31 August 2008    to     9 September 2008

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A trip to Germany had been long overdue to visit Silvia's parents for some time now, and so both of us went over and combined it with an extensive sight-seeing trip. They stay in Dachau which is not far from Munich. The weather turned out nice for the period of our stay with minimal rain.

We did not hang around long and next day after arriving a trip to Munich was on the cards using the S-Bahn as transport.

The famous Marien Platz in the city center with the "Glockenspiel" in the tower.

Every so many hours the whole mechanical display dating from the middle ages rotates to the sound of a large variety of bells.

Next was a trip up one of the towers of the "Frauenkirche" cathedral in the city center. From the top one has a nice view of Munich.

A visit to the famous "Hofbrauhaus" followed with a liter of beer.

Having been employed at Siemens for 28 years previously, we decided to visit its head office in Munich. A sad sight greeted us. Where once hundreds of employees cars had been parked we found a derelict parking lot and office building. A sign of a once proud company in steep decline.

Anyway, the evening was spent drinking beer and schnapps with Sivia's dad!

The following morning a trip to Schloss Dachau was undertaken. Schloss Dachau is a late Gothic Castle. However only a quarter of the structure is still standing as the rest was carted away to build Schloss Schleissheim.

A visit to Dachau is probably not complete without a visit to the infamous "Dachau Concentration Camp". This was the first concentration camp built by the NAZIS's in 1933.

Only two of the barracks that housed the prisoners still exist in rebuilt form. The rest only show the concrete foundations on which the remaining barracks rested. An extensive museum exists as well as a movie theatre showing extracts of the camp from that period. A visit to this notorious site certainly left one wondering who the real animals in this world are.

The inside of one of the barracks showing the bunk beds of the inmates. In many respects they reminded us of the bunk beds we so often find on our hikes, except that these are in very different surroundings!

The crematorium ovens. These are situated outside the main concentration camp complex. More photos of the Dachau Concentration Camp here.

On to vastly more pleasant surroundings now. A visit to the fairy tale castle of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1869 on the site of the ruins of the old castle of Vorder-und Hinterhohenschwangau.

A view of Neuschwanstein from the Marien bridge behind the castle with the scaffolding of renovation work visible.

The magnificent view of the fairy tale country side surrounding the castle.

In the courtyard of the castle. Unfortunately we were not permitted to take photographs of the inside of the castle. Its inside decorations are heavily influenced by Richard Wagners operas, whose most famous fan was King Ludwig II. They are absolutely stunning! Its hard to describe as its so complex, but to give one an idea of one item, namely the main chandelier in the Throne Hall, that weighs 900kg and contains 96 candles.

A visit to Bavaria is not complete without a visit to a beer garden!

On the way back from Neuschwanstein, we stopped over at the "Wieskirche". This cathedral is a world heritage site today as it contains some of the best examples of "Rococo" type architecture.

Its magnificent interior.

Another of King Ludwig II's palaces, namely Linderhof.

Finally we got some real exercise with a trip to the Austrian alps and a hike of almost 1000 meters up the mountains.

Our first break about halfway up with some of the stunning views from here.

Nearly there.....

Made it! Here we could relax awhile and enjoy the views.

Munich contains probably one of the best museums in Germany, namely the "Deutsche Museum". Its actually a whole complex and some of the exhibitions have been relocated further away due to space constraints. One can probably spend a week in the place, but we only had a few hours so we only got a taste of the whole museum. Its well worth a visit!

Some interesting architecture is found close to the "Olympic Park". The "BMW Welt" building is a show room from the BMW auto manufacturer. It's design is extremely futuristic.

The 1972 Olympic stadium and surrounding complex.

Dinner at Wolfgang and Christine's apartment.

We still managed to squeeze in a visit to Schloss Schleissheim which dates back to about 1617 and was built by Duke Maximillian I. After this our visit to Germany was almost over, but it had certainly been an interesting trip.