Munich

(Samantha is here in front of the Marienplatz, in the middle of the huge down pur this afternoon, laughing becasue I was trying to avoid getting the camera wet.)

Munich is much better after the loud thunder and rain storm this afternoon. We did manage to get back from Dachau Concentration Camp, horrible!!!! I am not sure how there are some people in this world that can believe it never really happened? The town is a small one outside of Munich and was quite accessible by train. I gather that the original prisoners that were placed in this camp were those that were political and had spoken out against the government. If that wasn't enough, Hitler moved on and began to collect up the Bavarians or gypsies that were in the Austrian area. It seems many of the Johavah Witnesses were rounded up and sent in as well. However, they had the option to denounce their religions and then were freed. This is one of the memorials that it as at the site, constructed in teh early 1960's after the Bavarian government was basically shamed into the task. Many of the survivors actually united and came together to develop the site. This steel art has the body structures wrapped in the barb wire, a common way people committed suicude here at the camp.





After looking at the conditions these men lived in, I am not surprised! Look at the barracks... yuck!



On our way back we met another American family that was here in Europe for a month as well. They had been in Paris and said the weather was horrible, too!!! Man, we picked the weird weather for sure!!! They talked about the traffic on the 405 and how the city was always congested; the mother worked for Johnson & Johnson, so traveled to Irvine headquarters often. Another guy chimed in who was from Australia and shared that the traffic here in Munich is pretty bad, and never an issue in his home town area. When Samantha shared we didn't have traffic at homebecause we lived in a relatvely small town, he laughed. He said that it was funny we thought we lived in a small town. He said his family dairy farm had no houses in sight for a distance of something like 300 meters and the closest town was 30 minutes away, which only had a "Pub," no gas. Eeek!!!! When we talked about the flooding we saw in Budapest, he said his family would welcome the floods right now; they fear they'll lose their dairy farms for lack of rain. Guess it's all relative.

After the long day, we decided to head to the Hard Rock Cafe Munich. Samantha had a good time reading about all of the memorbilia and looking at it on the walls. Of course, we ran into some more Americans as well. The waiter was from Minnesota and had moved to Germany for his wife's music career, an opera singer. The waitress, from Las Vegas, a Black Jack Dealer and here because of her husband's business. Both spopke fondly about the states and hoping to return soon. However, they both spoke about the excellent transportation system here in Europe; it can't be beat!!!

OK, I still have to find a place to sleep tomorrow in Frankfurt, so lots of hugs to all. We sure miss home!!! Looking forward to Grandma's laughs next week and a BBQ at the Loporchios when we get back!!!


Happy 4th of July to everyone. Stay safe. :-)