Day Six - Munich

Day six started slowly. Being the first night train, I had quite a lot of trouble falling asleep, doing so only as the dawn broke and the lights came back on in our train car (5:30am). When we finally got into Munich, it was about 7am and nothing in the city had opened up for the day. Alex and I exited the train and headed into the centre of the station, picking a good meeting spot and finding the time when a train would take us into Nuremberg, where we were to meet up with Thore again around 6pm.

Alex headed off into the sleepy city and I decided to take the S-Bahn out to one of the things that I had wanted to see, knowing that the trip out there and the time spent finding the location would be enough to make sure that everything would be open by the time I was finished.

That place was Dachau, and the concentration camp that was located out there. I got on the S-bahn that went out that way and after about 20 minutes or so I was in the town of Dachau. First things first, I needed a good and strong coffee, so I stopped into the bakery that was across from the station and after a lot of pointing and giggling at our feeble attempts to speak one another's language two very cute bakers helped me get a croissant and a large coffee which I enjoyed in the morning sun on their patio out front.

Fully awake now, I began the rather somber trip out to the camp. The route that I took was marked on the map at the S-Bahn station as the Holocaust Route, and was roughly the same route that prisoners had taken decades before on the long 'Death Marches' in the final days before American troops liberated the camp. Every couple hundred meters or so, there was a plaque that illustrated part of the history of the location and what had happened at places along the route. Eventually though, I knew I was getting very close to the camp, as I had come across the SS officers residences.

The residences remained as they were during wartime, and were now fenced off as part of a German riot police training facility. It was suprising to see that they were still standing and functioning, and that the houses looked so well kept and still in full use, given their previous inhabitants. It was a bit hard to fathom how the buildings were so beautiful when they were located so close to a camp where people lived in such horrifing conditions.

Walking up the rest of the path I finally located the beginning of the camp's grounds. Just outside of the wall of the camp was a welcome centre, although it was closed on Mondays. Just my luck, the one day that I'm in Munich/Dachau, and the camp is closed. Well, seeing as I didn't have any choice, I continued to walk around, following the wall along until I came to the main entry gates into the camp and found the rail platform where tens of thousands of people had been brought from all over the country to be sentenced to work or death.

After sitting on the rail platform and letting the view in front of me sink in for a while, I went up to the gates and looked into the camp. Deserted. At the far side though, I saw that there were other entrances, and hoping that I might have better luck over there, I followed the walls around the campus until I was at what looked to be the service entrance of the camp.

To my amazement, the gates were wide open and there wasn't anyone in the gate control booths. Looking into the camp, I saw another entrance a ways down and hoped that there might be someone down there tthat could help me out. I went down to this other entrance - it also was deserted. I finally saw a figure in combat fatigues walking across the camp grounds towards the gate. I thought two things at this time. One, "Oh good, someone that I can talk to about taking some photos;" and two, "Uh oh, are they coming by to give me the boot out of here for snooping around."

Turns out it was neither, just a military officer who explained that he was running a training exercise for his men and that I could inquire in the main administration building at the far end of the camp. I walked away quickly and headed back to the first service entrance going over in my head the explanation that I would use to try and get access to snap a few photos for a Canadian travel publication....

Walking into the camp, I knew that I had an uphil battle in front of me to try and get a pass to walk around and take some quick photos. So, on my way into he administration building I kept shooting pictures as I went in case it didn't work out. The building that I went into was a bit of a ways into the camp, but not too far. The office was pretty much deserted, and it took a few minutes to finally find a staff member to plead my case to.

Naturally, he was really surprised to find a backpacker with a massive camera in the office on a day when the camp was closed. Actually, surprised is not quite the right word, more like astonished. After explaining how I had got in and the military officer who had given me permission and why I was there, the staff member was able chat with me very briefly. Unfotunately I was not able to get permission to walk around the camp, although he didn't mind if I took photos as I made my way out. I thanked him profusely in my humblest Canadian accent and left the office. I kept shooting photos on my way out and left the camp.

Two more things hit me suddenly as I walked down the street, snapping photos of German troop trucks rolling into the camp. One, how eerie it was to be in the camp - alone and unauthorized. Two, It suddenly stuck me as completely odd, if not radically inappropriate, for the German military to run training exercises in the camp itself. Watching the trucks full of army cadets roll into the concentration camp my imagination started running in overdrive and it really scared the hell out of me. Dachau was used as a forced labour and extermination centre by the German military not more than five decades before and here they were pouring into the camp again. The camp was originally built for a maximum of four thousand people to be housed there, but by the end of its days it had swelled to housing more than thirty two thousand people.

I walked away from the camp, trying to put a bit of space between it and myself. I took the long way back to the station and saw some of the residential areas of Dachau. Many of the houses were in a very traditional style with many Lederhosen wearing Gnomes in the backyards and other very typical items scattered around. Eventually, with the help of my GPS (I'll admit I would have had a particularly hard time getting out of that subdivision without it) I got back to the S-Bahn station and caught the train into Munich city center.

Back in the city I got off the train in the middle of the city and went out to see a bit of the life on the streets. Quickly, I found myself on a pedestrian walkway, which was very much like a UK high street for the area. There were big brand name shops lining the streets and all of the tourists that one would expect to see in that kind of area. I had a bit of fun snapping photos of the huge volume of tourists. I'm always fascinated with places that are so dominated with outsiders as to make the place seem more like being in another country. Except that idea kind of dies when you realize that the fictitious country you are imagining would have to speak at least twenty different languages. Either way, the only thing German about that high street was the architecture. As a result, I didn't stick around too long and made my way down and off of the street.

Before getting right out of the area though I did stop by a really large fountain where people were playing and having fun in the jets of water spraying in all directions. Well, most people were having fun until a man had sliced open his foot and an ambulance had to fight its way through the throng of tourists and cart the injured man away. What a horrible injury for a backpacker. At that point I took time to be thankful that my feet were in good working order and hoped they would stay that way. A backpacker's most important asset is his feet.

Moving along I wandered the streets until the next most important part of my body started to speak up. My stomach was in need of refueling, and I was happy to oblige. I walked the city streets until I found a supermarket and then looked to find a cheap way to eat. While looking around I found a pretty astonishing marketing scheme. While perusing the drinks I came across a six pack of beer that made me do a double take. The beer, and I kid you not, was 'Ice Age: 2' themed. Who are they marketing to! Well really the answer is obvious, but think about whether that could ever fly in Canada... yeah, exactly. Anyways, I managed to come up with a lunch that fit me just right.

I left the supermarket with food in hand, and surveyed the scene to find a bench to eat my good on - nothing to be found. I wandered around a bit more, still nothing. I wandered around for half and hour and still nothing, until I found a square that consisted of a large empty grass field surrounded my enormous buildings on each side. I went into the square, found some steps (that were big enough to be out of a super mario big-land level) and began my lunch.

Lunch consisted of three items, and was very tasty. One, a Baguette. Two, some fancy blue cheese. Three, two liters of 'Bitter Lemonade.' Total cost? 2.40 Euro. I was impressed with the cheap nature in which I was eating and devoured the baguette and cheese. The drink however was a bit of a different story. It was funny though, it wasn't all bad. The drink was actually quite refreshing and all of the things you would want in a lemonade, however it had an after taste that could turn your mouth inside out. Not wanting to waste money, I drank my bitter lemonade in four or five very long chugs, to minimize the effect of the aftertaste. I finished my meal, and was still pretty pleased in my ability to put together such a cheap meal even if the drink was barely potable. I looked around to figure out what the point of this 'Big Land' square was all about.

None of the buildings were actually open. It seemed like they were just props on a Hollywood stage. Eventually I was at a loss, accepted my defeat and headed out without a clue. Pleasantly however, I found a plaque a block away that very quickly made me understand what was going in. It turned out that the area I was in was in fact the birthplace of the the Nazi party. The buildings all around me were part of an elaborate complex that Hitler had designed to showcase the strength and power of the Nazi regime, which explained the extreme size of the buildings.

These buildings though were not quite the originals, as after the war the buildings had been largely torn down. The only building that remained in its original state was in fact the building where it all began. The building where the Nazi party had formed in its early days had been taken over by the American military and turned into their headquarters for a while before being turned over to become a musical school. The amount of history that had been formed in the immediate vicinity of where I was was a bit staggering. Just a bit further in from I was there was a huge obelisk that was supposed to become the Hitler's Tomb should be be killed during or after the war (assuming German victory).

Whew, from this point I needed a bit of a break from the exploring and immense amount of history being barraged at me. I walked a bit further and happened upon a beautiful set of gardens, which I was happy to enter and sit by a spouting fountain. I pulled out a book (on Participatiory GIS in rural communities) and read a few papers that I had been meaning to for a little while.

After sitting for quite a while (about two papers worth), I left my nice shady spot and went to find the source of the pleasant music that was drifting my way. The cello player was quite talented I found. Sitting in a small open dome the accoustics were wonderful and although he only had a few songs in his repertoire, he sure could play them well. After a few minutes of listening I moved on and saw a bit more of Munich in the off streets I wandered along. I came across an area selling litre beers, but again decided that the 6.50 Euro was a bit steep for me and kept moving for a while until it was time to catch the 4:50 train to Nuremberg. I met Alex at the platform and we boarded a train nearby that was going in the right direction and were off to Nurembug.

While en route, we tried to call Thore, but unfortunately the UK cell phone we had wasn't playing nice. Instead we opted to give Thore a ring from inside the Nuremberg train station. When we did get through he told us that because of some complications with school he was on a train that would not get in until 9pm. Alex and I were not too bothered and took a quick tour of Nuremburg looking for some place to sit down enjoy some food.

We sat down at a nice place with reasonably priced food inside the old city fortifications and took in a bit of the view. It seemed like every small town in Germany had an old part of the city now, and the one that we were currently in was a wonderful place to be. The buildings were wonderfully old and gave off a lot of character. After dinner we went on a bit more of a walk, and eventually I found possibly the best bar of the whole trip.

This bar was titled "Ushi's Bierbar" if if for nothing else I would need to venture inside because it had the namesake of a good friend from school. Further, the bar was clearly sponsored by a brand of beer called "Lederer" and that too is the surname of two dear friends! Well, I went into the bar and ordered a bottle of Lederer from the barkeep. The other people in the bar, all locals, took a bit of notice of me taking pictures of the beer which was quickly evaporating, and the man next to me (clearly the town drunk) struck up a fine conversation with me.

Now, I said a conversation, but it was a bit disjointed. He only spoke part of the English language and a good portion of French. I only spoke a tiny bit of German and a bit of French. We did however manage a conversation mixing in all three languages. I had a quite a lovely time getting to know some of the people in the bar, but by the time that the bottle was empty I had to meet Thore so I left my new buddies behind and walked up to the HauptBahnHof.

Thore met Alex and I just after nine and we quickly made our way over to the Tram station as it had begun to rain. Getting to Thore's flat, we met his roommate and dropped our belongings off in his room and set up some beds. The apartment was a sight to see, having no kitchen sink connected, the bathroom sink had been substituted, and the clothing washer was also in the bathroom. I'll try to explain more of the house in the following blogs to come, but it was a really fun place to stay.

After a bit of chatting with Thore, Alex and I were pooped from a full day of traveling and a poor sleep the previous night so we hit the hay by 11pm.