Day 4 brought us our first bit of rain in Germany, but thankfully we were on a bus tour in the morning and it had cleared up by the afternoon! Our bus tour was led by a local guide named Monica who hopped on our bus and enthusiastically shared a lot about the history of the city of Munich. Some of the highlights include the university where the Scholl siblings distributed pamphlets against the Nazi party and the residence of the Wittelsbach family in Munich (the royal family of Bavaria). In the afternoon we went to Dachau, the first concentration camp built after the Nazis came to power in 1933. It was a very solemn but eye opening experience. To sum it up in one sentence a quote from a memorial statue near the cremation area, "Den Toten zur Ehr, den Lebenden zur Mahnung" ("To honor the dead, to warn the living"). In the evening we returned to Munich and ate dinner in the famous Hofbräuhaus!
Day 5 was our first experience with public transportation in Germany and it went smoothly! We took a 2 hour train ride from Munich to Salzburg, Austria and then a 45 minute bus ride to the location of the salt mines. Salzburg was around during the time of the Romans and was important enough by the year 1077 that a fortress was built there to protect the city(see group picture with fortress in the background). The salt found in the mines around Salzburg made it rich and imporatant as well. We were able to take a tour of a salt mine not far from Salzburg and it was enjoyed by all! The tour included a train ride into the mine, two trips down wooden slides, a boat ride across a mirror lake in the mine, and an incredible model of all the mine shafts in the mine that lit up along with a video explanation. Also enjoyable were the pictures they took of us on the train ride and the clothes we had to wear! (See attached). After that we went back to Salzburg for a walking tour including Mozart's birth house and several Sound of Music filming locations as well as shopping time. We returned to Munich by train for dinner and our last night in the hotel here.
This morning we are headed to Switzerland with a few stops on the way!
Liebe Grüße aus München,
Frau Meier