Munich - Terror to Reconciliation Part 2

                                   

  

On Wednesday the 21st Gerri and I joined another walking tour, The Third Reich Tour. This particular tour took us to the sites where Hitler roused his supporters with his fiery oratory. We visited the beer hall where he launched his beer hall putsch, another spot we visited was the administration building where he had his office. The tour led us around significant parts of the city that were important to Hitler's goals as well being important for US bombing efforts. For the bombing efforts the pilots were told to use two particular church towers as their reference point.

The end result was virtually a complete devastation of the city. The devastation was so complete that all that was left to reconstruct buildings were their own reclaimed bricks. Buildings were reconstructed in their original style, even to this day any refurbished buildings have to maintain their original exterior design. The city today is a changed city with a thriving economy, cultural interests and tourists from all over.

With this trip Gerri and I learned so much about not only the Nazi's rise to power but also events that precipitated the march to war. We saw that World War 2 was in a sense a continuation of the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles and war reparations were the catalyst that started the war and even earlier the stage was set by the Habsburg empire. Unfortunately the world is still paying the price of those earlier conflicts.

With all that we saw and learned and needing to unwind, Gerri and I departed the Third Reich Tour and headed to Oktoberfest. Now that was an experience! We entered the grounds and immediately saw biergartens sponsored by different breweries. We walked around to different ones to get a feel for the festivities. Each biergarten had a band playing old Bavarian songs playing to hundreds of reveling party goers. It was a complete party in each biergarten with food galore and huge steins of beer. It was almost impossible to get a place to sit.

We finally ended up in the Lowenbrau biergarten. The band not only was playing Bavarian music but also some modern songs. With luck, and a persistent waitress, we finally were able to get a seat at a table. The tables are long affairs with people who may be part of a group or just strangers. The waitress made some people move down despite their protests so that Gerri and I could sit. Sitting down you could order your choice of typical German fare or just get a stein of beer. I opted for a huge stein of Lowenbrau, Gerri took the easy way out by getting something non alcoholic. 

We sat there enjoying the band and all the revelry that was taking place. We soon had some Canadians sitting at the table behind Gerri. They were completely decked out in traditional dress, lederhosen and all. I'm sure that this was not their first time at Oktoberfest. The Canadians were friendly and funny, we interacted with them for a while. After a couple of hours, I nursed that beer, we left to take the metro back to our apartment. Exhausted but relaxed, a fitting end to the past couple of days of deep concentration.

This ends our trip, we have one final day left before heading home on Saturday. For our final day we're going to use the metro, explore and have a final German meal. Auf wiedersehen!   

Munich - Terror to Reconciliation Part 1

                      

  

Today is Thursday, September 22nd. Gerri and I have been busy the past couple of mornings here in Munich. We arrived on Monday after a inch 5 hour train ride from Hamburg. The more we ride the high speed trains, the more we like them!

On Tuesday we joined a tour to Dachau, the first of hundreds of Nazi concentration camps. Dachau is about a 20 minute train ride north of Munich. Dachau was also the site of the SS academy where methods of torture and control were taught. The camp was originally set up to house political prisoners and anyone else the Nazi's deemed a threat to the party. During the course of its 12 years existence the camp became the site of thousands of murders. The camp was the smallest of all camps and because of logistics was not able to carry out the mass murders as were done at other camps.

The tour showed us replicas of the barracks used to house prisoners. The washroom and toilet facilities were sparse and as with everything else were intended to strip a person of their human identity. The SS were taught to never make eye contact with the prisoners, they were to be considered sub human. Prisoners had to keep their barracks clean, the floors could only be walked on in bare or stockinged feet. The least transgression whether real or imagined would result in whippings with a bull whip or being hung from the ceiling for hours at a time.

Then we went to the receiving station, there prisoners were catalogued with meticulous records and judged according to their work ability. We eventually made our way to the place where thousands were to take their final breath. Initially the building seems pretty non descript until you begin to go through and see how the Nazi's prepared their victims. First you see fumigation chambers where clothing was to be fumigated, then you go through a couple of more rooms until you come to another room where people were made to disrobe before entering the Brausebad for what they were led to be showers.

The gas chamber itself is not foreboding. It's a large room with strange looking "shower" heads from which the lethal gas was pumped into the room. The next room over is the room where the bodies were piled up until they removed by prisoners.Our next stop was a the crematorium. There were 4 ovens, each one could accommodate 3-4 bodies. 

Overall the setting of the camp could seem very innocuous  with trees, fields, and canals. Once you take in the sight of the guard towers, and the kill zone and the realization of what this all meant then it begins to strike you that this was all the result of mans inhumanity to man. This was a place where so many people suffered and perished losing all hope of a normal life.

We closed out our day with a train ride back to Munich, reflecting on what we had seen and needing to get some sense of present day reality.

Hamburg - Undiscovered

   

        

      

Gerri and I made it to Hamburg yesterday, Saturday the 17th. The train ride again was pleasant and efficient, but then it's the German railway system and they do keep their trains running on time. I wish we had a system like their's or even better, the European train system.

Since this was supposed to be a quick stopover before heading to Munich, I didn't really plan too much. Mistake! Had I known how much there is to Hamburg I would have tried to plan more time here. The train station happens to be across from the hotel that we're staying at, the Europaischer Hof. The hotel is rated 4 stars with nice rooms and amenities and with plenty of restaurants nearby.

Our initial foray after checking into the hotel was not the most comfortable one. Usually when we check into a place be it an apartment or hotel we'll venture out to check the neighborhood. Usually we feel very positive about the neighborhood. In our case we turned around the corner from the hotel and walked for awhile looking for a decent restaurant. However, we just felt an unease about the area so we retreated back to the hotel area where we found a very good restaurant to eat at.

As it happens there is a Hop On Hop Off bus stop across the street in front of the train station. So Sunday morning after breakfast we bought our tour ticket and set out to discover the city. It turned out we had been looking on the wrong side of the tracks for we were soon to be introduced to what is referred to as the Venice of Germany.

Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany after Berlin. There is a very large and active port and canals similar to Venice,  Italy. During the Second World War, Hamburg was bombed repeatedly to eliminate their shipping facilities, their U boat infrastructure and their oil refineries. During July 1943 Operation Gomorrah was launched which was a firebombing mission. Because there had been no rain for sometime, the dry conditions made for a tremendous firestorm. The fires created vortexes which spread flames so quickly that most of the city was essentially destroyed. The death toll was 42,500 with over 37,000 injured.

Reconstruction after the war created a new metropolis. New structures were built and the city revived. Luckily there were a fair number of old buildings that were spared or were able to be rebuilt. In our tour we passed through some very exclusive areas before arriving at the heart of Hamburg. The town hall or Rathaus is one of the most magnificent structures  that neither I nor Gerri have ever seen! The Rathaus if the seat of government or parliament for Hamburg.  The original town hall burned to the ground in 1842 forcing the staff to move to temporary quarters which lasted for 55 years! The current town hall was built over an 11 year period and was completed in 1897. There are 647 rooms with the building sitting on 4,000 pillars. There are 20 statutes of past emperors adorning the facade the ornate wrought iron gate at the main door leads into a grand entry hall supported by 16 sandstone pillars. It is truly something to see!

Not having much time left to explore, Gerri and I returned to our hotel to get ready for our train trip to Munich tomorrow. The trip is supposed to take 5 1/2 hours. Luckily the trains are fast, quiet and have a nice restaurant car. So my next post will be from Munich, just in time for Oktoberfest! So until then, Auf 

Wiedersehen!

Good bye Berlin, until we meet again

  

Today is our last day in Berlin. As with every city that we have visited, there is never enough time to see everything you want to see. Berlin is certainly not an exception. We returned to the Topography of Terror to look at the exhibits at the outside wall. It's so hard to comprehend the coming about of the Nazi party and what was to be their meticulous killing machine. Nobody was safe, aside from Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses and Roma's they murdered old, feeble, sick, disabled men, women, children even babies.

There were any number of pretexts  that a person could be arrested by the Gestapo. Having an "asocial" attitude, not wanting to or able to work, being denounced by your neighbor. If there was any pretext for their wanting a person, that person was quickly brought into their clutches.

So we hung out there in the broiling sun, I think I'm a bit overdone, then headed out to find a place to eat. After eating a satisfying light lunch we headed over to the Jewish Museum which is located in what was once West Berlin. 

The museum was designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2001. It has a zig zag design and was designed to give one a sense of the emotions that Jews were having while being persecuted. There was a stairway that went nowhere, a door that opened onto a wall. There is a Memory Void covered by ten thousand heavy iron plates cut to resemble faces, that is a memorial to the murdered Jews. From the sharp angles of wall, sloping floors, even the light coming through the window, your senses are awakened to human suffering that has existed through the ages.

The museum houses exhibits of Jewish civilization through the ages. Going through the exhibits teaches one about the Jews as people as well as a religion. Gerri and I were impressed and humbled by the experience and we're thankful to have been there.

Tomorrow we leave for a short visit to Hamburg then onto Munich!

Until we get to Munich, l'haim!

 

Berlin - A Sobering First Day

        

We finally made it to Berlin yesterday, Sep 14th! The train ride was very enjoyable, passing through some gorgeous Czech countryside. The train had a very cool restaurant car where we went to have a bite to eat and a cappuccino. Very nice to sit there while watching the scenery. This particular train was operated by the Czech railways. Our reserved seats were in a 6 person cubicle, much different than what we had experience previously, and really not to our liking. The first couple who rode with us were a quiet English couple, they barely spoke 2 words, they got off in Dresden where another fellow got on while carrying a big guitar.

Our new riding mate was also quiet and soon got up to go to the restaurant car. After he returned, not knowing if he was an English speaker,  I pantomimed his playing a guitar. He spoke in English about there not being much room in the cubicle. That's when we learned he was an Irish folk singer who had just performed in Dresden. He was a very pleasant person to speak with as we talked music and eventually a bit of politics. On the music side he has been around for a long time. He had performed with and knew Pete Seeger, telling us of staying at Pete Seeger's place overlooking the Hudson River in New York. We talked a bit about music and the impact it has on life, we talked a little philosophy which also led into some politics. His views on politics reflected the fears most Europeans have of our current elections and a possibility of a Trump as president. As I said it was a very nice encounter, he got off the stop before us and we kicked ourselves for not getting his name.

Today, Thursday the 15th, we got up and had a leisurely cappuccino on the small deck of our apartment. Incidentally this apartment is beautiful! It's a modern apartment in a nice residential neighborhood. It's a little further out than we would usually like, but it's convenient and well equipped.

Getting on with our day we took a taxi down to the Mail Boxes Etc store so we could finally get rid of that box of clothes that we could not ship from Prague. It took 200 Euros, but it's gone! The store is located close to Checkpoint Charlie which was where we wanted to return. Down from  Checkpoint Charlie is the Topography of Terror which is the location of what was the headquarters of the Nazi Gestapo, SS, SA and other instruments of the Nazi machine. They have a museum there which features a pictorial history of the rise and eventual fall of the Nazi killing machine. Gerri and I spent almost  4 hours there, reading and learning more of how the Nazi's where so meticulous in their callous disregard for any people they considered inferior. It was disheartening to see pictures and documents that showed how people had given up their freedoms by listening to someone who played on their fears. The blaming of Jews for the economic conditions that were a result of the Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War, the singling out of groups of people because of their beliefs or customs had so many similarities of what could happen in today's world. This was a sobering reminder of the saying by George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Let's hope and pray that we remember.

     

Prague - Day 3

 

        

Well Gerri and I are wrapping up our 4 day stay in Prague. This city has so much to offer that it would take days and days to see it all. Yesterday we walked across the Charles Bridge up the steep hill to the Prague Castle. The day was one of the hottest since. We've been here so it was a tiring trudge up the hill. But we old folks kept up and even passed a lot of young folks who were huffing and puffing.

The castle is an imposing structure dating from the ninth century when a Prince Borivoj set up a fortified settlement here. Through the centuries there have been 4 major reconstructions from Prince Sobeslav in the 12th century to a classical facelift under Empress Maria Theresia in the 1700's.

Today the castle complex is a collection of museums as well as the official residence of the head of state. From the castle we walked back down the hill,  a heck of a lot easier going down, back over the Charles Bridge to do some more exploring.

 

Today, Wednesday we are sufficiently rested from yesterday and off to start another day. The day actually started off on a sour note. Having packed a lot of clothes for the cooler weather we had expected, Gerri and I packed up a bunch of things we wouldn't need and headed for the only UPS outlet in Prague. After hailing an Uber driver we got out to the UPS facility near the airport, walked around to finally find the UPS place only to be informed that they won't take personal items! Only business shipments. Sure would have been nice if the UPS website had stated that, it would have saved us about 2 hours time and $48.00 US. Oh well, that's another story, thankfully we know there are outlets in Berlin where we can ship stuff from.

Afterwards, Gerri and I spent some time in the Jewish Quarter. The square is the site of 5 different synagogues, the Ceremonial Hall, the Old Jewish Cemetery and the Jewish Museum. The museum fell victim to one of the most ironic and grotesque acts of WWII. The Nazi's took over administration of the museum and brought in materials and objects from destroyed Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia. This resulted in probably what is the worlds biggest collection of sacred Jewish artifacts and a memorial to seven years of oppression.

Before I started this trip I learned that Prague was the scene of a daring assassination in WWII, Prague was the base for a despicable brutal Nazi officer named Reinhard Heydrich. He was one of Hitler's favorites and a chief architect of the extermination camps. The allies started an operation code named Anthropoid where the British trained and parachuted some Czech freedom fighters into the country with the intentions of sabotaging and assassinating Nazi's. After having been dropped into the wrong target area they made their way to Prague. After a few days planning and collaborating with resistance movement members, they made an attempt to assassinate Heydrich. The first fighter tried shooting Heydrich but his Stengun machine gun jammed. The second fighter threw a hand grenade but missed getting it into the car, however the grenade did blow off the car door. Heydrich was hit with a piece of shrapnel and later died of infections from his wounds.

The resulting manhunt by the Nazi's resulted in the murders of many people. Whole families were either shot or sent to concentration camps to be gassed to death. In fact a whole village had all the men shot, then the women and children were sent to concentration camps. The only ones that were initially spared were a total of 11 children who the Nazi's believed they could "Aryanize" by sending them to live with German families.

The whole story has just been released in a film, Anthropoid. I am definitely going to see the movie when I get back home!

Tomorrow is a travel day where we will take the train to Berlin for a 3 day stay. Gerri and I are looking forward to our return there following our first visit in 2014. Signing off for now, the Fleet Feet Gonzalez's!

Prague on a Sunday

Gerri and I arrived on Saturday after a 4 hour train ride from Vienna. The ride was tiring but the hot weather was the real issue. We had about enough energy to get to our apartment  then find a place to eat. The apartment is pretty much an antique as are most of the things here in what is known as Old Town. The apartment is on the 5th floor, unfortunately the elevator only goes up to the 4th floor. Actually with the building being so old, the elevator was installed at some later date. The owner of the apartment informed me that we should not put more than 3 people at a time in the elevator. Since it's as small as an average hall closet, I don't think that's much of a problem.

Riding up in the elevator is kind of like an amusement ride. You close the entry door, push the button for your floor and away you go. It's kind of neat, in a weird way, to see the wall of the elevator shaft whizzing in front of you as you look past the nonexistent door. With a jolt and a bounce we arrive at our floor. The apartment is decent enough, it's clean, it has a beautiful view of the River Vltata and it's close to all the historic sites. 

Sunday we wake up to a beautiful cloudless sky as the early morning sun hints at the hot day ahead of us. Not being the hurrying kind when we travel, I make our morning cappuccinos, then after being duly fortified with espresso, we head out. We were on a mission to find some things, like my Harley Davidson t-shirts after which we wandered about for a bit. The day got hotter and hotter. The weather is unseasonably hot. We were expecting temperatures in the high 60's to lower 70's. Instead the weather through our whole trip has been in the mid to upper 80's. Of course we didn't pack much in the way of summer clothes so we are sweltering. A trip to the department store shows that they have their winter stock out and not much of a summer stock left to choose from. Oh well!

The highlight of our day was after dinner when with the coolness of the evening weather we were able to explore a bit more. We crossed over 1 of the bridges close to our apartment, walked on the other side of the river to the more famous bridge, the Charles Bridge. This bridge was started during the reign of Charles IV around 1357 and completed in the early 1500's. It's the oldest stone built bridge in Europe. The bridge is about 510 meters long and is lined with religious statutes along its length.

With this being the 15th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, Gerri and I were surprised and honored to see a memorial to the firemen who lost their lives in the twin towers.

 

We walked across the bridge back to our apartment, feeling blessed with our lives and grateful to the men and women who serve our country. The sun has set so we'll wrap up our day and start out again tomorrow.