North and Northwest of Munich

To the Northwest, but closer to Munich itself is Dachau. A ride on the S Bahn followed by a short, well marked bus ride, takes you to one of the first of Hitler's concentration camps. Initially a place to imprison and enslave political prisoners and other viewed as unwanted by the German state, Dachau eventually served the same role as all camps by the end of the war. A place to exterminate Jews. Most the barracks are gone, but the foundations remain. Two lines of poplar trees, planted by early prisoners survives to this day. On the site of Barracks 20, on my last visit, a ribbon remembered the students of the Business Academy of Prague, who had been sent to Dachau after being taken from their homeland. At the far end are four memorials, one for each religion whose followers suffered in the camp. Jewish, Catholic, Christian and Russian Orthodox.

Munich is a bit like Denver in the sense that look one direction out of the city and the land is flat, look the other way and there are massive snow capped mountains. This note is about the non mountain view daytrips from Munich to the north. We'll get to the south and the Alps in two separate notes.

`Similar to areas such as the Rheinland and Berlin, much of Munich was bombed to rubble in WW2. Fortunately other places in Bavaria were less scarred by the war. There are several towns and city with their medieval or classical cores well in tact. I will list a couple of these, though I admit to never having been, and then move onto a couple spots I have been to.

• Regensburg is about an hour and a half train ride to the north, northeast and features what is one of the most well preserved medieval city cores in Germany. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Germany. A single night's stay in town gives a visitor the chance to enjoy a quiet evening or morning without the crush of daytrippers that can dominate the midday hours.

• Augsburg is a city to the northwest and is a noted university town. It is the oldest city in Bavaria and was founded in Roman times. About an hour from Munich on regional DB service, half an hour on ICE.

Finally, and I have no pictures for this … it was from my first trip to Europe. I was there on business and I hadn’t thought to bring a camera and cell phone pictures from back then are crap. I had a Sunday to myself in the suburb of Friesing in between a conference ending on a Saturday and a Monday morning meeting in Munich. A German coworker suggested a day trip to Landshut (about 25 minutes to the northeast). It was on the same rail line as Friesing, so it would be difficult for a Europe newby to get lost. A 3/4 km walk from the train station and across the Isar river leads to a well preserved gothic, commercial centre. There is a big cathedral of course, but more interestingly there is an old, old church that has been transformed into an art galley space. If there is an open show, it is a very interesting place to take in an exhibit. Finally this might be a good chance to take in the German fast food burger chain Kochloffel. They have been chased out of the big cities by McD, BK and 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️, but they remain in the smaller towns not big enough to garner the attention of the American chains. Also - apparently 2023 is the Year of the Landschutt wedding (this happens every 4 years), a ginormous medeival wedding re-endactment that involces like 6000 people in costumes to recreate. Not sure the dates etc…but if you are in the area.