Monday June 11th

We arrived in Munich around 6 PM Sunday and had no troubles finding the hotel. Since our train arrived about an hour after the group was set to meet, the three of us dropped our bags off and set off to find everyone else. Not surprisingly, I called one of our professors and he informed me that everyone had made their way to the biergarten at the Hofbräuhaus. After meeting up with everyone else and enjoying a couple of beers, a pretzel, and some veal sausages, I was full and ready to head back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.

The remnants of the barracks

Crematorium and gas chambers

Monday morning we woke up fairly early to make our way to the German town of Dachau. Dachau is known today infamously as the town that housed the first Nazi concentration camp. I had mixed feelings as we rode the train to the town about ten miles away from Munich. On one hand, I was very interested to see what an actual concentration camp looked like in person after years of reading about World War II. On the other hand, I was almost appalled that I was traveling to see a place where tens of thousands of Jews and political prisoners were put to death. Even with these mixed emotions, I found the Dachau camp to be extremely informative about the atrocities that occurred decades ago. While almost all of the original buildings had been demolished due to the Germans’ embarrassment of their previous actions under Adolf Hitler, the few buildings left standing told the terrible tales of the awful acts that occurred in the camp. I was actually fairly upset that we left the camp after about two hours as I literally could have spent the entire day walking around the exhibits and reading more about the personal stories of those affected by the Nazi regime. As we left the camp, I couldn’t help but think of the sacrifices so many American soldiers made to liberate these enslaved people. You can read about the events of World War II as much as you want in books, but you don’t really understand what actually occurred until you see where it took place firsthand.

Columns showing impact from Allied Force's bombings

After Dachau we headed back to Munich to do a bike tour of the city. Our biking guide was actually from Hawaii, so it was fun to talk to him about life in the States compared to Munich. We stopped at a few notable buildings in the city, although they were much different from the historic buildings we had seen on previous tours. Most of the noteworthy buildings we saw in the city had actually been rebuilt because of the Allied Force’s bombings of Munich in World War II. Rather than the centuries old buildings we had seen on other tours, these buildings were hardly a half-century old. From a construction perspective, it was very interesting to see how these buildings were built to both look older and blend in with their surroundings. To break up the learning about the different buildings and their significance throughout Munich, our bike tour stopped at a local biergarten to enjoy a couple of beers before finishing our journey through the city. Even if I don’t end up liking anything else about Munich, I will always appreciate their embracement of beer.

After finishing our bike tour, I headed back to the hotel to grab a quick bite to eat and do some much-needed laundry. Although began with some incredibly solemn sights, I have really enjoyed my time thus far in Munich.