We had a quick turnaround from our Yellowstone adventure. Early Saturday morning we picked up Ray Nance and Sang and drove to Pollocksville where we met Lynn, Roger and Samuel, along with Joyce’s brother, William, and his wife, Judy. We surprised Joyce’s mother for Mother’s Day. She will be 96 later this month and still lives alone at her home.
We left Pollocksville mid-afternoon and drove to New Bern where we checked into the Marriott Courtyard on the riverfront. This was the first time we had been to New Bern since the devastating flood. While evidence of the flood remains everywhere, it is amazing how well New Bern has recovered.
Pollocksville has not fared as well. We drove through our old town, past the church and the parsonage. The church has recovered from floodwaters in the basement, but we understand they plan to tear the parsonage down. We saw a lot of the flooring that had been destroyed sitting on the front porch. The church installed that flooring when we were there and everyone was so proud of it that we had an open house! But that was almost 40 years ago.
We went to one of our favorite places to eat on Saturday night, the M & J Raw Bar. On Sunday morning we celebrated Mother’s Day with breakfast at Captain Ratty’s. Ray Nance told us that he had never visited Tryon Palace. When we lived in Pollocksville we went often, but Ray Nance was only two when we left town. We had a great tour with an excellent guide. We also visited the John Wright Stanly House, one of the most historic homes in North Carolina.
Because we are planning to travel by train in Germany for the first two weeks, we decided to ship our big suitcase to Berlin. I carried the suitcase to the church on Thursday with all the documentation. It will be picked up next Tuesday and will be waiting for us when we check into the Intercontinental Hotel in Berlin.
Ray Nance and Ella Rae took us to the airport in Charlotte on Saturday, May 18. We checked in with Lufthansa Airlines, just like we did two months ago when we started our Sabbatical in Italy. Our flight was on-time and 8 and ½ hours after leaving the ground in Charlotte we landed in Munich, Germany.
After a long walk through the airport we went through Passport Control. The young lady in German Customs asked me why we were in Germany. I told her we were on holiday, then she asked how long we would be in Germany. When I told her 3 and ½ weeks, she asked where else we were visiting. I named Salzburg, Rothenburg, Wittenburg, and Berlin. She said, “It sounds like a very nice trip” as she handed me my passports.
I responded with a Vielen Dank (Thank you very much) and she had the biggest smile on her face. I had a year of German in college, but sadly have not retained very much. But I am able to greet people and most importantly, say “Thank you” in German. It is amazing what a difference it makes to be kind in any language. My “Vielen Dank” brings a smile to everyone who hears it. (I’m sure my pronunciation must be comical to the Germans!)
We picked up our luggage and walked to the center of the airport where we took an escalator down to the rail platform. After fumbling around a few minutes with the automated ticket machine, I finally had two tickets for the S-8 train that was sitting in the station. We stepped on the train, found a seat and two minutes later we were on the way to downtown Munich. It was a 45-minute ride with several stops, but soon we pulled into the Hauptbahnhof, Munich’s main train station.
I had a pretty good idea of where our hotel was located in connection with the train station. Just to be sure, I turned on Google Maps. Our hotel, the Maritim, is only one-half block from the main train terminal. We selected this hotel because it is the hotel we will be staying in next year on our Oberammergau journey. We walked into the lobby around 11 a.m., just an hour and ½ after we walked off our plane. The very pleasant young lady behind the counter informed me that check-in was at 3 p.m., but there were a few rooms available. However, early check-in would cost us 39 Euros.
There have been many times we have checked in early at a hotel to be told our room was not ready. There have also been many times the room was ready and they handed us the keys. I remember checking into our hotel early in Lucerne, and in London and the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. Early check-in has never been a problem, provided the room was ready. But this was the first time I have been charged extra.
I briefly entertained the thought of exploring until 3, but since we had been on an overnight flight from the US, decided it was best to pay the 39 Euros. The housekeeper was walking out of our room as we walked in.
We took a nap, then I did go exploring. I walked to the Marienplatz in the Old Town. It was Sunday in Munich on a very pleasant afternoon and the streets were full of people. I heard music and saw that a parade was taking place about a block away. As I walked closer, I wasn’t sure if it was a parade or a march. There were hundreds and hundreds of people, plenty of music, and a lot of signs. I couldn’t read them, so I didn’t know what was going on.
My thought was that this was way too many people for a protest march, and they were all happy; smiling, and dancing. The event was very well organized and there were police stationed at every intersection. One happy couple who had been in the parade came off the street and stood for a moment on the sidewalk beside me. I asked, “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know!” they said. “But it sure is fun.”
The parade/march went on for miles. I finally saw a reporter taking some pictures. I asked him what was going on.
“We are marching for a unified Europe,” he said. “We are opposed to any kind of division or discrimination. We are marching against hate groups and right-wing extremism. We believe in unity and equality.”
It sounded so good that I started to join the march myself, but decided that Joyce would be worried if I was gone too long, so I made my way back to the Marienplatz.
I stepped inside St. Michael’s Church, which was built in the late 1500s at the height of the Protestant Reformation. While Luther was turning the world upside down in northern Germany, Munich remained a bastion of Catholicism. This is a Jesuit church. The Jesuits saw themselves as the intellectual defenders of Catholicism. This gorgeous church is one of the first great Renaissance buildings north of the Alps.
I headed back to the hotel and told Joyce we had much to do and see. I found a neat little German restaurant around the corner from the hotel, the Munchner Stubn. I went to dinner with the intention of eating brats, but we quickly found out that it is asparagus season as we were handed a special “asparagus” menu. We enjoyed an asparagus cream soup with an arugula salad with asparagus. They were delicious. (We noted that Germans will say “arugula salad,” but the Italians will call the same salad a Rocket Salad.)
We went to bed early and slept a long time. The next morning, we made our way down to the breakfast room for an elaborate and lavish breakfast buffet. They had a wide array of fish, fruit, cheese, breads, scrambled eggs and great German sausage! In addition to water, fruit juices, coffee and tea, they even have champagne for breakfast!
The weather forecast was not encouraging—it was supposed to rain for three straight days. But we were fortunate that while it was cloudy and cool, it was not raining as we walked to Old Town. The old gate to the city is still standing. You will see the gate in film clips of American soldiers liberating Munich in 1945. We walked through the old gate and on to Europe’s first pedestrian-only street that was established in preparation for the 1972 Olympic games.
We stopped first in St. Michael’s Church. We paid our two Euros and walked down the
steps into the morbid underground crypt that holds the mortal remains of Bavaria’s
ruling family, the Wittelsbachs. The
most ornate tomb holds the illustrious Ludwig II, known for the fairytale
castle at Neuschwanstein. Ludwig didn’t
want to be bothered with politics, so he frittered away most of his time away
from Munich constructing his fanciful Neuschwanstein Castle. He spent 17 years building the castle that
later inspired Walt Disney to build the place where “dreams come true.” Ludwig’s dream only lasted 172 days when he
was declared mentally ill and taken away from the castle. Two days later his body was found in a
lake. It rests today in the somber crypt
of St. Michaels with all of his other relatives. But even in death “Mad” King Ludwig’s tomb is
more elaborate than all of the others and even 134 years after his death his
fans continue to leave flowers at his tomb.
We walked a short distance from St. Michael’s to the Frauenkirche. This is the church with the twin onion domes that symbolizes the heart of the old city. The church was bombed in the war, but the twin domes survived. As the main part of the church was completely rebuilt after the war, it has a much more modern look than most great cathedrals. The first thing you notice upon entering the church is the big, black, ornate monument honoring Ludwig IV, the Bavarian (1232-1347) who was elected Holy Roman Emperor. The church’s other claim to fame is that this is where Joseph Ratzinger served as archbishop from 1977-1982. He later became Pope Benedict XVI.
We walked to the New Town Hall in the center of the Marienplatz where people were already gathering for the 11 a.m. performance of the Glockenspiel. We still had a few minutes so we walked over the oldest church in Munich, St. Peter’s. A local song goes, “Munich is not Munich without St. Peter’s.” This church was also bombed in the war and a local radio station kept playing that song to inspire people to give to rebuild the church. It worked. Today the church is a beautiful house of worship with gorgeous bronze statues. You can also see the bones of St. Munditia—we can testify, we saw the bones! Munditia was beheaded by the Romans for her Christian faith in the 4th century. Munich has more relics of saints than any city outside of Rome. This is because the Pope rewarded the city for remaining true to the church in the rising tide of Protestantism during the Reformation. Munditia’s bones were a gift of gratitude from the Pope in 1675.
The bells on the tower of the Old Town Hall started ringing a few minutes before 11 a.m. Then precisely at 11 o’clock, the bell of the New Town Hall rang 11 times, followed by the lovely sound of the carillon. Suddenly, there was a loud gasp from the crowd as the almost life-size figurines came to life. The figures are actually telling a story of a noble wedding that took place on the market square in 1568. You see the Duke and his bride watch the action as a friendly joust of knights takes place on horseback. Then there is a dance that celebrates the end of the deadly black plague. Everyone in the square enjoyed the performance.
We then walked the short distance to one of the most unusual churches in all of Europe, the Asam Church that is a breathtaking masterpiece of Baroque architecture. This church was not built to be a church, but rather a showcase of the incredible work of the Asam brothers who were famous builders of churches. It is only 30 feet wide since they had only one lot beside their home to build. You have never seen a church more elaborate than this one. It is now a true church, with mass conducted each Sunday.
We knew that a stop in the world’s most famous beer hall, the Hofbrauhaus, was a requirement for visiting Munich. It was now almost noon and the crowds were already gathering. The Hofbrauhaus was also bombed in the war, but it was one of the first places to be rebuilt. Germans do have their priorities, you know.
The original brewery was built here in 1583. This was the Wittelsbachs’ private brewery. In 1880 the brewery moved out and this 5,000 seat beer palace was built in its place. The beer is flowing here, as well as oompah pah music. The beerhall is loud and proud, and don’t forget the gift shop. We were glad we visited the Hofbrauhaus, but decided the Ratskeller would provide a better atmosphere for lunch. This is also worth a visit. It is located in the cellar of the New Town Hall and is an elegant setting with stained glass windows and great paintings. We decided to try their version of asparagus cream soup along with weiner schnitzel and asparagus. It was a lovely meal.
It was beginning to rain, so we made our way back to the hotel, taking advantage of the elaborate underground as much as possible. There is a whole city under the city streets of Munich filled with shops and cafes.
The rain continued throughout the afternoon and night. It was still raining when we woke up Tuesday morning. We had thought about touring Nymphenburg Palace or the “Residenz” in downtown Munich, but decided that we would spend the morning indoors in the relatively new Nazi Documentation Center.
When we visited Berlin a number of years ago we were told that no one should talk about Hitler and the Nazis. It was an embarrassing chapter in German history that they wanted to forget. But as time has passed, Germans are more open about their history and feel it is important to remember what happened so that we can learn from past mistakes. We are also seeing the rise of anti-Semitism and hate groups in our world today. This makes it imperative to remember what happened in one of the world’s most intelligent and civilized countries a century ago.
We took the subway to Konigsplatz and walked through the rain to the Nazi Documentation Center. This rater non-descript cube-shaped building is located on the site of the brown house, the birthplace of Nazism.
When we got off the subway, I was looking for a map to tell me the closest exit to take to reach the center, when a man asked, “Can I help you?” We told him we were going to the Nazi Documentation Center and he not only gave us directions, but went into great detail talking about what we would see. He then talked about his grandfather, a Lutheran minister who was not allowed to speak during the Third Reich.
I shared with him that I was a minister. He then told us that he was also a Lutheran Minister. We had a nice visit. I told him that Joyce’s father was in the war. He said that his grandfather was also in the war. They, of course, were fighting on different sides.
We walked in the rain through a large, open area in front of grandiose Neoclassical buildings. It was here that Hitler would stage his grand spectacles with 1,000s of soldiers and fanatical speeches. It was here where mass book burnings took place. At the height of Hitler’s power some 50 buildings in this neighborhood housed dozens of Nazi departments with thousands of employees. I somehow had the feeling that we were surrounded by evil spirits.
The Center documents the rise and fall of Nazism beginning with the First World War. We spent about three hours looking at the exhibits and listening to the excellent commentary provided on our audio guides.
It is still hard to comprehend how an intelligent and cultured people like the Germans could allow a psychopathic madman to gain power and ultimately total control. Hitler took advantage of the desperation of the German people following the First World War, but as the Documentation Center demonstrates, the economy improved in the mid 1920s and Hitler’s influence diminished. His coup attempt, the “Beer Hall Putsch” in November of 1923 also failed and Hitler was wounded and spent time in prison. But as we learned, the judicial system failed because of the ideological influence of the extreme right.
Hitler appealed to many conservative values that decent people of faith share and he took advantage of their willingness to overlook his extreme and eccentric ways in hopes that their goals would be achieved in the end. By the time the good, decent, Christian people of Germany realized what was going on, Hitler had total control and had stripped away all basic human rights.
I had the same feelings as I have had at the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. It is certainly one of the saddest chapters in human history and we have seen the deep scars in Israel, in Italy, and now in Germany—not to mention the scars remaining in the United States. One of the most disturbing trends we are seeing not only in the US, but around the world, is the rise of hate groups and the warped thinking that one race or religion is superior to others.
I admire the people of Munich for facing this painful and embarrassing historical chapter head on. They are determined to learn from the deep scars of the past and not allow history to repeat itself.
The Documentation Center sits on the site of the “Brown House,” the house where Nazism was born. The Brown House was destroyed after the war, but the “Fuhrerbau” the Fuhrer building still stands next door and today is a music academy. This is the same building you see in the grainy film footage of Neville Chamberlain arriving to meet with Hitler. Chamberlain, as you know, gave in to Hitler’s demands in 1938 when he signed the now infamous “Munich Agreement.” Chamberlain agreed to Hitler’s demands to annex Czechoslovakia in exchange for Hitler’s promise that once this was accomplished, he had no plans to make claims on any other country. When we later visited the Czech Republic we witnessed the deep pain and suffering that this “compromise” inflicted on thousands of people.
Less than a year later Hitler attacked Poland and Great Britain was at war with Germany. Hitler’s office window still looks out over the main entrance. It was a chilling sight to see.
The rain had almost stopped, but now a cold wind was blowing as we walked across the former Nazi parade ground back to the subway. We went back to our little German restaurant around the corner from the hotel, the Munchner Stubn where we enjoyed some good German bratwursts and sauerkraut.
When I am in a city or around a crowd, I normally put my wallet in my front pocket. I pulled it out of my front pocket to pay our bill and for some reason put it in my back pocket. I actually gave it a brief thought but reasoned, we only had a half-block walk to the hotel.
It was still wet and windy and I was walking ahead of Joyce when she saw a man start to make a move to my wallet that you could partially see in my back pocket. She used her umbrella to push him aside and he quickly ran away. If it had not been for Joyce’s alert and quick action, I would have been on the phone calling my credit card companies, not to mention the fact I would have lost several hundred Euros I had in cash. I hope I’ve learned my lesson.
The weather was calling for more rain tomorrow, but all we had to do was walk the short half-block to the train station. In the morning, we leave for Salzburg!
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