Munich, Germany

We left New York on July 21 and boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam, where we would have a layover before continuing on to Munich, Germany. While we've flown to Europe several times in the last year, we have never flown in Premium Economy. This seat is similar to a first class seat on a domestic flight and was great for our quick 6 hour flight. 

Brennan watched a few movies (and didn't sleep at all!) and I watched a few shows before sleeping for an hour or two. We landed in Amsterdam and spent the layover fighting off jet lag. Once our second flight landed in Munich, we were greeted with sunshine and easily made it to our hotel. We both decided to take a quick nap, then I went to check out the pool and Brennan ran 17 miles for his training session to prepare for his marathon. I still don't know how he did it-I almost fell asleep again reading a book!

That evening, we walked to a nearby restaurant and had our first German food. I wasn't sure what to order and was so exhausted at this point that I ordered two main dishes. Oops.

On Sunday, we relaxed at the hotel and enjoyed the views from the rooftop patio. It was very cool to be able to see across the city from our viewpoint.

Sunday evening, we ventured out to a beer garden in the English Garden. This was one of the things both of us enjoyed so much the last time we were in Munich and it was great again this time. There was a band, people dancing, and lots of kids playing on a nearby playground. Enjoying the beautiful weather and food was a great way to end Sunday.

Monday morning started out with some laundry! I know we'll want to remember this-creating our own washing machine in the giant tub of our hotel. It worked!

One thing I wanted to do while we were in Munich was visit the memorial at Dachau Concentration Camp. This was the first camp built for political prisoners in the 1930s, but it was used throughout World War II. It was less than an hour to get from central Munich to Dachau-shockingly close to a large city for the horrible crimes that were committed there. It rained on and off the entire day, which felt appropriate for the somber site we were visiting.

When you walk through the gates, you come to an open area, where the roll call was done each day. Prisoners had to stand in this open area and be counted. It's hard to fathom the number of people who stood there.

There is a very in depth exhibit that details the conditions that led to the rise of Nazi power in Germany, as well as their actions once they were in power. If you had never heard of World War II or the Holocaust, this museum could explain it in great detail with photos. As we get farther away from this event in history, it's reassuring to know that future generations will be able to learn from the artifacts displayed here.

At the end of the exhibit, the original gate to the camp was displayed. The phrase at the top means "Work Sets You Free"-this was the same phrase famously displayed at the top of Auschwitz. Up until 2014, this gate was still outside. But it was stolen, then discovered in Norway, and since then has been displayed in the museum. There is a replica you walk past as you enter the camp. 

There have been 2 reconstructed bunk houses that you are able to walk through to show where prisoners lived. 

There are 34 outlines to walk past, as these each had a barrack on them. Originally each of these was designed for 200 people, but eventually over 66,000 people were living at Dachau.

At the opposite end from the replica barracks, there are memorials to the people who died at the camp. This red rose and candles in the chapel there stood out to me. 

The part of the camp I was most anxious about visiting was the crematorium and gas chambers. However, when we walked up to this last building, we walked in the wrong end (trying to get out of the rain) and went through in reverse order. We walked through an office, crematorium, gas chamber, then changing room, then the clothing incinerator.

I'm glad I was able to see it and remember the terrible tragedy that happened at Dachau. I went into the visit unsure about how I would feel being somewhere with such a dark history. The camp is presented in a very factual way. I didn't have the same emotional reaction to it that I did when I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.  This surprised me, but I was thankful to not have a dark cloud hanging over me the rest of the day. 

If you ever get a chance to go to one of these memorials, it's worth your time. Seeing sites like this always makes history come more alive to me. I'm very glad we went.

We needed some lunch after walking through Dachau. On the train ride back, we stopped at the largest beer garden in the Munich area, Hirschgarten. There can be 8,000 people seated at one time! Thankfully, it was nearly empty, so we had a chance to visit the deer in a pen near the beer garden and easily found a table. After we ate, we headed back to Munich and spent the afternoon avoiding the rain.

On Tuesday, we switched to a different hotel. Both the Andaz (our first hotel) and this Hilton had giant groups of State Farm employees on a trip. It felt like being in Orlando-everywhere we went, there were tons of Americans. We even had an Uber driver ask us if we did the insurance thing, because he had driven so many groups of Americans from our hotel who sold insurance.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both low key days. Brennan didn't feel great and it was raining, so we spent a lot of time at the hotel. We did spend some time in the English Garden and of course, tried another round of meat, sausage, and noodles.

On Thursday, we went to the Residenz. This is where the nobility lived in Munich, as well as conducted their official business. It was severely damaged by bombing in World War II, but a lot of it has been salvaged, reconstructed and turned into a museum. 

This first room you walk through has the family tree with portraits of the rulers. The most interesting part to me was the cut marks you can see around the paintings. I read that this is because these portraits were cut out before the bombing and stored away for safe keeping. 

A lot of the rooms have intricate paintings with symbolic meaning. Some of the openings are blank-these are the remnants of the damage from the bombing.

This room was so ornate. The red wall covering looked like fabric-I didn't touch it to find out what it really was!

Below is the symbolic bedroom. All the gray behind the bed is silver thread that has been oxidized. I'm sure it was so shiny when it was first constructed!

I think of Germany as being very practical, but visiting the Residenz showed me that Germans have had a flair for dramatic interiors throughout history!

We had to visit the Surf Munich site again! This is a river that has rapids where people surf. It's very interesting to watch these experts surf, but just intense to watch them get out of the water. It moves so quickly and they paddle off to the side in order to climb out and do it again.

We were able to get a view over the park from the top of a hill to see central Munich. Behind us, you can see the famous church spires! 

On our last night in Munich, we visited one final beer garden. This one had twinkle lights and felt like the perfect way to end our time in Germany.