Tour of Germany. Spring 2015. Part 4.

May 2nd.

Woke to another dull drizzly day. Made use of our free passes and caught the bus into town. This time all was open. Strolled around for a while and came across this.

Dont know what it was about, but they were very good, and all in traditional dress, as were the ladies.

They're showing the proof of the weather.

  In the square where this took place was the war memorial.

Shows all sides suffer in time of conflict. Opposite this was a large church, we decided to take a look.

Inside was a beautiful altar.

But no stained glass window. There was also this statue.

I have no idea what it's about, and never found out.

  We strolled around some more, had coffee and cakes, before heading back to the site. Spent a quiet evening as we were moving on tomorrow.

May 3rd.

Packed up and left site 1000hrs. Took on fuel then headed for Dachau Concentration Camp. An easy drive with a mix of rural roads and Autobhans until we got to Munich. There had been an accident and our sat nav took us off the autobhan onto the ring road. I started to sweat on this as every exit had a sign, Umwhelt Zone Green. (These are German Low Emission Zones) You require a green disc in the windscreen to enter these, we had a yellow one (waste of time as we only ever saw green zones). After a few miles we came clear without contavening any rules. Arrived at Dachau 1230hrs to a queue of traffic culminating in a police road block. When we reached it a very nice female officer came to us. She informed us in very good English that today was the 70th Anniversary of the camps liberation by U.S. Forces. We were able to visit but would not be able to park. She then explained the way to a small shopping centre where we could park. We duly did as she said. Then took a 15 minute walk to the camp. We entered and found that there was a wreath laying ceremony taking place with representatives from all 4 corners of the globe. They provide large screen relays for us onlookers.

We left there and walked to the SS guard rooms, at the end of the block was a plain white wall.

This was where executions by firing squad were carried out, before a more productive method was required. As we left this area there was an American Veteran in a wheelchair, he had been one of the liberators. I was surprised at the number of younger German ladies that embraced him and thanked him.

 We then walked to the other end of the camp where the mass executions took place.

From there you enter this.

The crematorium. As the US army approached the guards worked round the clock disposing of bodies, trying to destroy the evidence. They failed as was evidenced by the piles of bodies outside that the Americans found. Here we came across the American Veteran again, he broke down in tears and had to be taken outside. That was enough for us, with tears in our eyes we decided to leave this place.  As we neared the gate I took this panorama.

The raised sections are the foundations of the huts. Originally built to house 200 prisoners in each, by the time of liberation they held 600 each. This is a scale model of the camp as it would have been.

The neat rows on the right are the panorama scene. We left the camp at 1530hrs. I felt a great sense of sadness, not only for this place but that our species has learnt nothing and still it goes on. 

 On return to Eevie we headed off for our stopover at Sulzemoos. Arrived at 1600hrs, and set up. Put 3 euros in the metre for electric and settled down. At 1700hrs a large Italian Motorhome arrived and whatever he did he blew the electrics on the whole Stellplatz. As it was Sunday there was nobody in the large dealership to which the site belongs, to sort it. Still we had a lovely view.

That ended a very emotional day.