Today was certainly a big one. We left Prague at 9am and travelled towards Munich, the only services stop (to pee and buy food) was in the Czech Republic so we could waste the rest of our currency…I failed there and ended up with bags of lollies but still close to 300 kronor! Bloody useless money. Then back on the bus for a three hour drive to Dachau concentration camp. I’m still very fluey (hacking cough, trouble breathing, congested like you wouldn’t believe and a nasty headache) so I slept on and off while we drove as I haven’t been sleeping well at night.
Dachau was amazing. We watched a documentary in English on arrival and the images are some of the most stark and confronting I have ever seen. Lots of stills and videos of the liberation and the survivors, as well as pics of those who didn’t survive. I wanted to buy the film but we would never get approval to show our students in Australia, it was way too graphic. The camp itself has been rebuilt (it was razed to the ground after the war) and is very much a tourist destination. Regardless of the hordes of tourists, It was still very disturbing to think this happened in the not so distant past. We could go into the sheds they slept in, eating halls, gas chambers (which were never used at Dachau) and see the layout of the camp. The piece of artwork to memorialise the suffering of the prisoners is very powerful:
After Dachau, the bus ride into Munich was very quiet. We had a quick “check in and change” at the hotel and then headed into the city centre for dinner. We wandered around a bit and saw the glockenspiel, a famous plaza where Hitler spoke to the masses and some amazing buildings. After dinner at a local restaurant some people went back to the hotel and some decided to head to Oktoberfest for a few hours – we decided to head out! Hooray for German cold and flu tablets haha.
As we only had a couple of hours at Oktoberfest tonight (10pm bus pickup and I voted a big NO WAY to staying later and trying to navigate the trains and buses) we opted not to go into the beer halls but to enjoy the atmosphere and the rides! I went on an INSANE roller coaster with FIVE loops and screamed the whole way around, Emma just laughed. Cow.
We also bought some souvenirs (Emma got a stein, I got a drinking boot and Percy got his own baby stein – see pic below) because we figured buying glass things sober was a good plan. Tomorrow however…tomorrow is beer hall day!! YAY! Our tour buddies Amelia and Claire are going on a bike ride around Munich in the morning (as Emma said “we Smith girls just don’t do bikes”) so instead we are going to shop in the city. We’re both considering buying pretty German beer girl outfits but geez they are pricey!
From lunchtime we will be experiencing the joys of Oktoberfest late into the evening…
Mel's Travel Blog 