Monday, 9/10/07
What a day! We decided to sleep in a bit today, so we got up around 8:45. We had to go ahead and pack our things and "check out" by 10. We took our bigger backpack to luggage storage in the dungeon (apparently every hostel has one), ate our breakfast, and headed out. We started by seeing a bit of Munich. Our hostel is very near to the location of Oktoberfest. Although it doesn't start for another week or so, the preparations are well under way. They set up these HUGE tents, which are amazing. They literally construct these every year. Most of them look like true buildings from the front with walls, balconies, windows, but the sides and top are a very thick visquene. Since they were still constructing many of these tents when we went by, we were able to see how they put them together. Basically, they bring in the pieces and tons of extra 2x4s and screw it all together. A lot of them even had porches and one even brought in huge pine trees that they wedged down into the porch! I couldn't believe the work that goes into putting on Oktoberfest.
Next, we made our way to the center of town, Merienplatz. I'm sure it's usually very lively and beautiful, but we hit it at the wrong time. Because it was Sunday, almost all of the shops were closed...except, of course, American chains such as McDonalds and Starbucks. The beautiful building in the center of town with a working cuckoo clock was being worked on so it was covered in scaffolding and plastic. We were able to find gilato (ice cream) for 1€! It was so delicious!
Our final plans of the day was to go to Dachau and see the concentration camp memorial. We hopped on a train after purchasing brats in the train station and were to Dachau in less than 10 minutes. We decided to walk from the train station to the memorial...bad idea. It took us over an hour to get to it! By the time we got there, it was after 4 and the Museum closed at 5. We were able to see 1/2 of the museum. It was such an eye opening experience. I couldn't believe the amount of violence and evil that occurred there. It was so sad to walk through the very building where people were tortured to the point of death. I was so saddened by the stories of killings, hangings, gas chambers, and starvation. Some of these prisoners were literally worked to death. I'm very glad we went to the memorial. It is a reminder of what evil people are capable of. I still don't know how these things could be carried out with no remorse or guilt. Terribly sad.
We have arrived back in Munich and are waiting for 11:45 to leave on the overnight train to Venice. We walked around looking for anyone who sold Dr. Pepper...we are both having major withdrawals! A person we met in the hostel said that he had seen Dr. Pepper all over Munich but we can't find one for the life of us! Now we are sitting in the lobby of the hostel as it is much more comfortable than the train station...and much warmer! We will probably head to the train station by 9:30. I would like to go back to Coffee Fellows for WiFi connection and we really want another brat from the train station!
What a day! We decided to sleep in a bit today, so we got up around 8:45. We had to go ahead and pack our things and "check out" by 10. We took our bigger backpack to luggage storage in the dungeon (apparently every hostel has one), ate our breakfast, and headed out. We started by seeing a bit of Munich. Our hostel is very near to the location of Oktoberfest. Although it doesn't start for another week or so, the preparations are well under way. They set up these HUGE tents, which are amazing. They literally construct these every year. Most of them look like true buildings from the front with walls, balconies, windows, but the sides and top are a very thick visquene. Since they were still constructing many of these tents when we went by, we were able to see how they put them together. Basically, they bring in the pieces and tons of extra 2x4s and screw it all together. A lot of them even had porches and one even brought in huge pine trees that they wedged down into the porch! I couldn't believe the work that goes into putting on Oktoberfest.
Next, we made our way to the center of town, Merienplatz. I'm sure it's usually very lively and beautiful, but we hit it at the wrong time. Because it was Sunday, almost all of the shops were closed...except, of course, American chains such as McDonalds and Starbucks. The beautiful building in the center of town with a working cuckoo clock was being worked on so it was covered in scaffolding and plastic. We were able to find gilato (ice cream) for 1€! It was so delicious!
Our final plans of the day was to go to Dachau and see the concentration camp memorial. We hopped on a train after purchasing brats in the train station and were to Dachau in less than 10 minutes. We decided to walk from the train station to the memorial...bad idea. It took us over an hour to get to it! By the time we got there, it was after 4 and the Museum closed at 5. We were able to see 1/2 of the museum. It was such an eye opening experience. I couldn't believe the amount of violence and evil that occurred there. It was so sad to walk through the very building where people were tortured to the point of death. I was so saddened by the stories of killings, hangings, gas chambers, and starvation. Some of these prisoners were literally worked to death. I'm very glad we went to the memorial. It is a reminder of what evil people are capable of. I still don't know how these things could be carried out with no remorse or guilt. Terribly sad.
We have arrived back in Munich and are waiting for 11:45 to leave on the overnight train to Venice. We walked around looking for anyone who sold Dr. Pepper...we are both having major withdrawals! A person we met in the hostel said that he had seen Dr. Pepper all over Munich but we can't find one for the life of us! Now we are sitting in the lobby of the hostel as it is much more comfortable than the train station...and much warmer! We will probably head to the train station by 9:30. I would like to go back to Coffee Fellows for WiFi connection and we really want another brat from the train station!
1 comment:
i went to dachua when i was there. if i remember correctly not very many people were actually killed in the chambers there. i remember we all left there very silent and not saying much.
very cool! looks like you are having fun!
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