The Final Day

After a good night's rest, we found some pastries at the train station and rode out to Dachau, where we transferred to a bus that took us to the concentration camp and memorial. I had technically been here before when I was about 14. But while I obviously knew about the holocaust, I didn't really understand the full impact of what happened at the camp. This time I spent more time reading the captions in the museum and at the various sites around the camp.

I do also remember that last time I was here, it was a warm and sunny day. Not this time. It was another unseasonably cold and dreary may day. This contributed to the somber mood in the air. It wasn't exactly an uplifting thing to do, but a thing that one must do. It was good to get a timeline on the process as well. It took the Nazis about six years before things really got out of hand with the executions and attempted eradication of entire peoples. So, it was a reminder that this was not an overnight change. First political opponents, then criminals, then the Jews, prisoners of occupied territories, Slavs, etc. I imagine most people were like, "Well it's disconcerting, but I understand we need to round up political opponents for the safety and security of the German people." Then by the time you get to the Jews and other groups, they were just combined or equated with criminals in people's minds. All in the interest of bringing security back to Germany and a return to "old German values." Sound familiar? After all, one of the captions stated that discriminating against Jews was a centuries old tradition. I guess those were the values they wanted to fall back on.

What I found to be the most interesting is that many of the SS soldiers were sent to reeducation classes by the Americans after they were captured, but it was generally regarded as unsuccessful. Somehow, the majority of the SS guards were incapable of understanding or feeling any guilt about what they had done. How? Why? I cannot wrap my head around that. I guess if you're angry enough and can only feel hate... It's just shocking to me that any human could reach that point, though.

Enough for depressing stuff, though. One only needs to keep up with current events for that. After returning to Munich, we got off the train at Marianplatz, or the old city area. The sun was now trying to show through the clouds and it almost felt like 55. Nicole got a pretzel ornament for our non-existent Christmas tree and I ate a pretzel sandwich for lunch along with some kind of pastry. We walked around the area for a while before going up to the Englischer Park just north of the Marianplatz area. It is mostly just a green area with some walkways, but we went there for one specific reason.

River surfing. It sounds like a joke, but there is some kind of berm or something creating a single continuous stationary wave just beyond a bridge by the park. We saw a group of about 8 surfers with short boards taking turns riding the wave. As you can see by the full-body wetsuit worn by this woman in the picture, the water must not have been very warm. It was quite entertaining to watch them all. Some were better than others. The method for catching the wave is essentially just to jump right onto it. There was no paddle-in or pop-up method.

You're either riding the wave the second you hit the water or you're flailing downstream in a rolling ball of surfboard, body, and dirty water. I consider myself to have good balance and am generally fairly athletic, but I'm pretty sure this is something I would not be good at. Later in the evening, we had our final dinner of schnitzel and sausages with a pair of beers. Whereas it's quaint and bustling in the Marianplatz area, the neighborhood by our hotel consists of gambling parlors and strip clubs. I think as a general conclusion, I'm not too keen on Munich. There's something off about it. And what's the deal with this weather? It might as well be February.