2019 -- Germany and More

Germany & More Trip Recap

Day 1 – Saturday June 22 / Sunday June 23
Our red-eye flight to Berlin was uneventful. We arrived a bit short on sleep. <R – I was disappointed that I never saw Greenland or Iceland from the port side of the aircraft, and England / Scotland was covered by clouds.>

We took a taxi to our hotel, but it was too early to check in to our room. We walked up to the Charlottenburg Palace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottenburg_Palace

Charlottenburg Palace

to meet Matt & Marion (German friends who stayed with us in NJ last year)  for a picnic in adjacent park, about a 40-minute stroll. Matt and Marion brought the lunch, and it was a delight of fresh bread, interesting cheeses, cantaloupe, liverwurst, trout, hard boiled eggs, and fennel salad.



A few highlights from our morning ramble:
- noticing what nice bike lanes they have, between the parked cars and the pedestrian traffic
- noticing how many unleashed dogs were walking quietly along next to their owners
- noticing the memorial plates on the sidewalks, recognizing where Nazi victims had lived
- enjoying the sight of the sheep who graze the lawns in Charlottenburg Park.

After the picnic, we took a boat cruise to the eastern side of Berlin, then we walked halfway back across Berlin. Matt & Marion pointed out interesting sites and offered historical tidbits. Highlights: the water lapping at the foot of the Berliner Cathedral, the smell of the linden trees in bloom along Under Den Linden boulevard, the oversized impressiveness of the Frederick the Great statue and the Brandenburg Gate.

Brandenburg Gate


Julie in front of museum island

At that point, Randy and I were done in, so we all took the train back to the neighborhood of our Hampton Inn. Matt & Marion headed off for dinner on their own, while Randy and I got settled into our room. Then we went out for a quick bite of döner (lamb gyro -- delicious!) then back to the hotel.



Day 2 – Monday June 24

Fortified by a night's sleep and the Hampton’s sumptuous breakfast, we set off to meet Matt & Marion at the nearby train station, and we all went from there to the Reichstag (Parliament building). We had a brief glimpse inside on our way up to the enormous glass dome on the roof. It's an amazing experience walking up through the winding circular path; outside are panoramic views of the city; and inside are glittering views of the mirrors that reflect light down into the building. <R – Norman Foster designed the 1999 glass dome addition to the historical building, to represent governmental transparency. Beautifully done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_building>





From there we walked past Brandenburg Gate to the holocaust memorial. It's a field of stele (stone columns) that are low on the periphery and rise toweringly high as you descend into the middle.


We then went to the Jewish Museum. Unfortunately, the main exhibition was closed for reconstruction, but one wing was open. The exhibit was part artifacts from the era, and part abstract "experiences" with empty rooms.

Inside the Jewish museum

We took a bus back into the center of the city, in order to walk through the Tiergarten (Berlin's Central Park). In the middle of the Tiergarten is the Siegesäule, the victory column erected to celebrate the German victory of 1871 and national unification. We climbed the 282 steps to the top -- an athletic challenge -- and got another overlook over the city. <R – the column is pockmarked by bullets from 1945.>



Observations about walking around Berlin:

One - Berlin is not at all crowded, nothing like New York. The population density is much less, and the sidewalks are much wider.

Two -- Berlin has many colorful, cute things. For example, the little trash cans are colored bright orange. The one in the attached picture says "Eimer liebt dich" which means "[trash] bucket loves you." It's a pun on "Einer liebt dich" -- "someone loves you". It's part of the city's campaign against littering, while being fun and cheerful.



After that, we had short stroll to a cafe for some well-earned pastry and beverages. One of the pleasures of having friends take you around their city is that they know where the excellent pastry chefs are!


We went back to our hotel to rest and shower and change, then met Matt & Marion for dinner out a nice Italian restaurant. The evening weather was perfect -- just right for leisurely outside dining. We stayed out perhaps too late enjoying multiple courses and fascinating conversation.


Highlight: hearing their experiences when the Wall came down. They were in their early 20s. Marion was in a bar with friends when someone came running in to say that the border was open. They didn't believe him at first, but then everyone went to the border to see, and joined the huge throng of celebration. Then she had to walk a long way home, because the subways were so crowded with East Germans that she couldn't get on a train. The next few months were difficult for Matt and Marion, as the influx of East Germans and Poles cleaned out the stores in a frenzy of shopping. Matt was at that time working in a game store, and it was so crowded that they had to control who could come in, just letting in a new customer when an old one went out. Months later, things finally settle down again and it was one more possible to buy bananas.

My fitbit tells me that I walked over 10 miles each of the past two days!
<R – I confess my legs and feet were slightly tired.>


Day 3 – Tuesday June 25

This morning we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial with Matt. We watched a video about the history of the era and the construction of the wall, then we went across the street to where a long strip of inner and outer walls been preserved, along with portions of the death zone in between. Standing there, I was struck by two things. First, the space between the walls is enormous; climbing the inner wall would leave you facing a wide open, guarded and trapped space before getting to the outer wall. Second, it's amazing to what extent the wall ran through ordinary buildings and neighborhoods. I got a taste of how surreal the wall's construction would have felt to Berliners then.



After that, we went to the Berlin History Museum. We watched a video covering the whole sweep of German history in 43 minutes. Then we spent a little time looking at the medieval exhibit before breaking for lunch. Randy finally got to eat the bratwurst and sauerkraut that he's been craving.

After lunch we spend another hour in the exhibits before heading back to the hotel, while Matt went back to his apartment.



On the way back, we detoured to see the Church of Remembrance, a portion of a bombed church deliberately left with a partially destroyed steeple as a remembrance of the destruction during the war.



<R – At some point we stopped by Checkpoint Charlie, the main gate between the Russian and American zone of divided Berlin. There’s not much left of the 1950’s-era original, but there were some (replica?) sandbags, a Willys Jeep with two American Soldiers (mannikins), and a little shack with gate arm. I wasn’t impressed.>

When we got back to the hotel, I was challenged by a complicated email in German from our upcoming castle host. He said that there was some problem with the bathroom for the tower room, and did we want to change to another room with a bath or stay in the tower room with a footpath to the bath. And, he has some urgent errands tomorrow, so could we please tell him at what time we are arriving. And by what route are we planning to drive, because the best way to go is [long directions about taking this road, turning there, proceeding some number of meters, turning some other way]. Randy and I strategized on how to answer in a way that conveyed our wishes and was also simply-phrased enough for my baby German.

After resting and showering, we went out to Clärchens Ballhaus, where we thought we were going to get a hustle lesson. Actually we and another couple got a lesson in foxtrot and Viennese waltz from a very nice, mostly-English speaking dance teacher. At her suggestion, we then went up the street to a free outdoor ballroom dance pavilion by the river. It was beautiful but very crowded, and it was by then almost 10pm, so we made our way back to the hotel, stopping for a dinner of frozen yogurt on the way.

Danc pavilion


Day 4 – Wednesday June 26

This morning we again took advantage of modern American style hot shower <R -- LOTS of excellent water pressure!> and hugely caloric breakfast, packed up, and went off to fetch our rental car. Matt and Marion met us there and Randy drove us to the city limits of Berlin, where we stopped and admired the Glienicke Bridge (as featured in the movie The Bridge of Spies) over Wannsee Lake.  

We continued on to the summer palaces & gardens of Frederick the Great and his successors.  


We started with the smaller palace, Sans Souci ("without cares") <R -- his "getaway" palace>. The rooms had high ceilings, rich wallpapers, elaborate gold decorations, inlaid floors, and large framed artwork. Each room had a different purpose and decorative theme, but in keeping with Old Fritz's tastes, the recurring themes were nature, music and sensuality. Then we spent some time in the art gallery; it had art. <R -- A separate, elaborate building just for those 187 or so artworks!>


Afterwards, we had a snack in a cafe under an old windmill, then toured the windmill. It's 100% operational, still grinding flour (some of which Marion bought to make her own bread).

From there, we walked through the oven-like heat (close to 100 degrees today) through the vineyards and gardens to a small pavilion called The Chinese Teahouse, decorated with the oriental themes popular then. 

 Then more walking to the Neues Palais (new Palace), significantly larger than the San Souci. We made our way through part of it, but by then it was late afternoon, and we were tired and hungry and overwhelmed with great art, so we called it a day. There were yet more palaces and buildings we could have explored, but one can do only so much. Randy gallantly walked 20 minutes to fetch the car.

We drove into the nearby city of Potsdam and found a cafe for a late lunch. After that, Matt & Marion took the train back into the city (good-bye!) and Randy and I set off on the three-hour car drive through beautiful countryside to our next adventure.

<R -- my first autobahn driving. Quite the experience! I was not the fastest driver on the highway today, and was quick to yield the left lane to cars faster than us.>

And adventure it is! Our home base for the next three night is Schloss Helmsdorf, a 400-year old enormous manor house ("schloss") run by an extremely nice and somewhat garrulous old man (with pretty good English), who has only occasional part time help, none of which are here now. We are the only guests tonight in the whole place tonight, though he tells us a large party is coming this weekend. 

 There are perhaps 50 rooms in the schloss, each elaborately decorated with sometimes beautiful and sometimes odd things. There are broken bits of stucco, and half-refinished floors and piles of repair items in odd corners of the schloss inside, and overgrown grass and old junk and cracked fallen roof tiles outside.

Our room is a romantic circular tower room with a huge double bed, with spectacular views over the countryside to grazing cows and a fortress on a hill in the distance <R -- Stolpen Castle, which we plan to see tomorrow>. There are no screens on the windows, so a few bugs are flying in. When we turned on the lights, we blew a fuse, and our host came and rigged up extension cords. <R – fire hazard, anyone?> There is no elevator, so we climb the four stories to our room. From our room, we can climb an additional two stories up a narrow staircase with ladder to the little "tea room" at the very top of the tower. Since the bathroom across the hall from us is unfinished, we go the hallway to the ensuite bathroom of a different room. We're definitely not in the Hampton anymore!


<R -- we joked sotto voce that our host unplugged the cords from someone's neck in the basement to make the fix, that werewolves are lurking in the deep dark forest just behind the schloss, and that we hope we don't need garlic to ward off the vampires tonight... Gulp!>

On the floor below us, we have use of a small guest kitchen. Shortly after arriving, we went out to a local grocery store and bought bread and cheese and cold cuts and fruit and pasta salad and more for a quick late dinner tonight, and provisions for the next few days.




<R -- from our bedroom to the top of our tower is 31 steps. The high ceiling in our bedroom is palace-like.>


Day 5 – Thursday June 27



This morning we breakfasted in the guest kitchen -- very nice to have it! -- and then drove off through the bucolic rolling countryside to the small hilltop city of Stolpen, perched at the top of which is Fortress Stolpen. <R - The town appeared beyond the rolling farms not unlike city of OZ revealing itself to Dorothy and friends.> There have been fortifications there at least since the 1100s in various iterations, and it saw active fighting in 1300 - 1700s, then fell into ruin in the 1800s. Now it's partially restored for tourists, and is quite impressive with multiple gates and walls and towers. There is a well hand-dug through the local basalt, 84 meters deep (R - took 24 years to dig>. There were various dungeon cells and torture equipment. There was the tower where a king's mistress was imprisoned for 48 years, until her death. There were cannons and mortars, and Randy was able to explain to me the different uses of each. From the top of the towers, we had spectaculars views of the countryside.




Then we went to the Bastei Bridge <R – German for Bastion Bridge?>. This is a stone bridge over a huge ravine in the midst of towering sandstone formations. It's the largest tourist attraction in Saxony, and we experienced by far the largest crowds of anyplace we've been so far in Germany, Berlin included. We took a shuttle bus from the main parking lot, which dropped us off about a 10 minute walk from the bridge. We went past a big hotel and restaurant, down a path, around a turn, then WOW! AMAZING! <R - the spectacle and scale of this extensive rock formation above the Elbe brings "Grand Canyon" to mind. Definitely amazing.>


We continued walking on past the bridge down the mountain trail. This is part of the Mahlerweg, the local equivalent of the Appalachian Trail, where we saw more views of the dramatic landscape and also views of the Elbe River.


Then we drove to the small city of Pirna. We considered taking a river cruise on the Elbe, but decided instead to wander through the altstadt (old city), which is very European looking with cobbled streets, attached houses, no cars. After browsing some stores, we found a cafe and had a nice meal.

Then we returned "home" to our schloss. Our host is out, so we have this 30,000± square foot place to ourselves right now. We rested, used the thankfully modern and functional bath (oddly sized, though) down the hall, had a late snack, and are now winding down.


I had fun using my baby German today, as I expected I would outside of Berlin. In Stolpen this morning, google maps was not directing us correctly to the fortress, so we found the marktplatz (center square), parked and went into the tourist office. There, a friendly woman spoke with me in German even after she heard me speak English to Randy. I asked her how to get to the castle, and she told me. I told her that we would be staying near here for three days, and what is good to do, other than the Bastei bridge, and she told me about various things (including something in the nearby Czech Republic that I hadn't known about). I told her that where we parked, we had only one hour parking, and she showed us where to move the car for two hour parking, or we could go to the fortress parking lot for five hour parking. All this in German! What fun! In Pirna, I had a conversation with the boat ticket seller about how long the trips lasted and whether they had food on board. Shopping, I asked a salesgirl if I could try a perfume [visible behind the counter], then I bought it. And the checkout clerk asked if we had exact change, and I understood him and answered him that I had nothing smaller. OK, in fairness, after our meal, I told the waitress that we would like to order, and she said, "order or pay?" and of course I had meant to say pay. And when google was mis-directing us to the fortress, I only figured out after we came to a dead end that the sign at the bottom of the hill had said, "residents only".  But that's all part of the adventure.

Day 6 – Friday June 28

This morning we slept late and lazed around a bit -- much needed after our strenuous schedule to date. Our huge double bed in our room has space for us plus at least four dogs! BTW, our host told us that there was a horror movie (TV Episode) filmed on these very premises, called "The Nest".

Randy made us scrambled eggs in our schloss kitchen, then we went to Koenigstein castle, about a half hour's drive from here. It's a large fortified area with multiple buildings on top of a plateau. The approach road slopes steeply up to the dramatic walls rising up from the natural cliffs. You enter up through multiple portcullis doors guarded by overhead attack platforms. Apparently, no one has ever taken the castle by force, though several times the defenders were starved into surrender, notably during the Seven Years War in the 1750s. Because of the height of the walls and cliffs, it has been used repeatedly as a prisoner of war area: during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, WWI and WWII, and in the 1950's as a juvenile detention center. <R -- apparently quite a few communist-era films were made at the fortress in the 60's - 80's.> 

There are spectacular views of the countryside from the guard paths surrounding the perimeter of the plateau. We ate lunch in an inexpensive self-serve restaurant, with a side serving of million dollar views.


We agreed that we would both like to read a book titled: "World War Z in Saxony -- the Defense of Koenigstein." We're pretty sure we could hold off the zombies (especially with the chain mail and halberds from the castle museum), but we'd have the same problem the Saxons had against the Prussians in 1756 -- how long can you feed yourself up there? Anyone up for writing the book?

Afterwards, we went to Schloss Pillnitz, a partly-restored palace with extensive baroque
gardens. We strolled through the exhibits and gardens. Not as spectacular as Sans Souci but enjoyable, and a satisfyingly frugal use of our Castle Card (the card we bought in preparation for this trip which then gives us free entry to 50 castles in Saxony). <R -- I really enjoyed the gardens!>


Then we drove around a bit and enjoyed the sights of the countryside and small villages, finally we went back to the schloss to eat up the last of our grocery store supplies before we head out tomorrow.  


Day 7 – Saturday June 29

The "kids" in the schloss were up until 3am playing their music. Randy was able to sleep through it, but the "thump, thump" kept me awake. 

From Saxony we drove into the Czech Republic to Prague. I didn't like being surrounded by writing that I didn't understand. We tried to drive to Prague Castle, but google maps got us stuck in little streets with no access, and we never saw any signs for parking for tourists. Finally, we found a parking lot about a 15-minute walk from the castle with an incomprehensible parking kiosk. Luckily some passersby spoke English, and told us that parking is free on the weekends. On the way to the castle, we walked through some lovely botanical gardens with labelled trees, which I liked (both the trees and the labeling).

We walked through the castle complex and the churches. It's a big place, with multiple buildings, some still in use as active government offices or functioning churches. It's also thronged with tourists. We had spectacular views over the city, which is a picturesque old city. It was very hot, and that slowed me down a lot; Randy is mostly unaffected by the heat. I found the castle history less interesting to me because I don't know enough of the region's history to put things into perspective, and I was too hot and tired to learn much new.

Afterwards, we walked about 20 minutes down to the famous Charles Bridge.  Now a pedestrian-only bridge with statues on the sides, it has lots of stalls selling tourist kitsch. Randy gallantly left me to rest while he hiked 30 minutes up hill to fetch the car.




Then we had a 2.5-hour drive to Regensburg, Germany. Our hotel didn't have parking, which we expected, but we couldn't drive to the hotel and drop our luggage because the city center was closed due to a festival, which we didn't expect. We also couldn't park in the nearest parking garage because it was full, nor in the next closest parking garage, because it was full too. Finally, we gave up and drove out of the city and circled around the suburbs to find someplace to have dinner. We ate at a Chinese place, which served us their delicious duck specialty. Or maybe it just seemed delicious because it was 9:30 at night (still light out) and we were ravenous.

Our second shot at Regensburg was more successful: we were able to park in the nearer garage, then drag our luggage the 6-minute walk to the hotel over cobblestone streets. Thank goodness we didn't have someone with mobility problems with us!

We're enjoying being in our modern non-schloss-like room, with a trash can and shampoo and everything! <R – in room bath! Yeah!> Randy went out for a brief exploration of the area (we are across the square from St. Peter's Cathedral), but now we're both fully done in.
Night Shot -- Bright as Day with all the Festival Lighting 11PM

Day 8 – Sunday June 30

This morning, we dressed more presentably than our usual tourist selves, went out into the square, had a light breakfast, and then went to the 10am Catholic mass at Saint Peter's Cathedral.   Even though I couldn't understand most of what was said, I enjoyed it thoroughly.  Firstly, the cathedral is spectacularly beautiful.  <R - Yes, and BIG, too>  Secondly, I felt like I was participating in history by being a part of a church service here, as people have done since the 1300s.  Thirdly, I had thought that the boys choir would be off for the summer, but in fact they were there this morning, and it was amazing to see and hear them.  Fourthly, it's always good to be reminded of ennobling ideals.  Fifthly, everyone who attended church today got tickets for a free brotwurst and drink at the street fair, so sometimes virtue is not its only reward!



The last hymn that we sang <R - the recessional hymn> was familiar.  I sort of know it as a hymn from the hymnal.  Randy knew it very well because it was the school hymn of St. Marks! <R - my high school, and Doug's.>  https://youtu.be/iDDdxCb5UBE  A women next to us was helpfully showing us how to follow the service, and generally being friendly.  Afterwards, she asked if we were Italian or French. Randy liked it very much that were weren't stamped as obvious Americans.

We changed, checked out of the hotel, put our luggage back in the car, then wandered the streets of Regensburg for about an hour.  The narrow cobbled streets of the old town were thronged again with the continuation of the street festival.    Randy got a good look at the Danube, as I had promised him on this Elbe - Danube - Rhine vacation.   The "Old Stone Bridge" dates to the 1300s.  

After taking a look at it, we went into the adjacent small museum where I saw a video showing Regensburg through history in drawings, with the bridge a very recognizable feature.  We also saw a section of a wall dating back to Roman times.  <R - the bridge has some quite modern design features -- very impressive for the 1300's.  As to the Roman walls, well, wow!  My encounter with oldest man-made things.> 

Then we went back to the car and drove to Munich, a little over an hour.  Now we're back in "America" in our Hilton hotel -- shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom and all!  After settling in, <Julie took a swim in the swimming pool> we went for a long walk through the Englisher Garten (the equivalent of central park, though much bigger). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englischer_Garten On this very hot day (almost 100 degrees), the park was thronged.  There is a big, fast-moving stream that flows through the park and lots of people were swimming in it.  It looked like fun and I was tempted, but Randy reminded me that the locals know which parts are safe and which parts aren't, so we safely continued walking through the park to the other side of the city. 


Randy had scouted out a Bulgarian restaurant, a type of food neither of us had eaten.  <R - it was pretty close to Greek food.>  We enjoyed our dinner very much (lamb & bean soup for me; lamb and calamari for Randy).  Then we strolled some more through the cooler evening, along some of the big boulevards where Prada, Ralph Lauren, Gucci and others of that ilk sell their fancy wares.    As we approached our hotel, we saw the same stream that we had seen earlier in the park, but here there was a steep waterfall to a swirling pothole of death.  Good thing we weren't swimming there!

<R -- it's been a full week now and no bad stuff.  No sunburns or illness, no thefts, no losses of passports or similar stuff.  No fights between me & Julie. :)   >


Day 9 – Monday July 1

This morning Randy and I drove out of town towards Dachau  and we found a nice cafe to have breakfast. Afterwards, Randy drove me to the gates of the Dachau Memorial Site, and I spend the next several hours there (details below). Randy had decided that it was too intense for him to visit. Instead, he handled our laundry, and then went go-karting.  The hotel offers laundry service, but it's ludicrously expensive -- we tallied it up and figured out that the hotel would charge 173 euros ($195)!  
<R -- I went in search of a self-serve laundromat.  I found a dry-cleaner type establishment.  When I explained what I sought, the nice lady offered that they could do my laundry for me.  Price?  4 euros / kilo (worked out to 20 euros).  Time?  2 hours.  SOLD!  Then I went in to the go-karting place I had previously internet searched.https://www.kartpalast.de/#/ 30 minutes zooming around, 29 laps, trying to beat my personal time on each lap. 





It was 26 euros, "free" with the savings on the laundry! Also much less expensive than in the states.  Afterwards I went into the Aldi's supermarket adjacent to the karting, and did a bit of shopping (in honor of mom who loved Aldi's back in NJ). Then I fetched the laundry and picked up Julie right on time.>


Later that afternoon, Randy and I went to the Victualmarkt, an area with many small stalls set up.  The stalls sold fresh and dried fruit, local cheeses, fancy jams and teas, ice cream, fish, etc. We enjoyed browsing through the stalls, and buying bread and cheese and more for tomorrow's breakfast.https://www.muenchen.de/int/en/shopping/markets/viktualienmarkt.html



Back at the hotel, I went for another swim in the hotel pool. It's small but it has a "counter current" to swim against, which is fun. Meanwhile, Randy went out to buy some dinner at a local deli.  

Tomorrow night, we'll be ending up at the hotel near the Ettal Abbey, about an hour from here in the Bavarian Alps, but we are free to decide how much of the day we spend here in Munich and how much down there. After some time perusing our guide book and the internet, we've decided to go the BMW World/Museum complex in the morning, then head south, leaving vast quantities of old churches and museums here in Munich unvisited, in favor of more time in the mountains.  

********

Dachau was intense, as I expected it to be. This is a tough email to write.  I'm going to give a brief history of the camp, a short overview of what you see when you visit, some observations about life in the camp, and some ruminations on the holocaust generally.

History overview
Dachau was opened in 1933 as a detention camp for political opponents of the regime and for "asocials" like alcoholics, gypsies, long term unemployed persons, and so on.  Later in the 1930's some Jews were imprisoned there, but most Jews came in the early 1940s.  

In the late 1930s, Dachau functioned as an SS training camp. Dachau was closed in the fall of 1939 until the spring of 1940, to give full attention to training. During this time, the prisoners were transferred to other (generally worse) camps.

From spring 1940 to 1942, the camp handled a huge influx of prisoners from other camps, and there was terrible overcrowding. At this time, the regime was unconcerned with mortality rates, so for example essentially no medical treatment was given. Death rates increased enormously.   

From 1943 to 1945, the regime was attempting to make productive use of slave labor from the non-Jews.  Able-bodied non-Jewish prisoners were primarily farmed out to sub-camps in the area for industrial work, so Dachau functioned as (a) an intake and sorting location for prisoners coming from other camps and (b) a holding pen for sick and enfeebled prisoners returned from the sub-camps when they could no longer work.  Jews were generally worked to death within the camp or transferred to extermination camps.

In April 1945, ten thousand prisoners were evacuated on foot toward the Swiss Alps. An order to kill them by aerial bombing was given but not carried out. Nonetheless, one thousand died during the forced march. The remaining prisoners in the camp were liberated by the Americans.  They were emaciated and mostly infected with typhus, and many died within days of liberation.


The camp was never primarily an extermination camp.  It has a small crematorium and a larger one, which were used almost entirely for cremating dead bodies. A small number of living prisoners (the number in dispute) were gassed. 



What the camp looks like
The camp for the prisoners is the area on the right hand side of the camp area, about one-third of the space. The remainder is SS buildings and administrative buildings.) Outside the camp is a visitors center and museum.
You enter the camp through the gatehouse with gate, as the prisoners would have done at the time.
In front of you is a huge open space, which is the roll call area.
To the right of the roll call area is a U-shaped building. This is the building where the prisoners would have been registered, stripped and showered at intake. It also housed the kitchens and workrooms.  Now it houses the museum with detailed exhibits on the historical background, and on life in Dachau in particular.
To the left of the roll call area are the two reconstructed example barracks. Behind the barracks is a huge field where the other barracks used to be; now the foundations are laid out in gravel.  
At the very back of the barracks area in the corner are the two crematoria
Around the whole thing is the barbed wire fence, ditch, and guard towers.

There are various memorials throughout the camp, and a church at the back.




A few observations about what I saw there
The place is huge.  The roll call area is enormous. The rows and rows of ghost barracks are enormous. 
In the early years, the sleeping facilities consisted of three levels of wooden bunks.  Getting up and down the upper levels would challenge someone who was fit and fed and nimble; I can only imagine what it was like for the exhausted and ill.  In later years, continuous bunks were used, which meant the prisoners had no separate space to sleep.

The latrine facilities and wash facilities were desperately inadequate even when the barracks held only their intended population of 200, much less when later there were 2000 packed in per barracks.








Some thoughts on the nature of evil
First let me start by saying that the holocaust is a topic of deep personal interest to me, and I've done a lot of reading on the topic.  The book I most highly recommend is "Hitler's Willing Executioners".

It seems to me that there are many different aspects of the horror of the holocaust, and they twine together in a way that doesn't lend itself to neat categorizations.

The prelude -- categorizing Jews and others as "subhuman" or "asocial" (and therefore unfit for society). 
The public acceptance of the idea that opponents should be silenced, and should be physically separated.
The enjoyment of sensationalizing enemies -- tens (later hundreds) of thousands of German subscribed to Der Stürmer and other sensationalist media like it. The headline in the picture says, "Jewish murder plot to kill non-Jews uncovered!"    
Sadistic pleasure in punishment -  creatively and joyfully torturing prisoners
Inconsistent and often wildly erratic and disproportionate punishment
Creating impossible situations then punishing prisoners for what you've forced them to do -- e.g. the guards throw all the bedding out into the courtyard, then punish the prisoners if they don't clean it up perfectly in time.
Creating fake "work" for prisoners (especially Jews), such as hauling sand from one place to another, and then back to where it came from.
The continuation of torture and killing, such as in the final evacuation and death march, even when the war was obviously lost and almost over.
The proximity of the camps to everyday life.  The village is RIGHT THERE. The people there sold bread to the camp. They saw the prisoners brought in. They smelt the dead bodies.  The final death march went past their windows.

The possibility and effectiveness of protest. People protested the killings of mentally and physically ill people -- and the killings stopped. 

Inflammatory newspaper article

Punishment drill

Some final food for thought --
What would I have done, if I were a guard in Dachau then? If I were a villager then? If I saw the prisoners marching past my door then?
Throughout Germany, I've seen many memorials to those who were killed, in many formats.  I have never seen a memorial in New Jersey that says, "The Lenape Indians lived here. They were murdered [details]."  Do I have some obligation to remember?
Today, our country takes the children of the "rapists" from Mexico and puts them in detention centers with inadequate food, medicine, clothing and care. Do I have an obligation to them?
Today, animals whom we know to feel emotion and pain are tortured and killed in horrific circumstances.  Do I have some obligation to act?



"Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an unuprooted small corner of evil."  -Alexander Solzhenitsyn


Day 10 – Tuesday July 2

This morning, Randy and I went checked out of the hotel and drove to the BMW World / Museum / Factory.  We both felt that it was likely to be medium interesting, but something we couldn't see in the US, and so it proved to be. <R - we tried for the factory tour, but we would have needed to sign up more than a month ago.>  We started in the BMW World, which is a huge futuristic building acting as a showroom for current cars and coming-soon new models.  Then we crossed over the connecting bridge to the BMW museum.  There we saw the company's early motorcycles and airplane engines, and its models through the years. They also had a very interesting exhibit on self-driving cars, electric cars and other future technology.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Welt





After this we drove to Garmish, a town about an hour south of Munich.  We are now in the Bavarian alps and the scenery is spectacular!  We had planned to ascend the Zugspitze mountain tomorrow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugspitze , but the weather forecast was dicey both today and tomorrow, so we wanted to find the place and see what we could figure out about the weather. We succeeded in figuring out that today was definitely a bad day -- the weather cam on the mountaintop showed dense fog -- so we'll try out luck tomorrow morning.  <R - that was 2PM-ish.  By 6PM it was clear and beautiful.  Oh well.>


We continued on another 15 minutes to our hotel in Ettal.  It's a lovely big <modernized!> room in a big old hotel, opposite the 14th century Benedictine abbey.  We had an "adventure" lunch in the cafe. I had wild boar bolognese over pasta, and Randy had a sausage sampler of 4 regional specialty wursts.
I attended vespers service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettal_Abbey while Randy had a rest in the hotel room. The service was chanted in Latin by the monks, with a small number of townspeople in attendance. It was a beautiful service and I’m glad I got to experience it.



Afterwards, Randy and I drove to a neighboring town Oberammergau and walked along the Ammer river. We bought a light dinner to eat in the hotel room. <R – what a lovely river!>

Ammer River
Day 11 – Wednesday July 3
Randy writing this one for a change.
All's well in Germany & Austria!


Up early, hearty breakfast at our hotel, then off to the Alps. Germany's tallest peak, the Zugspitze, is 2960 meters tall (about 10,000 feet). Not so tall when one has tickets to the "black beast" cable car! We ascended at 8:45 (first car of the day) to the summit complex. The ride was quick, but fascinating. We went through at least two layers of fog, and the cables ahead of us seemed to disappear into the yonder, unsupported. There's a lot of stuff on the mountaintop!



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seilbahn_Zugspitze The complex is jointly run by the German and Austrians, because it straddles the national border. Besides a few restaurants, and two museums (one each side), there are connections to a cable car to the Austrian base, and the glacier top, and the cog railway. [J: I was surprisingly affected by the height. Not vertigo, but a fear of heights even when I knew intellectually that I was safe. I actually sat down on some occasions when I was by the railing, because of the dropoff.] 


After exploring the complex, and killing some time waiting for the fog to clear, we went over to the glacier. Thick snow on July 3, wow. Not too cold, 9 degrees Celsius, that's 48 or so Fahrenheit. We hiked around a bit, threw a snowball, and sledded a few hundred yards. The weather did clear and we saw impressive peaks around us. [J: there was also a small church on a little hill there, apparently a functioning one. Quite amazing up there on the glacier.] 


We took the cog railway down to the lakeside at Eibsee, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eibsee and had a bit of lunch. The upper rail journey was all in tunnel, had I known, I would have opted for the cable car back down (better view). Nice lunch, then a stroll 20% around the lake. Saw a cute duck family (mama and 6 ducklings). 



Drove to King Ludwig II's summer palace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linderhof_Palace , Schloss Linderhof. Extensive gardens, and some more spectacular views, again. Small but ornate set of buildings. We walked through the gardens but opted to skip the interior, since we would have had to wait an hour for the guided tour. “More gilted ceilings? I've seen enough!” 
"Julie and Ludwig"
Back to our hotel, took a swim in the pool, and rested.

Dinner was a short walk away at the neighboring hotel/restaurant Hotel Blau Gams. I chose it because it has an amazing view across the valley (pic attached, and the pic does not do justice to our experience). We sat side-by-side and enjoyed the view during our leisurely dinner on the patio. Julie drooled for dessert, she ordered the kaiserschmarrn. The waitress explained "it's big". The waitress understated that -- it could have fed a family! [J: I had planned for a big dessert by ordering only a small cup of soup for dinner. Even so, I couldn't finish the huge but delicious dessert. It was sort of like a German pancake, thick and sweet, with baked apples and raisins, plus plum sauce on the side. Fantastic!]


Great Dinner View
kaiserschmarrn
[J: After dinner, we strolled through the courtyard of the Abbey, which Randy hadn't seen previously.]


Day 12 – Thursday July 4

We woke up this morning in Ettal, which now seems long ago and far away. After enjoying the hotel’s breakfast, we went across the street and spent some time in the Abbey’s church. It is highly decorated with pictures, statues and ornate gild ornamentation. So we fully made up for any gilt-less-ness we may have incurred from skipping the interior of Linderhof Castle yesterday.
The abbey (above) and courtyard (below)

The n we drove to Bregenz, Austria, about two and a half hours through rolling countryside, often with mountain views in the distance. We agreed that the landscape looked like “super-sized Vermont”. <R – looks like VT when there are rolling hills. But when the valley is fringed by the Alps, it seems like Riverworld.> Many of the fields had happy cows grazing in them. If I lived here, I would become the opposite of a vegetarian – I would eat as much beef as possible, in support of that happy cow life. <R – knowing that this was the “end” of Germany and German roads, I goosed it a bit on the autobahn, briefly up to 180 k / hr. Kind of amusing. Thankfully there are no left-lane-laggards on the autobahn. Driving, yesterday I saw a temporary bridge, stopped to take pictures. Drove over one today, too, but didn’t stop.>
Bregenz Austria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bregenz is a big city on the eastern shore of Lake Constance, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Constance 

which is an enormous lake <R – 40 miles long, the third largest lake in Europe>. The lake is bordered by Germany on the north, more Germany and some Switzerland on the south, and a little strip of Austria on the east. We considered going up neighboring Pfaender Mountain in the cable cars, but the cable cars were out of service and we didn’t want to bother with the shuttle bus. <R – a lady on the staff was confused as to when the cable cars might run again (?today?), where the shuttle bus was at the moment, when it would next go up, and if there would be room for us.  I took that as bad omen for our journey to Pfänder peak.> Also, we had decided on visiting another mountain later in the day. So we found a café by the lake, enjoyed grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, watched the sailboats, and declared Austria “done".



Our next stop was Vaduz, Liechtenstein, about an hour’s drive southwest through increasingly impressive mountains. It’s a medium-sized city perched on a mountainside. With the traffic laboring up and down the hill, I didn’t find it very appealing. We found a restaurant, shared a large ice cream, and declared Liechtenstein “done.” On the way out, we stopped at a bank and exchanged the last of our euros for Swiss Francs. <R – Lichtenstein is the 4th smallest country in Europe,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein, population around 40,000. It's an international banking center. At the hotel café where we had the ice cream, they had a bunch of palm trees (in large pots.) Interesting dichotomy with palm trees at our elbows and snow-covered mountains in the background.>
Lichtenstein Lunch - Palm Trees with Alps in Background
From there, we drove (and by “we” I mean Randy, since he has valiantly done all the driving) west to Säntis Mountain, where we took a cable car to the summit. This mountain is almost as high as the Zugspitze, but it towers over its neighboring summits. Believe me, it felt VERY high up! We had an hour to look at the views – partially obstructed by clouds but still magnificent. Then we caught the last car of the night down.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A4ntis <R – there was building construction happening on the mountaintop, and a helicopter was flying parts and pieces up. I grabbed some video, but it is too large to share via attachment. Quite interesting.>

Then we drove about another hour west through Switzerland. More rolling countryside, more mountains, more happy grazing cows. Just before our ponyfarm destination, we stopped for dinner in a small pizza/döner shop and enjoyed some döner (lamb gyros).


Now we are here just outside of Kirchberg, Switzerland. We have an attic suite of rooms on the third floor of a small house. Our bathroom is on the floor below us, shared with other Airbnb guests, if there are any <R – none now.> The exterior of the house is surrounded by: large gardens; a pen with two goats; a pen with a collection of chickens; and a small stable and yard with five horses. Cows are grazing on the opposite hillside; I can hear their bells going, sounding like a wind-chime or like a rocky stream.
Happy 4th of July! 

Day 13 – Friday July 5


This morning we enjoyed our farm breakfast, then drove about an hour west to the Rhine Falls.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Falls We parked in the designated lot at the lot of the hill, and began walking down the sloping path.


 

We could hear the roar of the falls but couldn’t see it. Then the path became steeper and narrower, with switchbacks, and we got glimpses of the river. Then we came to a series of lookouts with partial views of the falls. Tremendous rushing water! We made our way lower and lower until at the final lookout the water was just over the balcony, and the spray was on our face. As you’ll see from the pictures, the falls are wide and surging, with rocks in the middle, and great plumes of spray coming up. Not perhaps as spectacular as Niagara Falls (Randy tells me – I’ve never seen it), but full of power and motion. <R – Yes, I told her.>

After some amazed watching, we continued along the path to the boat landing. There we took a red boat across the river to the other side, where we switched to the yellow boat for the rock tour. This boat took us to the to rock promontory right in the middle of the falls. Here we were able to climb steep narrow wet stairs to the lookout at the top. The river was falling on both sides of us, and crashing into the base of the rock we were standing on. Wow!


<R – these falls, the biggest in volume in Europe, are really quite impressive. I liked our visit immensely. Watching waterfalls is to me similar to watching a campfire or fireplace: something I can do for a long time, with odd satisfaction.>


Afterwards, we returned to shore. We walked downriver for a bit, and then waded into the shallows along the edge. We returned to the boat landing, crossed the river, then walked downriver on this side for some time, on a hiking path. Rather than retracing our steps, we found a trail leading up to the high ground above, and hiked back to our car on the road.


We drove towards home, but detoured south on purpose to see new sights or at least different roads. We were quite hungry by this time (about 2pm), so we found a restaurant along the way and stopped. Our server didn’t speak English so I had the fun of using my baby German again. “We don’t have a menu. We have three salads….”and so on. She asked where we had been, and then told me that last year it had been very hot, so the water at the Rhine Falls had been much lower. The lunch was delicious – Randy had a salad with some kind of cold meat over lettuce; I had a plate of mixed salads with some other kind of cold meat. Plus bread to share and coke. The meal ended up being fairly expensive ($40), which perhaps I should have figured out ahead of time. <R – it was even more overpriced than the food in the café overlooking the falls, and this had a parking lot view instead of a falls view. Grrr…>
After lunch we returned to our farm home and had a rest. Then in the early evening we went out for our previously scheduled horseback trail ride, with our host Adrian riding his bicycle alongside. My horse was quite slow, and unwilling to move along even with the brisk encouragement that I gave him. Randy rode like an experienced cowboy – no problems at all! Adrian’s English is pretty good, certainly better than my German, but he gets stuck for words sometimes, so we chatted in a mixed language way that was fun. The ride went uphill and at the crest we had some lovely views. <R – to my surprise I was fairly assured on the horse. Last ti me for me (first time) was 9 years ago with Julie, and I was not very comfortable then.>





After our ride, Randy and I went to a nearby supermarket. It’s quite fun to browse the unusual offerings. We ended up with bread, cheese, prosciutto, lox, cherries, gooseberries, yogurt and plum cake. Gooseberries? Yes, I’ve never had them before either. They are about the size of large grapes, with a rather tough exterior, and a juicy, fruity interior. Another adventure!


Tomorrow is a travel day, driving to Zurich then two flights, and by late at night we’ll be home in our own beds.
Day 14 – Saturday July 6th – To home

Randy writing again, putting this story to bed. Up modestly early, again a nice breakfast, packed up the car and headed west to Zurich, about a 2-hour drive. Plenty of time to return the car (but the ¾ full tank cost about $48, ouch!), had time to negotiate the tricky process of checking bags, SwissAir operating our United flight. Got it figured out, got interrogated around the third security barrier, but that was OK, we really were merely American tourists heading home. Managed to swap seats so that we sat next to each other on the completely full airplane.
LONG flight home, nearly 8 hours, ugh. Landed Boston around 3PM, cleared US customs without drama, and shortly thereafter learned that our 4:30 PM flight was delayed until 6. Then it was delayed again. Thunderstorms all over the eastern USA. When it was pushed back to 9PM, Julie suggested we find alternate travel means. Amtrak was filled, so we rented a car and I drove us back to NJ through sporadic rain. Learned during our drive that 2AM was a “best case” plane arrival Newark. We got home around midnight (which felt like 6AM Swiss time). Doggies were happy to see us! Sunday morning we woke in our own bed, yeay! Julie reported that the flight never took off last night, was now scheduled for 3PM departure Boston. Guess she made the right call on the car.

Welcome home to us! It was a heck of an adventure.

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