Day 8-Sunday... Munich!!!

Since we will be spending the next several days in Freising/Munich area at the same hotel, it's time to do some laundry. We've been in Germany/Switzerland for 7 days and my clothes were definitely in need of refreshing! We got very lucky and the hotel we are staying at has a laundry service, so for 3 euros they'll wash whatever you can fit in the designated laundry bag. I fit quite a bit in there... 1 pair of jeans and over half a dozen t'shirts. What a deal! No need to find a laundromat to do our own. I think everyone wanted in on the good deal so we were told we get either breakfast in the morning or our laundry finished! Luckily, she was only joking and we had both a delicious waiting for us at 7:30am but the majority of us had clean clothes waiting for us! Even if we had to sort through the pile to find our own belongings, I'd say by this point in time we're almost family! A few had some wrinkly clothes but Kyle promptly took care of that for us!

Kyle getting his ironing on!

Today we started off with a tour of Dachau Memorial. Dachau was the basic model for all concentration camps during the Nazi rule. The majority of the SS barracks have been turned into a museum telling the story of Dachau and how it came to be. Dachau was the first concentration camp opened by the Nazi and was built on an old ammunition's factory. The camp was opened in March of 1933 to house German nationals being held for political reasons. After the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich the camp was used as a prototype and model of how concentration camps should be operated. The camp was originally designed to hold roughly 5,000 prisoners but it was soon realized that it was not large enough, so construction by prisoners took place to expand the camp's capacity. The camp was divided into 2 areas, the camp area and the crematorium. The camp area consisted of 1 very large building that housed the administration and SS barracks (that was later used to house the museum), the large open area (used for prisoner roll call during operation) and then a few of the 69 prisoner barracks were left standing. The stone foundation outlining the prisoner barracks could be seen and lead up to the crematorium area. While touring through the museum, an abundance of poster boards, in English, explained the store of the Dachau. Halfway through the museum was a movie, which I watched in Italian. The English translation was not needed, the pictures and videos shown in the film needed no explanation. I wasn't able to make it to the crematorium because I ran out of time. It was a very sobering experience and I really wished we would have been able to spend more time there.

Entrance gate into Dachau-"Hard work will set you free"

View of the prisoner barracks from the entrance

Memorial in the center courtyard

Map of concentration camps

Prisoner uniform and locker 

Area where prisoners were brought in

Memorial in the courtyard

Another memorial in courtyard

Outside view of building that housed museum

View of inside of prisoner barracks, sleeping area

Common area in prisoner barracks

Bathroom/shower room in prisoner barracks

Remaining foundation outlines of prisoner barracks
that had been removed, crematorium in the distance

Building over entrance of Dachau

Building that houses the museum

After the sobering experience at Dachau, everyone was ready to lighten the mood with at trip to Munich. We ventured to the city center of Munich via a quick 45 minute train ride. The first stop in Munich was the Hofbrauhaus for a beer and lunch! This Hofbrauhaus is the iconic location for celebration during Oktoberfest. And of course when in Germany, do as the Germans do and we started with a 1L glass of Pils!

Yummy and so refreshing!

Cheers Adrian!!

Just to give you a little perspective, the beer was
bigger than the table decoration!

After a delicious lunch we set off to explore Munich. We wondered our way around and found some very interesting sights and some very old buildings. We also ventured all the way over to the English Gardens to see some local dancing take place. After our stroll around Munich, we were parched and stopped by another pub for a beer. After re-hydration, we continued exploring but made a final stop back at the Hofbrauhaus for one last beer and some dessert!

Courtyard area outside Hofbrauhaus

Hofbrauhaus!!

Of course there's a Hard Rock Cafe next door

Banquet room in the Hofbrauhaus

P. Kitty and K. Pitty making friends with a street mime

Baller ride!

Amazing looking old building
with a huge Cuckoo clock!

Naturally, they have a Tiffany&Co, too bad it was closed!

And a sample of another local Pils

Fun building we found

Porta-potties right in the middle of the town square,
because when you gotta go, you gotta go!

English Gardens

A friendly fountain found along the way

Another Hofbrauhaus original to end the day!!

Funky elevator buttons at the hotel!