day 15 of 51

ok, so today is saturday, august 7, in the zear of our lord, 2010...daz 15 of 51



i cannot tell you how much it means to have friends following this blog and checking in either with emails, facebooks, or comments here...family...lifelong friends and new ones too



the past week has been very hectic...and i am of course behind...i know that i tend to ramble...anne harris told me in a facebook message a few minutes ago that shes enjoying mz rambles...well...more to come...i am about 20 pages in my journal behind in updating the blog...so here it goes...and what i dont finish in the am...may be several days because i am planning to take several overnight trains in a row...but that of course may change by morning.

also...while in oberammagau had difficulties with internet...had sent some posts to my email which i just uploaded...but a big chunk didnt make it...so that will come later as well.


1050 pm monday, 8-2
now on train 6 today heading to vernona, italy...hoping to get overnight to munich

lesson learned..when you know where you want to go...go ahead and make the danged plans

couldnt get anything into swityerland from montecarlo and and missed by just a few minutes train to nice which couldve connected

decided to go to milan...more trains there and truly thought the girl at the ticket counter was an idiot

determined on the way to milan to go to paris via overnight....waited in line 40 minutes...told had to get on train...to late to buy in teh station..where the hell am i...washington national airport

probably should have gone to paris from monte carlo

then realiyed overnight from verona to munich...too late to buy so jumped train at 1030 to verona...then hoped and prayed for spot on 1 am to munich

sat in compartment with 2 great milanese...not married...at least not to each other....and ok, not traveling togetzher either...we were just all in the same compartment

luigi...soccer league president, 12 squads, 12 yr olds...funny as shit...said i was fat...honest too i guess

marina...professor of biology at universitz.l..had done workshops at duke...she served as translator

great conversations

glad i brought a tide stick...quicklz removed ink stain from khaki shorts as i dont know when i will have another bidet-washing machien

didnt need my passport to enter or leave monoco...but did need it for the casino

8-4
the trip mondaz night was from hell...did make train to munich...got a lower berth with a mother and son heading back to amsterdam...they did not offer me any weed...hahahaha

no one came and checked tickets so effectivelz i guess i bummed the ride...though i do have of course the global eurail pass...a hobo if you will...glad i didnt have to jump the train

arrived no problems at 630 in munich...am...spent some time in internet cafe trying to catch up on blog...made some...not enough...headway

took subwaz to dracau...first o the nayi concentration camps on the site of a former munitions factory from wwi. when camp first started, locals glad for jobs, later, horrified taht their town would forever be linked to the terror which took place there.

it is designated todaz as teh dracau concentration camp and memorial site. when you enter the main gate, it appears as a fortress, heavy, menacing iron gates...once inside with a 180 degree veiw of most of the camp, firs thought was...how could all the torture, starvation, sickness and death have happened here? it looks like a park...you can almost imagine having a picnic...in some ways...was quiet...gorgeous trees..........but then...it sinks in...it did happen here...all due to he twisted, perverted demeaner of one sick jerk ...wanted to use another word...but my nephews and nieces are reading this...hitler and his s.s. ...and then you just want to vomit till there is nothing left but dry heaves.

dachau...pronounced duck-cau

at times the emotions were overwhelming...while i photographed some areas...i chose not to take shots of the dorms, locker rooms, crematoriums, gas chamber...ironically never used here...just didnt feel it appropriate

this was one site i was particularly glad i was alone on...something like this you dont need to be with others...or in a tour group...deal with the enormity of it alone

it is incomprehensible that hitler was allowed to take people...just because of who they were...not only jews, but priests, gays, gypsies, and POWs and submt them to medical experiments, starvation, slave labor, torture and ultimately execution

a friend recentlz told me of someone close to him who was subjected to medical experimentation bz the nazis in a concentration camp...she lived to be in her 80s...imagine living with those memories for so many years...how does one do it...forgetting...forgiveness...therapy

another recent story of a friend whose uncle was captured at normandy, spent the rest of the war in a camp...but made it out and lived a full life, never speaking of his experiences. remember, ross´s grandfather lived but 2 years after his experiences in a camp.

as they passed through the gates, prisoners were absolutely powerless to help themselves...stripped of property, rights, humility and became a number

with the camps, the nazis formed a reserve of labor...many needef for arms products. bmw also leased prisoners for airplain engine production...i wasnt clear if bmw used them as schindler did ...to try to save them...or rather as the japanese did our boys from bataan. side note...imagine that...when i toured walter reed hospital, the generators were made by mitsubishi which powered the hospital...i guess the army has either forgiven the company or forgotten.

while exiting the chapel, i tripped and fell in the gravel...no injuries...but as i was getting up, i thought, if, as a prisoner, i had fallen like this, accidently, perhaps while moving stones or some other chore, i likely would have been executed right there...shot dead as 4 o´clock, simply for falling

the grave of the unkown is quite beautiful...simple....with a wooden cross in a lush, green setting with moss growing from the arms of it...and a simple marble marker.

dachau left me emotionally and physically exhaused...took a gray line tour of the citz rather than hoofing it...hated to miss strolling around munichs central park nude but it was raining and no one was out...should have done it anyway...needed a shower

saw mainlz what i wanted to see form the coach
church of our lady with its twin domes
english garden
royal residence and garden
nymphenburg palace
and more

left george in a locker at the station and took day pack only to my home for the night, the tent.