First Week of December 2016
We were bloody excited to get back into Western Europe after 3 months in the Balkans and Romania. Especially Munich - beer, German sausage and its famous Christmas markets, what wasn't there to be excited about? We had pre-booked 3 nights at Wombats Hostel to get us started, and expected big things!
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| First things first, beer hall! After we dropped off our bags at the Hostel, we ventured out for the afternoon. |
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| Wohaaaaa - after mostly paying from 80cents to $2 for Pints over the last couple of months, it was a bit of a slap in the face to fork out over $20 for what is pictured... However, I can confirm it was DELICIOUS and worth it! |
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| The New Town Hall - possibly one of the most iconic 'historic' buildings in Munich. It features the Rathaus-Glockenspiel (situated within the main tower pictured) which chimes everyday at 11am and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century. The main pedestrian street was a hive of Christmas market stalls offering plenty of food, Gluhwein and decorations. |
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| Nom, nom, nom. Nutella and banana crepes. We've been hankering for some of these since Paris. |
After a couple of hours at the Hofbrauhaus, and a few stop offs at Christmas market stands for Gluhwein, crepes, and a couple of Bratwurst, we had blown the budged and handed over more Euros in a few hours then what a few days travel would cost through the Balkans....
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| Feldherrnhalle monument - This is the site of the Beer Hall Putsch, a confrontation between Bavarian State Police and followers of Hitler in 1923. The result was 4 police dead and 16 nazi marchers, further to Hitler being sentenced to a term in prison. Later when Hitler took power, he turned the site into a memorial, which was then used for SS parades and commemorative rallies in the lead up and during WWII. |
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| The Munich Frauenkirche (Cathedral of Our Dear Lady) - very visible because local height limits suggest nothing can be built higher then this cathedral. |
The Munich surfers braving what was a day of about 5 degrees celsius, we were told that no matter the conditions, you can expect to see people surfing in this small channel of the Isar River every day! Surfers have been shredding this man-made wave since the 1970s.
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| Temperatures were just about zero degrees but calm, still a cheeky gluhwein (warm, spicy red wine) was starting to grow on me a bit after initially not really enjoying it. |
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| Cracking night - so we decided to go for a bit of an ice skate! I've never done it before, and I've never roller bladed successfully so I struggled and spend most of the time hanging onto one of those snowman frames.. Amy was more then capable and laughing her head off at me! |
Day trip 1 - Dachau
A day trip out to Dachau, a medieval town 16km northwest of Munich. The home of the Dachau concentration camp which was the first Nazi concentration camps in Germany and eventually became the model of which all other Nazi concentration camps would be based on.
A day trip out to Dachau, a medieval town 16km northwest of Munich. The home of the Dachau concentration camp which was the first Nazi concentration camps in Germany and eventually became the model of which all other Nazi concentration camps would be based on.
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| Albeit macht frei - Work sets you free |
Opened in 1933 when Hitler came to power, it began as a place for the imprisonment of Jehovah's Witnesses, political opponents to the Nazi's and homosexuals.
We spent about 3 hours wandering around the grounds, and reading this history about the camp and about how Hitler came to power etc. There was a brief movie of stories from people who survived explaining their treatment and the conditions of the camp. The whole couple of hours was such a sombering experience, to walk around the halls and a couple of the remaining prisoner barracks, it was hard to imagine what these prisoners would have went through and how different the world was in Germany during the period of the Nazi power.
At the opening of the camp in 1933, Dachau had the capacity of 5000 prisoners. By 1937, 13,000 prisoners. It wasn't until 1938 that Jews began to be kept at the camp - which almost doubled the number of prisoners over night. At its height in 1945 there were 30,000 prisoners. Over the course of operation, some 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries past through the camp and in total 35,000 were documented to have died - it is estimated that thousands of deaths were never documented...
While there were gas chambers and a crematorium built on site, only the crematorium was ever used. Other then the forced labour, one of the craziest uses of prisoners at the camp was for military based medical experiments. Nazi doctors used prisoners to experiment how long the human could be exposed to icy water, or freezing temperatures. How long humans could live of salt water, and at what point humans could survive when exposed to high altitude and rapid decompression. Crazy stuff!
Day trip 2 - Neuschwanstein Castle.
The 'Disney - sleeping beauty' castle. Almost on the border of Austria, Neuschwanstein Castle was a couple of hour train ride from Munich on a packed train of tourists! For the first half an hour of the ride we were standing up until a handful of locals got off at early stops.
Built by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat, the palace was commissioned by the king out of his personal fortune. The structure is pretty impressively built on a large rock, unfortunately it was never quite finished before the death of the big fella in 1886 - 17 years after construction began.
Since the castle has been opened to the public, some 61million have visited. On a summers day un to 6000 people per day can be visiting the castle, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in Europe. Considering this, I would say our time here was relatively quite with only a few dozen people wandering around. We didn't buy a ticket to tour the inside, so I'm not sure if we missed out on anything or not. At this point we've seen a bucket load of castles...
While there were gas chambers and a crematorium built on site, only the crematorium was ever used. Other then the forced labour, one of the craziest uses of prisoners at the camp was for military based medical experiments. Nazi doctors used prisoners to experiment how long the human could be exposed to icy water, or freezing temperatures. How long humans could live of salt water, and at what point humans could survive when exposed to high altitude and rapid decompression. Crazy stuff!
Day trip 2 - Neuschwanstein Castle.
The 'Disney - sleeping beauty' castle. Almost on the border of Austria, Neuschwanstein Castle was a couple of hour train ride from Munich on a packed train of tourists! For the first half an hour of the ride we were standing up until a handful of locals got off at early stops.
Built by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat, the palace was commissioned by the king out of his personal fortune. The structure is pretty impressively built on a large rock, unfortunately it was never quite finished before the death of the big fella in 1886 - 17 years after construction began.
Since the castle has been opened to the public, some 61million have visited. On a summers day un to 6000 people per day can be visiting the castle, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in Europe. Considering this, I would say our time here was relatively quite with only a few dozen people wandering around. We didn't buy a ticket to tour the inside, so I'm not sure if we missed out on anything or not. At this point we've seen a bucket load of castles...
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| Views looking back on the castle from the walk upto the bridge lookout. |
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| Proof we were actually there. |
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| Wandering past the castle on our way to the lookout. There were some information boards with plenty of information about the history of the castle and King Ludwig II. |
To fill in one of the colder days, we headed to the Deutsche Museum (German Museum) - the worlds largest museum of science and technology. And it was AWESOME! It had everything, and didn't disappoint. I can defiantly recommend anyone who's interested in science or technology a visit.
Overall we spend 6 nights in Munich. The highlights were defiantly wandering through the Christmas markets, learning a lot at Dachau Concentration Camp and the Bavarian beer. She was a bit more expensive then we expected, but other then that it was a beauty!
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| A whole steam powered tug boat on display! |
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