Munich Day 2: Dachau Memorial

Mandy:

We learned that very few things are open on Sundays in Germany. Therefore, we decided to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. On the way there, we realized that the older generation of Germans do not speak English and when you ask the train station attendees for directions they just nod their head to whatever you say. Luckily we caught on and figured out our way or else we would've been late for the 11am guided tour. 

The guide at Dachau was an older German lady who is very passionate and knowledgeable of the Holocaust. Similar to the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Dachau is now very serene. I cannot imagine what it was like 60 years ago. We learned that Dachau was the very first concentration camp in Germany and all the other concentration camps followed the same concept. Dachau was a lot bigger than I imagined. Most of the buildings were purposely destroyed except for a few. The remnants of the buildings is a powerful image for visitors.

Remnants of the first building 

Prison cells 

'

"work makes (you) free"

After a very educational visit to Dachau, we went back to Marienplatz to lighten the mood. By then we were very hungry and ate the first thing we saw which was of course.... sausages! After our bellies were full we wandered to a parliament building that we walked by with Andreas the night before. However, this time it was sunny and lots of locals were sitting on the grass chilling out. We joined the locals for a bit and decided to visit the Pinakothek der Modern museum since museums in Munich are 1 euro on Sundays. The museum was more fun and interesting than we expected but that's probably because it was modern art which is more playful and fun.

Sausage in Marienplatz

Snow cones by shaving a huge block of ice!

Candid photo

Norm's fave painting

Dishes illustrating strange ways to inflict pain

this is art?

palms palms palms

look at this! hehe

For dinner we went to Andreas' "best restaurant in Munich" called Anh Thu Vietnamese restaurant. My family and I had really good Vietnamese food in Paris so I was excited to try it in Germany as well. To our surprise, the Vietnamese restaurant was a lot fancier than the Viet restos we're used to in Toronto and elsewhere. We went there on a Sunday around 8pm and the resto was fully reserved except for the patio. We ordered pho (only 1 choice and it was an app!), a platter of different rolls, and the bun cha. The pho was not good but the rolls and bun cha were pretty good. The Viet food in Paris was definitely way better!

Disappointing pho

Bun chaaaa