Applejunk Turkish Adventures: Our Winter Vacation Part 3- Munich, Germany

Vacation Day 8

The train ride from Garmisch to Munich was only an hour in a half long. For this leg of the journey, we tried something new for lodging. There is a website called AirBnB that we decided to try. Regular people all over the world sign up to rent out rooms in their house or their whole house. Then regular people sign up to stay there. You can search by city, based on price. The host writes an online review about the guest, and the guest writes a review about the host. It can be quite a bit cheaper than finding a hotel. So for our stay in Munich, we had arranged to stay in the spare bedroom of a couple named Andy and Annette. Their place was right in the middle of downtown Munich, within walking distance to everything. They were very kind and helpful and even had a pile of brochures about Munich for us.

We arrived around 3pm, and Andy suggested that we walk to St. Peter's Church and check out the view of the city from the top. We did just that! It only took us about 10 minutes to walk there and we had a fantastic view of the sun setting over the city.

We then headed to a Vietnamese place for dinner that our hosts suggested. The food was delicious! I had sushi and it felt very silly to be an American eating Japanese food at a Vietnamese restaurant in Germany.

We then headed back to the flat, chatted with Andy and Annette for a bit, then watched a movie and went to bed!

Vacation Day 9

Our hosts made us aware of a "free" walking tour of the city, so we decided to check it out. We met the English tour guide in the middle of the square at Marieplatz. Our guide was from the US and worked on a donations-only basis. She took us on a 3.5 hour walking tour and we really enjoyed it! She was very knowledgeable about the city. It was a very cold, windy day and we were about chilled to the bone by the time we finished. We learned a good deal about WWII history, Hitler, churches, and (of course) beer! When the tour was over, we went to a famous brewery, the Hofbrauhaus and had a giant glass of beer and a giant pretzel. This bar is one of the oldest breweries in Munich, which was founded in 1589. There have been many famous visitors, including Motzart, Lenin, JFK, and of course, Hitler. In fact, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known as the Nazi party, was formed here. It's now a big tourist place and is very loud and boisterous. We enjoyed the German festivity, and listened to a traditional Germany band.

Vacation Day 10

The main reason I wanted to come to Munich was to visit the Christmas markets. We spent pretty much all day wandering around the many Christmas markets, shopping for treasures for our family. We enjoyed delicious beer and yummy food, as usual.

Our hosts told us about this canal in the city where there is a little wake that surfers flock to year round. We decided to check it out, and sure enough, right in the middle of the city were these crazy people having a grand old time surfing a dinky wake over and over again in the freezing cold. Ridiculous! We watched them for a little bit, and then had to move on because we were too cold just standing there!

Vacation Day 11

We decided to do an all day tour of Dachau through the same tour group we used a couple days ago. We met our tour group, and took a bus together to Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps to open in Germany. The tour was 5 hours long and was a very somber experience. Dachau was used as a prototype for the other concentration camps. The camp was opened in 1933, fifty-one days after Hitler took power. It was originally used as an internment center of the Third Reich, or in other words, a concentration camp for political prisoners. At first, most of the prisoners were German nationals, who were there for "political reasons". Eventually it was used for prisoners of all types.

Dachau was officially a concentration camp for 12 years. According to wikipedia, around 32,000 prisoners died there. We learned on our tour that this number was not at all accurate, because this number comes from registered deaths, and many people were killed before they were officially "registered". We learned all about the living and working conditions of the people. It was meant to hold 5,000 prisoners, but at one point there were over 200,000 prisoners there. The camp used to have 69 barracks. One was reserved for clergy who opposed the Nazi party and another was entirely for medical experimentation. The camp is surrounded by a barbed wire electric fence, a huge deep ditch, and a wall with 7 different guard towers.

Much of what we learned is so terrible that I cannot even blog about it. Supposedly the camp was not used for mass murders, but there is a crematorium there used to dispose of the dead. We also went into a gas chamber. We were told it is only one of two surviving. This chamber wasn't used for mass murder as much as for perfecting the "gas chamber process". The camp was liberated in 1945 by the U.S. Army. Even after the camp was liberated, the people were so weak and sick that they continued to die. The camp was closed in 1060, and many memorials have gone up since then.

There was a museum at the camp, and a huge map showed all of the concentration camps as well as the satellite camps. I was completely blown away by how many there were...it was astounding. One thing that Jordan and I both found very impressive about the site was how Germany doesn't hide their ugly past, but teaches about it so that others may learn.

I was very very glad that we went on this tour and had to opportunity to learn so much history. Our tour guide was fantastic, and had done the Dachau tour more than 400 times. I cannot even imagine doing that as a full time job. Once was enough.

At the top of St. Peter's church, Munich in the background.

A view of Marienplatz from the church tower. Beautiful!

The Christmas Market at Marienplatz. So festive!!

Freezing my bum off on our walking tour of Munich!

No dogs, no ice cream, no pants, no hats. What???

Jordan was really proud of this picture. It's a lion face that people rub for luck.

Something else that people rub for luck. I wish I took a picture of her without Jordan because the place that he is touching is bright gold colored, from all the rubbing!

The great hall in the Hofbrauhaus!

BIG pretzel and BIG beer! We love Germany, yay!!

Yep, that one was just for me.

The oompa-loompa band behind us. We are still in the Hofbrauhaus

Having a yummy breakfast in a little cafe. I look like an excited chipmunk.

The surfers having a good old time in the canal!

I saw someone eating one and had to try it. It's basically chocolate covered marshmallow with nuts. Mmm! I also have my sleepy eyes! Vacation is hard work!