Central & Alpine Europe

Nicole and Annie getting a bit of a rest before their (mis)adventures

MUNICH

When you think of Munich, thoughts of lederhosen, bar maids and giant brats probably come to mind. You might even consider yourself an expert on Munich history if you can recognize places like the Hofbrau House, Olympic park and can figure your way out of the massive subway.
Well, I’m sorry to say that you have only just sipped the deep brew of culture that is Munich.

To begin with, Munich is a rich and expansive city and it is quite near impossible to explore all of its nooks and crannies in only three days.
And being the adventurous free spirits we are, Annie and I decided that we would try to find a way to see as much as possible. The solution to our problem arose after a long morning at Dachau. Having just returned to our hotel after spending 4 hours at the Concentration Camp, we stumbled across some of the other students who were going to take a bike tour.
We were hesitant at first, what with our lack of money, my lack of coordination and Annie’s habit of stopping to buy pashminas, but once we learned of the reasonable price of … FREE, we signed up!

On the bridge in the English Gardens

We both knew right away this would be well worth its price when our tour guide introduced himself in an Australian accent as Travis. All joking aside though, he began the tour with some unknown facts about some of the sights we had been passing every day. He even taught us a Medieval dance thought to keep away the plague, which we all performed gratefully, hoping it had equally repellant powers against the swine flu. After ushering us around the main attractions of the city, Travis, took us to the English Gardens. Now, the English Gardens may sound like a place with elderly bourgeoise ladies sipping teas and twirling parasols, however to think this would be a dire mistake. We entered the lush gardens only to find ourselves face to face with dozens of naked people, no parasols or tea. As disturbing as it might sound, one can not fully appreciate Munich until one meets a tall, dark and wrinkly naked people sunning themselves on the lawn.  After the nudes, we all meandered to the end of the park only to find fully clothed park goers surfing. Ja, I said surfing. At the end of the tour, we had covered a lot of ground, learned a lot of facts and had seen a lot of bratwursts. All in all it was a great day, and if you are ever in Munich it is definitely worth it to wait in Marionplatz for the Australian man giving bike tours. 

– Nicole and Annie

PRAGUE

The Charles Bridge--by Annie

Along with the abundance of clubs, bars and the general college appeal of Prague, Nicole and I thought we would take in some culture, along with a life lesson or two. We decided that the Opera, The Phantom of the Opera to be precise, would be a perfect way to get a dose of opera, ballet and the big C, culture - the trifecta of entertainment. Having passed an ornately decorated opera house on the way back from the hotel, we decided that it must be same one where the Opera would be taking place that night. Nicole and I were bound for the opera- pashminas and all—and in the true native fashion we walked the whole way. This seemingly harmless choice ultimately defined the rest of the night.
After walking rather briskly in heels on cobblestone, Nicole and I finally made it to the Opera house from earlier with 10 minutes to spare. We walked up to the opulent building only to find that we were at the wrong Opera house, (who knew there would be more than one?). It seemed that we were at the National Opera house, not the State Opera house. The ticket taker informed us that the State Opera house was a good 20 minutes away from were we currently were. With our egos a little bruised and our feet a little blistered, we decided to pull out a map and book it to the other building. . We managed to arrive at 7:02, two minutes after the performance began, but the ticket lady had apparently gone home and we were denied our cultural experience.
Thankfully though, after about 10 minutes of sulking, two mad dashes across busy Czech highways and one minor wardrobe malfunction, we decided to try out a restaurant we had heard about in our handy dandy tour book. By some miracle of the Czech food gods, we found the restaurant and enjoyed the best and cheapest food thus far on the trip.
While it was WAY off the beaten path, it was well worth it.

–Annie and Nicole

Tamp, Patrick, and Travis at the John Lennon Memorial Wall

This wall was created as a memorial to John Lennon after his assassination in 1980.  It began with pictures of him and meaningful lyrics from his songs.  These expressions of grief were whitewashed daily by the police.  The art and poetry continued to reappear.  Over time this wall beacame a place for broader expressions of dissatisfaction and dreams for the future.  It was a peaceful gathering place and the contents of the wall were allowed to remain.

 Today we visited the Dauchu concentration camp. Coming in I did not know what to expect because I have only read about places such as Warsaw and Dauchu. I knew that it was going to be a horrific site, but I could not foresee the actual feelings that I had after the visit was over. This camp was originally designed for only 6000 people and during its peak in the 1940’s it held around 40,000 people. The way that these people were treated was horrible. They were starved to death in many cases and could not receive medical attention from anyone with experience because the “doctors” really were not doctors at all. The inmates had to do all of the hard labor in the camp such as clean, cook, and build all in a days work. The pictures of some of the individuals that starved were extremely gruesome because they were skinnier than anyone that I have ever seen. The most powerful moment thing that I will take out of this experience was viewing the crematorium. They would take their dead and burn them to ashes. There were so many dead that they could not even find the time or coal to cremate them all so the bodies started to build up. The Nazis wanted to hide this entire camp from the community because it would in no way be supported. After viewing this camp I believe that at least once in every individual’s lifetime they should visit one of the concentration camps in order to get a real appreciation for the life we live. Sometimes I feel that my day was rough because I had to work a few hard hours in the sun, but when compared to the work and life these brave people had to go through, it will be much more difficult for me to complain. These people that were subject to this kind of abuse and torture for years are the real heroes and I thank God that I was able to visit this now.

Patrick S.

Today was another cool and drizzly day.  We decided to postpone our visit to Dachau in hopes for better weather tomorrow.  Swapping activities for the day meant that we went to the Alte Pinakothek (Old Art Museum).  It was amazing to see some of the original works of Rubens, Durer, Rembrandt, Breugel, etc.  Everyone seemed to have a favorite and the reasons overheard by this faculty varied from subject content to philosophical view to use of color and style. 

The rest of the day we were free to explore the city.  Some students had definite plans for museums and tours while others chose to hop the subway and see where it took them.  So far all reports have been positive.  One of the best things that we have been hearing is about substantive conversations with locals and reflective discussions of cultural differences. 

Next time we really will have been to Dachau.  We will try to post some pictures and get some students to contribute.

Dr. Engen, Dr. Kelso and Dr. Neal

Greetings from the Central & Alpine Europe tour!

Today we went to the Deutsches Museum, which is a huge science and technology museum here in Munich.  There were lots of exhibits on everything from aeronautics to the history of photography and lots of interactive exhibits to help the learning process. We tried to get through the whole museum, but there was just too much stuff. 

After the museum, a group including the three professors, Annie, Nicole, Nina and Leah headed to Schloss Nymphenburg,  home of the Bavarian kings.  We saw the impressive ornamentation of the various rooms and King Ludwig’s “Gallery of Beauties” and had fun taking pictures on the grounds.   After that, we headed to the Lowenbrau Haus for a traditional German meal of pork, sauerkraut and beer.

After dinner, we decided on a whim to head up to the Olympic Park.   We noticed huge crowds heading with determination in the direction of the park and wondered what was going on.   To our surprise, we were right in the middle of an AC/DC concert crowd!

More later on our continued adventures.

Dr. Kelso and the students

We all arrived in Munich about an hour and a half later than scheduled, but in plenty of time for a full day.  After grabbing some lunch, a nap and a shower, we walked all over the inner city and the English Garden.  Although we were warned, the amount of walking on this trip became clear to us right away.

The students have been impressed by the contrasting architecture of the modern sleek buildings mingled with the historic, Gothic, and Baroque.  Even though the plane trip lasted through the night, everyone was eager to see the sights this afternoon.  The faculty have been impressed by the enthusiasm, cameraderie, and open attitudes displayed by the students so far.

Tomorrow we will visit the Deutsches Museum in the morning.  Most of us have already started to plan the sights we want to see during the rest of the day.  Look for another report Friday after we visit Dachau.  It may leave us speechless, but only for a little while.

Dr. Engen & Dr. Neal