For those of you, who’ve read my earlier review on Germany, there’d be some repetitions(with respect to Munich). I didn’t wanna skip anything about Munich when I was writing under the Munich section, so please bear with me there.
Ok , so here I go:
Munich’s the best city in Germany in my opinion( hope I get to work there some time in the near future).It’s located in the beautiful Bavarian region and is a city of cultural importance. I think it’s something like Germany’s Mumbai cum Bangalore rolled into 1.
there are loads of things to see and experience in Munich. the traditional Bavarians are very colorful people and Munich is reputed to have the best beer in the world. Any small festival and you see people celebrating the occasion with BIG beer mugs.the people are also said to be the jolliest in the whole of Germany.Munich certainly is a city with loads of attitude.
Coming to the tourist attractions,
the places to visit(in that order of importance) would be:
deutsches museum- the best technical museum in Germany and one of the best in the world. you’d need atleast 3 days to see all the sections, but mayb it’s best to give it 1 day and just visit the sections that you are particularly interested in.
asam Kirche(church)- A small roccoco style church .the work on the ceiling, walls and almost in every part of the church is awesome.
peters kirche(church)- A cathedral, that’s big and very beautiful from the interior. the exterior is a bit plain when compared to what you find inside.
4.marien platz(town square)- Shopping centre cum very scenic town square.
5.Frauen Kirche( Cathedral)- Munich’s landmark.The interior is a bit plain, but the cathedral is HUGE.It towers over all the buildings old and new in Munich.
- residenz theatre with the opera house- The Residenz theatre is just about ok but the opera house is vvvv beautiful.It was my first visit to an opera house and I was in awe of the place. the place is beautifully lit with chandeliers, and the red comfy old fashioned cushion chairs elevate the mood of the place.As we don’t have operas in India(or am I mistaken?), I’d strongly recommend them to every south asian tourist.
6.Nymphenburg palace-a 18th-19th century summer residence of the kings.It’s near the city outskirts. The palace grounds are beautiful and spacious.Don’t miss its gallery of beauties in the palace.
7.English gardens-Munich’s got some really nice gardens and I love the English gardens. they are just the spot for a lazing on a sunny day or a jog in the evening. Well!! not really very special ’coz they are very much like other big green, gardens, but I like them just the same.
for the art buffs, there are the Alte and Neue Pinakotheks; they’ve got loads of paintings, some really famous ones. I’m no art buff, so I didn’t really take much time off for it.
I hope that it very much covers Munich in general.BMW fans, there is a BMW museum too in the city, but from what I heard, it’s no great shakes.the BMW headquarters is a very imposing and innovatively designed building though.it’s shaped as 4 cylinders, with the BMW symbol on the ceiling.
A trip to Munich would be worth it if you have atleast 5 days just for Munich.The means of transport within the city is quite frequent and good. Naturally a trip in Summer would be the best thing, ’coz it’s bright for most part of the day, plus you can enjoy the cool summer. Winter in Germany is quite bleak, if not for the snow.that’s all I’ve gotta pen about Munich.
And now I’m getting to the place I’ll never forget-Dachau.
Dachau is 30 mins by train from the Munich central station.it’s a really small town that has the dubious distinction of having had one of the worst concentration camps before and during the second world war.
the concentration camp has been converted into a memorial by the US Army, when it defeated the German forces in WW2.The place is a living testimony of what the Jews and other POWs(esp, the Russians) suffered at the hands of the Nazis and SS guards. The grounds are pretty and the admittance to the place is free of cost. the memorial has got a 5 or 6 room museum, which believe me, will take atleast 3 hours of your time, if you want to get a real picture of all that happened between 1931(or so) till the end of WW2.
I found the museum very interesting , not only because it showcased the cruelty of the Nazis, but also provided the reasons and history behind how Hitler came to power.I wanted to look through the museum, only to understand what actually happened between the 1930s and 40s, but the visit was as emotional as it was enlightening. While the nazi cruelty had me numbed, the spirit with which the prisoners survived and stood by one another in such hard times, reflected how the human spirit could triumph over every-thing.
the concentration camp also has the prisoners’ sleeping chambers and the dreaded gas chambers(ofcourse without gas and all), with photographs at each place , that depicted the living conditions in the past days under the Nazis.the gas chambers and crematories drew shivers down my spine, though they were just pale shadows of the cruelty that once resided there. I guess it’s hard to stomach all the photographs on the walls. I didn’t dare look at some of them(Ok! maybe I was getting myself worked up, but I couldn’t help it).
The actual memorial was a very heartening sight after the visit to the museum, SCs and GCs. It has the words ’Never Again’ written in German, English and some other languages. I found it very reassuring. The best thing about the visit was that I was accompanied by many teenagers on guided tours from German schools. The guided tour would inevitably depict a very gory picture of all the horrors, but it was very nice to see that the children are brought awake to the facts, so that no-one is stupid enough to be pro-nazi.
All in all the visit to the Concentration camp or Memorial(as the Germans prefer calling it) has been a very memorable one for me. Any-one who visits Germany should go to the place, if he or she can stomach the experience(it can be quite unsettling if you are all soft-hearted).
Hey!!!! positive or negative..some 1 plssssssssssssssss comment.