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Day 3: March 30, 2014
Amazing what a good night´s sleep can do! In the best of moods, and under an amazing Bavarian sky (almost missing some of the white!) we headed towards Munich to get a throughout presentation of the city. This was made possible by our great local guide Marcus, who drove with us by its old churches and monuments, along its elegant boulevards and its many parks until we reached beautiful Nymphenburg. There we toured the inside, seeing rococo frescos, empire furniture… and beautiful ladies! Back in the center we had a quick lunch before heading towards the memorial site of the concentration camp of Dachau.
The first camp the Nazi's built in Germany (as early as 1933!) was active for 12 years, and more than 30.000 people lost their lives here, in pointless medical experiments, torture or from forced labour in appaling conditions. The camp was initially used only as a prison for "undesirable elements" in German society, later on the Nazi's were bringing in prisoners from all over Europe, and abusing them in the cruelest possible way. Hopefully everybody took with them the sentence in the monument to the prisoner: “Den Toten zur Ehren, den Lebenden zur Mahnung”.
To lift up our spirits afterwards we made a stop in the Olympic Park, were we took a lift 186 meters up (how many feet was that again?) at a speed of 7 meters per second to get to the top of the TV tower. We could even see the Alps, and the highest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze! Not only that, but also the Frauenkirche, the English Garden, a lot of Schrebergärten, the Olympic Stadion, the BMW World, the Allianz Arena… the bird perspective is definitevely cool! Time for dinner, and to end the day we went to a typical Bavarian Inn (where Bavarians do go) to try the tinniest sausage in Germany, Nürnberger Bratwürstl, with Sauerkraut. No wonder you always get at least 5… they ARE tiny!