Just two days after my return from Barcelona, I set off once
again; this time to Germany and Austria. This trip was a weeklong trip over St.
Patrick’s Day to Munich and Vienna. My traveling companion was my friend
Jeremiah, who had traveled to Barcelona with me. The train to Munich left from
Paris and took a little over eight hours to get there, which was surprising to
me (I thought it would take longer). We got to Munich at around 9 p.m. and went
straight to our hostel and went to bed to prepare for the next day.
We woke up early so we get do as much as we could during the
two days we had before departing to Vienna. First we visited a place called
Asamkirche or Asam’s Church. It was built in the mid 1700’s by the Asam
brothers as their private church. Due to resistance of the citizens, the
brothers were forced to make the church accessible to the public. It is an
example of the excessively ornate Baroque style of architecture. Since it was
built as a private church, it was built attached to their city home. After
visiting the church we made our way to Munich’s Marienplatz, where we got to
see the Glockenspiel play. We explored the area a bit and got some lunch. The
food in Munich was delicious. After lunch we climbed to the top of a church
tower to get a magnificent view of the city center.
After exploring the center of town, we ventured outward
toward the Munich Olympic Park and the BMW Welt showroom. The Olympic Park was
made up of swooping glass and metal structures that were suspended like fabric.
It would have been fun to visit inside the stadiums, but they were performing
some maintenance and we couldn’t get inside. We toured BMW Welt and saw some
cool concept cars. We decided not to visit the museum because the price was a
little steep for us and we wanted to save the money for other things. We then
went back to the city center and visited the Englischer Gartens. A massive
public park with several beer gardens inside. There is a small river that flows
through the park and at a spot where it flows out from beneath a bridge, it
creates a large wave. Locals have taken to surfing on this wave and are now
somewhat famous. We then made a trip to the famous Hofbrauhaus for dinner. The
Hofbrauhaus is a beer garden and restaurant. I had some great German food and
beer. We ended the evening with a trip to see BMW Welt at night, because it
looks its best when lit up at night.
The next day, we woke up early to visit the Dachau
concentration camp. We took a commuter train out to Dachau and arrive at the
memorial by bus. One thing that struck me about the complex was the fact that
it is now in the middle of a German suburb. Once inside, it was a somber
experience to say the least. If I had been by myself I might have been brought
to tears with the knowledge that I was in a place where so much suffering and
despair took place, but I wept for the dead in my heart. When we visited
Dachau, I underestimated the size of it. Even more so, it was hard to imagine
how many people were detained there. We explored the concentration camp with
our audio guides and hardly uttered a word to one another. It was hard for us
to fathom what we were or should have been feeling. Much of the camp was still
intact except for the barracks’, which had been torn down years ago. A pair of
reconstructed buildings was all that remained. At the back of the site, there
were multiple religious shrines constructed in remembrance of those who were
imprisoned for their faith. At the end of the complex were the furnaces for
burning the bodies of the dead. The entire trip was surreal, but I’m glad I made
it there. It was an experience I’m sure I won’t forget.
After visiting Dachau, we went back to the Munich train
station to prepare for our next excursion, Neuschwanstein Castle. Our next
destination was as opposite to Dachau as it gets. We started at a German
concentration camp and were now going to visit a picturesque castle in the Alps.
The train ride was two hours, so we had some time to process our trip to Dachau
and get ready for Neuschwanstein. When we arrived we only had a couple of hours
to explore before we had to catch the last available train back to Munich. We
discovered that there actually two castles, both commissioned by King Ludwig of
Bavaria (who bankrupted the country more than once to build them).
Neuschwanstein Castle is perched atop a small mountain overlooking a beautiful
valley and is reminiscent of a Disney Castle. Behind the castle is a
magnificent view of the Alps. With little time to spare, we spent our two hours
running around the mountains taking pictures of the castles. We had heard that
it takes 40 minutes to walk up to Neuschwanstein, we did it in 15. After a
bunch of climbing and running, we had to make our way back to the train. We
headed back to Munich to prepare for our trip to Vienna.
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