First full day in Munich

This was the boiled egg i had at breakfast, coloured like the German flag
We went on a tour to Camp Dachau today. It was a tour we booked through Busabout and the guide was called Gordon, he is the last single man tour company left that tours Dachau.
This was the first Nazi concentration camp to be opened in Germany. Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. The guards at Auschwitz had to first serve at Dachau to prove they were heartless enough so that gives you a bit of an idea of what life must have been like for the prisoners.
We first saw a documentary which showed you horrific images of skeletal prisoners. We then walked through the area where role call was held. it was a large dusty square where the prisoners had to line up in straight lines with their feet together, hands by their sides and heads down. sometimes the guards would make the prisoners line up like this for hours on end, torturing anyone who dared to move even the slightest inch.
a lot of the original camps buildings were removed after the liberation to try to lessen the spread of disease. The barracks where the prisoners lived have all been taken away and they have re build just one to show you what life was like, the barracks is separated into three sections, the first section is a room with about 50 bunk beds which is how the camp began (this was considered good living conditions) the second room had about 100 bunks which was how the prisoners lived a few years after the camp opened. the third room had about 200 bunk beds and tourists were not allowed in this room, you could look from the doorway. there was pretty much no room to walk around the beds. the guards did not let the prisoners out of their rooms so the floor became the toilet and people were constantly getting sick.
We were shown a section of grass next to a barbed wire fence, the fence is electric making it impossible for prisoners to escape alive. Many prisoners committed suicide by running into the fence, others were murdered by the guards who tricked them into crossing onto the grass (eg. by throwing their hat on the grass and telling the prisoner to go and get it) and then shooting them for been out of bounds. Other prisoners who tried to commit suicide by running into the fence were shot by the guards but only shot in the leg or arm and then tortured for trying to leave the camp.
We saw the gas chambers (which the guards swear were never used but surviving prisoners tell a different story) and also the ovens (originally there were only 2 ovens but due to having too many dead prisoners to burn they built an extra 4) where the dead prisoners were burned. Many tourists were walking around videoing or snapping lots of photos of the gas chambers and ovens. me and Ewen didn't like the idea of having photos like this so we took only two photos while we were at the camp. both are of memorials.This is a memorial depicting the struggle of the prisoners.

This was the only memorial at the camp not designated for a specific group of people, it is called the 'Unknown prisoner' and the writing translates to 'To honour the dead and to warn the living'

It was an interesting but very sad morning.
we got back into Munich at about 3pm and after a quick change into shorts we set off to explore a bit more of the town. We went to the main shopping area called Marienplatz.

This is the entrance to the main shopping strip
a fountain in Munich
Another fountain, I think Munich may have more fountains than anything else

This is the New Town Hall in Munich, it is made to look older than the old town hall which is pretty strange. In the center is the Glockenspiel clock. three times a day statues on the clock have a duel, we missed it this day though.

Another shot of the "New" Town Hall

After a bit of walking around we stopped at Hofbrauhaus.
This is a beer hall with a bit of an interesting history. first of all they only serve beers that they brew themselves. Secondly this was one of the places the Nazi Party used to hang out to plan all of their evil deeds.

Planning our next move

This was more what i had pictured a beer hall to look like, it had high ceilings and long wooden tables and waitresses wearing the traditional Bavarian outfit (called a Dirndl). I don't have a photo so you'll have to Google it if you don't know what i mean.
Sitting behind us was a man wearing lederhosen and drinking from a traditional ceramic stein with lid. We learnt later that these steins cannot be purchased from Hofbrauhaus. they have a locked glass case where they keep them and they are passed down from generation to generation.

The photo above this one is a shop we found that sold nothing but Maggi 2 minute noodles (and other Maggi products but mainly the noodles). The bottom photo is a chair we saw in a window display. I calculated that if we flew home the following day I could afford the chair and the cost to ship it home.... It was about 10,000 euros!!!