Saturday
August 7, 1982 – Dachau, Oberammergau, Linderhof
Had a good
lie in this morning for a change – not as good as it might have been because
Rab got going pretty well and when that happens, everyone else better get
moving – or else! The breakfast was nice with little pots of sausage meat as
the savoury. Matt felt that the German hot chocolate was not up to the same
standard as the Swiss or Austrian, but he managed to drink it all the same.
We nipped
out to the supermarket around the corner to get some padkos (travel food) for tomorrow in view of
the exorbitant cost of buffet food on the German Railways. It was difficult to
make a reasonable choice given the wide variety of options. A quick visit to
Woolworths followed as matt had seen some Star Wars figures there. After much
humming and haaing he bought one and then realised, too late, when he got back
to the hotel that he should have listened to his father and bought two.
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| Direktions Fuhrer Peter Burtscher and Matt's big Mercedes |
Munich Re
had offered us the use of a chauffeured car today, which we had accepted with
alacrity. Promptly at 10.00 our Mercedes 280 SE turned up driven by a very nice
chap – Peter Burtscher – whose card described him as Direktions Fuhrer which I
assume means Chief Driver? After discussing various options with him he said
that he thought our basic plan was very good – Dachau,
Oberammergau
and Linderhof – so off we went in a light shower.
Matt to his
delight was sitting in the front. Peter’s driving was, by Munich standards, pretty sedate but he had
Rab on the edge of her seat a few times. I was not too worried because a
Mercedes is a pretty well built car, but I did wonder if it would be considered
rude if I wore my seat belt. Talking of which that reminds me of something.
There is a very large Mercedes hearse parked just outside the hotel next door.
A number of theories have been advanced as to what it is doing there, but the
general feeling is that it is not a very good advertisement.
We got to Dachau after a drive of
about half an hour through some very pretty countryside. It is very difficult
to describe our feelings about the camp. It was fascinating and interesting,
which sounds ghoulish because at the same time it was horrific and appalling
and so terribly sad. And to think it had
all happened in such a short space of time and that it is happening again in
places like South Africa.
How can people not remember and learn from their memories? Matt found the whole
tour of great interest and we had a long discussion about the rise and fall of
the Third Reich.
After
leaving Dachau we had a quick side trip to see the Olympic Stadium which has what
Peter feels is the most expensive roof in the whole world – DM120
million. It looks very nice but he told us that the gentle rolling hills to the
South of the Stadium are man made and consist of the rubble of old Munich destroyed during
World War II. What a field for archaeologists of the future.
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| The monastery at Ettal |
On to the
Autobahn then and Matt found it fascinating that we were soon hurtling along
towards the Alps at 190 kph (about 120 mph). Although the rain had
stopped there were still a lot of clouds about so we didn’t have much of a
distant view but the fields and mountains we drove past were lovely – so green
everywhere. By lunchtime we had reached Ettal, an attractive little dorp (village) one of whose claim to fame is
a large Benedictine Monastery. We lunched extremely well at the Benedictinerhof
Hotel. Matt had – wait for it! – schnitzel! - for a change. Rab had a most
interesting dish – pork fillet stuffed with snails and I had venison with
mushroom sauce with pear and potato noodles. The bill, including Peter’s
venison stew was DM110. the monks
make a local liqueur rather like Strega and also brew their own beer, which was
OK, but nothing marvellous.
After lunch
Matt wanted to get a shot of the three of us with the car (I suspect the car
was the most important feature of his shot!) (Matt had his own camera at this stage – an Olympus Pen- and took some
good shots – mainly of motor cars, his obsession at the time.)
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| Lunch break - the hotel dog is in the shade |
We had a
good laugh because his photographic efforts were somewhat complicated by the
attentions of a very friendly hotel dog. Matt was convinced he was about to
lift his leg on him. We went up to the monastery and saw the magnificent
Baroque church – a little too sumptuous for my liking but involving an
incredible amount of work. From there we drove through Oberammergau the site of the Passion Play
which is done every ten years. We didn’t stop there as it was swarming with
tourists and we didn’t want to buy anything, so just drove around the town.
Most of the houses have frescoes on their exterior walls with subjects ranging
from Struwelpeter, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood to the lives and
deaths of several saints.
We had
another laugh when we were looking at one of these decorated houses when Peter
suddenly started shouting “Look out! Vorsicht! Achtung! Attention! Etc” we were
trying to see what he was pointing to but he became more agitated, telling us
to “Look out for the mosquito!” It finally dawned on us that he was warning us
about a bee which had somehow got into the car! Matt had a quiet attack of
hysterics at the realisation.
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| One of the cascades at Linderhof |
After
another drive through outstanding countryside, we came to Linderhof the only
palace of the three built by King Ludwig II which he finished. There was one
helluva crowd there but Peter jumped the queue for us with some dexterity and
after jostling around for a while in another queue we went on a tour around the
palace. What a place! Mills and Arthur (Rab’s
mother and her husband who rather liked a bit of gilt) would have loved it.
In fact Matt even said the palace not only looked like Granny’s flat, it smelt
like it.
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| Fountaun at Linderhof |
It was all
fascinating and we were only sorry we did not have time to look around the
Grotto which he had built in the garden. But it was now after 17.00 and we were
still more than a hundred kilometres from Munich.
The drive back was uneventful except that Matt was chuffed when Peter got the
car up to 200 kph. He took us to the site of the Oktoberfest on the way and
showed us the Hoffbrau Haus – just as well we didn’t go there last night.
A snack at
Wendy’s for Matt’s sake and so to bed.
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