Day 5 - Tues. June 14, 2011: Munich and Nuremburg

The morning started with a very special tour and visit at the BMW Research and Innovations Center in Munich. This is the "think tank" of BMW. Here they design and test new models of BMW brand cars. The facility is equipped with 2 wind tunnels to test aerodynamics. These wind tunnels can simulate wind of up to 180 mph. This facility also runs tests on cars in different climate and weather conditions. We learned that is takes around 2 and a half years to develop a new car at BMW.
Our next visit was to Dachau, the first of the Nazi concentration camps. We learned that Dachau was not an extermination camp, meaning they did not kill prisoners using a gas chamber, even though they built one. The living conditions were so bad that prisoners died by starvation and disease. The barracks were built to house 200 prisoners, but often they held 2,000 prisoners. It was also interesting to learn that Dachau mainly held political prisoners with only a small percentage of the prisoners being Jewish. American soldiers liberated 42,000 prisoners in Dachau in 1945.
After spending several hours at Dachau we traveled about 90 minutes by bus to Nuremberg. We went on a walking tour of Nuremberg and ate dinner at a traditional German restaurant. I ordered sausages (which Nuremberg is known for) and potato salad.

Above: The exterior of the BMW Center for Research and Innovations. We were not allowed to take pictures of the interior.

Above: The memorial at Dachau. It depicts prisoners entangled in barbed wire fences. This portrays the message that the prisoners decided when and how to die - not the SS.

Above: A barracks at Dachau. The barracks has been re-created as all of the original ones were destroyed after the war.

Above: A typical sleeping barracks at Dachau.

Above: The original toilets at Dachau.

Above: Even though the original barracks have been destroyed their foundations remain so you can get an idea of the size of a barracks. 

Above: The crematorium at Dachau. This was used to cremate the bodies of the prisoners who died of starvation or disease.

Above: The inside of the gas chamber at Dachau which was never used.

Above: Standing on a bridge in Nuremberg.

Above: A cool clock on St. Mary's church in Nuremberg.

Above: My dinner of grilled sausages and potato salad.

Above: Scenes of Nuremberg on our walk back to the hotel from dinner.