Our journey to Munich consisted of three distinct, but equally challenging phases. Number one was to get to the train station on time. We were to meet a group of other international students from Hannover outside the main station by a well known statue at 715 am. However, that didn't happen. Getting a group of college aged guys ready to leave at 645 am is nearly impossible. Its like herding cats... but truthfully I think cats would be easier because you could just pick them up and take them with you.
I had woke at 6 that morning to get ready to leave on time, but long story short, we didn't leave the dorm until 713. Now, that's cutting it close to make a train departing at 735 on time. We've certainly had our close calls with making trains on time before, but this instance takes the gold medal for sure. To complicate matters, we didn't know which train exactly we would take or where it was going, we just knew "platform 8 at 735". So, with the help of a lady on the metro that morning in giving us a shortcut to the train station, we approached the train as it was getting ready to leave, but it was that point which made me more concerned than ever before. There were two trains....and neither of them stood out as correct since I wasn't sure where we'd be going to hop on the bus to make the rest of the trip to Munich. Luckily, just as time was literally running out I spotted another US student who was coming on the trip with the rest of the group who'd been waiting for us at the statue, but must have called it quits to make the train. Needless to say, we hopped on the train and made it. That was close! If we'd have been 2 minutes later, or earlier, we'd have missed the group and possibly not have made it to Munich. We then took a 1.5 hour train ride to hop on a bus full of other students that would be joining us to Munich from Clausthaul University outside of Hannover. The students we were joining in Hannover also study at Leibniz, but were engineering majors as would be those from Clausthaul we'd be joining shortly. A 5 day trip with engineers would sound dreadful to most, but considering the nature of my home university, I'm fairly skilled in "putting up" with engineering folk and rather enjoy it at the same time.
After many stops and hours of riding in an uncomfortable bus seat later, we arrived in Munich. From the start, it was apparent that Munich was a very vibrant city that not only housed some rich history, but also was home to some of Germany's most modern corporate headquarters and the 1972 Olympic Park (very modern for its time). Right when we arrived, we checked into the hostel and headed straight for the Hofbrauhaus, one of Germany's oldest beer halls. Getting there was a challenge however. Many of Munich's U-bahn (subway) lines were closed for construction as were the some S-bahn lines...so the map didn't always tell the whole story. After a longer than anticipated journey, resulting in jeopardizing our reservation at one of Munich's most esteemed beirgartens...we arrived fashionably late, but luckily our table was still there for us. The food was excellent. I had the Schweinshaxen with a potato dumpling. I'd actually had this before in Berlin, but I decided to try out the real Bavarian tradition made by real Bavarians... When one enters a place like the Hofbrauhaus, its readily apparent that you'll have a good time. The live music performers were very entertaining with traditional folk tunes and dances with full lederhosen. Also, one cannot forget to note how good the Liter sized portions of beer were.
The Dunkel was good. Prost!
The next day, we decided to make a trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site for a tour. Since Dachau was on the outskirts of Munich, it was most convenient to arrange to join a tour that departed right from Munich. For 18 euro (student price) you could have a whole day tour with a highly skilled guide that departed right from the Munich city center and even included the price of transportation to Dachau, I was sold. From the start, I could tell our guide Marcin was excellent. He actually had previously been a history and music teacher who joined the tour industry to give beer tours around Munich. Turns out that the company wanted their guides to be cross trained to be able to give any of their tours (City Walking, Third Reich Munich, Dachau, Beer, etc..) so Marcin was then forced one day to go on a Dachau tour. Since, he became fascinated with studying the history of it and advocating for modern instances of genocide, and now gives the Dachau tour 5 days a week. Arriving at Dachau was immediately heart wrenching. To realize that the ground you were walking on was once used to carryout such a terrifying purpose was difficult to deal with. Now, I've already been to numerous Holocaust sites around Germany and the US Holocaust Museum in DC....so I know the history, and expected this feeling from the start. But actually being there was much more than I'd planned for. The tour was very thorough, allowing us to really understand what it was like to be there from 1933-45. What many don't know is how Dachau progressed from the political "re-education" center before the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the concentration camp of the 1940's. The thorough history Marcin was able to convey to us over the 5 hours we were there was incredible. Leaving Dachau left a cloud over us for the next few hours. On a completely different note, Dachau was hosting there own version of Munich's Oktoberfest that weekend, so as we left many guys were dressed up in Lederhosen and the traditional Bavarian Dresses for the ladies. Interesting sight to see...
On Sunday, we took a bus tour from Munich to the Alps. Along the way Bavarian countryside stretched for miles. Farms, cows, and traditional style houses were everywhere you looked. Also, churches. There are a lot of small communities in southern Bavaria and so each one of them had their own church. The onion shaped dome architecture was very different from what you'd see in Hannover for example, or especially the US. After about an hour, you could really see the Alps. Another 30 minutes later, we were essentially at the foothills as it would go from flat to mountainous right outside the bus window. After a few hours, we finally were told by the bus driver that we'd reached Austria, or Oostereich in German. Now, I knew that the EU had a founding principle on free and open borders, but for some reason I would have expected some type of road sign to announce it...guess not. A few moments later, we stopped by a lake near Innsbruck, Austria for our first visit. The lake was absolutely gorgeous. Austrians were out enjoying the sun like no other, swimming, sailing, or just laying out...they were certainly enjoying themselves. After awhile, we left and continued our journey through the alps. Not only are they stunning to look at, but they really are interesting from an engineering perspective. The tunnels, reinforced guardrails on cliffs, etc...really show how humans have made nature accessible...even for tour buses. Continuing on, we also stopped by an authentic Austrian ski village and Rattenberg. Austria and the Alps were excellent...I'll be back some day!
Me at the lake we stopped at near Innsbruck, Austria.
Monday found us exploring the Deutsches Museum. It's essentially the German equivalent of the Smithsonian Institution in DC with a focus on Science, Engineering, and Technology. Not quite as large as the entire Smithsonian that would take weeks to go through entirely, the Deutsches was definitely doable in a day. With exhibitions on everything from airplanes, ship navigation, steel tools, and telecommunications, it had enough diversity to keep anyone engaged for hours. It even had a very thorough walk through mining exhibition with a walk-in mine for visitors to see how life was like working in a mine. Coming from an area with a lot of mining history, I've been on mine tours many times, and this place was reminiscent of those times....well done Deutsches Museum. The main thing I noticed in the museum was the strong influence US science has on German/European science. For example, the space exhibits had many US space exploration artifacts including scale models of the evolution of US rocketry. However, German engineering and science definitely is impressive. Especially when its all contained in such a well constructed museum.
Finally Tuesday morning came and it was time to make the long journey home. We boarded the buses around 9 to leave at 930. Our first pitstop would be in the town of Bamberg, where we'd have 2 hours to get out and explore. Those first 2.5 hours on the way to Bamberg were bearable, but the ones that followed would become a little less enjoyable. The seats on the bus were designed for people about 6 inches shorter than me (and i'm only 6'0") as my head rested completely above the headrest...strange since I thought Germans seemed like a fairly tall nation. Anyway, after some moderate discomfort, we arrived in Bamberg. It was a nice city, probably somewhere between the size of Hannover and Luneburg with a small town atmosphere. It also had a very historic old portion. Our tour guide Marcin (actually a different Marcin than from Dachau, I know...Marcin isn't that common of a name) told us that it was imperative to stop by a Bamberg Beirgarten to enjoy some of their local delicacies...so we all obliged. Now, one doesn't usually associate Tuesday afternoon at 1pm as a particularly popular drinking time, but all of the beirgartens were packed. Eventually we found one that had room for our group and sat down. German restaurants never cease to impress with their authentic decor and atmosphere. Too bad we had already had eaten our packed lunches on the bus, because everything on the Menu looked so good...as we were still in Bavaria many items wouldn't even be found on menus in Hannover. After the amount of time we spent looking for a place to stop, we only had time for one beer...but it was good, so it wasn't that bad we had to leave so soon. A few hours later, and we'd be back in Hannover ready for 3 more days of classes, then on to see HEIDELBERG!
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