EuroTrip #2 - Friday 19th october

Incredible week end!!

Three days out on the road with my buddies from Quebec. A complete change of pace to go out there in a German speaking country. I found out that german deutsch if far more easy to understand then swiss german...

I'll post the week end summary in three parts because it's not possible to fit everything in only one! We visited almost all the places we planned to see, and I tell you, we really planned things to the minute, and sometimes we wondered if it was humanly possible to do it. But overall, I'm really happy about the results, and even with the rain, snow, clouds and cold weather (from -3 to 4 degrees) that we had all week-end, it was definetly worth the effort!!!

(You can click on the small pictures only, I can't post more than 5 clickable pictures on one post...)

The sun gets up pretty late here in Switzerland, and since we took the train at 6h20, I took this picture at sunrise (7h45) in the area of Bern

So we arrived, as planned, at 13h30 on friday, after a 7 hours train ride to Germany. First, we get the check in at the Hostel, and then head directly to the concentration Camp in Dachau.

Here is the entrance gate,

every prisoner had to go through that gate,

under the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign,

which means: Work Makes [you] Free.

This is the main building of Dachau, where the prisoners were checked in, numbered, and tagged by origin and religion.

Behind this building are the cells, where the prisoners endured torture, punishments, and in many cases, death.

Finally, the crematorium. There, about 50 000 were incinerated in the 12 years the camp was operational. (1933-1945)

Inside, the prisoner were taken to a "shower" room, where they were gassed.

The bodies were then incinerated in the crematories.

Feeling a bit downsome from that first visit, we then headed back in town to try and see as many "platz" as we could before sundown. The rain was part of the action, so we did not have much time.

We first got to the FrauenKirche in the center of Munich. This church is really easy to find because it dominates the city with it's two gigantic towers. It has a late Gothic architecture from the 15th century

Then we walked to Marienplatz, to see the rathaus (city hall) . It has a very distinctive and beautiful gothic style, and is so big you can't take a picture from the front.

Walking in the city, we found some relics of the nazi period, symbolized here by the iron eagle.

Finally, we go to the famous Hofbräuhaus, in the alt stadt. After that hard day of walking and traveling, we definetly deserved a beer, and talk about a beer, "Drei Grosse Bier Bitte"!!! (Three -one liter- beer please!). Inside, even with a capacity of 1500 people, we had to wait to sit down, but we had a great time.

There, we talked to a Russian couple, then another older couple from Italy, and finally, some middle aged natives (picture), with whom I had a very political-oriented conversation.

After a long friday, we had to sleep, because the wake up call was at 6h45 to go to Neuschwanstein...