Germany: Nov. 6 - 8

Munich: Sunday Nov. 6, 2005

It was easy to find the train station after our short cab ride last night. Figuring out where to buy the tickets was a little harder. There were many levels of transportation at the main train station. We arrived yesterday on the main level, where there were traditional and high speed trains between cities and countries. One level below ground were the S-Bahn trains which were part subway and part surface trains used within the Greater Munich area. Below that was the true underground or metro lines called the U-Bahn trains for inside the city. It was all very efficient and once we discovered that we could purchase tickets on the main floor for all the trains, we were off to Dachau.

It was a forty minute train ride and then a short bus ride to get to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Our original plans had been to go to Auschwitz in Poland but none of us wanted to do any extra traveling on trains. So we decided to amend our plans and visit the first Nazi concentration camp instead. It turned out to be a very moving experience. Munich was the home and headquarters of the Nazi party and when opponents to it became too vocal, the Nazis needed a place to lock up those individuals. So they created Dachau to house political prisoners, “social deviants”, communists, gypsies and later Jews. Today the memorial site is just a small portion of the original camp that also had 36 satellite camps. It is difficult to imagine the number of people who were imprisoned, tortured and killed here because it was so horrific. The memorial had a large museum with many different media including a film, recordings of prisoners’ stories and photographs. Sierra and Brennan were interested in the stories. We also toured the bunker, a long building with over 130 cells that was used for extra punishment and torture. Again the stories were disturbing but it showed the kids of what evil the Nazis were capable. Two of the approximately thirty original prisoner barracks were reconstructed to show the living conditions of the camp detainees. Over the years the barracks became more crowded as the camp grew to 30,000 prisoners; this was 5 times its capacity. The last area we toured, after passing many memorials, was the crematorium. The original fixtures were still in place…….

After that somber experience, Brian decided we needed to lighten up our afternoon. We caught the train back to the city and got off at the Marienplatz stop. It dropped us off at the “ New Town Hall” with its gothic spires and Glockenspiel. We were too late for the day’s performance of the Glockenspiel so we headed on to Brian’s main objective, the Hofbrauhaus. It would be impossible to come to Munich, the beer drinking capital of the world, without visiting this beer hall. It was established in 1589 by Wilhelm V and originally brewed beer only for the Munich royal court. Hofbrau means court brew. Common folk were not allowed to drink this beer until 21 years later. Brian’s desire was a one LITRE mug of beer! The kids and I were starving, as it was almost 3 o’clock. As long as there was food, we were happy. It turned out that they had marvelous wiener schnitzel and BEER!!! Brian had to try both the light and the dark versions so he ended up having two litres of beer in about an hour!!! I think that I was the only adult in there not drinking beer. (I still haven’t developed a taste for it.) We listened to Bavarian music and watched locals wearing their felt hats adorned with feathers. We even saw some lederhosen on a few men. The most amazing thing though was watching the waiters and waitresses carrying multiple mugs of beer. One guy carried 4 large full mugs in each hand! Sierra couldn’t even lift one.

Well after two steins Brian felt very happy. On the way back to the hotel we talked him into kissing a painted lion. She was dressed in lederhosen and holding a stein of beer. The city was filled with decorated life size lions similar to our painted cows in Calgary. Why lions you wonder? Munich was founded in 1158 by Henry the Lion. The city’s name is actually Munchen, which comes from the expression “Bei den Monchen” or “near the monks”. Monks had already been living here for 108 years before Henry came along but the lion stuck as the city symbol.

The kids thought that if Brian was feeling so good that maybe they should have a treat too. They were able to talk him into large portions of Haagen Dazs ice cream. When we got back to the hotel, everyone was satisfied. Brian flaked out across the double bed and took a nap to end his afternoon. The kids and I did homework and internet stuff. We were all too full for dinner so Brian was now ecstatic because his food expenses were down. Tomorrow we plan to actually tour the city which looked fabulous from what little we saw today.( NEXT PAGE )