Munich!

Last night was interesting. My bunk squeaked with every jiggle of the train, so once we were fairly certain that we were the only 4 in the compartment, I switched to a middle. Easier to get into, but less space and more claustrophobic - but no squeaks. Before I moved down I was on the same level as Patti - I had drifted to sleep for a second (while waiting for the blog to upload actually), and Patti scratches my wrist and tickles it, I JUMP!!! I scream! "Why are you trying to be a RAT!? You scared me!!". And then we both laughed at me.

We hit a station and the train shuts down - all the lights go out inside, and the air vents shut off. Not good. We open the door to let in some air - we assume we're at the Austrian border and they're checking our passports with the manifest. They took our passports when he checked tickets and said we would get them back in the morning. He would wake us up 30 min before arriving in Munich.

We arrive at the train station, and we are definitely not in Italy anymore, Toto...Culture shock all over again - we have to learn new words for things, new processes and ways of doing things. Its all German to us... We're all stiff from the train. We review the German we know to get ready for the day, and we keep adding to it as we think of more (none of these are spelled correctly, it will be painful if you know even a little bit of German) - Gutentàg, Dankashein, Wilkommen, Nein, Ja, Lederhosen, Ich bein ine Berliner, Ich Liebe dich, Kindergarton, Afvertesane, Actung!... Amy says "chews"... We're confused, but she insists its an informal expression like Ciao. (We also hear a lot of germans using ciao as goodbye.). Amy is reviewing this now and going into elaborate pronunciations of the "correct way" to say it... She says its spelled more like "tsjuice" - but when she says it, it still sounds like "chews" to us.

We eventually find the way to Dauchau - after asking a few people that point and say something German - we walk in that direction until we find a new person to ask and she tells us how to get to the subway. We actually almost miss the train, but Dana holds it by sticking her hand in so that the doors re-open. Our hero!

Its 9:00am and we're at the Dachau train station. We have 30 min before it opens, and there is a McDonalds, so we stick our head in - they don't have the breakfast menu - they're serving fries and burgers at 9am. Patti and Amy have a Doppel-Cheeseburger and I have a McChicken just to get something in our stomachs. We have sodas with no ice. And again, teenagers are swarming it - universal tastes. The bathroom costs 50cents, but we just keep the door open for the next person to get in - the tp is the color and consistency of the old Big Chief tablets that we used to get for school. Hmmm.

Dachau opens at 9:30. Walking tour or bus? We decide to walk, they have a memorial walk that traces the steps of prisoners from the train station, and there are pieces of info on signs as we go. I always had that image of the train going directly into the camp - but most prisoners were actually forced to walk over 3km to the camp. We find out this info on the second sign.. Already started our walk and we realize that we are also walking 3km. It was a good walk - I'm glad we did it. Very educational. Here are our directions... If you don't know how to pronounce them - no worries, they sound just like they're spelled. What I have written as capitol "B" is actually a loopy character that resembles a B to us - but its pronounced with a "sssh" We laughed a lot at our horrible German - we stopped trying to relay street names to each other and just started trying to match the written names to the street signs:::

Go down Fruhling straBe (so it sounds like Strasha)
Rt on Schleibheimer straBe
Left on FriedenstaBe straBe
Right on Sudetenland straBe
Left at jfk plaza (yes, our JFK)
Strabe der KZ-opfer straBe

We get to Dachau, get an audio guide and walk around. They have a couple of barracks with bunks reconstructed, and the original foundations of all the others stretch out behind them. The guard towers still watch over, there are remnants of the train tracks that went into the camp that were unearthed, and a massive sculpture that in meant to look like emaciated people and barbed wire at the same time. The crematorium is still standing, and the ovens still there. You can walk through the gas chamber, although these weren't used for mass killings like the ones at Auswitz - no one is sure why. The most amazing fact that I learned that I had never heard was that there was a "brothel" (their word) on the grounds, where the women were forced to try and procreate to create more laborers for the future of the slave workforce.

Most amazing to all of us is the number of frolicking groups of teenagers that don't seem to grasp where they are. They pose with cute smiles against the bunk beds, "now you take one of me" - I imagine them showing their friends and saying, "and this cute shot is of me next to the beds where hundreds of men slept in a space designed for 50..."

We take the bus back - the 3km walk was nice at 9am - its now the peek of the day and the sun is beating down pretty good. We're ready to get happy again and get some food. The Hofsbrauhaus can help with both.

Hofsbrau is this huge German beer hall. The entertainers consist of yodelers, cloggers, bell ringers, and polka bands. Today we have the band. There are large wooden tables filling the hall in lines - we find one and order our beers. We're all a little surprised that Dana is also ordering a beer.. It isn't until the head sized mugs filled with a liter of beer is set down in front of her that she realizes what we ordered. :). But its all good - she drank it all, and we took pics to prove it to the folks back home.

After 2 weeks straight of Italian food, we're ready for a change - the Germans eat hearty meals, meat and potato (and potato dumpling) meals. Dana is dying for a braut and saurkraut - and I must say she ordered well. The saurkraut is much sweeter than what we're used to, there is no bite at the base of you jaw. Very smooth flavor. After leaning over to check out the dishes being delivered to the neighboring table, Amy asked our waiter to show her in the menu what each thing was - our waiter looks like Dr. "Owen" on Grey's Anatomy - really (but we didn't get a good pic).

Amy decided on crispy pig and potato dumplings - they're an odd texture, but her "pig" was good. I'm a potato girl, and I was looking forward to them - but they were gelatinous and spongy with an unidentifiable after taste. Patti had Bockwurst and potato salad - its a smoked sausage (good!), and the potato salad wasn't like any "German potato salad" I've ever had - Patti says her mother used to heat theirs up - this was served warm and was yummy. I had boiled beef (Bavarian style) and potatos (kind of like pot roast). It felt good to have options other than fish or pasta. We had pretzels with mustard and finished it off by sharing two servings of apple struedel. Great meal!

We had been watching our time because we wanted to see the Glockenspeil at 5:00. Its a HUGE clock in the center of town, and at 11, 12, and 5 the figures in the clock dance. We got there at 25 til and found a spot - time flew by and the show was spectacular. There were two figures on horses who jousted, and the crowd gasped when one of them was knocked back on his horse. It lasted for about 5 or 6 minutes ... And we headed down the steps to the nearby subway stop to try and catch a 5:40 train to Heidelberg (through Stuttgart). We had to take the subway back to the train station, get our bags out of the "box" (its apparently a universal symbol) - and find our train... And we did it! So proud of us. We're ready for the Amazing Race. (Not). The German countryside is beautiful - green mountains with red roofed villages in the valleys below.

The first train was crazy crowded - we had to stand for a while until people got off at other stops. Now we're on the second train headed to Heidelberg and the Murphy Clan!! This whole trip came out of Julia's insistence that we come visit her, and it grew into this enormous adventure from there. It will be almost 10pm here before we arrive - we can't wait to see Julia, get her tour of Heidelberg, and have a huge (authentic American) diet coke with lots of ice.

But sadly for us this also means we'll splitting with Amy until we fly home. She's heading up to Bremen to visit Mirium, the exchange student she hosted - and her son Linus who is now 5 and can't wait to meet Oma Amy face to face.

I thought we were done for the day, but I am not. Its now 1am here and we've gotten a full briefing from Julia - the Murphy's couldn't be more gracious hosts. Joe has given up his bedroom for us - Julia has given us language lessons and a brief lesson of the area. We had an early start and a restless sleep last night, and a late night tonight - so we're looking forward to a slow start tmw, and exploring Heidelberg!

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