One of the side trips that I knew I was going to take was to Dachau, the Nazi Concentration Camp outside of Munich.  I feel like places like these are time capsules that everyone should see in order to remind us all about how cruel we can be as humans.  I had never been to anywhere like this and really didn't know what to expect.  I knew it would be a challenging, but thought provoking day.

Right off the bat, you are hit with a gut punch by seeing the platform where the train cars stopped and the prisoners exited the cars.

The main gate.

"work sets you free"

Most of the barracks and buildings have been destroyed.  The kept the main buildings for a museum and a couple of the barracks to show the conditions.

The yard where everyone lined up every morning.

The 2 remaining barracks.

The memorials.

Inside the museum and a map of all the locations of camps across Europe.

Inside the barracks.

The footprints of all the barracks that were destroyed. Almost 200,000 lived here during the War and a documented 32,000 never left.

At the back of the site where all the memorials from different religions. 

A rather odd discovery is that they have a monastery on the back side of the site.

Then you approach the Crematorium area.  I have been to a couple Holocaust museums and saw the sorrow of the events, but nothing prepares you for being in the places where these atrocities took place.

Even as I sit here and write about this place a year and a half later, I can feel some of the same emotions that I felt that day.  I am very glad that I had the privilege to go see this place and hopefully it reminds us all to be a little more human and compassionate.

One more memorial as I walked back to the train station.

For the polar extreme part of the day, back in Munich it was Oktoberfest.  I probably shouldn't have tried to do both of these in a day, but I knew it would help me get out of my contemplative state.

Oktoberfest is one word - INSANE.  I have been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but it has nothing on this place.  

First a church tower to keep my bearings once I entered.

This place is a carnival on steroids, but oh so much fun.  It was a little intimating and overwhelming, because there were people absolutely everywhere.  

So this is one of several beer halls.

And what does it look like inside these temporary buildings....

Wow.

Yep, a little overwhelming, but oh so worth the experience.  What a day!  I didn't end up passed out in a gutter as I saw so many, and I left at a fairly respectable time.  One more day in Munich.  What a trip!