2 days in Bavaria: Dachau & Munich

Hello!  The theme of this post is photo collages :)  I took quite a few pictures this weekend and on our car trip back put them into collages - a great way to pass the time and to make this blog shorter!

Brian had Friday off from work - so we left in the morning for the state of Bavaria, in Southern Germany (a little less than 4 hours away).

Our first stop was the concentration camp of Dachau.  Reading about the concentration camps is one thing...but then to actually walk around and think about the atrocities performed right there is another.  In it's 12 years of existence over 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned there.  Over 41,000 were murdered.  We saw the "showers" (brausebad), the cremation ovens, and the barracks - designed for 200, but filled with about 2,000 people each.  

We didn't really explain to Ellie where we were in Dachau.  We told our next stop would be a castle, and so it was!  We went to Schloss (Palace) Nymphenburg.  It was built as a summer palace to celebrate the birth of Elector Fredinand Maria and his wife Henrietta of Savoy's son.  Sorry, Brian Francis, you are our little prince - but you're probably not going to get any palace in your honor....but feel free to have your diaper changed on the bench out front of one :)

We stayed overnight in a hotel just outside of downtown Munich.  Saturday morning we started touring downtown - well actually it was 11am by the time we actually set foot anywhere exciting....having kids does slow down our travel a bit.  Our first stop was Frauenkirche (kirche = church).  One of it's famous characteristics is the "devil's footstep."  Legend has it that the devil made a deal with the builder to finance construction of the church as long as it contained no windows.  The builder tricked the devil by positioning the columns so that the windows were not visible from the spot where the devil stood.  When the devil realized he'd been tricked, he could not enter the church - and could only stand in the foyer and stomp his foot, which left the dark footprint.

Our next big stop was the Munich Residence - the Treasury and Palace Museum.  First up are the pictures from the Treasury.  Lots of crowns and such, some nice mirrors (look! that's us in the Treasury), holy objects - like statute of St. George, and this green thing...not quite sure what that's about.

The Royal palace and museum was HUGE and fun to go through.  Well, for the most part (check out the Brians' faces), we did have to carry the kids through the huge palace.  The picture of the Brians below is of them in front of the picture of the Nymphenburg Palace - we were all like, oh yeah, already been there, done that.

History of the palace:  Between 1508 & 1918 the Residence in Munich was the principal palace and seat of government of Bavarian rulers from the house of Wittelsbach.  During this time it developed into one of the largest and most lavishly appointed palace complexes in Europe.  Following severe damage during World War II, the buildings were rebuilt after 1945.

For lunch we went to Viktualienmarkt - and outdoor market and had some of the locally brewed Hacker-Pschorr beer.  We also had a huge gingerbread cookie and pretzel (eaten too quickly to be photographed).

As we walked a couple of blocks from the market to Marienplatz (central square in Munich's city center), we went into St. Peter's Kirche.  It's quite the experience to be walking on these busy streets filled with people, vendors, and shops - and then to literally have these magnificent churches right in the middle of everything.  We've been visiting a lot of churches, so interesting to see the different architecture and materials used.  I loved the depiction here of Our Crucified Lord with the Sword piercing Our Lady's Heart at the foot of The Cross.

We're very much enjoying our time here, and pray you are all doing well!

God bless,

the Kissingers