Jeremy's Travel Blog Contiki European Whirl, May 2008

Dachau and Munich, Germany Jun 3, 2008

May 15th, 2008

On the way to Munich our tour manager surprised us saying we will be deviating from our normally scheduled tour to visit Dachau concentration camp. Normal tours of the euro whirl do not go to concentration camps unless the tour manager decides to change route. As a result we would have less time in the city of Munich, but no one cared, we all wanted to go to a concentration camp.

We arrived at around 2:15 and had an hour to explore the very somber place. Dachau is one of the more famous concentration camps and is still standing with the exception of 90% of the bunkers that were destroyed in the war. Having only an hour we had enough time to explore the crematorium, the memorial churches, the cemetery, and the bunkers before heading back on the bus to head into town. If you can talk your tour manager into doing this, I definitely recommend it, although later in Munich will be quite rushed. It is really hard to put into words how you feel when you are there, however some of the pictures I took capture the feelings quite well.

We left Dachau at about 3:15 and arrived in Munich around 3:45 and had an hour and forty-five minutes to explore Munich. As a result we rushed to the top of one of the cathedrals and inside the other then watched the lackluster Marienplatz at 5:00 before heading over to the Hard Rock and Hofbrauhaus to buy souvenirs. At the hard rock I purchased another pin (8 euro) and at the Hofbrauhaus a shirt and two .25L beer steins for 67.50 euro. We have a Hofbrauhaus located near my home so it was cool to see the original and get souvenirs from there even if I did not drink at the actual site. We ran back to catch the coach back to check into the hostel for the evening before going to the excursion Beerhall Dinner. The hostel in Munich is slightly smaller than previous ones, with only 3 to a room and a small shower, however when youre there to sleep it really doesn't matter.

After a brief change we headed out to the beer hall for a good 2 1/2 hours of drinking, food, and proasting like mad. I had the pork knuckle with potatoes and the obligatory liter of beer which was quite good (coming from someone who doesnt drink beer). The other options were chicken or a veggie dish. The veggie dish looked quite appealing and I learned I probably should start asking more what the veggie option is since sometimes they turned out much better than the meat dish. There was a second contiki tour at the beerhall that night and we all had a good time listening to 'eins proast' over and over again. I recommend this excursion a lot, most everyone on the tour does it, and it is a lot of fun with fairly decent food.

May 16th, 2008

We woke up at 6:30 to catch 7:15 breakfast which was more of the same however this hostel charged for anything other than water and coffee which was quite a disappointment. As usual we had an 8am departure to head into beautiful Austria for a day of mountain biking, paragliding, and white water rafting.

Photos: Attached are photos of the day sheet and accommodations for Munich and a few general pictures around Dachau and Munich, Germany. For more pictures from these places go to these albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2089657&id=21902759&op=18

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2089660&id=21902759&op=18