Where We Have Been - Europe - Germany

We did not have a lot of time in Berlin but as one of the places on David’s bullet list to visit it was a necessary stop on our travels.

The most recognised landmark in Berlin is almost certainly the Brandenberg Gate a more than 225 year old monument. Nearby is the Reichstag building which is the seat of the German Federal parliament.

Elsewhere in central Berlin another recognised monument is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which was damaged, or should that be created, during an Allied bombing raid in 1943. As the name suggests it serves as a reminder of World War II.

As you wander the streets of Berlin you often find yourself crossing a double line of cobbles with the occasional brass plaque. This marks the path The Berlin Wall followed when it divided the city into the American and Soviet Sectors. Also scattered throughout the cities in 32 different locations are sections of the wall so you can see what it was like, albeit without the machine guns, barbed wire, dogs and soldiers, this is The Berlin History Mile and each site tells a little bit of the story of the wall.

Another symbol of Berlin, and a significant location in many spy thrillers, both in print and film, is Check Point Charlie and while in some ways the representation is a little “commercial” it is worth a visit as is the Check Point Charlie Museum where you have to admire the ingenuity shown by those trying to get out of the Soviet Sector.

A visit to the Jewish Museum provides an interesting insight into the persecution the Jewish people have endured over millennia. A visit to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is also worth making.

We enjoyed out time in Munich, where we had a beer or three (hey it is considered by many to be the Beer Capital of the World, Oktoberfest anyone!).

After having found, and been entertained by, the Glockenspiel with its life sized figures on the New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus), an impressive building,  located on Marienplatz we found our way into the courtyard where we found a pleasant spot to kick back outside and take a quick break while enjoying a meal sitting, and a beer, Ratskeller. It was here that Carolyn got introduced to Radler a refreshing beer lemon drink mix, much like a Shandy, but with a more robust citrus flavour, that originated nearby.

Given that Munich is famous for its beer halls, where Oktoberfest is held annually, a visit to a beer hall was mandatory. The ability of the waitresses to navigate the wooden tables and benches while carrying multiple, think a dozen or more, large steins of beer was incredible. Hofbräuhaus the largest beer hall in Munich can reportedly accommodate around 5,000 drinkers.

We had met an older American, Bill, who was travelling alone and invited him to come along with us as we went to experience a Munich Beer Hall for ourselves. In turned into an interesting evening as we chatted and enjoyed each others company. We learnt that he was involved in the design of the Pringles container of all things. We exchanged Christmas cards for a number of years after.

While in Munich we took a guided tour to Dachua which is only around half an hour on the train away. We were lucky in that there was only four of us on the tour and the other two were non-English speaking so we were able to almost monopolise the conversation with our guide. A visit to one of the concentration camps was another item on David’s bucket list and Dachua while not the biggest was one of the first and the longest running one. 

You enter Dachua via gates with the lie Arbeit macht frei (“work makes one free”) woven in the metal from which they are constructed. Very few of those that were forced to enter those gates, or via the train carriages, ever came out, let alone free.

It was very hard to actually grasp the scope of what had happened there and we found ourselves observing and learning in, for want of a better way to describe it, something of a stupor. While David was carrying a camera for some reason he never felt inclined to lift it to his eye.

The visit included stops at the showers (gas chambers), ovens (crematoria where the bodies were burnt), in the gardens, with the mounds created from the ashes and the “tomb of the thousands unknown”, the alley way and Death Wall where many of the other prisoners, more on that shortly, were shot, the prisoner barracks and the Memorial and Museum.

What many of us today don’t realise when we think of the concentration camps is that it wasn’t just the Jews that were incarcerated, experimented on, died from disease etc. and killed but also “political prisoners” including communists, social democrats, spies, resistance fighters, priests, Romani (Gypsy), homosexuals etc. and even prisoners of war. By no means wishing to diminish the loss of Jewish live the Official Report of the US Seventh Army claims that 16,717 non-Jews were executed at Dachau between October 1940 and March 1945.

Dachua opened on March 22, 1933 and was liberated by American forces on April 29, 1945.

The International Monument at Dachua is a very moving, and appropriate tribute to the victims, and survivors of the evil that flourished at Dachua. The central bronze sculpture shows human figures entangled in barbed wire framed by stylised concrete pillars, symbolizing guard installations.

From Munich we also took a trip out to visit the magical  Neuschwanstein Castle, which was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria (Mad King Ludwig), which is believed to have been the castle that inspired Walt Disney’s Fantasy Land’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and also Mad King Ludwig’s childhood home, Hohenschwangau Castle.

As we were passing by on the overnight train we decided a stop in Wolfsburg, headquarters of  Volkswagen Group and therefore of not just Volkswagen but also Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche and more, would be worthwhile. Alighting the train in the dawn hours onto a platform we strolled across  and sat outside the entry to Autostadt (Automobile City) to wait for them to open so we could do a tour. The workers, who arrived well after us, took sympathy on the “lost tourists” camped outside and invited us in to the Customer Centre where we enjoyed a hot drink while waiting for the first tour.

The tour, where we saw the VW Touran being “manufactured” and assembled, was well worth the time.

It was interesting witness a client picking up her new VW Golf in the Customer Centre. She was greeted by a concierge, led through electric gates, down a large staircase and onto a red carpet area where her car was parked. She was then presented with flowers and her keys after which she drove out of the building.

The complex is so large that it has a hotel on site where people can stay when they come to pick up their car. The car towers, which contain 800 or so cars over multiple stories, are robotic controlled with the robots delivering around 500 cars a day across to the customer delivery area of the Customer Centre. Impressive!

After the tour we took the opportunity to visit the museum and stroll through the grounds to visit the various pavilions, one per marque. 

If you are a car buff Wolfsburg is definitely worth a visit.