Adventures in Deutschland: Munich

After a long, draining morning at Dachau, we needed a little bit of carefree entertainment. This came in the form of a bike tour around the beautiful city of Munich courtesy of Mike's Bike Tours. I highly recommend these guys! They're funny, friendly, and will make you feel every bit the awkward tourist that you are. But it's a blast! And one thing that's absolutely for sure: they love Munich and its rich history.

We met up with our tour guide Kyle and about 30 other people under the tower at Old Town Hall. Kyle gave us a brief run-down of Munich's beginnings, the history of the glockenspiel and Old and New Town Halls, and made us do a few cheesy dances. We all stuck out like sore thumbs. His task was accomplished. 

Just a little embarrassment to start our tour off right

He and another guide split us into two groups and led us to the Mike's Bike garage to pick out our vehicles for the afternoon: bright blue Fahrräder (bicycles) with "MBT" emblazoned on the sides. We received a quick lesson on biking safely through the streets of Munich, and then we were off! Our group--consisting of 5 college students from DC, a dad and daughter from Miami, 3 Aussies, 2 20 somethings from Louisiana, and 2 German girls from Stuttgart--followed Kyle over the cobblestone streets of Munich to some of the the city's top historical spots.

"The Residenz" (home of the Bavarian monarchs from 1508-1918)

Max-Joseph-Platz: the square named after the first king of Bavaria, Maximilian I

That's a statue of King Maximilian waving at you...and also looking strikingly similar to John Belushi in "Animal House".

  This is the fountain courtyard at the Residenz. Kyle referred to this as "Selfie Fountain". Yep, it kinda looks like the statues are taking invisible cell phone pictures of themselves. 

One of the lion statues outside the Residenz 

To this day, citizens of Munich rub this statue when they pass by, because it's said to bring good luck!

"Feldherrnhalle" (Field Marshal's Hall)

If this building looks familiar to you, it's probably because you've seen photos of Hitler listening to/giving speeches here.

The beautiful Theatinerkirche, also known as "The White Church"

I know, I know, it's most definitely yellow. But take a look inside...

The 1600's y'all. This church was built in the 1600's.

Soon, we were back on our bikes and headed toward the Bavarian State Chancellery building. The architecture of this government building is an interesting mix of antiquated and modern. The center of the structure is part of a building that was destroyed during WWII, and the rest of the building was added on many years later.

Bayerische Staatskanzlei (Bavarian State Chancellery)

Next stop: Englischer Garten. English Garden is the largest (think: bigger than Central Park) and loveliest park I've ever seen! The rolling green landscape, the cool waters of the Eisbach River, and the beautiful architecture made for an inviting and enjoyable ride through the park. Germany was still unseasonably hot at this time, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day, so English Garden was crowded with Münchner (people from Munich) swimming, cycling, sun-bathing*, and just hanging out on that perfect June afternoon.

Our riverside path through the park finally led us to the Chinese Tower which resides in the 2nd largest biergarten in Munich. We parked our bikes at the entrance and made our way into the 7,000 seat beer garden, complete with authentic Bavarian music, food, and of course, beer. 

Kyle staked out some tables for our entourage, while we headed toward the food vendors. We breathed in the smells of Hendl (roasted chicken on a stick), Schweinshaxe (pork knuckle), and Auszogne (fried dough pastry) and watched patrons walking by with their Maß (liter) of beer and giant Brezn (pretzel). 

All that was left of our larger-than-life pretzel

The next hour or so was spent in the beer garden, chatting and laughing with our new friends. It's amazing how one afternoon biking through a foreign city and eating around a table can turn complete strangers into friendly acquaintances; how it can connect people with a common bond, even if it's only for a short time, even if you'll never see each other again. The Miami dad let his 16-year-old daughter try her first beer... We all unanimously agreed that trying your first beer at a beer garden in Munich was pretty much the coolest thing ever.

Before long, we hopped back on our bikes and set off once again through English Garden. Our next stop was a place on the Eisbach River that has a manmade dam near a bridge. Doesn't sound all that exciting until you make your way down to the rushing water to see what the locals do there...

Surfing! They bring their boards, suit up, and surf the river! So cool!

After watching the Munich surfers for a few minutes, we rode out of the beautiful English Garden and ended up at this building...

This old armory building is the only place in Munich that houses a few Nazi relics that are still allowed in Germany (sidetone: until extremely recently, Germans weren't even allowed to own a copy of Mein Kampf). Kyle told us that if we moved quickly, we could open the door and sneak a picture of the inside of the building...but he couldn't promise that we wouldn't get yelled at. Sure enough, the door hadn't been cracked a couple seconds when a gruff voice shouted in German for us to get out! As we scattered, laughing, we're pretty sure the guard also swore at us in German. Funniest part: after Kyle's warning, I noticed that the only people in our group that didn't crowd into the slightly open door to get a picture were the two German girls. They weren't dumb; they knew what was up. And what was up is that you don't do anything to make a German guard yell arschloch at you. (And there you go, I just taught you a German cuss word. You're welcome.)

Back on our bikes, we crossed over the Isar River and stopped for a moment at the Friedensengel monument.

Isar River

Friedensengel (Angel of Peace) commemorates the victory over the French in the Franco-Prussian War

We biked up a huge tree-lined hill and at the bottom on the other side, we saw this lovely piece of architecture...

Rode back across the Isar...

And before we knew it, Kyle had led us back to the cobblestones of Hockbrücken Straße and through the door of Mike's Bike shop. Our 4 hour, 4 mile tour of Munich = complete. Would we do it again in a heartbeat? Absolutely we would! 

Hubs and I hung around the bike shop chatting with the staff until we were the last non-employees there. We loved Mike's Bike's and our tour so much that we signed up with them for a castle tour that Thursday and got the inside scoop on Salzburg, Austria where we were heading on Tuesday of that week. 

What a beautifully, satisfyingly exhausting day! We made our way back to our hotel and a crashed. Had to prepare for another equally awesome day beginning bright and early the next morning!

*Did I mention that English Garden has no clothing laws? Yeah. So there's that. 

Adventures in Deutschland: Dachau

"The concentration camps, by making death itself anonymous (making it impossible to find out whether a prisoner is dead or alive), robbed death of its meaning as the end of a fulfilled life. In a sense they took away the individual's own death, proving that henceforth nothing belonged to him and he belonged to no one. His death merely set a seal on the fact that he had never existed." ~Hannah Arendt

Sometimes, even in the midst of the greatest of adventures, there comes a time for quietness, reflection, solemnity. Our 20 km trek outside of Munich to the town of Dachau warranted such a time.

I suppose no trip to Germany is complete without a trip to a concentration camp, even if it makes for quite the heavy day. From the train station, we hopped aboard a bus which carried us right into the heart of Dachau and dropped us off at the dirt path that leads up to the camp. We were in a town, y'all. The camp was not in the middle of nowhere. It sat right in the midst of a town with shops and houses and business. A town that had, for 12 long years, functioned normally while treachery went on behind the walls of the camp. So close to its day to day...

The dirt path led us up to the entrance of the camp...the wrought iron gate emblazoned with the infamous words: "Arbeit Macht Frei", the lie that tried to convince prisoners that "work makes you free". Thousands of them never experienced freedom again.

We pushed through the gate and walked into the main open yard---the "roll call" ground---where prisoners were made to stand twice daily, sometimes for hours, in extreme conditions to be counted.

We entered a building to our right that had served as the "check-in" for new prisoners. The place where clothes and personal belongings had once been taken now houses the Dachau museum.

  "No smoking!"

   A prisoner's information

    This room (and several rooms to follow) outlined Hitler's and the Nazi's rise to power, the institution of the Dachau concentration camp (in 1933), and the 12 years of tyranny that followed.

  Looking out from the museum, across the roll call ground to where the barracks once stood.

       Chess set carved by a prisoner

We made our way through several rooms, looked at many artifacts, and read hundreds of facts about the concentration camp--the various prisoners that lived (and died) there, the treacherous punishments carried out by the SS, the epidemics that ripped through Dachau, and finally the day the camp was liberated (April 29, 1945). *The next picture may be difficult for some to see.

Deceased prisoners the Allies came across on liberation day

    Memorial to the prisoners of Dachau

With the weight of a dark history heavy upon us, we were more than happy to exit the museum into the bright hot warm sunshine. But our breath of fresh air was short lived as we made our way into the former camp prison...

And this place gave me the eeriest feeling ever. Rows of cells with tiny, bar-covered windows lined the paint-peeled cement hall. Most of the cells in the building had been used for solitary confinement. The long hallway was dark, dank, and deathly quiet. Quiet...except for the tap of my hiking boots echoing off the floor and ceiling. I shivered with each step, as I imagined that the noise was reminiscent of the fear-inducing sound of SS boots walking the same hall, some 70 years ago. 

Back out onto the sunlit grounds of the camp...

    Watchtower

             International Memorial

   Urn with the ashes of unknown prisoners (left side of the previous photo)

               Center of the memorial

          Standing on the roll call ground

         Two rows of security fences around the camp

 Barbed wire

From the outer gate, we made our way to the two buildings which are reconstructed replicas of the original camp barracks. 

          Empty slabs where the barracks once stood

      Wooden slat "beds" where hundreds of prisoners once crammed together

Outside the barracks, we wandered slowly down the long, lonely camp road that had led prisoners from the barracks to the roll call ground. 

            

   Hubs snagged a shot of me capturing one of several of the below shot...

       All in the name of photographical memories, my friends.

The camp road--opposite direction from the roll call ground--led us to a few memorials...

   

   The Mortal Agony of Christ Chapel

          Ceiling inside the chapel

          Inside the Jewish Memorial

Then the path took a left through some trees...a peaceful walk, a light breeze dancing through the leaves, the sun shining gently between branches...but it opened up to this...

     The Crematorium

  Sometimes prisoners were tied up to the wooden beams and beaten. Or lined up and shot while standing there. And thousands of bodies were disposed of right here. By 1944, the crematorium had almost reached its capacity...too many prisoners were dying or being killed. On Liberation Day, the crematorium was found piled with bodies because there was just no room.

The next two photos were also part of the crematorium. The "shower rooms", better known as the gas chambers.

If there was to be any redeeming quality of Dachau, it was that its gas chambers had never actually been used for mass exterminations. But still, so much death had happened right where we stood... 

For 12 long years, people--from every race, religion, and social standing--had been subject to cruel torture and captivity. Forced to work in harsh conditions, subjected to medical experiments, left to die by the hands of the SS or a typhus outbreak. Nearly 200,000 prisoners were registered at Dachau (including its sub-camps), and at least 30,000 (most likely more) died there. 

The thousands of forever altered lives that had once set foot behind its prison walls have been aptly memorialized at Dachau. We exited the camp the same way we entered: through the iron gate at the front. Much like the survivors did, 69 years ago. We all walked through the gate that no prisoner will ever have to walk through again.