After Friday night’s , Dan and I went light on breakfast Saturday morning. Besides, speaking for myself, I don’t think I could handle another sausage this soon.
Our first stop was the Dachau concentration camp.
"Work makes you free.:
I think we came out of it with mixed feelings. On one hand, it was a moving experience to walk on the actual site where so much evil was perpetrated. But on the other hand, the actual camp/memorial is fairly sterile. Much is simply a large open area of graveled ground. The museum is sparse.
The former administrative building, now a museum
The ovens inside the crematorium
The execution and crematorium area is landscaped and well groomed.
The crematorium
It is actually like a park. Maybe that is the idea. However, the sensory impact of Dachau contrasts sharply with some of the military museums, especially those with audio-video experiences, we visited last week.
By 11 am, we were on the road again, heading to the Bavarian Alps.
The trip was very scenic.
Along the road to Berchtesgaden
Most of our trip was through a country of rolling hills and small villages. We drove through Berchtesgaden and then up the mountain to Oversalzburg, which is actually the village where all the Nazi bigwigs had homes. Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest was not accessible.
Eagle's Nest is that little knob on the left of the photo.
Apparently the special shuttle buses don’t run for another few weeks. The restaurant was closed at the visitor’s center, but there was an interesting interpretive center, complete with Hitler’s underground bunker.
Dan (right) in the interpretive center
A tunnel in the underground bunker
The four of us at Obersalzburg (l-r) Poolman, Dan, Birdie and Ron
After a couple of hours at Obersalzburg, we stopped in Berchtesgaden. This is a pretty little resort town, but a bit on the touristy side.
Dan in Berchtesgaden
Birdie and Ron had a Berchtesgaden hot dog.
A Berchtesgaden scene. Note the Alps in the background.
It has a bunch of cafés, boutique stores and gift shops.
We headed back to Munich for our “farewell dinner” at the Hofbrau House, a famous, 400 year old beer hall. It was a fun time.
I think the band conductor has had plastic surgery to permantly put a smile on his face.
We were entertained by a Bavarian band, dancers (who looked very bored) and some guys with whips who came out and snapped them in time with music. The hall was filled with hundreds of people at long tables. The beer came by the liter. We all had wienerschnitzel warn potato salad.
Dan and Poolman. Note the liter size beers..
On Sunday morning, we were out of the hotel by 8 am. bound for Munich airport. That’s 2 am Savannah time. We didn’t land in Savannah, after three airline segments, until 9:30 pm. It was a long day. On the trans-Atlantic leg, I watched an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” and three movies.
The Tourist — Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie (Cute)
Morning Glory — Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton (Pretty stupid, but I enjoyed it because of my TV news background. dAt one point or another, I “knew” everyone of the characters in the film. They just had different names.)
Red — Bruce Willis, John Malkovitch, Richard Dreyfuss, Morgan Freeman, Mary Louise Parker (Pretty good. I love Mary Louise!)
I got a good night sleep Sunday night and was back at work by late morning on Monday.
It was a fun and interesting trip, but I’m glad to be home. Two weeks is a long time to be gone for me.
I had watched the move “The Tourist” with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp on the airplane flight back from Europe in April. We rented it again on Monday so Mrs. Poolman could watch it. (As it turned out, she fell asleep half-way through the flick. So much for that effort.)
The café looked familiar, so I paused the DVD and pulled out my laptop to check the pictures I took on the trip. Sure enough, Angelina was having breakfast at the Café Le Nemours, which is right near The Louvre. Ron, Birdie and I had lunch there the very first day we flew into Paris.
Another Beautiful Day in Paradise! 