Münich
7 May 2007
Today was extraordinary.
Overwhelmed with the pressures of traveling, the lack of coordination, the unprepared anxiety about the next two weeks, I lay in bed last night and asked God to bring me through to the end safely. It was one of those prayers you find yourself making out of desperation. Instead of consistently turning to our Father, we wait and use Him as our last lifeline. It was a prayer half mumbled before I fell asleep. But our Father is gracious and loves His children.
Today I found myself in Munich. I took the train from Landshut about an hour to the rail station in Munich and quickly made my way to the Rathaus, the old town hall. My original plan was to head out to Dachau in the morning, but many museums and memorial sites are closed on Mondays in Germany, Dachau being one of them. It is always a good idea to prepare these things in advance otherwise I would have found myself paying for a bus ticket to a memorial site which wasn’t open.
Instead, I joined a walking tour through Munich with an emphasis on Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. The tour last about two and a half hours and was led by our guide, also named Eric, who seemed to know everything about the city. I found the tour absolutely fascinating. I took Mrs. Godfrey’s WWII class in high school, but must have been sleeping the day Munich was mentioned as THE place where Hitler began his career as one of the most important and horrific political figures of the twentieth century.
The tour began in front of the Rathaus with a look a plaque which was erected in 1992 commemorating the liberation of Munich by US troops on 30 April 1945, the same day Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin. By now the Germans view the surrender of the city as liberation, but in 1945 they were singing a different tune. Germans, surprised by their loss in both world wars, found the city of Munich leveled to the ground.
Our next stop took us by the hotel where the SS was formed and to the hall in the Hofbräuhaus where Hitler made his first public, political speech. Now known for its giant servings of beer, the Hofbräuhaus is a must for any tourist visiting Munich, as you will see from the pictures below.
We saw a lot of the city in two hours and the tour ended near the Nazi headquarters where there once stood several temples to the Nazi party. The history of WWI, pre-WWII, and WWII is absolutely amazing. This tour was definitely one of the better parts of my trip thus far, but there was a lot of information that anyone whose interest is not peaked by history would find rather boring.
After the tour ended, I grabbed a quick burger at the McDonalds, seeing my first Royale with Cheese, not a Quarter-Pounder. Do you know why? That’s right, cause of the metric system. “Look at the big brains on Brad!”
We visited some of the larger cathedrals in the Munich area and then made our way to the train station to find out about my future travel arrangements. I have been in a panic as of late because I really have no idea how to travel and what is the best way not to get ripped off by Europeans trying to make a quick buck or two off of us Americans (which, don’t kid yourself, many are trying to do). After a frustrating conversation with a German rail employee, I found a small office in the rail station which seemed to advertise completely in English.
The man in this office, an American, was the best employee I think I have ever witnessed. He knew, from memory, practically every train timetable, all the costs, where all the cities in Europe were, and he helped me book tickets to all the cities I had intended on visiting. What an answer to prayer. In a matter of minutes, a huge burden was removed from my chest and I was able to breathe the air of vacation again. I celebrated with some beer in the Hafbräuhaus and then caught my train back to Landshut.
If you are interested in checking back on my travels, this is what you can expect to see:
Dachau Concentration Camp
Prague and whatever else the Czechs have to offer me
Erfurt (the city where Luther lived and studied as an Augustinian monk)
Eisenach (the city near Wartburg Castle where Luther translated the Scriptures)
Possibly Weimar (Buchenwald Concentration Camp)
Possibly Marburg (where Luther and Zwingli debated the Lord’s Supper [Calvin had it right])
Eisleben (Luther’s birthplace and deathplace)
Wittenberg (this is really starting to turn into quite the Luther expedition)
Berlin (I’m sure I can find something to do in Germany’s capital city)
Gdansk (Ummm…I was merely using this as a place to fly back to London, but we’ll see what’s there)
on this site the SS was begun
Monument to the victims of National Socialism
Hitler#s office in the Nazi headquarters
Nazi headquarters where the Münich Agreement was signed
Nazi temple
cathedral in Münich
"a Royal with cheese!"
cathedral in Münich
BEER!
Today was extraordinary.
Overwhelmed with the pressures of traveling, the lack of coordination, the unprepared anxiety about the next two weeks, I lay in bed last night and asked God to bring me through to the end safely. It was one of those prayers you find yourself making out of desperation. Instead of consistently turning to our Father, we wait and use Him as our last lifeline. It was a prayer half mumbled before I fell asleep. But our Father is gracious and loves His children.
Today I found myself in Munich. I took the train from Landshut about an hour to the rail station in Munich and quickly made my way to the Rathaus, the old town hall. My original plan was to head out to Dachau in the morning, but many museums and memorial sites are closed on Mondays in Germany, Dachau being one of them. It is always a good idea to prepare these things in advance otherwise I would have found myself paying for a bus ticket to a memorial site which wasn’t open.
Instead, I joined a walking tour through Munich with an emphasis on Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. The tour last about two and a half hours and was led by our guide, also named Eric, who seemed to know everything about the city. I found the tour absolutely fascinating. I took Mrs. Godfrey’s WWII class in high school, but must have been sleeping the day Munich was mentioned as THE place where Hitler began his career as one of the most important and horrific political figures of the twentieth century.
The tour began in front of the Rathaus with a look a plaque which was erected in 1992 commemorating the liberation of Munich by US troops on 30 April 1945, the same day Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin. By now the Germans view the surrender of the city as liberation, but in 1945 they were singing a different tune. Germans, surprised by their loss in both world wars, found the city of Munich leveled to the ground.
Our next stop took us by the hotel where the SS was formed and to the hall in the Hofbräuhaus where Hitler made his first public, political speech. Now known for its giant servings of beer, the Hofbräuhaus is a must for any tourist visiting Munich, as you will see from the pictures below.
We saw a lot of the city in two hours and the tour ended near the Nazi headquarters where there once stood several temples to the Nazi party. The history of WWI, pre-WWII, and WWII is absolutely amazing. This tour was definitely one of the better parts of my trip thus far, but there was a lot of information that anyone whose interest is not peaked by history would find rather boring.
After the tour ended, I grabbed a quick burger at the McDonalds, seeing my first Royale with Cheese, not a Quarter-Pounder. Do you know why? That’s right, cause of the metric system. “Look at the big brains on Brad!”
We visited some of the larger cathedrals in the Munich area and then made our way to the train station to find out about my future travel arrangements. I have been in a panic as of late because I really have no idea how to travel and what is the best way not to get ripped off by Europeans trying to make a quick buck or two off of us Americans (which, don’t kid yourself, many are trying to do). After a frustrating conversation with a German rail employee, I found a small office in the rail station which seemed to advertise completely in English.
The man in this office, an American, was the best employee I think I have ever witnessed. He knew, from memory, practically every train timetable, all the costs, where all the cities in Europe were, and he helped me book tickets to all the cities I had intended on visiting. What an answer to prayer. In a matter of minutes, a huge burden was removed from my chest and I was able to breathe the air of vacation again. I celebrated with some beer in the Hafbräuhaus and then caught my train back to Landshut.
If you are interested in checking back on my travels, this is what you can expect to see:
Dachau Concentration Camp
Prague and whatever else the Czechs have to offer me
Erfurt (the city where Luther lived and studied as an Augustinian monk)
Eisenach (the city near Wartburg Castle where Luther translated the Scriptures)
Possibly Weimar (Buchenwald Concentration Camp)
Possibly Marburg (where Luther and Zwingli debated the Lord’s Supper [Calvin had it right])
Eisleben (Luther’s birthplace and deathplace)
Wittenberg (this is really starting to turn into quite the Luther expedition)
Berlin (I’m sure I can find something to do in Germany’s capital city)
Gdansk (Ummm…I was merely using this as a place to fly back to London, but we’ll see what’s there)
on this site the SS was begun
Monument to the victims of National Socialism
Hitler#s office in the Nazi headquarters
Nazi headquarters where the Münich Agreement was signed
Nazi temple
cathedral in Münich
"a Royal with cheese!"
cathedral in Münich
BEER!
2 Comments:
Wow, two of the biggest beers I've ever seen! Did you drink both of them? Those are'nt your cigarettes are they? Thanks Eric, the castles & cathedrals are really neat.
Is it just me or does Eric look thinner?
Those must be your cigarettes, Eric.
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