorial for the barracks

 Roll Call yard is immense. All prisoners regardless of physical condition had to be present for roll call twice a day.

 Guard tower against the electrified perimeter fence

 Grass was off-limits to the prisoners, then the water-filled moat, then the barbed wire and then the electrified fence. No wonder there were no escapes.

 The crematorium used for cremating the dead at Dachau and from other concentration camps. That was how they got rid of the bodies. This crematorium was equipped though for mass killings as you will see from the pics.

 The actual gas chamber in the crematorium

 Crematorium oven

 Crematorium ovens

 Prep before the horror

 Picture taken by the allied troops when they liberated Dachau. These dead bodies were from other camps in Germany, but they had run out of coal to fuel the crematorium and then the guards left as the Allied troops were approaching. I can't even think what the troops were thinking when they saw this.

Solitary confinement cell in "The Bunker". The Bunker was another house of horrors. 

At the end of the tour, I was basically numb from the horror of it all. Allegedly, this was only a concentration camp and not an extermination camp. Final result is that it is good to be reminded so it doesn't occur again. What a fantastic experience to see that part of history.

Had a sandwich in the cafeteria and went to the Dachau museum for more information. At 2 pm they had a movie about Dachau in english. Twenty-two minutes of fixation as they used nothing but original film footage. Good commentary and just as hard hitting as being at Dachau. Rather than taking the bus back, I decided to walk the "Path of Remembrance" which is the route taken by the prisoners from the Dachau town rail station to the concentration camp. It is about 2+ kilometres and took 30 minutes. It was my small way of paying homage to the real prisoners. It was a blue sky sunny day so weather was great. Arrived at S2 Bahn platform in Dachau town about 3 pm. Got to the Hbf and then U3 and off at Universität station as I am wanting to find some life and lighten my mood at Englischer Garten in the centre of the city. 

Instead of going directly east I head south and then eventually east to find a huge park. It was created in the 1700s and is the largest city park in Europe. The park is larger than New York's Central Park. While I ventured around I didn't see a lot of the park. After all that walking at Dachau and to the train station I needed some rest in the heat. Yes, there were the occasional nude sunbathers. Monopteros is in the distance on the hill. I walked to it. This photo is using a zoom lens. Great place to relax amongst the hustle and bustle of the large city. Lots of families, cyclists, sunny and a light breeze. Wow, it still feels like summer. Sitting in the shade on a bench to soak up the atmosphere and rest. I found myself roaming the various trails in the trees and came across something I would never expect.

 Huge lawn expanse.

A small waterfall that draws photographers like me.   ;-)

OK, in the park I found a group of Germans surfing on a small creek. Wow! Talk about serendipity. I am envious though as they were having fun. Not really true surfing as the wake was created from a back eddy. They were riding their surf boards and when they fell off they climbed back up and got in line. Check out the pics!

 Basically, it is forbidden to surf! You thought all Germans obey the rules....  ;-) 

 You can see the other surfers lined up on the side waiting for their turn.

 Some of these surfers were pretty good.

This guy was one of the best.

I spent about 30 minutes watching the action and wishing I could join them. Given it was getting late, I walked back to the U Bahn station. Made it to my U1 station and stopped at REWE for a large bottle of still water. Returned to my room around 6:30 pm and quickly emailed all my photos. Then the 20 minute walk to the same restaurant I ate at last night. It was that good! Tonight I ordered 0.25litre of Grüner Veltliner white wine to go with Bauernschmaus mit Schweinsbraten. Again, I ate in their biergarten area where 90% of the customers were drinking one litre German beer steins and enjoying it. 

German description of my dinner plate: Leberknödel, Schweins und Wienderwürstel, geräuchertem, Wammerl auf sauerkraut, dabei Kartoffelpüree und SoBe. English Translation: liver dumplings (didn't like them), pig and weiner sausages, smoked ham on sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and fried onions. Another excellent Bavarian meal although I couldn't finish it. Total was 20 Euros. 

I finished and paid for the meal around 8 pm and then the usual 20 minute walk back on the side trail to the basement suite. It has been a long day and lots of walking. I have been out of my room for about 12 hours. Had time to FaceTime Lana, but no luck reaching Renée again. The weather has been so good wherever I have been since my start in Italy. Forecast is for more sun over the next couple of days!  :-)