Munich et al.

Well, here we are on a train again. Seems to be the only time that I have time to just sit and think about what we are doing instead of doing it. We just left Munich this time, and are travelling to Konstanz, Germany; along the border of Switzerland. Thus far we have been couch surfing through Germany, tonight we are actually getting a room, so it will be nice not worrying about anyone else’s schedule. I short stay along the shores of Lake Konstanz to decompress and take it all in. Then we are back on the road to Paris, where hopefully we can scrounge up some sleeping arrangements for about a week. Then we are planning on spending some time to be determined in Libourne, a small town outside of Bordeaux; which is basically a commune of potters. But more on that in later posts…

Munich was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! We stayed with Stefanie and her roommates Rosayna, Sara, and Gregor for the last four days. They were great…very accommodating. It kinda feels weird staying with strangers for extended periods of time without reciprocity. After a while one starts feeling like a mooch. Hopefully someday we can return the favor to all these wonderful people that we meet and stay with; or at least pay it forward.

Munich is such a splendid city, with so much history everywhere you look. As a rule, I generally enjoy more relaxed rural towns over big cities, but Munich, I feel, was an exception to this rule. We did so much in what seemed like over a week, but as it stands was only 4 days…Ach du lieber! Here’s a quick rundown of some of the places we saw, and things that we did:

-Marianplatz - The historic city center where the royal palace is situated along with dozens of museums, churches, fountains, and beer halls & gardens; not to mention the hundreds of shops, boutiques, restaurants, and huge Viktualienmarket. We spent quite a bit of time all turned around in this part of town. In fact, we found ourselves getting lost in most places in Munich. I was strange…when we thought we were going south, we were actually heading north, and vice versa. In no other town, yet, have we had this issue. If Munich’s this tough with a map, then Delhi’s going to be quite challenging.

Marienplatz...

It's big!

-Church of St. Peter – This is located in the center of Marianplatz. We climbed and climbed (lost count of how many stairs) and were well rewarded for our efforts with a panoramic view of the entire city. We could even see the Alps in the far distance.

Hello Munich!

-English Gardens – This was just a massive park which would take days to walk completely. But in the center of the gardens is a Chinese pagoda surrounded by a huge biergarten. This is where we got our first beer in Munich. With hundreds of fellow beer aficionados and pretzels bigger than your head, it was truly a German experience. (Side note: I have had a beer every day that I have been in Germany…just one Mom;))

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-Hofbrauhaus – While we are on the subject of beer. We also went to the world famous Hofbrauhaus for a liter of beer (each) and various sausages served with kraut. Can we get any more German?

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-Surf break – On the south end of the English Gardens was what the local called ‘surf break’, which is where a stream, whether planned or not, makes a perfect wave for local surfers (yeah…in Munich) to hang ten and rip a curl.

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-BMW Welt – It’s a showroom filled with the latest and greatest of what BMW has to offer. From cars, to motorcycles, to bikes, it is truly inspiring for anyone who appreciates German engineering. Even the building was a feat of engineering, plus it was right next to the old Olympic grounds and village. Taking all that in was a good way to spend a rainy day.

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Sweet Beemer bikes

One of the memorials

-Dachau - Our last day in Munich we took a day trip out to Dachau, which I learned was Germany’s very first concentration camp, and the model for all the rest to follow throughout the war. I can say that I am glad that we did, because it was a truly sobering and humbling experience. I felt physically and mentally drained after walking around the grounds and the museum they have set up there. We took an audio tour, so not only did we get the history of Hitler’s rise to power, the daily routine and torture that prisoners had to endure, and the plight of those not fortunate enough to survive their time at Dachau; but we also were able to hear first-hand accounts of survivors of the camp while we were seeing the actual bunk houses that they were packed in, and the saw the videos of the corpses packed on the trains and piled in front of the ovens. One of the strangest things for me was seeing the trees which lined the main road in front of each of the bunk houses. In the videos from “liberation day”, the trees were only 10 feet tall…but as we walked down the boulevard the same trees towered 40 feet over us. To think that those same trees that were around through all the suffering and atrocities are still thriving today. For some reason, that just stuck with me. I urge anyone who gets a chance to absolutely experience Dachau, and revel in the darkness that humans can actually manifest and endure…and how it’s all situated just outside a quiet and conventional town in the middle of Bavaria.

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Those foundations all used to be over capacity barracks.

So many people affected. View the rest...

So…yeah, that was Munich.

Prost!

K     

P.S. Check out the flickr site for a lot more photos...it takes way too long to upload photos to the blog.