Munich

Willkommen in Deutschland! Welcome to Germany. Our first destination in the country was Munich. But before we could settle in for the night at one of Munich's legendary beer halls, we were about to experience a place we would never forget.

Dachau concentration camp was a place I find difficult to describe, possibly because it had such an overwhelming effect on me. When we walked through the gates, the words 'arbeit macht frei' stood above my head. The words stand for 'work makes you free'. It seemed as though it was a false promise to the prisoners, that those who worked hard would eventually be released.

The gates at Dachau concentration camp

Dachau was the first concentration camp opened in Germany in 1933. The camp was originally designed for holding German and Austrian political prisoners and Jews, but in 1935 it began to be used also for ordinary criminals. Prisoners were divided into categories and wore coloured badges in which they were classified. Prisoners; those who were there for political reasons wore a red tag, and the criminals, who wore a green tag.

As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, the Germans began to move prisoners from concentration camps. Transports from the evacuated camps arrived continuously at Dachau. After days of travel with little or no food or water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often near death. Typhus epidemics became a serious problem as a result of overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient provisions, and the weakened state of the prisoners. At the time of liberation the death rate had peaked at 200 per day at Dachau.

206,206 prisoners and deaths of 31,951 were recorded at Dachau over the camp's 12 year operation, one-third which were Jews. Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the deceased, which hid the evidence of many deaths. The camp was equipped with gas chambers which were never actually used.

Dachau memorial: each colour triangle represents a different type of 'enemy of the state' 

During the tour, we watched a short movie which outlined the history of Dachau. It was heart-breaking to see footage which portrayed the horrific conditions at Dachau during the Nazi reign. I could not help but cry when I saw images of thousands of naked bodies, laying still and stacked in piles, those prisoners that did not survive Dachau. There was a moment at the end of the movie that lifted my spirits: images showing prisoners smiling and waving to thank the US Army troops who had finally set them free.

Dachau was liberated in 1945 and it now serves as a memorial. It is hard to believe that this was all caused by one man's hatred for Jews. Hitler's animosity towards Jewish people was reportedly fuelled by two incidents: It was a Jewish doctor who could not save his mother from cancer and a Jewish professor had rejected his application from an art academy in Vienna. At Dachau there is a memorial with the words 'never again' in different languages. German school students visit concentration camps twice a year, as a means to educate the student, to ensure that something like this never happens again.

After an emotional day at Dachau, a city tour of Munich and dinner at drinks at it's most famous beer hall was just what we needed. Hofbrähaus is one of Munich's oldest beer halls and hosts the biggest the biggest tent during Octoberfest. The tent holds close 10,000 patrons at any time. Over the 13 day festival, Hofbrähaus serves over 550,000 litres of beer. Although it wasn't October when we traveled to Munich, it was close to impossible to find a table in the hall. We had heard fellow travelers rave about the word at Hofbrähaus and the pork belly definitely didn't disappoint.

 With my fellow travellers at Hofbrähaus beer hall.

For just under 10 euro, we enjoyed beer by the stein (1L). I'm not a huge beer drinker so opted for steins of Shandy instead. The best thing about German beer is the purity laws which prevents brewers from using additives. No additives means no hangover! Whilst we were enjoying our steins I had a very persistent German from Berlin who kept requesting me to dance with him. Eventually I gave in and we danced to traditional songs played by a German band. After a few songs I managed to pull myself away. That was probably my most awkward experience in Europe.

1L steins at Hofbrähaus beer hall

After our brief stop in Munich, it was time to get back on the bus, this time headed for Prague. Strangely, I wasn't sick of the bus yet. Every time we arrived at a new destination, we were always on the move. It was nice to sit back and relax on the bus, catch up on sleep after big nights on tour. One of the highlights of the bus was the Autobahn. It is crazy to see cars legally race past you at 200km/hour.