Freuliche Gedankskeit
I think that's roughly German for "Happy Thanksgiving." Which is appropriate, as I spent this past Thanksgiving weekend in southern Bavaria (where I've been wanting to go since high school German class). "Laura" wasn't going to be able to join me until Friday evening, so I figured I'd spend some time exploring the countryside and butchering my German, before meeting her in Munich.
I flew up Wednesday afternoon (wasting your taxpayer dollars by skipping out of about four hours of work), landed in Munich, rented a car and drove to Random Southern Bavarian Lakeside Town in the Middle of Nowhere. Also known as Bad Weissee, on the Tegernsee (or "Lake Tegern"), about 45 minutes south of Munich. It actually reminded me a lot of Lake George, NY, in that there was a lot to do in summer, a lot to do in winter during ski season, but in November was completely dead. That was fine; I just wanted an evening to relax and not be at work, so I could have a full day of exploring on Thursday.
My "full day" on Thursday started by getting up at around 8:30 and having a great hotel breakfast. Then I want jogging. Turns out when you go jogging in the foothills of the Alps, there are a lot of, well, hills. Which is good, because I don't run enough of them, but it hurt the next day. Anyway, I came back, showered, changed, and then it was off to Garmisch--a lovely little town near the Austrian border. There's actually a U.S. Armed Forces resort there (I didn't actually stay there, or even visit it, but it's a good option for later). Garmisch is a great little town; a nice central pedestrian district, and lots of good restaraunts and beer. Since that day was Thanksgiving, I wanted to celebrate by going to the top of an Alp (singular for "Alps"), so I went to the train station where you can take the train/cable car combo to the top of the highest peak in Germany. Unfortunately, I made it there at like 3:00, and the last train for the top left at 2:45 (it gets dark early, and it's like a three-hour round-trip). So I wandered around the pedestrian area a bit, bought a very classy Bavarian Drinking Hat (I don't think that's what they call it, but all the Bavarian guys do wear awesome hats--even the guy cleaning the trash on the side of the road in the reflective orange vest had on a green felt hat with a feather sticking out), went back and took a nap, and then went out for a fine Thanksgiving dinner of roast duck. (The astute observer will recall that last Thanksgiving I also had roast duck, although it was at the Moulin Rouge in Paris).
Friday, I drove up to the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, about 30 minutes northwest of Munich. That was some pretty heavy stuff. I figured I could breeze through in about an hour and a half, but getting there you really get drawn in to the museum, all the exhibits, and the setting itself. It's so gloomy, and on a cold, overcast dismal day like it was it made the perfect setting for a concentration camp visit. Dachau was the first major concentration camp the Nazis established, and it was the one that all the others were modeled on in terms of how the prisoners were kept in order, housed, treated, etc. While it wasn't an explicit extermination camp like Auschwitz became later in the war, there were certainly a disgusting number (and type) of atrocities carried out there, and the exhibits do a great job of bringing that to the forefront. The memorials erected there are incredibly moving, and nothing I say here would be able to do justice to the emotions that they evoke in even a casual visitor with no connection to the place. I couldn't imagine visiting it as a relative of a survivor or a victim of the camp--it would be too overwhelming.
On a lighter note, Friday evening I returned the rental car to the airport and picked up "Laura," and we checked in to our hotel in downtown Munich. I highly recommend Le Meridien, by the way. We spent the next couple of days doing a lot of quality sightseeing--we had a beer underneath the Chinese Tower in the English Garden (a goal of mine ever since discovering the "Chinesische Turm" and the "Englischer Garten"--sort of Munich's Central Park--in my first-year German textbook), visited the Hofbrau Haus (where beer only comes in one size--BIG), went to church in the cathedral there, climbed a giant bell tower, and listened to lots of accordion players. One thing I was unhappy about was the Christmas market. Munich supposedly has the biggest and best Christmas market in Europe, and everyone I talked to who should have known thought that it would be open for business that weekend, including a friend of a friend who is from that area. Unfortunately, while all the booths were set up, it wasn't open. Sunday we saw all the owners of the booths come into the square and put the finishing touches of decorations on, finish stocking them with whatever they were selling, and generally make them ready for opening. Which convinced us that the market probably opened the day after we left. Bastards.
All and all, though, a fantastic way to spend a long weekend. I think I'm going to try to get back to Garmisch for a long weekend, and Germany (at least that part of it), is now high on my list of vacation places.
I flew up Wednesday afternoon (wasting your taxpayer dollars by skipping out of about four hours of work), landed in Munich, rented a car and drove to Random Southern Bavarian Lakeside Town in the Middle of Nowhere. Also known as Bad Weissee, on the Tegernsee (or "Lake Tegern"), about 45 minutes south of Munich. It actually reminded me a lot of Lake George, NY, in that there was a lot to do in summer, a lot to do in winter during ski season, but in November was completely dead. That was fine; I just wanted an evening to relax and not be at work, so I could have a full day of exploring on Thursday.
My "full day" on Thursday started by getting up at around 8:30 and having a great hotel breakfast. Then I want jogging. Turns out when you go jogging in the foothills of the Alps, there are a lot of, well, hills. Which is good, because I don't run enough of them, but it hurt the next day. Anyway, I came back, showered, changed, and then it was off to Garmisch--a lovely little town near the Austrian border. There's actually a U.S. Armed Forces resort there (I didn't actually stay there, or even visit it, but it's a good option for later). Garmisch is a great little town; a nice central pedestrian district, and lots of good restaraunts and beer. Since that day was Thanksgiving, I wanted to celebrate by going to the top of an Alp (singular for "Alps"), so I went to the train station where you can take the train/cable car combo to the top of the highest peak in Germany. Unfortunately, I made it there at like 3:00, and the last train for the top left at 2:45 (it gets dark early, and it's like a three-hour round-trip). So I wandered around the pedestrian area a bit, bought a very classy Bavarian Drinking Hat (I don't think that's what they call it, but all the Bavarian guys do wear awesome hats--even the guy cleaning the trash on the side of the road in the reflective orange vest had on a green felt hat with a feather sticking out), went back and took a nap, and then went out for a fine Thanksgiving dinner of roast duck. (The astute observer will recall that last Thanksgiving I also had roast duck, although it was at the Moulin Rouge in Paris).
Friday, I drove up to the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, about 30 minutes northwest of Munich. That was some pretty heavy stuff. I figured I could breeze through in about an hour and a half, but getting there you really get drawn in to the museum, all the exhibits, and the setting itself. It's so gloomy, and on a cold, overcast dismal day like it was it made the perfect setting for a concentration camp visit. Dachau was the first major concentration camp the Nazis established, and it was the one that all the others were modeled on in terms of how the prisoners were kept in order, housed, treated, etc. While it wasn't an explicit extermination camp like Auschwitz became later in the war, there were certainly a disgusting number (and type) of atrocities carried out there, and the exhibits do a great job of bringing that to the forefront. The memorials erected there are incredibly moving, and nothing I say here would be able to do justice to the emotions that they evoke in even a casual visitor with no connection to the place. I couldn't imagine visiting it as a relative of a survivor or a victim of the camp--it would be too overwhelming.
On a lighter note, Friday evening I returned the rental car to the airport and picked up "Laura," and we checked in to our hotel in downtown Munich. I highly recommend Le Meridien, by the way. We spent the next couple of days doing a lot of quality sightseeing--we had a beer underneath the Chinese Tower in the English Garden (a goal of mine ever since discovering the "Chinesische Turm" and the "Englischer Garten"--sort of Munich's Central Park--in my first-year German textbook), visited the Hofbrau Haus (where beer only comes in one size--BIG), went to church in the cathedral there, climbed a giant bell tower, and listened to lots of accordion players. One thing I was unhappy about was the Christmas market. Munich supposedly has the biggest and best Christmas market in Europe, and everyone I talked to who should have known thought that it would be open for business that weekend, including a friend of a friend who is from that area. Unfortunately, while all the booths were set up, it wasn't open. Sunday we saw all the owners of the booths come into the square and put the finishing touches of decorations on, finish stocking them with whatever they were selling, and generally make them ready for opening. Which convinced us that the market probably opened the day after we left. Bastards.
All and all, though, a fantastic way to spend a long weekend. I think I'm going to try to get back to Garmisch for a long weekend, and Germany (at least that part of it), is now high on my list of vacation places.
posted by Chris at 10:16 PM
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