Travelling Simply

Travel recommendations, ideas and observations from two simple travellers

Author: Smita (Page 8 of 16)

Dachau: A day trip from Munich

28/11/2019 / / 1 Comment

Teenage school children are wandering around the open grounds with their teachers. We are surprised to see them. Our initial feelings are that this is not a place for young adults.

After a few days exploring the beautiful Bavarian capital, Munich, we are almost ready to travel further north. A day trip is planned combined with collecting our car.

The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site is a mere 25 kilometres from Munich and easily accessible by train or car and after visiting some of the more popular sights in Munich over the last few days, there is no excuse not to make the trip.

A feeling of trepidation and unease describes our mood on the short journey there. This is our first visit to a former Nazi concentration camp. We have no idea what to expect or how we will react.

Entrance to Dachau is free and there is the opportunity to take one of the two daily tours in English or hire an audio guide at a small cost. We opt to self-guide.

The entrance to the camp is a short walk from the Visitor Centre. Over the metal gate is an inscription “Arbeit Macht Frei” which translates to “Work makes you free”. We walk through the same gate through which thousands of prisoners entered.

The Dachau Concentration Camp holds a special significance in history. This was the Nazi regime’s first concentration camp and the prototype for subsequent camps. Established in March 1933 a few weeks after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, the camp was initially built to house political activists but evolved into a death camp holding Jews, artists and intellectuals, physically and mentally handicapped, and homosexuals, who Hitler thought were unfit for his new Germany.

The one remaining dormitory left on the site. All remaining dormitories were razed to commemorate those who suffered and died at the behest of the Nazi regime

Designed to house 6,000 people, the camp was used to house over 65,000 at the time of liberation at the end of April 1945. The camp was the longest-running of all the concentration camps with over 200,000 people imprisoned in the concentration camp and its subcamps over its 12-year existence.

While the gas chamber was never used, the crematorium was well used; malnutrition, disease, overwork and execution claimed one out of five prisoners, and some prisoners were subjected to brutal medical experiments.

Crematorium at Dachau concentration camp

Today, the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site is a place of remembrance. Visitors can freely walk around the walled grounds, visit the remaining dormitory and the museum which provides a historical chronology of events. There are several commemorative sites dedicated to different religions dotted around the grounds. We visit each and the museum which provides a detailed and graphic chronology of events within the camp walls.

The museum provides a graphic history of events

Tree-lined avenue to one of the Remembrance sites

The memorial site is a place of education. For those interested to learn more, the Education Department of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site offers seminars and special guided tours dedicated to more isolated topics and offers guided tours for school classes.

Departing through the gate that many never had a chance to do, we agree this has been a sombre and sobering experience.

Should the schoolchildren have been visiting? On reflection we agree, to prevent a reoccurrence of this nature, this is the best place for a reminder and a history lesson on the atrocities of war.

Top 10 things you must do in Munich

27/11/2019 / / 1 Comment
  1. Find a spot in front of the New Town Hall in Marienplatz, Munich’s famous medieval central square and fall under the spell of the glockenspiel when it comes to life two to three times a day (depending on the season). Prepare to be mesmerised as life-size mechanical figures re-enact moments in Bavarian history to the music of the bells in the tower.
  2. Spend Sunday afternoon at Munich’s oldest beer garden, Augustiner Keller in Hackerbrucke. Enjoy an afternoon relaxing over a local beer and a meal while indulging in a little people (there will be plenty) watching. Sunday is a great time to go as families congregate under the chestnut trees to while away a few hours socialising while children amuse themselves in the playground.
  3. Take yourself away from the hum of central Munich to walk along the shady pathways in Luitpold Park. Located in Schwabing the park is popular with locals and has many cycling and walking trails. There are wonderful views of the city from the viewpoint on Luitpold Hill and on a clear day, you will be treated to a glimpse of the Alps.
  4. Sample fresh Bavarian food over lunch at the Viktualienmarkt in the heart of Munich. Then, take a stroll to admire the stalls brimming with local delicacies and products.

    Viktualienmarkt, Munich

    Viktualienmarkt, the central marketplace

  5. Book a morning or afternoon tour with a local Global Greeter. We spent an informative afternoon with Wolfgang, our greeter who showed us around his city. We had already walked past or visited most of the sites. However, he brought our attention to the detail and told us stories behind them providing a whole new insight into this wonderful city.
  6. Take an early morning walk up and down Ludwigstrasse, Munich’s most regal streets. The early morning light gives the magnificent buildings and the Siegestor, the triumphal arch even more grandeur.

    Segeistor, Munich

    The triumphal arch of Munich, the Sisgestor

  7. Make a day trip to Dachau to visit the concentration camp memorial. Only a few kilometres from Munich and easily accessible by public transport, there is no excuse not to make a visit.
  8. Take a walk around the Olympia Park built for the 1972 Olympic Games, pay a visit to the “Walk of Stars” to see if your favourite athlete has left a handprint, then walk a little further on to the BMW Welt and Museum to spend the day at the showroom. Be impressed and inspired inspecting and sitting in the huge range of cars on show in an equally impressive building.

    Olympia Park, Munich

    Olympia Park,, 1972 Olympic Park site

  9. Spend an afternoon at Schloss Nymphenburg. Situated on the outskirts of Munich city, the Baroque castle was built as a summer residence for the Bavarian rulers. On a much smaller scale, the palace and grounds resemble that of the Palace of Versailles in France.
  10. Spend the day wandering in the grounds of the beautiful Englischer Garten, one of largest city parks in the world. Stop lakeside for lunch at the Seehaus beer garden then watch the keen surfers who are out summer and winter in Eisbach, a little channel of the Isar River in the park.20180702_12245920180703_123707

A part of Athens you’ll love to see

26/10/2019 / / 0 Comments

The trains into central Athens are not running because of general strikes. We arrived in Greece at the height of public opposition to austerity measures proposed by the government to deal with the country’s burgeoning debt crisis.

A hasty change of plan. Instead of taking the train to Syntagma Square and changing to the local metro for the short ride to Keramikos, we take the long bus ride into central Athens and a taxi to our boutique aparthotel, McQueen.

The taxi driver is entrepreneurial. Throughout the drive, he plays a DVD on the highlights around Athens and as we arrive, offers to show us the sights of Athens and surrounds for a day during our stay.

Kerimikos is close to the city without being in the mayhem of central Athens in the summer. The hotel has a 24-hour check-in, the staff greet us with a smile and are quick to provide helpful information throughout our stay and, our room is spacious and comfortable.

We wonder if we have made the right choice though. It is late afternoon and the streets are deserted! We expected Athens to be a busy metropolis! Have we miscalculated and placed ourselves too far from the action?

Eager to get out and see things we take a stroll along the back streets of the neighbourhood to check out a local eatery recommended by the hotel staff for its home-style Greek food. We find it and see that it’s a family-owned business with a small menu. It looks like the locals in the neighbourhood come here for their takeaway meals and, as in other parts of Europe, the evening meal is taken quite late in the day. They are only just starting to prepare the dishes.

With a map in hand, we walk in the other direction. The area around the metro station is busy with young people sitting drinking coffee and chatting in cafes. The real identity of the area isn’t revealed until we return later in the evening. The precinct has transformed into a vibrant eating and cultural destination. Clubs, bars and restaurants are brimming with young Athenians and maybe a few tourists who have discovered this hub just past the ancient Keramikos cemetery (we recommend reserving an afternoon to wander through this vast archaeological site). Too late, we have already had our dinner. We do end up spending a bit of time enjoying a meal or two in our secret neighbourhood later in our stay.

Disappointed and thinking the area had not much to offer we had walked the short distance to Adrianou Way. The “Way” is lined with restaurants and is touristy with restaurant staff touting for business offering free wine and dessert as an enticement. We ate along the “Way” a couple of times during our stay. The meals were fresh and wholesome, and very reasonably priced. Of course, we took up the wine offers. A plate of watermelon at the end of the meal was always on the house and there was live entertainment while we ate.

We find ourselves mesmerised by Keramikos and its warm evening charm. Every day as we pass through on our way to wander the streets of Athens, we see bands of young Grecians enjoying themselves in the street cafes. There is no obvious sign of a country under financial stress. And, there is no indication whatsoever of how this place transforms after dark.

We have also hit the jackpot with finding entertainment. Keramikos’ industrial past includes an old gasworks which has been reinvented to become an open-air cultural centre called the Technopolis. Tired after a long day of exploring but keen to learn more about Greek culture, we buy tickets to a music festival. Thinking we will leave after the first performance we find it so captivating that we stay to listen to the support artist before the highlight of the evening, Greek icon Dimitra arrives on stage. Our idea of what Greek music and entertainment are changes by the time we stroll out of the centre a little before midnight. Each performance was sensational and so vastly different from the other.

What of the chaos caused by the strikes and protests you ask? Having watched disturbing scenes of the riots during past protests in Syntagma Square on TV, we are wary of getting caught up in anything nasty! However, we are in Greece to see what makes the country tick and that means being out and about in the “hot” areas while being mindful about what is going on around us and ensuring we take appropriate measures to remain safe.

It is a blisteringly hot summer afternoon that we emerge from the metro in Syntagma Square to walk the short distance to watch the changing of the guards at the memorial to the Unknown Soldier in front of Parliament buildings. A highly spectacular and ceremonial affair, it is worthwhile stopping by to watch.

There are a few other tourists like us watching while behind us protesters are gathered to show politicians their displeasure at further public sector cuts. They remain quietly respectful during the ceremony and resume their chants on completion of the change of guard. Police are on hand in abundance to ensure public safety. It is, however, not long before we watch in bemusement the police put down their guns and join the protest! TV cameramen and reporters are weaving their way amongst the peaceful protest capturing shots and stories for the world to see and hear. A while later, their job complete, the cameras disappear and it’s time for the protestors to have a break. They settle down in groups on the road for a chinwag or a little snooze!

We smile quietly to ourselves at the congenial atmosphere surrounding us before we stroll back to our new found haven, Keramikos. It’s a tough life protesting.

If you enjoyed this post, you may like to read about our time on the beautiful Greek Island of Santorini.

Four fantastic cities to visit in The Netherlands

29/09/2019 / / 2 Comments

Our driving route in The Netherlands was inspired by a river cruise route

We are not ready for a river cruise and we want to see some of the smaller towns in Holland so we decided to drive part of the route on our way to Luxemburg parallel to the river route.

Our arrival was through Belgium. We had collected our car in Paris and made our way through northwestern France, Belgium and into The Netherlands for six days.

Not wanting to spend all our time in the bigger cities, we had researched some smaller towns to stop and spend time in:

  • Kinderdijk
  • Amersfoort
  • Thorn; and
  • Maastricht

Kinderdijk

Kinderdijk arrived on our list while we were deciding our first stop on the way to Amsterdam. A dull day was instantly brightened by the pretty towns and villages of southern Holland. Doorsteps were brimming pots filled with colourful flowers, as were the gardens.

Cyclists were ambling along the bicycle paths along the banks of waterways and along trails among the dykes. A small space in between some houses gave us our first glimpse. Not one, but half a dozen traditional windmills dotted around the countryside.

Rounding the corner past the village that we saw the extent of the complex. Nineteen working windmills set a typical postcard scene of the Dutch countryside.

On a cloudy afternoon, there were many visitors like us at the UNESCO World Heritage site. There are now pathways to walk or cycle for a close up look at the windmills and learn how the Netherlands has used them to drain their soil for habitation and cultivation for over a thousand years and the important part they still play today in a country where so much of the land is below sea level.

We recommend a visit to see these icons whether it be a day trip from Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Kinderdijk is 100km from Amsterdam and 25km from Rotterdam.

Kinderdijk windmills

Amersfoort

Amersfoort in central Holland has a quaint Old Town. Surrounded by a circular network of canals, we found the Old Town full of medieval buildings, small canals and alleyways opening into squares. It was easy to walk around and relatively people free during our visit. After the maddening crowds of Amsterdam, it was pleasant to take ourselves away from the tourist track and step back in time. There are several significant museums in the city, however, we were happy to wander and take in the atmosphere of the Old Town at our leisure.

Make a stop if you are driving from Amsterdam to Utrecht or further on.

Amersfoort

Thorn

Located in southern Holland, many come to see the extraordinary little “white town” of Thorn and to bicycle along the canals and around the town’s countryside. It was a sunny day, which made the whitewashed houses of Thorn even more impressive.

Most of the visitors were Dutch which made it even more special for us. Not a tour bus or group in sight. We were chuffed to have found this exclusive place which wasn’t overcrowded with tourists.

The town is not just scenic. It has a rich history back to the 10th century and, there is a story about why the houses are white. A beautiful abbey, established as a monastery for noblewomen is a centre point for the town and a wander down a tree-lined path at the end of the town takes you past country homes to a waterway lookout.

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Maastricht

We added Maastricht to our itinerary in the early stages of planning. The city appears on a number of river cruise itineraries.

Not only does the city have a history which dates back to the Neanderthals, but it also holds a place in modern history; the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in the city in 1992 lead to the creation of the European Union.

We put aside a couple of full days to stay and explore. The city was easy to walk around, we did not see any tour buses or groups during our stay and, not a riverboat came into sight on our walks along the riverbanks. We strolled through the town, along the narrow streets and squares on both sides of the Maas River while locals went about the daily business. There was plenty of people-watching and a walking tour with a local Greeter provided us with an insight into the history behind the churches, historic buildings and life in one of the oldest cities in Holland.

It was definitely worth stopping to stay than merely passing through on a day visit.

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Interested in including one or more of these cities on your itinerary? Look for more in-depth blogs on each city with our recommendations on what to see and do. Coming soon.

A secret village in Paris

28/07/2019 / / 5 Comments

Our accommodation is a little away from the centre of Paris on this visit, across the street from St Paul Village. It is within walking distance to all the iconic landmarks and gives us an opportunity to pretend to be Parisians and be tourists.

There is another village tucked away from the visitor’s gaze, Butte Bergeyre.

We set off early on a Saturday morning to find it. The streets are relatively empty apart from a few walkers like us getting an early start to the day. The city is quietly awakening.

A tourist stops us at the Place de Bastille to ask us whe Eiffel Tower is. It’s about an hour easy stroll. He decides it is too far to walk there. We hope he makes the effort to see it at some point in his visit!

Place de la Republique

Place de la Republique in the early morning light

Through Place de Republique and up the slight incline we walk taking in the change in scenery. Shop fronts are covered with grafitti covered roller doors so we can only imagine what is behind.

We pass by crowded clubs where patrons have spilled onto the street clasping onto the remnants of the night before. They are peacefully chatting and no one appears overly rowdy or intoxicated as they make way for us to pass by.

A little further on, the shop signs are written in Chinese. We are in Paris’ Chinatown district. The streets are still deserted, but we spot a couple of Chinese matrons taking their morning walk too.

Looking about us as we reach the top of the street, we notice that the atmosphere has once again changed. A boulangerie is opening up and also the local grocery store, large apartment building line Rue Mannin the street by the park which we have come to find.

Joggers run past us and the inhabitants of the area are out walking their dogs. We are looking for the steps at 21 Rue Mannin which are supposed to take us up to our destination.

Is it because we are so busy looking at everything else around us, or the fact that the steps are not obvious nor signposted that we walk straight past them? Or, that this is why Butte Bergeyre is a secret little spot.

We backtrack a little and climb the concrete steps to be greeted with narrow and empty cobblestoned streets lined with villas. Some are covered in ivy and others have their street frontage lined with flower pots. Not a soul is in sight as we quietly pick our way through the streets conscious of being the intruders in this haven for a select group of Parisians.

Butte Bergeyre

One of the villas in Butte Bergeyre

It is not hard to find the spot we have come searching for. At the far end of the small village we come to a well cultivated communal garden and the village vineyard which produces up to 100 bottles of Pinot Gris very year.

Butte Bergeyre

The pretty communal garden

We sit down on the perfectly positioned park bench and look out over the grapevines at the scenic view over Paris and the Sacre Couer.

Sacre Couer

Sacre Couer from the bench at the end of the village

How we got there – Butte Bergeyre is located in the 19th arrondissement. We walked there from Marais in the 4th arrondissement taking approximately 1 hour to get there, mostly because we were stopping along the way to observe our surroundings; take photos; and give a directions.

Another thing. On our way back, we also visited Cimitiere Pere Lachaise located in the 20th arrondissement. The beautiful garden cemetery is a tranquil sanctuary with rues of ornate tombs including Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and Chopin.

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