Wir reisen nach München

Guten Tag! As promised, in this entry I will give the full report on our weekend trip to Munich, oder München auf Deutsch.

Instead of the usual four or five of us traveling, this weekend it was more- another group of three students from our class also were traveling to Munich, and they stayed at our same hostel. Joey and Giselle were staying in Mannheim Friday night, and would travel to Munich the next morning, so Friday afternoon Cait, Erica, and Ashely, Richie, and Sam were all at the Hauptbahnhof. We took a three hour Zug and arrived in Mannheim around 4:30. At the exit of the Bahnhof there was an advertisement sign pointing us in the direction of our hostel, the Meininger Hostel, which is a chain of hostels throughout Europe, so we were able to just walk there in about 10 minutes. Munich seemed like a very nice city, but it had a different feel to it than Berlin- less cold and stone, and more inviting and modern, and we were already spotting beer gardens and tons of little restaurants. We all checked into the hostel- Erica, Cait, and I had booked one of the large dorms, so we were a bit anxious to see how it would be. We went up to the room and entered with our key card, and there were two doors. To the left was a large room of about 10 beds, and a bathroom, bunk style, and most of them were already taken, and of course there were people smoking (in a strictly non-smoking hostel) on the balcony (which was for emergency purposes only). Fortunately to the right there was a smaller little room with only four beds and another bathroom, and only one bed was taken, so we swooped in and took those three. We had each been given a little card which fit in a plastic holder next to the bed, claiming it as ours, and the beds and bathroom were also clean and fresh, and we even had lockers in the room to store our stuff. A few minutes later we met the other group downstairs, and we headed off first to the Hauptbahnhof to purchase public transport passes for that day and Saturday (although in Germany it's more like the honor system and passes are hardly ever checked, the only country I've been in like that so far). We had to buy a more expensive pass for Saturday since our plans included going out to Dachau, which was in the outer portions of the Munich transport system. After that, we headed off to find some dinner.

Using information from both Cait's and my travel books, we located one of the most famous beer gardens in all of Munich: Augustiner-Keller, which has been around since the 1800's, and the beer since 1328. There were over 5000 seats, although we still had to look around to find some suitable ones. At first we sat at one of the round tables, but was soon told that it was a reserved Stammtisch- even the names of the regulars had been put around it at each place. But soon enough we found somewhere under the many trees, and we ordered. We all got similar things: Wurst and Kartoffelsalat, or Spätzle, which is a sort of curly egg noodle that is popular here. I also drank beer, which I figured I may as well do since I wouldn't be back in Munich of all places for quite a while- it's still the only time I've drank a full glass of beer in Germany, since it's not really high on my list of favorite tastes. But it was enjoyable enough, especially with our most delicious Wurst and the best Kartoffelsalat I've had in Deutschland. Unfortunately, almost as soon as we finished eating it started to rain, so we high-tailed it inside to finish our drinks. It was a different atmosphere inside: there were huge long wooden tables and benches, and we just sat down where it was empty. It was fun just being with the group, and a couple people ordered dessert as we just waited out the rain. After a while though, we were finished and left the garden. We decided just to do some city exploring, so we went to Marienplatz, one of the biggest public areas, where we saw the famous Glockenspiel (the bells in the church clock tower, where little characters pop out like in a cuckoo clock). We didn't have anything in particular to do, so we just wandered around getting a feel for the city, and then eventually decided to head back. We took an S-Bahn to our hostel, but it had decided to start raining again, so we were quite wet when we got back. We had a good night's sleep, which was valuable since we were getting up early the next day.

In the morning we got up early to get to the Hauptbahnhof by about 7. We ate breakfast there and then boarded a regional train to Dachau, for which we could use our Munich transport tickets. The journey out took about 30 minutes, and then we were in the little town of Dachau, but from there we still had to take a short bus to get to the former concentration camp. It was weird to think about Dachau being an actual town with such a place right inside it, although it's possible that the town has changed greatly in the past 60 years. I will just give a little information about Dachau: it was the first concentration camp opened in Germany, and it was used as a model for ones that followed. Over 200,000 prisoners were housed there and many died, but it was not one of the so-called "death camps." Most of the deaths were due to disease and malnutrition, including a typhus epidemic which we learned about during our visit. We arrived at the camp and we got audio tours which allowed to get detailed information as we went around. It was a very solemn visit, and the first thing that we saw as we walked down the gravel road were the former train tracks that ran by the camp, followed by the recognizable iron gate with the phrase, "ARBEIT MACHT FREI," meaning "Work sets one free." We walked through the gate and then we could see the lay of the land. On the right was the museum, and then on the left behind the large expanse of gravel where roll call had taken place, the camp continued far back. I must note that the original buildings and barracks had all been torn down. There had been two long rows of barracks, but now there are only the two in very front, which are reconstructions. That's where we started, and inside one of those buildings you could see how the quarters had progressed throughout the Holocaust- in the first room the bunks were only double, in the second there were more people squeezed into three levels, and in the third room there were no more individual bunks, but rather one large bunk in two levels. Our audio guides told us that more and more people were put into these rooms as the war went on- often a room designed for 50 would hold 200 people. In the colorless building we also saw the room which housed the toilets as well as one with washing stations. It was all very grim, and with our audio guides we were also able to listen to prisoner testimonies that had been written in the years following the war. After going through that building, we headed down the Camp Road, which was the wide gravel road going down the two rows of barracks toward the back of the camp. In the back several religious memorials had been erected: a Protestant church/memorial, a Catholic memorial, and the Jewish memorial. They had all been built in different ways, but they all symbolized the horror of what had happened, as well as the sentiment that something like that would never happen again. At the back of the camp, we turned left to head into another area. We saw the perimeter ditch and fence, where many had died trying to escape, and then there were two buildings, both of which were crematoriums. Originally there had just been one, but it bleakly had not been sufficient, so another one had to have been built. Inside there were ovens where the dead were cremated, and there was also a sign indicating that prisoners had also been hung from the rafters. We also went into the former gas chamber, which was just a concrete room with false shower-head-looking grates on the ceiling, and which also had grates on the side for inserting gas pellets, and also a way for guards to look inside, however, the chamber was never used at Dachau. Stepping outside there was a monument of "The Unknown Prisoner," as well as many other stones memorializing all who had died. Around a corner into the woods was the "grave of thousands unknown," which lay in front of a now grown-over cement wall which had been used to shoot prisoners against. The gravel path eventually led back around to the entrance of that part of the camp. At that point, we had seen nearly all of the physical parts of the camp, except for another memorial erected in 1997. It was a huge metal sculpture, very jagged and twisted, in which one could make it portions of bodies intertwined with a kind of abstract barbed wire. I believe the design had won in an international contest, and had then been erected. There was also a wall with the message "never again" written in various languages, and another Jewish wall memorial. We went then into the museum, where there was hours' worth of information. We meandered through the displays, reading about the history of the camp, what had happened there, and all sort of other information over the atrocity. We were only able to do half of the museum before a film was starting, so we went to that (it ended up not being much more informative). We went through the other half of the museum, and then it was time to go. The camp had a very different sort of experience: on one hand, it had been an informative look into history, but at the same time it was an emotional story of human atrocity and horror. We left the camp having learned a lot, and we took the same train back to the city center.

After a brief stop at the hostel, we had a quick lunch at a restaurant across the street before we were meeting Joey and Giselle at the Hauptbahnhof. They had also visited Dachau on their own in the morning, although we had not crossed paths there. After some discussion with the rest of the group, we all decided to go to the Deutsches Museum, which according to my travel book is one of the best things to do in Munich. In the vicinity of the museum was some live music and tons of people, for we were there doing the 850th anniversary of Munich festival, so it was cool being there with an event going on. We all entered the museum and wandered at will. The museum was possibly the most confusing museum I've ever been in. There all are sorts of twists, turns, corridors, and very little signage. Nevertheless, I made it a point to find a hall of musical instruments, which was very interesting- there were tons of old pianos and harpsichords, and other related instruments. Also there was the trautonium, an electric instrument used to create the sounds for Hitchcock's The Birds. I also saw a reconstruction of Galileo's workshop, and the famous Enigma machine, used in World War II for encoding messages. The musem was huge, with 6 floors, so there's no way I could possibly have seen everything, but I got a good overview. After the museum, the group split: I went with Richie, Giselle, and Ashley to the BMW Museum, and Erica and Cait tried to go to the Residenz, a palace, which ended up being closed. The BMW Museum had not been mentioned in my travel book, so I didn't know about it, but I'm glad that Richie knew about it, because it was great. We saw pretty much every model of BMW from the beginning of time, and everything was housed in a super sleek modern building. You could also listen to motors as they progressed through time, and there was one particularly interesting exhibit: the model letter/numbers that one sees on the back of cars had been taken off, and they were hanging in a huge sort of mobile. The higher to the ceiling they were (as shown by huge numbered years going down the wall), the newer the model. There were tons of little plaques hanging. We also saw a lot of motorcycles, including the BMW K1200R, which happens to be David's favorite bike of all time. Before we entered the museum there was also an interactive showroom- we could see the new cars, including a new hydrogen-powered one, we could see the pressure exerted on the brakes while driving in a sort of game-looking thing, we could see all the interior and exterior colors ever offered, and all sort of interesting facts. I also got to sit in a brand new convertible (I think it suits me). I really enjoyed the museum, and I'm happy that I was able to see it.

After the museum, we all met up again in the Olympiapark, site of the 1972 Summer Olympics. It was a very interesting park with interesting architure: the buildings are almost tent-looking, very glassy and wavy. There was a huge soccer stadium and lake, and we just hung out there for a while as we waited for the rest of group. Soon we were all reunited, and we were all hungry so we headed to find some dinner. We went to a recommended brewery, although our experience wasn't as good as the previous night's. We didn't get much attention, and we were all squeezed into a tiny table. I ordered a supposedly local fish dish, which didn't turn out anything like I expected, but it was still good, and it was served with an apple-horseradish which turned out to be excellent. One of our friends from the MEMS program, Kristin, had joined us at dinner, since she had just arrived alone in Munich from a trip somewhere else, and after dinner we checked her into her hostel. A small group of us decided to go out once more to check out the festivities going on with the festival, so we headed back out to where we were earlier in the day. There was some kind of a concert and dancing going on, not with a live band but with a DJ, and I must say there was an interesting selection of music. We heard everything from "Hit the Road, Jack," to "I'm Walking on Sunshine" to "We Will Rock You," and a few songs I'm sure could only be from Eurovision. And let me tell you, the Germans loved all these songs, and we were all wondering how they knew them. It was a little bit weird, but very fun. We made our way to the second row, as well, and the crowd was energetic and fun as everyone danced to the 10+ years old music. The DJ stopped playing at 1 am, and that's when we headed back to our hostel to get as much sleep as we could before getting up yet again very early.

We all met downstairs in the hostel at 6:45, checked out, and headed to the Hauptbahnhof. We were able to leave the bulk of our belongings in a locker there, and then we got breakfast and got on a train. Destination: Füssen, about 2 hours away. I slept on the train and was well rested by the time we got there, around 9:30. What is so special about Füssen? It is the small town around Neuschwanstein Castle, otherwise known as the model for Disney's Cinderella Castle and entire Disney logo. From the Bahnhof we took a bus to the base of the mountain, where we collected our pre-reserved tickets for the guided tour of the castle, which is nestled on the side of a mountain. We had three options for going up: we could walk for free, pay for a bus, or pay for a horse-drawn carriage. We decided to walk. Now, supposedly you can get to the top in 40 minutes or 30 at a good pace. We got there in 20 minutes, so I just figure that we are expert walkers. It wasn't a bad walk, but of course it was just a fairly steep incline all the way up. We had an excellent view from the top, but we continued a bit past the castle to get to Mary's Bridge, which spans a waterfall and gives you an excellent view of the castle from behind, and also a great site for pictures. Just our luck that the back of castle was undergoing construction and covered with scaffolding, but we were able to frame our pictures in such a way that it was covered. But the castle and the scenery was just breathtaking, and definitely very Disney-esque. Our tour was scheduled for 11:45, so we headed back down to the castle to wait. The castle had been built over 15 years for a King Ludwig II, but we learned that he only lived there for 100 days before he died in mysterious circumstances. Our tour was very interesting, and the inside of the castle was very different- it was very colorful, and had been built as an homage to the composer Richard Wagner, so inside there were many references to his work. There were also many swans, which was the symbol of the king, and in fact the name Neuschwanstein really means "new swan stone." Interestingly, only certain parts of the castle were ever finished before Ludwig's death, so we skipped entire floors of the castle on the tour. Even the throne had never been installed. In the kings chamber, there were wood carvings that had taken 4 carpenters over a year to do, and there was even a secret door that led to a flushing toilet and running water, which was very rare for the time. Visting the castle was great, and I really learned a lot about it that I had never known. After the tour we hiked back down the mountain, had lunch, and then caught another 2-hour train back to Munich. We still had about an hour to kill before our reserved train back to Mannheim, so we just wandered around for a bit in nearby Marienplatz. We said goodbye to Kristin, who had to stay in Munich by herself for a few more hours, and then finally boarded our train back to Mannheim. In order to have fewer train changes we had booked an IC train, which was still fast but not quite as nice on the inside, but we still had a pleasant journey back home. We arrived back around 8:30, and then went to our dorms to recover from our incredibly busy weekend.

I hope you've enjoyed this book of an entry! I'm still behind, but I know that I will get caught up eventually. I expect in my next entry to cover the events of last week's school week, and then have another for the weekend we just had. I can't believe I'll be home in a few days, the time here has really flown by. I'll write again soon- tomorrow with any luck!

Ich denke, dass mein Deutsch viel besser ist, und ich habe viele neue Wörter gelernt. Ich finde, es ist jetzt für mich leichter, Deutsch zu sprechen und verstehen. Ich habe meine Reisen viel genossen, und ich hoffe, dass ihr mein Blog interessant gefunden habt!

Aufwiederschreiben!