Saturday 9^th May 2015

Yet another early breakfast before setting off once again to the Hauptbanhnhof to join our tour to Dachau Memorial site. Weather was cool and overcast with predicted maximum of 18° in Dachau.

After a 30-minute train trip to Dachau, and a short bus ride, we arrived at the memorial site. Our guide was an English WWII historian, and as we were shown around the site of the former Dachau Concentration camp, that was actively used by the Nazis from 1933 – 1945, he was giving us excellent commentary on the history of the camp.

The Memorial site was established in 1965.

Hitler set up a concentration camp for political prisoners in Dachau in 1933, just after he was appointed Reich Chancellor. 

Entrance Gate "Work Makes You Free"

The camp was a model for all later concentration camps and a “school of violence” for SS troops who commanded it. In the 12 years it was used as a concentration camp over 200,000 people, (mainly male) were imprisoned there, and over 41,500 died in the camp.

American troops liberated the survivors on 29^th April 1945.

All the original buildings (except the 32 barrack blocks) are still standing, including the prison block and crematorium, which houses the gas chambers and ovens. Two reconstructed barrack blocks have been built on original foundations.

Parade ground &barracks block

Guard tower

Original barbed wire fence & trench

It was a very interesting and sobering experience to stand on the site where so much misery was caused to people just because they had the wrong political belief or the wrong bloodline. Looking at some of the buildings, and what they were designed for, it is beyond belief that humans could think up such cruelty.

Arrived back in Munich at 2:30pm and after a quick late lunch we did some souvenir shopping and had a look at the Hofbrauhaus but decided it was too crowded to eat there tonight.

Dinner back at our favorite pub:  I had ½ roast duck, potato dumplings and red cabbage, Lynne had Munich roast beef with potatoes.

Dachau Memorial

Friday 8^th May 2015

 Another early start, breakfast at 7:00. Weather is a little cool this morning, but clear blue sky and expected maximum of  21°.

We left our hotel @ 8:30 for the walk to Hauptbahnhof (Munich Central Railway station) where we met our tour guide near platforms 32-34 for our trip to see The Royal Castle of Neuschwanstein, built by King Ludwig II, which was used by Disney as the model for the Fantasyland Castle.

Along with our English-speaking guide and 20 other people on the tour we boarded the train at 10:55am for the 2 hour train trip and arrived at Fussen at 12:55am.  It was then onto a bus for the 5km drive to the base of the mountain. It looked very daunting to see the castle so far above us.  As the queue for the horse drawn carriage was extremely long, we had to walk the 1.5kms up a very steep path, (about a 1 in 5 grade for the most part but some sections increased to 1 in 3) to, first, the bridge where the view of the castle is breathtaking, then onto the castle entrance where we were taken on a tour of the castle which went for about an hour. 

Looking up from bottom of the mountain 

The castle itself is stunning and the inside, which is steep to negotiate with many stone spiral stairways, is totally original in all respects.  

The scenery surrounding the castle is equally as stunning and we had to wonder at how it was constructed on such a steep slope.

Neuschwanstein Castle

The Castle entrance

Looking up from the courtyard

Castle Kitchen

At the conclusion of the tour we made our way back down the mountain, a little shorter, only 1.2klms, where we had time for a cuppa and a piece of apple strudel with ice-cream.

On the bus again for the return trip to Munich.

Arrived in Munich at 8:00pm and headed to our favorite pub once again for dinner, then back to the hotel, footsore and weary, for an early night.