Munich, Dachau, and the Eagle's Nest

So, this weekend was a whirlwind trip, fabulously planned and driven by George. We left early Friday morning and drove to Dachau with two vehicles, 10 adults, two children, and one dog. There was a lot of time in the van, much of it spent ill from car-sickness or some kind of stomach bug, even more of it spent asleep, but a good portion in some interesting conversations. The whole weekend was immensely enjoyable, so yay George!!

Dachau
First stop on Friday afternoon was the Dachau concentration camp memorial. I have been here once before, two Novembers ago, but the day I came was dark and icy. Much of the memorial was closed, and the silence was eerie. This time, the sun was shining, everything was open, and the whole place abounded with tour groups of various nationalities. We saw the film in English, then walked through the barracks and the museum. Afterwards, we walked around the rest of the camp, which was all new to me. We saw the chapels and memorials, mass graves, and the old and new crematoriums. When I was here last, it was easy to think of the places as the hell-hole it was, full of death and torment, with ice on the ground and snow laying in dirty drifts against the buildings and bare trees. This time, with sunshine and birds singing, seeing the brick building with it's chimney sticking into the sky, and green trees and flowers lining the paths, it's hard to believe that such evil can hide behind such innocuous beauty.


Eagle's Nest
On Saturday, we got up early to drive down to Berchtesgaden (which is ridiculously hard to spell!) to go to the Eagle's Nest. The Eagle's Nest was a gift from the Nazi Party to Hitler for his 50th birthday. Known in German as the Kehlsteinhaus, it sits on a cliff some 6000 feet above the valley floor. To get up to it, we drove up a hill and parked, then took a bus up to just below the house, then took an elevator inside the mountain face up to the chalet. The tunnel through the mountain to the elevator is long and damp, but large enough that cars could drive through it to keep important dignitaries (and Hitler himself) from having to get wet. Apparently, Hitler himself was rarely at the Eagle's Nest due to a fear of heights...
We were there on a cloudy day, which many people found unfortunate. I, however, have been lucky enough to be atop several very high peaks in clear sunshine, and found the clouds a very pleasant change. They gave the whole mountain an ethereal look, especially as the Kehlsteinhaus disappeared into the cloudbank. From the rocks above the house, you could see a cloud wrapping around the promontory, then suddenly cutting off on the side of the cliff and exposing the dizzying view of the towns so far below.

Munich
On Friday night, Jonathan, Joe, Justin and I (all the people in the picture above) went into Munich for a while, but Saturday night was when the whole group went in to the Hofbrauhaus. Let me tell you, that place is an experience. While there are Hofbrauhauses all over Germany, Munich's is the most famous. At the end of September, it becomes the center of the oh-so-popular Oktoberfest. Throughout the rest of the year, however, it still thrives. When we first arrived, we couldn't find any seats anywhere in the vast hall. Tables were crowded together, filled to overflowing with very loud Germans and tourists of all ages and nationalities. It was very hot, very crowded, and very loud. There was a traditional German band, consisting of accordions and brass instruments and Bavarian costume right behind our table, and periodically you would hear clapping and chanting breaking out, which usually meant somewhere, someone in the hall was chugging a liter of beer. (It apparently only comes in liter steins there.) Occasionally whole tables would stand up and start singing, glasses were raised, cheers given. Girls walked around selling giant pretzels and German cookies in their dirndls. The food was all typically German, lots of bread and sausage and cheese and meat. It was definitely an experience to be remembered!

Tiffany's Trip

Well, this was a fun weekend. Tiffany Pritchard took a weekend out of her semester abroad in England to come visit. Now, this is especially interesting when you realize the fact that we've technically never met before...but don't worry, neither of us are totally random strangers. She went to NCS, too, for a bit, and we had a great many of the same friends there, so we've talked before and heard stories on one another. The thing is, when you're over here, if anyone you know - or sort of know - is on the same continent, you just have to get together. You can't let something like that pass you by!

She flew in Thursday night and I picked her up, and Friday morning we set out at a nice dark 7 am for Munich. The drive is about 8 hours, and since it was the day after Thanksgiving - despite Thanksgiving not existing in Germany - we listened to Christmas music the whole way there. Our goal was Dachau, one of the largest concentration camps, which still stands as a memorial today. We got in about 4:30, meaning it was already dark, and there was still some snow laying on the roofs and the gravel was icy. The first time I ever visited a concentration camp was 7 years ago when PCC went to Mathausen in Austria. I'll never forget the experience, but I think this one was even more impacting. Perhaps it's just because we were in Mathausen on a sunny summer's day, and here in Dachau we visited in the dark, the bitingly cold and windy and wet late fall. Walking across the roll call area between the main building and the barracks, it really made me think a lot more about what life there might actually have been like. You can go into one of the two remaining barracks and see where the prisoners lived, and I can't imagine how awful, and how cold, it must have been. The walls and floors are bare wood, the beds three on top of eachother, no space in between - at one point a room that was supposed to house 60 men held about 400, crammed into these beds. There's a museum in the old kitchen/office building at the camp, across the parade ground from the barracks. We didn't have enough time Friday night to look through all of it, because the memorial closes at 5, so we came back Saturday morning to get another chance to go through. There's so much information, so much horror and pain and tragedy. There was a Nazi demonstration in Vechta last weekend, and it makes me wonder, after seeing things like this, how can people possibly want to go back to that? I know it's just a select, sick few who venerate the Nazi way of life, but how can someone even think of doing this to another human? It makes me ill.
So, the rest of the trip was fun. We stayed overnight in Munich in a hostel, a first for both of us. Happily, none of the horror stories we've all heard were true for us. The hostel was clean and safe and pleasant. There were four other girls in our room, two of whom were British and we spoke to for about a minute before going to bed, two others we only saw as shapes in dark beds as we left early the next morning. After our second forray into Dachau, we went to downtown Munich for souvenirs and the like. In the process, I encounted the most annoying parking experience EVER. We waited in line to get into the parking garage for a good 40 minutes. Yes. Really. It - and the others - were so full that you had to wait at the ticket machine until someone left, then go hunt down their old parking spot. Ha. I had to try and park at AZ Mills on Black Friday last year. Europe, not having Thanksgiving, must do everything the Saturday after, because this was i.n.s.a.n.e. Parking at the mall would have been a breeze compared to this.

We walked around the festive and decorative downtown Munich for a couple hours, enjoying the Christmas-specialty smells and fighting the crowds. The only time I've seen anything here this crowded is the day we went to Heidelberg. Lots and lots and lots and lots of people! But it was fun nonetheless. Then, sadness, it was time to go home. Back in the car with the Christmas music! We had no traffic on the autobahns the whole weekend, but getting out of Munchen was gridlock for a looong time. Then there was the adventure of trying to find food and not being able to, of Jane not sticking to the windshield because she was cold, and of adventuring trying to find our way home because the autobahn (#33) was closed and we had to try and find our way in the dark because Jane was insistent on taking it. Whee. Fun times.

Up again this morning to beautiful sunshine and blue skies! It has since changed and is drearily gray and cold and rainy out, but on our way to the airport it was lovely. Tiffany is now back in England, and going home in 2 weeks! Wow. Part of me almost wishes I was here for a semester thing like that, but everyone says the last 6 months go by SO fast, so here's hoping!