Drive to Munich, tour the concen- tration camp of Dachau, wander down Kaufinger- strasse, watch the Glock- enspiel go off, spend one night, and fly to London in the morning! That's lots of local color in a very short time!It's only a couple of hours from Oberammergau on the German- Austrian border up to Munich, and the scenery is great. We arrived in time to spend a few hours on a side trip to Dachau.
Dachau was the training for all the other concen-tration camps, and there were hundreds of them. Soldiers were sent here to learn how it was run, and then to all the other "work" camps through- out the Reich. The inmates were worked hard, tortured, experimented upon medically, or shot. Most starved. 30,000 Jews, priests, and political prisoners died here. The sign over the gate still reads "Arbeit macht frei," or "Work will make you free." The ovens in the picture burned the bodies, around the clock, but could not keep up with the job. Local towns- people claimed not to know what was happening here, but at the end of the war, the American commander made all the townspeople tour the camp.
Reminders of WWII are every- where. The main street is now a busy pedestrian area. The "New Town Hall" in the picture survived the bombings, and became the American military headquarters.
There's a much- loved vegetable market/ open air beer garden right in the center of town. It occupies prime commercial real estate, but the rents are subsidized just to keep it going. The cheese shop in the picture is a great example. I have never been there but every table was crowded and waitresses in traditional costume were busily scurrying about carrying plates of sausages and fries and large steins of beer.
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