European Adventures Day 29

Day 2:
We woke up a bit late as we got home from the university party late but after some breakfast (which consistent of warm buns with cream cheese, salami, and nutella. hehe), we headed out to the town of Dachau where there existed one of the first concentration camps that the Nazi’s built. As millions of people can tell you, the world was horrified by the extermination of the Jews carried out by Hitler and his Nazis during WWII. We’ve all studied the horrible situation at some point in school and for me, it was a subject I was really interested in starting at a young age. So, it was definitely sobering to go to Dachau and see the camp first hand. The original site had been torn down after the Americans freed it in 1945 but they rebuilt two of the barracks as examples of camp life and turned the main hall into a museum for visitors. It now exists as a memorial to those who lived, suffered and died there.



This is the entrance to the camp. The words on the door say: “To work is to be free” and was the motto that was displayed at all the concentration camps. Note the irony.



The death rate grew too high for the camp in the mid-1930s and they had to build a larger crematorium to handle the bodies. Each of these fit 2-3 bodies at once.



It’s hard to imagine that this tree-lined, gravel path was once the gathering place for the Jewish prisoners where they exchanged information and news during their rare free time. The two buildings are the recreated barracks and the rest are marked with numbers and gravel-filled foundations. Dachau had up to 40,000 people at any given time over a period of 12 years. It’s very sobering to realize that such a serene place now was once a terrible place of death and torture. Visiting the camp really reinforced my desire to help ensure that the motto on a memorial that the motto: “Never again.” is true.

After several hours at Dachau, Florian and I decided to head back into Munich for some more light-hearted excursions. We were hungry so we went to the most famous Biergarten in Munich, the one inside the English Garden called Biergarten Chinesischer Turm. It was a very nice and warm Saturday afternoon so the Biergarten was full of people hanging out under the trees and having beer and lunch.



This is a picture of the crowd. In the middle is the Chinese pagoda that marks the Biergarten Chinesischer Turm. Among the people, there were several bachelor parties going on. The men were clearly drunk and every so often would burst into German folk songs at the top of their lungs, accompanied by pounding on the table. Several of them were also dressed up as a giant pink bunny (groom) and some sort of king (friend?), and went around the tables selling roses to people. I was laughing the whole time. It was a lot of fun.



And this is what we had: Me the pork knuckle and beer mixed with lemonade and Flo the ribs and a liter of normal beer. Not pictured is a plate of tomatoes and mozzarella. Hahaha

After lunch we took a walk around the lake where there were tons of people out on rowboats and paddleboats. It actually reminded me a lot of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. After an hour walk or so, we took the subway to the most famous ice cream shop in Munich...the name of which I forgot (it starts with a S). haha It was only 80 euro cents for a scoop so I got two: scholade-mint and terr

It was still early, so Flo suggested we go see the Olympic stadium. He told me that Munich is trying to bid for the winter games in 2014 because it wants to be the first city to have hosted both the summer and winter games.



Side note: This is one of the stops along the subway ride. It was really cool b/c these silver points came out from the wall of the station and created a cool background. There were also other cool stations: one had a multi-colored wall; another was a rock wall that had blue lighting hitting it and these huge colored lamps (red and yellow) hanging in the middle of the platform. I really like the subway system in Munich: it’s clean, on top and very efficient.



So this is the Olympic lake, Swimhalle (yes, German for Swim Hall), and the Olympic tower of the 1972 Munich games. (I’m pretty proud of this picture by the way). The building to the right of the tower shaped like an engine is the BMW headquarters in Munich. Cool huh?

As you can see, it was getting late so we just headed home and called it a night. More on the last day later. :)