Time to let our hair down!

With the racing over it was time to go out, explore Dachau and let our hair down, so to speak. Dachau has some amazing history to it, so we decided that it was that history that we wanted to see. It is not a nice history and one that a couple of members of our crew did not want to see, so only 5 of us went exploring.

You see we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp. This concentration camp was the first one to be built during the Hilter regime. It was the also the only camp to be operational for the entire 12 years. It was finally liberated by American soldiers on Sunday the 29th of April, 1945.

When the camp originally opened, only known political opponents of the National-Socialists were interned, but this didn't last for long. Eventually prisoners came to Dachau from all the countries which were at war with Germany: resistance fighters, Jews, clergymen, or simply patirots who refused to collaborate with the occupation. Originally the camp was to hold a capacity of 5000 people but at times was known to hold up to 50,000. Barracks that were to house 200 men at times housed 1600!

Dachau was also know for it's gas chamber, hangings, medical experiments on prisoners and other punishments such as flogging, tree or pole-hanging, standing punishment, cutting off of rations or detention. Standing at the door to the gas chamber it was with extreme caution that I entered! I know that is silly but it was not a pleasant feeling.

So it was with a bit of trepidation that I wanted to see this camp. It was a very sobering afternoon to think of the horrors and atrocities that men and some women went through. They had just celebrated the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of the camp and it was amazing to see the floral wreths that had been placed in memory.

As I stood on the parade ground I could feel the ghosts of the past, thousands of men made to stand at attention for at least one hour and sometimes over night in the cold as punishment. It actually brought goose bumps to my body!

It is uncomprehendable to me how people can do these things to other people because of their beliefs, religion or look. I can only thank God that I was born when and where I was. But it is also something that I want to remember and hope that this type of thing will never happen again.

With the sobering part of our exploring over we decided it was time to head to Munich for dinner and a wander. But before we left the hotel we were offered a beer by our hosts. This was the first beer that Pete had, had in almost a year! And it was not to be his only beer this night!

Gene had left us at this point because his sister was in town and he was meeting up with her. But the rest of us headed to the "English Garden" to sit under the Chinese Pagoda and have a real German meal with huge beer mugs! From this photo it looks like Lisa was drinking one...but I can assure you it was not hers!

She did however have more food than anyone! Our cox who had been watching what she was eating so that she would be less for us to carry was now making up for it! We didn't think she would get through the whole meal...but she did!

You can see she wanted everyone to think she drank a whole mug of beer!

We are now getting ready to leave Dachau for Frankfurt. We will be spending the night there before catching our flight home on Monday.

This has been an amazing experience and one that I will not forget in a hurry!