Early start today - we were on the bus by 8:15 heading to Dachau: and if I'm to be honest, I was really uncomfortable going to visit this place.  The dreary weather was no help.  "Why did I feel this way?" nagged at me - the German people themselves seem determined not to let anyone forget about the holocaust.  Our guide, Achim, laid bare all the horrors of the place for us: we saw the door to the gas chamber, the slots where the gas pellets went in, we saw the ovens and, somehow, that was the answer to my nagging question -  I should feel uncomfortable and be sickened by what happened here, and the German people are right - no one should ever forget.  It must be an emotionally draining task for Achim to do what he does as a guide at Dachau,  I hope he knows that he DOES make a difference.

 

By the time we reached the Andechs Monastery for lunch, it had rained and the sky was clearing - the general mood had lifted too.   We were all hungry, but gosh, the pork knuckles were so huge that 3 of us ladies had to split one.  We also had a little sauerkraut, a bit of pretzel and, since it was the last day of Oktoberfest, a beer!

 

Only one more stop before we reached our hotel in Ehenbichl, Austria, and I had been looking forward to this stop for months - the church in the meadow, the Wieskirche.  It is over-the-top Rococo decor inside, and it is set in a beautiful meadow all by itself.  What a deep contrast the day had been: dark and dreary beginnings, but a bright and beautiful ending - and I feel very lucky to have experienced both.