Day 3: Munich

We started the morning with a trip outside of Munich to the town of Dachau and the concentration camp memorial located there. Dachau was the first, the model for all other concentration camps opened by Hitler's Nazi regime. It was opened within a month of Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, and was handed over to the SS shortly thereafter. It's original purpose was to serve as a place for the Nazi's to keep all of their political enemies. While Dachau was not an extermination center, it was the scene of horrific torture, medical experiments, and outright murder. 

This was my fifth trip to Dachau. It is not an easy trip to make. The very sight of the camp serves as a vivid reminder of the atrocities committed by the Nazis. The tranquility of the remains of the camp is eerie. Everywhere, the wind can be heard rushing through the row of giant trees that stand guard along the main road of the camp. Those sentinel trees were planted by prisoners, who knew that the trees would remain long after they were gone. That is exactly the point of this memorial, that we never forget.

We returned to Munich for some free time in the afternoon. At this point the group split up. I took my group on a brief tour of Bavaria's dead royalty. That's right, we went in search of dead people. In this case the dead people are all members of the Wittelsbacher dynasty, and they can all be found under the alter of the Jesuit Church of St. Michael. The most famous of these Wittelsbacher dead are Duke Maximilian and King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Duke Max, as the leader of a coalition of Catholic states, had a hand in starting the most devastating war in early modern European history, the 30 Years' War, by providing the Holy Roman Emperor with an army to pacify his rowdy Calvinist Bohemian nobles. Ludwig (the most popular of the dead Wittelsbachers) is famous for being Bavaria's fairytale king. Bored with life in his capital, Munich, he decided to spend his life (and a lot of the Bavarian treasury) building beautiful, romantic castles. This did not sit well with the politicians in Munich. They eventually had Ludwig declared incompetent to rule and removed him from the throne. The next day, Ludwig and his personal physician were found drowned in a lake. Was it murder, or suicide? The case has never been solved.

We wrapped up our evening with a bicycle tour of the Englischer Garten and the Isar River. One of the highlights (besides the nude sunbathers) was watching the Bavarian surfers who ride a static wave in the Eisbach where it enters the park. The legend is that this tradition was started by an American soldier from Hawaii stationed in Munich after WWII. He saw the wave and did what came natural.

Tomorrow, we get to take a look at the modern side of Munich at the BMW World. No, we won't be bringing any cars home. Sorry.