Dachau Concentration Camp:

The gate says "Arbeit macht frei". Translation: "through work one will be free".

Barracks:

Foundations for the remaining 32 barracks:








Death Chamber:

Incinerator Room:

Disinfecting Room:

Marineplatz:

Englischer Park:

Train:

Yummy Pretzel!

Late Start Tuesday's

We had a late start today due to laundry problems. Last night we had problems figuring out the washing machine. Luckily, new tenants arrived for Apartment A (we were currently renting Apartment B) and they were from another part of Germany. The wife was able to help us decipher the washing machine which was super helpful! We forgot one important part to the clothes dryer though. The dryer does not release the steam (or whatever you want to call it) into the air or into a hose...so water gathers in a long basin in the dryer (our dryer in London was the same way). Well...Jim forgot to empty that out before starting the dryer and we couldn't figure out why the clothes weren't drying. It turns out that since the basin was full, the dryer would start to run, we would shut the door and walk away, and then the dryer would stop running. We didn't realize that so we just kept re-starting it thinking that the dryer was just very slow. Lo and behold, as soon as we remembered to check the basin and empty it, the dryer dried very quickly! Oops. Oh well, but that did impede on our morning activities. We skipped the first items on the list and went directly to Dachau Concentration Camp.

Dachau was the first concentration camp opened in Germany, located about 9.9 miles northwest of Munich. It was originally used for "political prisoners" in 1933. The camp was used as a model for other camps that followed however it was not used as a location for massive murders. Over its twelve years as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and 31,951 deaths. Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the dead. There is no record of this camp partaking in mass murder, most prisoners died due to poor sanitation, deprivation of medical care, withholding of nutrients, medical experiments, and beatings or shootings due to infractions of the rules or at random. The camp was liberated by American troops on 29 April 1945.

The camp is extremely desolate; a very stark reminder of what happened at this location. Much of what remains today has been rebuilt to exact specifications of the original buildings. The camp shows the foundation of 32 barracks along with 2 completely reconstructed barracks holding original bunk beds, toilets, wash basins. The former maintenance building holds an extensive 13 section exhibit documenting the history of the Nazi party and the concentration camp. Religious memorials have been erected here for prisoners of Polish, Jewish, and Russian descent. Also on the grounds are many markers signifying the locations use: buried ashes, grave of many thousand unknown, execution range, and pistol range. This concentration camp had two crematoria built. Both buildings are still original. The "Old Crematorium" houses two furnaces whereas the "New Crematorium" houses much more: Waiting Room (where prisoners were informed that they would be using supposed showers), Disrobing Room (where victims undressed before entering gas chambers disguised as showers), Disinfecting Rooms (where victims clothing was taken once it was removed), Death Chamber, Incinerator Room (holding 4 furnaces which could cremate two to three corpses at once), Execution Site (used for hangings).

I can't quite find the right words to describe the concentration camp. Great just sounds wrong. It has been preserved and restored in great fashion and is extremely sobering. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

After we returned to Munich we ate lunch at the train station and headed to Marienplatz, the central square of Munich. Located here is Rathaus (city hall). This building is famed for its clock which chimes at 11am each day in which the 32 characters are put into motion depicting scenes of the wedding of Bavarian Duke Wilhelm V to Renata Lorraine in 1568. Unfortunately we were too late to see the clock chime. The square is packed with people, vendors and street performers. We walked around for a bit and did some shopping. I tried to get Jim to buy me a coo-coo-clock but they are super expensive here! I saw one for over 700 euros! Holy moly!!! No clock for me.

After this we headed to Englischer Garten. It's a very large park in the middle of Munich and the Canadian girls recommended it. There are numerous beer gardens, bands/performers, nude sunbathers, lakes, etc here. It was a great place for a stroll and we saw TONS of ducks...holy crap I don't think I've ever seen so many ducks.

Afterwards we headed back to the apartment to pack up. We had booked an overnight train for the journey to Rome since it is a 12 hour train ride. We splurged and booked a separate room that sleeps 1, 2 or 3 people. We could've done barrack type rooms that sleep up to 6 people, or booked just a seat (like an airplane seat). We were hoping to actually get some sleep on this train ride though so we went the extra way for our own sleeper. It had two bunk beds and a small washbasin as well. There are only 9 sleepers on the train plus three deluxe sleepers (the deluxe sleepers have a shower in the room). The people in the 9 sleepers all share a single shower but we figured if we didn't want to use that, we could just shower when we arrive in Rome. The sleeper is small (not that we expected it to be large) and unfortunately the train made several stops along the journey. Without the stops we probably would have slept pretty well, but the stops made the train lurch quite a bit so it wasn't the best night of sleep we've had! The shower worked just fine in the morning though so we were able to get that taken care of before arriving in Rome.

Fussen Photos

Hohenschwangau:

Neuschwanstein:

Hohenschwangau:

Bratwurst Sandwich!

Hohenschwangau:

Neuschwanstein:

Fussen, Germany

We boarded a train to Fussen, Germany today (yes I know, we just rode on a train 6 hours yesterday to get to Munich...ANOTHER train ride!??!?!). Sat next to a couple of girls from Canada that were backpacking their way through Europe. They were in Europe the entire month of May and sounded like they were having a blast. We talked about the places we had all gone...they had already been to Rome so they told us about their time there. It was a nice chat!

Fussen, Germany contains the castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Both Jim and I have ALWAYS wanted to see Neuschwanstein so that was the reason for our visit. Hohenschwangau used to be the summer residence of the Bavarian monarchy. This is a 19th century palace built by King Maximillian II of Bavaria. The castle is located amongst the Alps very near the Austria border. Prince Ludwig II succeeded his father to the throne and began building a castle, Neuschwanstein, in the same area and was never finished. Prior to Neuschwanstein he built Schloss Linderhof and Schloss Herrenchiemsee (they are both located away from Fussen so we were not able to tour them). In 1886, the government deposed King Ludwig of the throne citing insanity and placed him into custody. The next day he took a walk and was found dead, floating in a shallow body of water. His death was officially ruled as drowning but this is largely questioned and the true means of his death remains a mystery today. One other interesting note: Neuschwanstein Castle was the inspiration for Disney World's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

We spent most of the day here and returned to Munich around 8pm. We grabbed dinner at a small restaurant near the train station where we had Doner Kabobs which were recommended to Jim by a friend. He liked his, mine wasn't great. We walked around Munich a bit before returning to the apartment for bed!