Munich - June 23

This is our last full day together before we depart by plane for destinations thousands of miles apart once again. From Texas, to California, to Colorado, to Wisconsin, to South Dakota, to Nebraska, to Iowa and then Minnesota. Did I leave any destinations out. It was a very relaxing breakfast as many hung around the tables, sipping coffee and watching as the last of the group made it down to hit the food trough once again. Sure enough there is Vernell in his Red White and Gold (not yellow, never yellow, Xenia would be mortified) dunce hat which confirms once again that Germany did win the night before during our man-cave experience. 

We get our pre-packing plans started and finish the Cosmos evaluation sheets done. Not to hard too fill this one out. Doubt that either Ditmar or Xenia took any "hits" on the evaluations. Not much one could complain about, only to exhort such a great experience. When show up for the bus tour at 9:30am for the trip to the Opera House. Noses counted we come up one short. Roger is still working intensively on the blog as the seconds count down toward 9:30. I cover for him letting Xenia know that he is coming shortly. The minutes pass, others notice that one other is missing from the group. There is sincere and serious concern. Are we sure the missing party is okay. What should be do? Can we call again to inquire?

Finally the bus is ready and Roger shows up. Somebody asks whether he has to dance or sing. Xenia told us a couple of days ago that we were quite reliable as a group. She had not yet had to impose her set of rules for travelers that show up late for a deadline. She says there are three requirements. Number one = if you are late by two minutes you have to sing, oh my some of us gulp, sing in front of everyone, worse than talking into that stupid microphone on the bus. Number two= if you are late by four minutes, then you have to dance, oh my, only Vernell and Karen seem to have natural dancing skills. Then comes Number Three. Xenia announces that if you are six minutes late for the bus, then you will have to dance AND sing in the spot where the bus had previously been, because she and everyone else will be gone without you. Nope, have not lost anyone that way yet.

When we arrive at the Opera House it is filling rapidly with people milling about. We see some people (from the night before) with this stark body paint in either red or gold colors. Later we find out why -- it seems that there is an artist who is well known for taking public pictures in unique locations with nude people (as many as 100-200) in various poses. Yep, you got it -- we missed the prime buff shots which had occurred very early in the morning where the nudists and the photographers had been some time after dawn. Not sure we really wanted to view the strange looking figures in the buff with such strange paint, but our curiosity is peaked just a little.

We make the jaunt walking together to the big open plaza where the Glockenspiel is scheduled to go off in at 11:00. We meet for a kick off about an hour earlier in order to begin exploring the shops in the area one last time before going on a bus tour of Munich with our local guide. Almost immediately we see funny looking men in lederhosen and green jackets mustering up in the plaza area. They have carbines at hand and we wonder what they are up to or what their purpose might be. Then we hear music in the background and the sound of marching drums. From the tunnel behind us there comes the pleasant sounds of horses and bands with musicians marching. It seems that there is a celebration we have stumbled into which is put on by all of the brewers in the Munich area. It is delightful for us to hear they must be giving us a send off.

We then had a wonderful city tour of Munich with local guide Elizabeth who really knew her stuff and shared with us in a very powerful way. We saw parts of Munich that were most unusual and illustrated why Munich is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. 

She reported that Munich is a city of fashion and cinema high tech production.  Most building are of a baroque style.  Munich was heavily bombed during World War II.  The mayor years ago led the city toward a "restore" strategy rather than leveling the ruins and building new architectures.  Therefore, the heart of Munich does not look like a modern city such as Frankfurt but rather a romantically restored design of buildings.  The mayor had said, "The city must have a soul." so he ensured that history was preserved.

Steve Sprenger and Steve Lindeman cooling off and enjoying the architecture at the fountain near Munich city center

Archway at the entrance to Munich city center where we found lots of shopping, markets and art

Munich has a population of 1.4 million, has 46 museums and 61 theaters.  As compared to other cities we visited in Germany, the inhabitance were far more diverse;  in that and some other regards, it felt more like New York City.  BUT Munich was unique and in other ways not anything like NYC.  Unemployment in Munich is 3.8,one of the lowest in Germany.  There are about 100K students in the city.  It is the home of the 1972 Olympics.  It has 50 McDonalds (oh, how sad).

Our guide gave us a few other interesting statistics.  "There are 80 thousand dogs in Munich.  How do I know?  Because they are all registered and people pay a tax to have a dog.  If you need additional ideas in the US for taxes, Germany can help with that."

Another interesting quote she gave when speaking of the city history was, "The common people 'eat the soup' the politicians cook."  Oh so true.

She pointed out that people in the US are very willing to drink beer out of a plastic cup, but that would be a sin in Munich.

Finally she pointed out the high-end shopping street (the Fifth Avenue of Munich--sorry for bringing in the NYC comparison again).  It is on Maximillian Stasse and she called the wealthy shoppers (or wanna-be's) the "schichy-nichy" class of people.

Then at about  1:30 we split into the Dachau group and the shopping or museum group.

Dachau

The name Dachau may not ring a bell to the reader.  Dachau, the city has about 40,000 residents and is located about 11 miles northwest of Munich.  It is an old city but currently it is a popular place for people to live who work in Munich.

However, in 1933 the Nazi's built a concentration camp in Dachau and it became the prototype or model for all other concentration camps.  It operated as such until April 1945 when the US military liberated it.

After Hitler came into power in 1933, almost every community in Germany had members taken away to this camp. Newspapers continually reported of "the removal of the enemies of the Reich to concentration camps", and as early as 1935 there were jingles warning: "Dear God, make me dumb, that I may not to Dachau come".

There is much written about this and the many other concentration camps during World War II.  To walk through and both read the placards and see the layout of the camp left us sober and reflective.  The Wikipedia entry states, 


History may never know how many people were interned there or died there, due to periods of disruption. One source gives a general estimate of over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries for the Third Reich's years, of whom two-thirds were political prisoners, including many Catholic priests, and nearly one-third were Jews. 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps.

Enough said.  Find your own photos online should you want to further research.

We dropped Steve Lindeman off at a taxi stand after leaving Dachau because his tour had to the end and his airline flight back to the US was this afternoon.  We had a great time connecting with him.  Most of us had not seen him for 20-30 years.  So we were very happy he came to represent the Lindeman family.  When Xenia got back on the bus, she sighed, “Oh, it is so sad to say good bye to one of your children!”   Spontaneously, one of our tour members replied, “But did you have to leave him by the side of the road?”

Dinner followed with a great traditional German meal together with a lederhosen dressed accordion who played for us and later some of us danced to a polka.  The prize for best dancers throughout the trip were Karen and Vernell Katzung, although Wes and Janice (Ness) managed to kick it around to polka music played by the accordion man.

Our dinner entertainer at the dinner on the last day in Munich (Munchen)

Steve summarized the trip with highlights and we then departed for the hotel by bus being entertained by snippets of a 8mm film Steve shot 35 years ago during his first trip to Germany with Annie. My oh my, how they have changed as the cars and dress as well.

Our fearless leader Steve Sprenger in Munich providing a recap of our trip