dachao and neuschwanstein, 23.12.2008

we left munich after spending a night in the city. there are more things to attract us outside in the north of the city- dachao, the first concetration camp of the german nazi. it is about 30 mins drive from the city and with the help of the navigator and road signs pointing towards the camp, we arrived at 11a.m.
no fee was collected and they were supposed to charge us €3 for a car at the carpark, but no one was on duty. so it was free.


it is now made into a memorial site and is quite barren but of course the atrocities that happened here will never be forgotten. because it was the first concentration camp by the nazi, they had records in the forms of photos and videos as models for the other camps to be built later.

as you reach the entrance of the camp, you will see what is left of a railway track that was used to transport prisoners.


the entrance building and the gate that all prisoners had to pass through. above were the officers and scanning rooms. on the gate: arbeit macht frei means work for freedom. the only kind of freedom i can think of for the prisoners was death. the prisoners were forced to labour without food and and bath, and no proper sanitation. watching the clips shown in the small cinema really turned everything in your stomach. we made it for the 11.30am show which was in english. they have it in 4 languages. deutsche, english, italian and french. the short clip runs for 22 mins.

the barracks where prisoners were kept. 34 rows of them. now there are only 2 left while the rest are just the foundation square. the spaces between the barracks were where prisoners gather in their 'leisure' time and where they also queued for their roll call and they were assigned their duties. some were assigned food while some were not. not all prisoners got food. those who were assigned food only got maybe a scoop of jam to go with bread or a spoonful of porridge or soup. everyone was known as a number once they entered the gate.

the exhibition hall in one of the barracks.

the museum, cinema and exhibition hall building.

inside the prisoners' barrack they were not allowed to shower for months and no change of clothes. so diseases killed a number of prisoners. even those sick prisoners were called out during roll call and were humiliated in front at the square. some received beatings and were still forced to work.

bunk beds and the living quarter. it was very clean so the eeriness was not there but memories of those who cramped on the bed in the unhygienic conditions occured.

the plan of the camp

the cinema which can fit about 240 persons.

the crematorium. prisoners were hanged in front before they were burnt. the small room in the bottom right is the disinfection room.

the gas chamber which was never utilised in this camp. no reason was given why it was not used. prisoners who were to be gassed were sent to other camps instead. the prisoners had to go through 2 rooms before reaching the 'shower chamber'. the waiting room and the disrobing room.

the execution, mass grave and ashes sites.

we left at about 1p.m. and headed towards the direction of the alps to füssen. our intended destination wasn't fussen but hohenswangau village. i must have a tour of one castle before i go home and schloss neuschwanstein is my choice. it is the king of all fairy tale castles and disney has based its snow white palace on this one.

we drove on a stretch of road called the romantic road where a lot of classic fairy tales came from. it was a beautiful stretch with beautiful landscape. hilly mountains and rolling fields. the journey was almost 2 hours from dachao and i was so worried that we would not make it in time to buy a ticket for the tour of the castle. ticket office closes one hour earlier which is 3p.m. while the palace admits its last visitor at 4p.m.

i knew i was near when i saw snow on the mountains.

everyone would park at the village of hohenswangau before going up the hill on foot, bus, or horse-drawn carriage. it is €4.50 at the car park for each car. the walk up the hill will take around 30 mins. to go up by bus, u pay €1.80 while by carriage- €5. those carriage owners are really making big bucks.

the view from the hill....magnificent!

different faces of the palace.

in the evening spot light.

and tada! the real thing...schloss neuschwanstein. this is the view from a bridge situated opposite the palace. it was about 10 mins walk from the palace. it took 17 years to build but it was still not completed. only 16 out of the 65 rooms planned by king ludwig 2 were materialised. the king died young at the age of 40 under mysterious circumstances. but thanks to his imagination and vision, everyone today has his version of their own fairy tale castle. this palace was a tribute to the operas of richard wagner and the rooms inside were painted with tales from wagner operas pieces. no camera or any recording equipment were allowed due to copyright reason so i was only allowed to gape and record everything in my mind. but you can go to the official website to see the interior. one can only tour the palace with ticket from the ticket counter bought at the village before going up the hill. i paid €9 for my english tour. went in alone, uncle and aunt waited outside.

aunt regretted not going in after i told her how exquisite it was inside. seeing it for yourself was totally another experience compared to just seeing the photos from the website. i told myself while touring that: u can just leave me in the castle and i won't mind freezing to death in the beautiful rooms. hahahha...

there are so many tours that there is one every 5 mins and u take turns queueing at the lanes assigned with numbers of the tour. chinese ones come with audio guide, no chinese speaking tour guide. we saw many chinese there and japanese too. imagine the queue in summer...

marionbrucke, the bridge u go to to capture the whole castle. spring water gushing at the streams below.

we walked down to the village in the dark after the sun had set. on the way back to bad ems, uncle stopped at burger king upon my request as i was starving. bought a long chicken burger to fill the hunger...aaahh. aunt was already full with lots of biscuits in her stomach and uncle made himself a cup of the coal roasted coffee i brought from malaysia and bread.

we reached bad ems before midnight. i love my second day better than the first day tour.