Dachau and Munich

The Dachau Concentration Camp site was used prior to and during WWII is located just outside Munich, Germany. We were limited to a couple of hours and I could have easily spent an entire day going through the museum, buildings, memorials, and grounds. The audio tour would have been interesting, but it required at least 3 hours. Instead I took photos of much of the signage and descriptions I came across to read after the fact. It's obviously a very somber place and the scale is quite small when the volume of people housed at the camp is considered. Two prisoner bunkhouses have been restored, but there were over 30 in use during the camp's operation.

The next morning started off with a Mike's Bike Tour of Munich. Hinx was our guide; he's Australian and quite funny. He provided a mix of historical information and funny anecdotes that kept people's attention. One of the first things he covered with us was hour to deal with people that try to join our group without paying (a common issue)... When one of our group identified an offender, we were to pass the "stranger danger" message quietly through the group and, when everyone knew, the unified group would call out "stranger danger", look at the offender, crouch down, and begin hopping in their direction. I'm sure it was quite a hilarious sight to see!

We went through part of the Englischer Garten, which is the second largest park in Europe (Dublin has the largest). It's a huge and beautiful green space with some unusual extras: river surfing and a nude area.

After the bike tour, a group of us headed to Marien Platz, a main square, which has the Glockenspiel (clocktower with characters that move at certain times of the day), as well as many outdoor markets that we explored. We walked Ludwig Straus for a few kilometers, explored the university area, and made out way back to the Englischer Garten, which was great, except for the fact that it was pouring rain for a good portion of the walk - I'm glad I still had the poncho that I bought on the street in Italy (I think).

We warmed up and had a bit of dinner at a small cafe. Then we headed off to Hobrauhaus, a famous Munich beer hall, to meet some of the others. Germany was playing in the Euro Cup later that night and it was packed with people, it's the type of place where your whole group will not be able to sit together; rather, people sit wherever and get to know those around them - great time! They serve beer in one litre steins and quite a few of our group were there all afternoon; we left at 8:30pm, so you can imagine the state people were in. It was Nicola's birthday and I had the challenge of keeping her in her seat for the coach ride homeRead more