Germany is our first non-English speaking country on this trip. Due to the length of our travels we have to learn to navigate grocery stores, laundromats and public transportation. This has created several embarrassing and awkward moments with the locals but we are learning quickly. We now know never to press the help button at the self checkout, as it leads to the cashier yelling at you asking what is the matter then causing the entire line to turn around and look at the dumb Americans.
Munich is the capital of Bavaria and Germany’s third largest city. Like much of Europe, the Roman empire had a huge influence on this city’s architecture. When we arrived we saw tons of people swimming in the Isar river and bikes all over the place. If you visit make sure to look both ways when crossing the sidewalk/bike lane. We also quickly noticed the drinking culture, I guess we know where Wisconsin gets it from. Almost every one had a beer or two at meals or just hanging out in the parks. It was interesting to see you can even get a beer or a pack of cigarettes from a vending machine.
For our first whole day we wandered the Altstadt (old town) and toured the Residenz palace. The Munich Residenz is the royal palace for the Bavarian monarchs. It seems every royal regime made their addition to the Residenz making this place massive. It is an endless maze of gilded rooms and chapels filled with statues, paintings and tapestries from the Renaissance. Much of the Residenz was restored after WWII. We then made our way to Königsplatz which was the location of the Nazi headquarters. In the plaza they built the National Socialist Documentation Museum. It is free to the public and was filled with high schoolers learning about the rise and fall of the Nazi regime.
On our second day we visited the Dachau concentration camp. If you are in the Munich area I highly recommend making a visit. Molly and I were truly upset after spending hours reading, listening and walking through the concentration camp. It’s hard to describe how it feels to stand where tens of thousands of people were systematically tortured and murdered.
The most upsetting thing we learned is that not only were German companies and citizens complicit, many of them profited from the Holocaust. German manufacturers used forced labor and took over Jewish run businesses. Many German citizens denied knowing what was going on at Dachau, even though they lived with the smell of death and the crematorium every day. Today, German students are taught a very detailed history about this time and many companies have been pressured to confront their past.
On our third day we took a day trip to Nürnburg, about an hour and a half train ride north of Munich. In the morning we walked around the Altstadt, listened to an organ music program at Saint Sebaldus Church, walked the city wall, and took a tour of the Nürnburg Castle tower and well. The tower was very interesting because it had pictures before and after the air raids destroyed most of the city. Nuernburg played a big role in WWII. It was a location for huge Nazi rallies, the Nüremberg Laws (that stripped rights from Jewish people) and the Nüremberg trials. So we decided to spend the later part of the day walking around the Congress Hall Nazi Party Rally Grounds.
On our last day in Munich we visited the Deutsches Museum which is apparently the world’s largest science and industry museum. We were there for six hours (Molly says too long) and we only saw about half of the museum. I highly recommend it if you are a nerd like me. In the evening we walked around the Nymphenburg Palace grounds.
Not Sew Fancy Travels 