Germany 2015

The continuing travels of Intrepid Rowe of the German hinterlands

Things began really well as my dear daughter Ash turned up right on time to pick me up for the trip to the airport and I arrived a little excited at Adelaide Airport and headed inside through the solid rain fall and up to the check in desks   On entry to the lounge it took no time to find Barry and Donna and Pamela.  We sat in the lounge for a while then they departed for their flight to Melbourne, two hours before me.  Alone in the lounge I attacked the party pies with vigour and after 15 had passed my now burnt and blistered lips I decided to head to the front desk and invest 10000 points on an upgrade to Melbourne.

Flights being flights, all went very well to Melbourne right up until ATC said wait and we began to see way too much of Werribee.  Landing 15 minutes late created a bit of a problem for me as I chose to sacrifice a minute in the QClub with kin to ensure getting on the Emirates flight which was allegedly boarding while I was still queue bound in Immigration.  (Side note…piss poor Melbourne – open more gates)  So a (for me) sprint to Gate 16 which is allegedly 8 minutes’ walk but I boast I did in 6.  As I lent against a support recovering and cooling it soon became apparent that boarding wasn’t imminent and I could just feel my humour level dropping by the minute.  About 20 minutes after planned boarding, activity.  I claimed my Gold status and headed down the check-in lane but was sent to the desk as my boarding pass failed to register.  An outstanding outcome as I was moved in upper deck paradise with a Business Class upgrade…again.  Emirates…feel my love.  I boarded and felt an immediate affinity with my ‘fall flat’ bed.  A magnanimous call by the Intrepid one allowed a pair of fledgling young lovers to sit in harmonious proximity.  One can feel good doing this when there is absolutely nothing to lose.  A most restful flight and a great experience as I found the Business Class area of the Emirates A380 has a small but absolutely wonderful little bar tucked down aft.  Movies left a little to be desired, but no fault of Emirates, Hollywood has been slack and this is reflected on the play list.

So the 11000 kilometres unreeled below us and at …I have no idea…we landed in Dubai.  They served breakfast before landing so I guess it was early.  As we do, a shortest path was plotted to the Emirates Lounge and soon a chilly Heineken was nestled beside my second breakfast.  Knowing the rels were incoming, I kept a wary eye out in the club in between regular patrols to the bar to replenish hops and ‘salted mixed’ nut stocks.  I had about an hour and a half of peace before the blustering Marion Express rolled in.  One of the advantages of being Intrepid Rowe of many geographical locations is that I can…’assess, adapt and assimilate’. The BDs found Dubai a little daunting although my sis did spend a large amount on using the safety first SMS where are you service.  It was a somewhat tense reunion but I had thought ahead and had chilled Heineken and Moet on hand to soothe savage beasts…which was both suitable and effective.  A short time in the Club before heading to the closely located Gate A23.  Although we set off together, I found myself alone for a considerable period.  While waiting at the check in gate I was offered another Emirates upgrade…this time to Munich but for reasons I may even start to understand one day, I knocked it back and chose to sit in my window seat alongside Barry and Donna as planned.  Unplanned was the fact that before the flight will have travelled too far…actually not airborne...Barry would be in the window seat and my Bose headset would be on his head.  Intrepid knows no limits to his ability to raise the standard of luxuries for my accompanying Adelaide dwellers.

Landing in Munich was under dark grey skies but getting out of the airport was a breeze and before very long we were in a taxi heading in to the city centre to our hotel, the Sendlinger Tor.  A scenic trip with 130km speed limits along the way and we arrived without incident at the quaint ‘Pension; hotel and checked in.  Basic is how I would describe the room, although comfortable enough.  We are in Germany and as such no English speaking channels were found on the tv so the free internet was a real bonus.  After dropping the bags we headed off to have a look around Munich centre which was an interesting mix of old and new.  The grey clouds had now unleashed heavy rain and so we splashed back to the rooms and changed to more suitable clothing for the elements.  A visit to a beer hall to get something to eat while sampling the local brew was first up…but we decided not to eat.  After two we went in search of food at an Irish bar where ‘lusty English lager louts’ were having arm wrestling competitions, including taking on the bar maid.  No food though and while there we met up with a couple from Preston NW, a guy from Warrnambool and a couple of others and they accompanied us across the square to the Staatliches Hofbräuhaus (Royal Brewery). 

The Hofbräuhaus in Munich was one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold functions. On February 24, 1920, Adolf Hitler proclaimed the 25-point program of the Nationalist Socialist program in front of around 2000 people at the Hofbräuhaus, which reconstituted the German Workers' Party as the National Socialist German Workers' Party, known as the Nazi Party.  It was quite an experience to walk the same stairs as Adolf had, I along with many wish he had tripped and broken his neck! 

The place was jumping on a Friday night with a lively traditional band playing to a large crowd.  After failing to conquer a huge stein of the local brew, I begged off and left the Velts to party on while I walked aimlessly through the streets asking directions often in an attempt to get back to my room.  After about an hour I finally found it and flopped on the bed, an exhausted sleep quickly claiming me.

The jet lag effect kicked in and I was up early on Saturday, which was the day we had chosen to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp.  A short walk to the Marienplatz station and then a few wasted minutes travelling up and down escalators whist attempting to find the right station in the underground labyrinth, we boarded the S2 and headed out.  On arrival at the Dachau Railway station we took time out to wander the streets and find coffee before returning to the bus stop to catch the 726 for the short passage to the camp.

Crowds were building and it was reported that a million people each year visit the site which stands as a stark reminder of a time when unthinkable things became thinkable and unimaginable horrors became commonplace.  

The visit began at the termination of the railway line just outside the main entrance to the camp located under the gaze of the Camp Commandant who lived in the building on the right.

Disembarking here, the prisoners had just a short walk through the gates to Hell, seen below now, and as it was in 1945. 

A brief overview of Dachau KZ

On March 22, 1933, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor, a concentration camp for political prisoners was set up in Dachau. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a "school of violence" for the SS men under whose command it stood. In the twelve years of its existence over 200.000 persons from all over Europe were imprisoned here and in the numerous subsidiary camps. 41.500 were murdered. On April 29 1945, American troops liberated the survivors. Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps.  Although Dachau had gas chambers built, there is no evidence that they were used for large scale genocide. They did have crematoriums which burned furiously throughout the early 1940’s.

One of the reconstructed prisoner barracks in the background

The camps covered 1.5 square kilometres and besides administration buildings, a huge prison block and the crematorium, also had 34 buildings housing prisoners in increasingly cramped conditions.  Three people to one small wooden bunk became the norm as more as more prisoners were sent to Dachau as the German empire diminished.

 This scaled model of the camp shows just how vast it was.  The main area open to visitors  (one would not use the term ‘tourist’ when in such a place) is the section on the right which     shows Admin in the centre with the ‘parade ground below the 34 barracks. 

 

The camp prison ‘the Bunker’ comprised of 160 cells, 80 either side of a long corridor.  It was used from 1938 to 1945 to incarcerate high-level ‘enemies of the state’.  The bunker remained in use by the Americans up until 1960.

A reconstructed barracks…330 feet long, 33 feet wide.  After 1942, although no additional barracks were ever built, the prison compound had at least 12000 prisoners, living in the space designed to house 5000. 

The Guard tower above, one of the many bordering the camp, had clear lines of sight and clear instructions to kill anyone who attempted to get through the electrified fence. It reflects on the desperation of those confined that many chose this option rather than face the suffering of life within the camp.

We wandered through various parts of the camp, reflecting sombrely on what had transpired here.  I had no idea what my feelings would be once we got there…which was a good thing for nothing could prepare one for the impact of first seeing the Crematorium.

 I was surprised at how small the building was, yet I had no reason to think otherwise.  Perhaps the sheer amount of bodies that were disposed of here and in other similar buildings created the impression they should be huge structures with towering chimneys.  Bland and non-descript, probably by design to aid to the illusion that these were non-threatening buildings.  The crematoria served to dispose corpses from the concentration camp; mostly the ovens were in operation day and night. At the end of 1944 their capacity was no longer enough to cremate the scores of dead from the camp. Upon liberating the camp at the end of April 1945, American soldiers came across countless corpses piled up in the crematorium.  The structure had clothing disinfection at the far left; the next room is a holding room before the door to the gas chamber, which was made to look like a showering room.  The next room, conveniently located was the Crematoria.

A page that needs no words….

 “Think how we died here”

And so it was that we had seen all to see and reflected deeply on how anything like this could have come to pass.  In total, over 188,000 prisoners had passed through Dachau and its sub-camps.  It has been estimated that nearly 50,000 of those prisoners met their death in Dachau.

It was well time for a beer so we headed up in downtown Dachau for some food and sips.  The mood lightened and fatigue set in so it was back to the station for the train ride back to Munich.  The trains are clean, fast and on time, all a tad different from those I am used to back home.  And once back in the home of ‘Oktoberfest’ we found the town very much alive on a busy Saturday afternoon. 

Marienplatz: (Mary's Square) is a central square in the city centre of Munich.  It has been the city's main square since 1158.  In the Middle Ages markets and tournaments were held in this city square.  Marienplatz was named after the Mariensäule, a Marian column erected in its centre in 1638 to celebrate the end of Swedish occupation. Today the Marienplatz is dominated by the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus) on the north side.  The Glockenspiel in the tower of the new city hall was inspired by these tournaments, and draws millions of tourists a year.

In close proximity to the Hard Rock café, a fortuitous occurrence, so we settled in there for a lager or two before walking back to the hotel to recharge for another Munich day to come.

Sunday dawned brightly with cloudless blue skies and a healthy nip in the air and before long we were on foot heading to the train station to catch the U8 to the Munich Olympic Stadium, scene of the 1972 Games.  As was becoming apparent, the transport system in Munich is very efficient and we arrived without any drama.  On departing the station, the first building we approached was a beautifully modern museum / showroom for BMW. 

Inside were the latest and oldest BMWs, Rolls Royce’s and Minis, which reflected the new owners of the latter two marques.  Free fast wi-fi was available I this ultra-modern setting which was also a bonus.  Described in Wikipedia as: BMW Welt (BMW World), is a multi-functional customer experience and exhibition facility of the BMW AG, located in Munich.  In direct proximity to the BMW Headquarters and the Olympiapark, it is designed to present the current products of BMW, be a distribution centre for BMW cars, and offer an event forum and a conference centre.

A 1939 BMW with the latest Rolls Royce

We spent quite a bit of time at BMW Welt, after all, it was a museum!  before walking the well-tended grounds of the Olympic site.  Despite the 43 years that had passed since the Games were on, all the facilities (swimming, track gymnastics) were still in use and appeared very popular with both locals and tourists.   The first point of call was a grassy hill which gave an excellent view point to see all of the stadiums as well as Munich city and even the Alps in the distance. 

Recalling watching the Olympic Games way back in 72, it was good to actually visit the site where my one true love of the time, Shane Gould became the first woman to win three Gold medals in the same games.

The track

The Athletics Stadium

To the right of the Track..the swimming arena

Thoroughly satisfied we had seen all there was to see in this area, a trip on the U5 to the main station was taken to do a recce of the place before departing from the main international platforms the following day, after which we hopped a U4 to Odeonplatz to visit the ‘English Gardens’.  Whilst walking there we passed some magnificent old architecture, the first being the Munich Residenz (Munich Residence), the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs of the House of Wittelsbach. Below is the neo-classical 250 metre long Banqueting Hall Wing (Festsaalbau) in the north section of the Residenz was added between 1832 and 1842 by Klenze under instructions from King Ludwig I.

Festsaalbau

Close by was the Bayerische Staatskanzlei (Bavarian State Chancellery).  It was erected from 1989 to 1993 around the central dome of the former Bavarian Army Museum, which had been built in 1905 at the site of the Hofgartenkaserne barracks and was demolished in World War II.

Bavarian State Chancellery

On such a great day the English Gardens were a popular place with hundreds of people reading, picnicking and walking around.  The Englischer Garten is a large public park in the centre of Munich, stretching from the city centre to the northeastern city limits. It was created in 1789 for Prince Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria.  With an area of 3.7 sqkm the Englischer Garten is one of the world's largest urban public parks, larger than New York's Central Park.  The name refers to its English garden form of informal landscape, a style popular in Britain from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century. It is a great park with fast running brooks filled to the brim with icy snow water, and within the park in a couple of spots ‘standing waves’ have been created on which ‘cold-proof’ surfers ride the waves.  Surfers line up along the bank taking turns entering the water with their boards. After a minute or so, successful surfers will voluntarily drop out returning to the end of the line allowing the next person in line an opportunity – and I add, to prevent hypothermia!

Surfing the Isar

Our day was drawing to a close but there was always one more thing tosee, and the Munich tour ended with a viewing of the Siegestor (Victory Gate), a triumphal arch crowned with a statue of Bavaria with a lion quadriga. The Siegestor is 21m high, 24m wide and 12m deep.  The gate was commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1852.  Lions were likely used instead of horses because the lion was heraldic charge of the House of Wittelsbach, the ruling family at the time.  The gate was originally dedicated to the glory of Bavaria, today it is a monument to peace.

The Siegestor (Victory Gate)

One more train trip and we found, just across from the hotel, Kennedys Irish Pub, with some lovely bar staff which was a fitting and enjoyable way to wrap up the Munich leg of the European expedition.  And so it was on the move time again and early in the morning with a bitter chill in the air we walked to Sendlinger Tor station for the short trip to the main Munich Railway Station.  A coffee before boarding ICE 610 and then we were on our way across Germany heading east towards our next destination, Baden-Baden; a small town nestled in the heart of the Black Forest.

ICE 610 – these trains are capable of doing 300kph, though ours only topped 250kph

We arrived at BB after a chaotic train change at Mannheim involving station changes and late trains and caught a taxi to the Holiday Inn, base camp for this overnight stay.  After a brief pause to drop bags, we walked in to town past the Festspielhaus, (Germany’s largest Opera house) to the local bus stop to catch the 205 to

the Merkur Bergbahn,  a funicular railway that climbs Mount Merkur to the location of the Observation Tower at Merkur. 

The line reaches a maximum steepness of 54%, and to my eyes this is an incline I would have hesitated to try if it was a roller coaster.  But the ride was well worth it as the destination was the Merkur summit and observation tower from which excellent views of the surrounding Black Forest region were had.   After such an exhaustive climb, for the cable car, not me…who would never have made it on foot…a chilly beer was in order to sip while overlooking the valleys in brilliant sunny conditions.

Heading back down, another bus ride to the city centre and a compulsory visit to the Faberge Museum, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Ivanov.  Two Faberge eggs are displayed in the Museum along with other Faberge pieces and gold dining collections.  We had a really informative guide there who made seeming dull things sound interesting.  No photography was allowed after I got busted taking a snap of one of the eggs…probably a bit security conscious! 

The most significant item in the museum's collection is the Rothschild, that was made as an engagement gift from Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild to her brother's fiancée.  Ivanov bought it for £9 million because he thinks that it’s the “finest ever” made by Faberge.  I managed to snap the last Imperial Egg, made of Karelian birch with gold and diamonds for Easter 1917. Czar Nicholas II was deposed before he could give it to his mother.

The Karelian Birch egg was the only one to use an organic substance (wood) as a primary construction element. Its "surprise" was a miniature mechanical elephant, covered with tiny rose-cut diamonds, wound with a small jewel-encrusted key.  It was made this way due to the austerity caused by World War 1.

All up there is somewhere near $1.5 billion worth of Faberge and other works on display and big solid KGB men are always present.  Understandably!

It was nearing dinner time but we thought we could try the Casino before eating however this turned out to be a bust as they charge an admission price.  We decided paying to lose money was a scandalous idea so passed but the tulips in bloom out the front were nice so it was not all bad.  A fine meal at ‘Le Bistro’ consisting of tenderloin steak with a pils or two to wash it down and then a stroll along the River Oos to the hotel made a perfect way to end the German holiday.