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!