Day 39

I can't believe I'm in the city that will be the final destination of this trip. It's been a long and crazy journey. But we still have 3 more long and crazy days left. Today started bright and early at 7 am. After showers and a quick stop at McDonald's, we were on our way into the city. Our first stop was Marienplatz, which is the main square of the city. We saw the new town hall, which is enormous! We even saw the glockenspiel. Well, it didn't go off, but we saw it way up in the clock tower. Maybe we'll catch it tomorrow. The weather wasn't super great, so we decided to skip going up any towers today and hold out for better weather tomorrow. We did go see the old town hall and St. Peter's church while we were in the square. We walked to the Viktaalienmart which was filled with little tents selling everything imaginable. We continued walking until we came to the Frauenkirche. It was slightly under construction, so the outside wasn't very nice. The inside was pretty average as well. Maybe if the weather's better we'll get a chance to climb up it's tower and it will all be worth it. After the Frauenkirche, we made our way to the Theatinerkirche. Now this one was impressive. The outside is a bright yellow and it's huge. And the inside is magnificent. You'll agree when you see the pictures. We spent some time inside before making our way to the Hofgarten, or Royal Gardens. They were pretty nice, but nothing comparable to Schonnbrunn. I have yet to find ones that are. We left the gardens and headed towards the Bavarian State Opera House, also under construction. The square that it was in was nice though. We started making our way back towards Marienplatz to catch the S-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof. We had about 30 minutes before the start of our tour and we needed to grab some food. We searched for a grocery store, but no luck. We had to settle of Burger King. Don't worry, I didn't order chili cheese burgers again. I played it safe with a crispy chicken burger. After we got our lunch, we walked to our platform and waited for our tour group. Today we were going to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp. Our guide was very prompt and we left right away. One train and one bus ride later and we were there. We spent the next 4 hours learning about the history of Dachau, concentration camps and WWII. It was very interesting. The reason that Dachau is so important to the history of the Nazi Party is because it was the first camp. All other camps were modeled after this one. Originally these concentration camps were opened to house people who Hitler thought might get in the way during his rise to power, politicians, people in power etc. There was really nothing to do with race. After he rose to power, they started shutting down all of the camps because there was no need for them anymore. However, one of Hitler's right hand men, Himmel, wanted a piece of the power and convinced Hitler to let him run the remaining camps. Hitler agreed and Himmel began throwing many different kinds of people into the camps. If someone was different from the "pure blood" then they would be thrown into the camps. It wasn't until much later in the war that Jews were persecuted more heavily and executed. We went inside several buildings at Dachau including the SS headquarters. It was in this building that the prisoners were dressed, showered, registered, and then decided if they were fit enough to work or if they would be sent to an extermination camp. It was so real and right in front of my face that it was almost scary. I couldn't believe that I was standing in such a horrible place. But one of the quotes from the camp continues to resonate in my head. "Those who are alive remember who have died here" Something like that. It's so important to remember our past so that we can never let it happen again. It wasn't like Hitler forcefully took over Germany. He was voted into the position of Chancellor by the public. After the SS headquarters, we walked to the back part of the grounds and found the gas chamber. This was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. This was the place where people were taken to be "showered" but instead were poisoned, killed, and then burned. Their ashes were then thrown out back. It was such a brutal and terrible thing to do. There are now graves where the ashes were put remembering the deaths of all of the prisoners. It was a hard site to see, but necessary. I think it's something that everyone needs to see once in their life to remember the horror that our world was put through and to make sure that it never happens again. After the gas chambers and memorial, we walked towards the barracks. All of them were destroyed after the war, but some were reconstructed from pictures. They were only made to fit 200 people at any one time, but towards the end of the war, they were cramming up to 1000 people inside. After the barracks, it was nearly time to go. We waited for our bus, and then took a train back to Munich. We now had 2 hours of free time before our next tour started. Because lunch was so long ago, we decided it was time for a snack. We stopped by a grocery store and I picked up my favorite salad and some chips. We walked back to the train station and waited for our next tour to start, playing some card games in between. Around 6 pm our Bavarian Food and Beer tour started. We were greeted with a tall glass of Augustiner Beer. The interesting thing about this beer is that it is only brewed in Munich and isn't exported. Also, 51% of it's profits are donated to charity. Even for beer, that's pretty cool. We took the S-bahn into the city and walked to the Octoberfest Museum. We learned about how the festival was started and how it became such a big thing. King Ludwig I started the Octoberfest after his marriage to the princess Therese in the early 1800s. There were 5 days of festivity after their wedding and they invited people from all over the country to celebrate and meet one another. This tradition was carried on for several years and eventually extended to the 17 day festival it is today. I learned just how rich Munich is as well. Just from this festival alone, they make 900,000,000 dollars. CRAZY! They really don't need tourism at all!! We sat down and watched a little video about how beer was invented and made back in the day and how Germany took that and created their own brews. We also learned about the "Big 6" or the 6 founding breweries of Munich. After our visit to the museum we left to go to the Hogbraukeller, a famous restaurant/brewery in Munich. There we were given HUGE platter of traditional Bavarian food. There was ham and sausages, cheese and cream cheese, pickles and my favorite, pretzels. Now, if you've never had a Munich pretzel, then you can't even imagine how amazing it tastes. It was definitely the best thing I ate while in Munich. After stuffing my face and getting to know the people at our table, we left the Hofbraukeller to go to the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer hall in all of Munich, possibly in the entire world. It was crazy! It was filled with people sharing these long tables, eating large amounts of food and beer. There was even a traditional Bavarian band playing some fun music for the guests. We left the Hofbrauhaus and our tour and headed back to the hostel for the night. It was after 10! It was a busy day.