On the next leg of our journey, we took a train from Zurich to Munich, about three and a half hours. We stayed in Munich two nights before taking a 90-minute train to Salzburg.
To be honest, Munich was a bit of a disappointment. As soon as we got out of the train station, there was trash and graffiti everywhere. Now, there was quite a lot of graffiti in Italy, but there was something about Munich that made it feel a bit grungier. There seemed to be more heavy drug use, and more people strung out in public than previous places we've travelled. Anyway, we made it to our hotel in Munich then took the S-Bahn to the city center, called Marienplatz. The new city hall, called Neues Rathaus, has a massive mechanical clock, known as the Glockenspiel, that has moving life-sized characters.
The view of Marienplatz from above- I forget the name of the church on the left, but I like it. I think of two chefs' hats :)
The next day, we went to Dachau, about 20 minutes outside of Munich city. Dachau was one of the first concentration camps in Nazi Germany, opening in March 1933. It was also the longest running one, liberated by US forces in April 1945.
The camp was initially used as a prison for Hitlers political opponents and dissidents. It then became a forced labor camp and housed prisoners of war, foreign nationals from occupied countries, Catholic priests, and ultimately, Jews and Romani. Although the true number of people is unknown, it is estimated that over 200,000 people were interned there, and over 25,000 were murdered. Many more died from disease, suicide, or malnutrition.
I won't include any more pictures from Dachau other than this memorial, which stands in front of the main hall. It was designed to represent the prisoners and the electrified fence surrounding the prison. Many people deliberately ran into the fence to die by suicide, whether by electrocution or by gunfire from the guards.
It is hard to put into words what I felt during our visit here. It deserves more time and thought than I can share with a paragraph or a few pictures. More than just walking the grounds, seeing the bunks and the walls used for firing squads, the museum very diligently showed the story of Dachau and made it much more real. The photographs were haunting. Many of the medical experiments that Nazi doctors conducted were carried out at Dachau, and reading those stories was horrifying. We saw the crematorium, which worked night and day towards the end of the war. When the coal ran out in February 1945, they dug mass graves for all of the bodies. It was a very different experience from the rest of our vacation. But I'm very thankful that we went.
Going to Dachau confronted me with a theme I have seen many times and many places: man's inhumanity to man. I can think of many examples- the Holocaust in Europe, the Rwandan genocide, the Trail of Tears in America, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the list goes on and on. At some point in time, every people group in every region of the world has been the oppressor and the oppressed. No one is immune to the evil that exists in the world. The context differs, but the root is the same. It is much easier to point the finger at the Germans and think of what horrible people they were, both the Nazis and the citizens who were complacent. It's easy to think ourselves incapable of the evil of the Holocaust, to think ourselves morally superior. It's much harder to acknowledge that every evil event in history started with people just like you and me. It's important to have memorials like Dachau, not only to honor the people who suffered and died there, but to remind us that evil does exist, and we must actively fight against it. As a quote from the Holocaust memorial in Berlin sums it up: "It happened, and therefore it could happen again; this is the core of what we have to say."
And now we move on. After a sobering morning at Dachau, we went to BMW world, which was an altogether very different experience.
One building was like a huge showroom and included the latest and greatest models of BMW, Mini Cooper, and Rolls Royce. I loved this quote in the Rolls Royce section:
They had a ton of motorcycle models you could sit on.
This is about the only time you'll see me on a motorcycle- too much time spent in the OR amputating limbs for me to ride one for real!
We then spent some time in the BMW museum, which catalogued the brand since it was started in the early 1900's. It was really well done and we both enjoyed it!
We finished off the day at a biergarten.
The next morning, we took the train to Salzburg, about 1.5 hours. The city was night and day compared to Munich. It was so beautiful, clean, and charming. After we dropped off our bags at the hotel, we walked along the river to the old town.
In German, Salzburg literally means 'salt fortress'. The surrounding area was rich with salt, which made the city very prosperous in medieval times. The fortress, Hohensalzburg, was built in the 1100's and is one of the largest preserved medieval castles in Europe.
Besides salt, Salzburg is also known as the setting for 'The Sound of Music', a classic story about the von Trapp family during WWII. If you haven't seen it, you should stop reading immediately and go watch it. Fun fact, I was in a reproduction of the musical when I was 12 years old. I played Louisa, the second oldest von Trapp daughters. I know every word to all the songs in Sound of Music, a fact that William is aware of but not happy about.
This is the fountain where the 'Do-Re-Mi' scene was set. It is located in the Mirabell palace and gardens.
The rest of the Mirabell gardens with a view of the Hohensalzburg.
Another claim to fame of Salzburg is that it is the birthplace of Mozart. We bought tickets to a Mozart concert at the Mirabell palace, and it was incredible. We sat in this gorgeous room and listened to five musicians playing Mozart and Vivaldi.
I love watching anyone who is an expert in their field- whether athletes, or surgeons, or musiciancs. It is incredible to see their skill and talent. This was no exception!
The next day, we explored more of the city and admiring the mountains surrounding it.
We absolutely loved Salzburg!
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