Jack's Travel Blog

Octoberfest – Munchen, Germany – 2024.

Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site – 2024.

On Wednesday, May 29, 2024 to pay respects to the innocent victims of Hitler’s Nazi regime I participated in a guided walking tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. I walked to the München Hauptbahnhof train station and took the S-2 commuter train, 21 minutes to the city of Dachau and then the public 726 bus, 45 minutes to the Memorial Site. (44 second video below.)

You can also walk to the Memorial Site from the train station along the “Path of Remembrance”. The two mile path also takes about 45 minutes. The path follows the route that most prisoners took to return to the concentration camp.

My guide provided a respectful and educational overview of the horrors inflicted by the fascist Nazi SS and their collaborators during the Third Reich of World War II.

“Dachau,” stands for all the concentration camps that the National Socialists built in their sphere of influence. Today, by German law, EVERY Germany student must visit a concentration camp and learn of its horrors.

Dachau was Heinrich Himmler’s first concentration camp. It was established in 1933 primarily for the detention of political prisoners and eventually, undesirables of the Third Reich.

I had a somber walk through the remaining buildings and facilities of the infamous camp. It now serves as a memorial site and exhibition space showcasing the ruins of the notorious camp and providing insights into the Nazi’s regime’s rule during World War II.

My guided commented that the SS were cowards. As a German man you were either sent to the Eastern Front to fight the Russians or to torture prisoners in Concentration Camps!

The guide also commented that the residents of Dachau could not have avoided seeing hundreds of prisoners marching in and out of the concentration camp to work as slave workers on farms and in factories!

Nördlingen, Germany, 2024.

Click the above Nördlingen ***Coat of Arms*** to hear a 20 second video of the Church Bells that ring every 15 minutes from Daniel.

11,700 BC, Area was inhabited.
260 AD, A Roman villa was present.
898, first mentioned in recorded history.
1215, was granted city rights by Emperor Frederick II.
1327, present-day city circular wall was built.
1427, construction of Saint George’s Church was started.

1589-1598, Modern witch trials.
1849, Royal Bavarian State Railways arrived.
1945, WWII air raid killed 33 people.
1970, The ending scenes from the 1971 version of Willy Wonka were filmed in Nördlingen, West Germany.
2013-2023. Antetype for the city in Attack on Titan, TV series.

0 Hotel-Café-Konditorei Altreuter, where Uncle Jack stayed for a night.
1 St. Georg’s Church, is regarded as one of the largest and most beautiful churches in southern Germany.
2 Rathaus (Town Hall), the 13th century “stone house” has been used without interruption since 1382, thus being one of the oldest Town Halls in Germany.
8 The large Spital with its church, its geriatric care centre and its warehouse, was built in the 13th century. This was originally used as a municipal home for the care of the sick, the old and the poor.
13 Baldinger Tor, after the town siege in 1634 the gate was seriously damaged, causing the collapse in 1703.
22 Salvatorkiche, its construction was started in 1401 as an Abby Church. Consecrated in 1422. It is now used as a Catholic parish church.
25 Reiminger Tor, it is the oldest of Nördlingen’s five gates from the 14th century.
27 Deininger Tor, this gate was built from 1516 – 1519. In 1634 it was seriously damaged in a battle with Protestants during the Thirty Year War.

**Click on the above link for more information on the other medieval cities and villages Uncle Jack visited.**

Dinkelsbürl, Germany, 2024.

I drove around 30 miles from Rothenburg ob der Tauber on the morning of Monday, May 27, 2024, to Dinkelsbürl, Germany. This should have been about a 40 minute drive. I was down to 5€’s and stopped often trying to find an ATM that would accept a US Credit Card. Many of the small shops and cafes I had been visiting didn’t accept credit cards! After arriving in Dinkelsbürl I found a bank on the east side of Dr-Martin-Luther-Straße, that had an ATM that accepted my US Credit Card!

Dinkelsbürl is often referred to Rothenburg’s little sister. It merited a short stop of a couple hours for me which included lunch at an outdoor cafe. Dinkelsbürl includes a moat, 27 towers, gates and also a preserved medieval 1.6 mile wall surrounding this town also (too thin to walk on) but a little bit less touristy than Rothenburg.

I parked in the Inselwiese lot by the Wörnitz Gate for a minimal charge. Most lots are free. I chose the Inner Town walkabout, I’m told the Outer Town walkabout is quite nice too.

The special thing about Dinkelsbühl is the 780 house in old town, almost 75% of these houses are older than 350 years.

Around 730, a Franconian king’s court deemed this area the starting point for a settlement.
10th century, the fortification for Dinkelsbühl was constructed with a moat and Dinkelsbühl was started.
1274, Dinkelsbühl is a former free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.
1733, The New Town Hall was built!
1826, King Ludwig I, issued a regulation forbidding the tearing down of its wall and towers.
1961, The background of the film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) was filmed on location in West Germany, at Dinkelsbühl.
Since 2007, The Summer Breeze, an open air heavy metal festival has been held in Dinkelsbühl.

**Click on the above link for more information on the other medieval cities and villages Uncle Jack has visited.**

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany, 2024.

**Click on the above link for more information on the other medieval cities and villages Jack visited.**

Bad Windsheim, Germany, 2024.

On Saturday, May 25, 2024 I drove 25 miles from, Röttingen to Bad Windsheim, Germany in about 40 minutes on the way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany for a couple days.

First, a German town with the name “Bad” indicates this is a town with a spa, usually from a natural mineral spring.

I chose to spend two hours in the Franconian (Franken-Therme) Open-Air Folk Museum. The museum consists of more than one hundred vintage rural buildings, some of them furnished with authentic furniture from their period.

Röttingen, Germany, 2024.

FYI; I had lunch of beer and wine with several bicyclers which had just peddled into Röttingen. These were not athletes preparing for the next big race! They were men and women of every size and shape having a good time peddling on the Romantische Straße paved bicycle route.

Weikersheim, Germany, 2024.

Click on the above link for more information on the other medieval Towns and villages Jack visited.

Lauda-Königshofen, Germany, 2024.

Photo of a Tauber Valley vineyard, by Ilhan Balta.

Brezel is the German word for “pretzel”. It refers to a traditional leavened dough pastry that’s beloved throughout Germany.
Pretzels are made from yeast dough that’s been enhanced with butter for softness. After proofing, it’s divided and rolled into 30 cm long strands which are then shaped into traditional pretzel form.
Before baking, the strands are boiled for about 30 seconds in a solution of baking soda or more traditionally, in lye. They’re then sprinkled with toppings and baked in an oven until that beautiful golden brown pretzel color is achieved.
Sweet pretzels are also popular in Germany, especially in the form of a St. Martin’s pretzel that’s traditionally sold around the 11th of November (St. Martin’s Day). St. Martin’s pretzels are made from yeasted dough and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before serving.
The Palm Sunday pretzel is also a well-known sweet pretzel, sold around Palm Sunday. You can also find the so-called Olgabrezeln – named after Queen Olga of Württemberg – that are made from puff pastry.
The main difference between Bavarian and Swabian pretzels is that the former is evenly thick throughout while the latter is noticeably thicker in the middle.
Pretzels are a beloved snack all across Germany. You can typically find them sold at market stands, in supermarkets, and in bakeries.