Germany Day 7 - Fussen / Dachau

Day 7 - Dec 11


As we were heading out of Fussen early Sunday morning we luckily had clear skies and got some really great shots of the northern Alps in Southern Germany and Austria.  Since our flight out of Munich airport wasn't until 8 pm we decided to make a few stops on our drive from Fussen.  

Alp view outside of Fussen

Yuka excited

Me excited

Our first stop was to be a small church called Wieskirche. This place is in the middle of nowhere, and it made for a pleasant drive through snow-covered hills and it was very foggy.  The history behind the church's creation is interesting... Apparently someone noticed tears coming from a wooden statue of Christ (something to do with the flagellation of Christ {he had gas?}) and the statue became a place of pilgrimage. Apparently the small chapel built there wasn't large, or magestic, enough so in the 1740s the present day structure was erected. The style is called Rococo and it seems the idea behind the style was minimalism on the exterior and extremely non-mininalistic on the interior.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, so check out the wiki link if you're interested. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wies_Church

Drive to Wieskirche

Drive to Wieskirche

Drive to Wieskirche - It got really foggy as we got closer.

Wieskirche

Wieskirche - These chickens chased us (Yuka) off

After doing some searching for things to see around Munich, we decided to visit the Dachau concentration camp.  We knew before going that this wouldn't be an enjoyable trip, but we decided it would be good for us to see some of the more sobering parts of Germany. The village of Dachau is located several miles north of Munich and is the sight of the longest operating concentration camp in Nazi Germany.  Dachau was the first official Nazi concentration camp, and served as the model camp for numerous future Nazi concentration and extermination camps.


The site was free to the public and even included numerous language tours.  The tour was excellent and quite long, lasting 2.5 hours.  Dachau wasn't the largest concentration camp by far, having (officially) only been the place of ~32,000 deaths compared to Auschwitz with somewhere between 2.5 and 4 million deaths, but it was still sobering. I'm not really sure what else to say about the camp other than it's crazy to think that people could really do such a thing on such a massive scale. If you want to read more I've included a wiki link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp

Main gate into Dachau

Roll call area - up to 40,000 people were on roll call in this area.

Site where the barracks were. 2 sample barracks were rebuilt in later years, as the original buildings were destroyed to prevent disease.

Foundations of the prisoner's quarters

Jail cells on the left and administration buildings on the right.  

In the picture above, there is a wall behind me where Nazis killed prisoners by firing squad. To guard the prisoners, the camp had over 1500 SS troops stationed here.  The tour guide said that many of these men returned to their normal lives after the war without having been prosecuted or punished.  I did a little research after getting home and was happy to hear that the liberating US 42nd and 45th Army Infantry divisions were able to eliminate 600 SS troops by firing squad on the same walls. After the war, General Patton became governor of Bavaria and appropriately pardoned any US soldiers involved. Good. 

I was also happy to hear that the US military made every single person living in the area walk through the camp and see the dead bodies piled up, see the crematorium and dig graves for the dead.  According to military historians, most locals claimed to have no knowledge of what happened in the camp which I'm sure was complete bullshit given the fact that the camp was right next to the town, was there for 13 years and there were 1500 German soldiers stationed there...

Crematorium.

'Killing Zone' Prisoners stepping onto the grass would be shot. It was common for prisoners to commit suicide this way or by jumping into the electrified fence

After the sobering experience, we hopped in the rental car and headed for the airport and the end of a very successful and enjoyable trip.  To cap it all off, we were able to enjoy one last German Hofbrauhaus beer while waiting for our flight. Thanks for reading.

It was a good trip

Day 7 Picasa web album

Germany Day 6 - Ulm / Fussen

Day 6 - Dec 10

Outskirts of Fussen with the alps shaded by cloud.

Lake Hopfensee and the Alps

Our last planned overnight stay was in Fussen, home of one of the most famous castles in the world, Schloss Neuschwanstein.  Fussen is a small town nestled next to the Alps and just 3 miles from the Austrian border.  During the Middle Ages, the area was home to 3 castles within a few mile radius: Schwanstein, Vorderhohenschwangau and Hinterhohenschwangau Castles.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fussen


In the early 1830s, King Ludwig II's father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria,  purchased the ruins of Schwanstein castle and had the castle Hohenschwangau (otherwise known as the yellow castle) built there.  Several years later, in 1890, his son, King Ludwig II assumed power and dedicated much of his life to the construction of Medieval castles.  He had become very interested in the Middle Ages and dedicated the rest of his life to romanticizing the Middle Ages through the building of fine Medieval castles. I'll leave the wikipedia page for you to read more about the castle's history, but in a single word the castle was impressive. I recommend looking at the pictures of the castle interior as we were unable to use camera's inside.  The detail was amazing and had Ludwig lived to see it's completion I imagine it would have been so much nicer. Check it out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Neuschwanstein

Hohenschwangau (Yellow castle) less than a mile from Neuschwanstein

Both Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau are located less than a mile from each other, as Ludwig II had grown up in Hohenschwangau and personally chosen the sight of Neuschwanstein.  The tours of each castle were seperate and we decided only to buy the tour of Neuschwanstein.  I'm glad we did as we were pretty tired after all the walking.


I had read this was the most visited tourist destination in all of Germany and I'm not surprised after seeing so many people on a chilly December day.  It seemed like most of the people came via tour bus and the only way inside the castle was to buy a tour ticket. We arrived around 10:30 and weren't able to get a tour until 1:05 it was that busy. The tours had a lot of people too... I'd say at least 100 people.

Neuschwanstein from the viewing bridge. A rare clear shot on this foggy day.
Austria is 1km away on the right.

This castle was a the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella Castle.

We had a great time.

I'm not pissed... Oh wait, there were Chinese tourists, so I was annoyed.
Learn some freaking manners.

The bridge were we had the nice view. Also, the hill on the left is where the castle got it's running water supply, quite and advancement of it's time.

The castle from the front entrance.  I'm not sure why they used red and yellow brick in the front.

The castle interior was really impressive. Unfortunately our tour guide wasn't very good and the tour was so large it was hard to hear what was being said.  Also, because there were so many people, it seemed like we were being herded like cattle and didn't get much chance to really appreciate what we were seeing. Oh well, it was still worth seeing.

The most impressive room was the king's bedroom. The entire room (walls, ceiling, bed, etc) consisted of intricate wood carvings. Bob, I'm sure you would love it and should definitely check this out on your way to Nuremberg.

After seeing the castle, we made our way to the hotel and walked around the town and Christmas market.  The market was tiny and we only spent a few minutes there.  The town was also not that impressive, though the real draw was the castle anyways. So ended our last full day in Germany.

Picasa web album of Day 6