Friday December 13th Munich and Dachau

 

This morning at 9am we had a scenic bus tour of Munich.  The following three pictures show the Nymphenburg Palace,  the summer residence built by King Ludwig I, now a museum, and the swans in the lake by the castle.

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Our tour included a drive past Olympic Park,home to the 1972 summer Olympics.  Its distinctive tower is visible for a long distance.  The park and venues are still in use.  For a while we drove on Ludwig strasse, Ludwig street.

We unfortunately did not get to see the glockenspiel in Marianplatz in action, just missing its 11 am, noon, and 5 pm chimes.

In the afternoon we drove to the town of Dachau and saw the Concentration Camp.  This is the gate through which you and the prisoners entered the camp.  Above the gate were the words, work will set your free.

Dachau was the first concentration camp, and became the model for the other camps and where the SS guards were trained.  This camp’s primary mission was to provide labor for the factories, and it supported about 60 sub camps and factory sites.  Over 206,000 individuals went through the camp, and over 32,000 died at the camp when they were too old, weak, or sick to work.  Many more were shipped off to other camps to die on the way or at other locations.   Conditions became particularly bad the last few months before the liberation as prisoners from other camps were brought in swelling the population to over 30,000.  The prisoners received very little food to support the 12 hours a day of forced labor and near the end this was cut to one meal of soup a day.   Even after the camp was liberated on April 29, 1945, another 2,000 prisoners died as they were too far gone.

The camp had 30 barracks, which were designed to house 208 prisoners each, but near the end had up to 2,000 prisoners in each.  The two low buildings are the only remaining barracks, but the foundations of the others are maintained so you can get the feel of the size of the space.

This memorial was erected at the camp, and dramatically shows the pain, suffering, and death.

This evening we enjoyed our farewell dinner at the hotel.  Everyone enjoyed talking with new friends and eating a lovely meal.  Jim and Bonnie made remarks and everyone was invited to share their favorite moments from the trip.  Now we pack and get ready for our 5:30 am wake up call.  We hope the snow that is expected in the northeast will hold off until all are safely on their way from New York.

Our group, gathering for our last night together.

Thursday December 12th Castle Neuschwanstein

 

This morning we left at 8am for the two hour drive to Hohenschwangau (say that three times), home of the world famous Castle Neuschwanstein and another smaller castle.   Castle Neushwanstein was built by Ludwig II, who lived in it for  about six months before he was declared insane, as his brother was declared to be insane and the insanity was said to run in the family.   The day after he was declared to be insane and removed from the castle to Munich, he and his psychiatrist were found drowned in a shallow lake near where they were staying.   At the time it was declared a suicide, and even now the real facts are not known. 

the following three pictures show the castle from drive in, from the town, and the horse drawn carriage ride to the castle.

The next three pictures show the castle up close and personal.

We could not take pictures in the castle, but here are photos from the web of the kings bedroom and the grand hall (which was never used for entertaining).

The following are two pictures from the castle, one is of a footbridge Ludwig II had built and the other is a lake and town below the castle.  the final picture is of the other castle in town, which we did not visit.

After the visit we drove back to Munich where we visited another one of the 30 Christmas Markets in town and than had a nice dinner at an Indian Restaurant.

Wednesday December 11th Oberammergau and Munich

 

We headed out at 8am for our drive to Oberammergau, a quaint little Bavarian Village.  The people in the Village prayed to be spared from the black plague and they were.  As a result, the whole town is involved in putting on the world famous passion play every ten years, which they have now done for about 380 years.  The following pictures show three of the buildings in town.  the buildings are famous for the murals painted on the exterior of not only public buildings but homes as well.  we did some shopping and enjoyed a nice lunch before traveling on.

After visiting Oberammergau, we drove to Munich and checked into the Hilton Hotel.  We walked about a mile and a half into the center of town to visit a quilt shop (not great), a huge Christmas Market, and to have dinner at the world famous Hofbrauhaus.  Order a simple beer and it is delivered to you in a huge liter sized glass mug. The ooompah band begins to play at 6 adding to the raucous, festive atmosphere  Everyone has a great time.  We had enough to eat and drink so we decided we needed to wear it off and walked back to the hotel, mostly uphill.  The following pictures show the city center and a very small part of the Christmas Market

Nancy with a wee bit of beer at the Hofbrauhaus and the band.

Tuesday December 10th Innsbruck

Today we started with a class from Bonnie Hunter at 9am  (I took a nap).  At 10:45am we headed out to a local Quilt Shop.  

Bonnie Hunter our Quilt leader has been blogging every day and included the fact that we are in Ruhpolding and showed our hotel.   A local quilter reads her blog and came to the hotel to try to find Bonnie and show her a quilt she made following Bonnie’s instructions.  We all admired her quilt and asked if there was a quilt shop near b and she arranged for us to go to the one we went to today.

The following three pictures show our quilters mobbing the store, the pole in the middle of the town, and a nice house in the town.

After the shopping spree we were running late and needed a quick lunch so we stopped at a McDonalds.  It included an upscale McCafe with IPads that you can use while you dine on your Big Mac, and built in computers in some tables with games.

We spent a couple of hours wandering the streets of Innsbruck and a festive Christmas Markets in the streets of the old town.   Innsbruck is nestled between beautiful snowy mountains. 

During the tour we ran into this gentleman and his friend, and the invisible man.

Mon. December 9th Salzburg, Austria

 

At 8am we left the hotel and rode to Salzburg, Austria.   It was interesting, there were no stops or inspections as we drove from Germany to Austria; in fact if the tour leader had not pointed it out, you would not realize you were crossing a border.  A big McDonalds greeted us at the border.

It was chilly today and we were all happy when we went inside a cathedral or beautiful city building for a respite from the cold.  Salzburg is famous as the home of the von Trapp family and the setting for the Sound of Music Movie, the, birthplace and home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and birthplace and home of the Astrophysicist Christian Doppler.  The following three photos show the road to Salzburg, the town hall in Salzburg, and the Salzburg coat of arms.

Erika, our fantastic tour guide, showed us Mirabelle Gardens where some of the Sound of Music was filmed, including a scene around this fountain with the horse, on these steps, and below the statues of these two men.

The following is a sign for Doppler and a foot bridge we walked across.  Lovers lock a lock to the bridge fence and throw the key into the river to seal their love.

One of the main shopping streets had these wonderful signs (will share at the end of this blog what this particular sign was advertising).  The second photo shows the house where Mozart was born and lived, and the third shows the baptismal font where he was baptized.

We took a funicular up to this old fort at the top of this mountain.   They had this museum at the top of the fort with an interesting way to display some of the armor.

Here is Nancy at the top, and a picture of Salzburg spread out below.

Finally we checked out the Christmas Markets.

(Answer to the sign mystery, McDonalds.)