Munich: The City of the Beer Miracle

It's no wonder we felt so at home in Munich - it's the only other city in the world (aside from Milwaukee) where you can spend twelve hours in a bar drinking beer and not be judged for it. We didn't actually spend twelve hours drinking beer, but we did spend the entire day exploring the city and learning about its history.
The first thing we saw was the New Town Hall, which, ironically, is older than the Old Town Hall (the Old Town Hall had to be rebuilt after it was completely destroyed in World War II). On the New Town Hall is the Glockenspiel, which according to our tour guide Liz is the number two most overrated tourist attraction in Europe (in Prague they told us the astronomical clock was number two and the Glockenspiel was number one). The top part of the clock depicts a wedding between an Austrian princess and a Bavarian prince. There was even a joust! The bottom part depicts the dance that the barrel-makers did to celebrate the end of the Black Plague. In the middle was a guy who did a special dance called the "party thrust." According to Liz, "His job was to go around thrusting in your children's faces!"


Then we walked to a cathedral called Frauenkirche which is said to have been built by the devil. The legend says that the devil was passing through Munich when he came across a church that was in the process of being built. He walked in through the front door, noticed that there was not very much light coming into the church, and decided that he wanted this to be a church dedicated to his own worship. He found the architect and offered him a deal - if the architect didn't put any more windows in the church, he would have his helpers come down and the building would be finished in 20 years. The architect accepted, and every night the devil's helpers would come down and work on the church.
Sure enough, in 2o years' time, the church was finished, and the devil returned to inspect his new place of worship. However, this time he came in through the side door, and saw that there was light flooding the inside. He sought out the architect and asked what was going on. The architect replied that the devil had instructed him not to put any more windows in the building, and when the devil had originally come through the front door, the pillars on the inside had blocked all the light. Realizing that he had been tricked, the devil became furious and stomped his foot so hard that it left a mark in the floor of the church. It is said that the reason the corner on which the church is located is so windy is because the devil runs around and around the church, causing mayhem because he is still furious.

After the devil's church, we walked to another cathedral that had been reconstructed after World War II. One of the crosses on top of the church was facing the wrong way, and the explanation as to why is called "The Beer Miracle." The story goes that one night there was a terrible thunderstorm, with torrential downpours and severe winds. The cross was blown right off of the tower, and no one who worked at the church wanted to climb up to put it back in place. They went searching for someone who was brave enough to do it, and they found someone in a beer hall who was just drunk enough to attempt the task. He climbed up the tower, cross in one hand, his beer in the other, and put the cross back in its place. He was so excited, though, that he accidentally dropped his beer. The mug fell all the way to the street below, but the glass amazingly did not break - and this is the Beer Miracle!


On the other side of this church is a wall which contains a cannonball from the 30 Years' War. At the start of World War II, the citizens of Munich knew that the city would probably be heavily bombed, and that most of the buildings would be destroyed. They wanted to be able to rebuild the city exactly as it was, and so they went around taking pictures of every last building they could see. After the war, as the church was being rebuilt, a man who lived nearby was walking down the street and found the cannonball sitting on the side of the road. He took it home, and came back to the people who were rebuilding the church with a picture of the church that he had taken from before the war and said, "I have a cannonball that goes in that wall, and I have the picture to prove it!" This is the main reason that Munich has such a traditional feel to it - its citizens have worked very hard to rebuild the city as it was before the war.


After talking about the rebuilding of the city, we walked down to the market (which was really busy because it was the day before Easter) where Katrina and I actually got "lost" from the group. We weren't actually lost, we had just started walking in the wrong direction, and Meredith was watching us panic the entire time. What a great friend. (Love you, Meredith!) In the middle of the market they have a giant beer garden which is the only beer garden in Munich to serve all the different brews from the city. We also learned that the airport has their own beer garden where they serve "Airport Beer."
Keeping with the subject of beer, we went to the Hofbrauhaus, which is the most famous beer hall in the world. In the Hofbrauhaus and in other beer halls across Germany and Austria, there are special reserved tables for people called the Stammtisch. These Stammtisch are special members of the beer halls who can actually kick people out of their seats, which would probably come in very handy on a Saturday night in Munich. To attain this membership, one would have to drink in a beer hall three nights a week for fifteen years!
It's HUGE - there are four different rooms inside and an even bigger beer garden outside. It was founded in 1589 by the Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm V. It has been a part of different aspects of Munich's history since then. For example, when there was a fire in the Opera House, the citizens of Munich made a human chain from the Haufbrauhaus to the Opera House. Their plan was to pass barrels of beer down the line and use the beer to put out the fire. However, they liked beer just a little too much and by the time the barrel reached the fire, it was empty because people had been drinking the beer. They wound up throwing empty wooden crates onto the fire, which of course made it worse, and the whole Opera House had to be rebuilt.


After hearing all these charming stories about the history of Munich, the tour took a more serious turn. Our next stop was an important place in Nazi history. When Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party came to power in Munich, they put up a plaque in memory of 20 Nazis that had lost their lives during the Beer Hall Putsch on November 9th, 1923 (in reality, only 15 were killed, but it was just another lie that was told to the citizens by the SS). Citizens were required to give the Nazi solute whenever they passed the plaque to show their respect for Hitler and the National Socialist Party. Those who refused to give the solute were either severely beaten or arrested on the spot and sent to Dachau or a similar place.
The majority of people living in Munich at the time did not support or respect Hitler and the Nazis, and to avoid having to give the solute, they would walk down an alley that came right before the plaque. It eventually became known as "Shirker's Alley," and in memorial of those citizens who passively resisted the Nazis, there is a line of gold stones running down the middle of the alley.


Most memorials to the period during the Nazi regime are subtle things like the gold stones, or the mark where the plaque used to be. This mark could easily be sandblasted off, but the citizens of Munich feel as though that would be a way of denying that this tragic history never happened. And instead of thrusting the history in the faces of all who visit and live in Munich, they choose to keep subtle reminders that will serve as an ever-present memory of the fact that something terrible happened. It's also a way of keeping the memory alive, so that future generations make sure nothing so tragic every happens again.
When the tour was over, we decided to get a beer at the Hofbrauhaus. We had so much fun there - it was packed and the beer was great. There was even a live band playing traditional German music! Katrina and I took a picture of us kidding one of the Stammtisch on the cheek (although the picture didn't turn out perfectly) and it was exciting to be able to have a beer in the most famous beer hall in the world.

Vergangenheitsbewältigung: Coming to Terms with the Past

The German word Vergangenheitsbewältigung describes the process of analyzing, digesting, and learning to live with the past, in particular the Holocaust. The closest translation in English is, "struggle to come to terms with the past." As a technical term in English, it specifically relates to the atrocities committed during the Third Reich, when Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party were in control in Germany.
I wanted to dedicate an entire post to my visit to Dachau because it had such a profound impact on me. I also think it's important to learn and talk about concentration camps so that we make sure nothing like that ever happens again. One of the things I learned during my stay in Munich is that every child living in Germany knows about the Nazi rule and the concentration camps (and, more importantly, how it came to that) by the time they are 12 or 13. They are also required to visit at least two concentration camps in order to graduate from high school.
Dachau was established in 1933, and was the only camp to have existed throughout the entire 12 years of Nazi rule. In the early years, it was the largest and best-known concentration camp. It was also the "model" camp, which means that every other camp was set up and operated in the same way.
The first thing we saw when we got to the concentration camp was the railroad tracks where the trains carrying to prisoners arrived, and then the road that they had to walk down to get to the actual camp. The train tracks and the road were both uncovered in 2004. When the prisoners first arrived at Dachau, they were forced to hand over all their clothes and the camp leader would give them a speech that went something like, "You have no rights, no honor, and no protection. You're a piece of shit, and will be treated as such."


The next building we saw was the Gate House, through which all prisoners had to pass upon their arrival to Dachau. As we walked through the gates, we immediately saw the roll-call area, which was absolutely huge. The prisoners were required to assemble on the grounds every morning and every evening, regardless of the weather conditions, and wait for each prisoner's name to be called. The process could last for hours.

The Gate House

Prisoners Lined Up for Roll Call

Next, we went to the museum, which is located in the old Commandant Headquarters. The Commandant was the head officer of Dachau, and had almost unrestricted control over the entire camp. We walked past the Maintenance Building, which was actually be built by the prisoners themselves. When the camp was functioning, there was a cynical motto painted in large, white letters across the roof of this building that read, "There is one path to freedom. Its milestones are obedience, honesty, cleanliness, sobriety, hard work, discipline, truthfulness, and love of the fatherland."
In front of the Maintenance Building is a sculpture made as a memorial to the prisoners who lived and died in the camp. It was one of the most powerful memorials I have ever seen - it's made of bronze and it is just massive. It depicts human bodies trapped in barbed wire - limbs and heads are everywhere, and it really captures the horror of Dachau.

Next we went to the Barracks, where the prisoners slept. Today, only two of the buildings are still standing, but at the end of 1938, there were a total of 34. Each Barrack had four rooms, and each room held 52 prisoners. That made for a total of 208 prisoners in each Barrack. The entire camp was planned to house more than 6,000 prisoners.
We walked down the Camp Road, which lies down the middle of where the Barracks used to be. On this road, the prisoners socialized during the few free hours they had. The "spirit of the Camp Road," as expressed by those who lived there, was a symbol of the solidarity that developed amongst the prisoners despite the ever-present violence.


The Camp Road leads to the Crematorium, which was by far the most haunting place in the whole of Dachau. Prisoners entered through one end of the building, and were forced to remove their clothes under the guise that they would be required to take a group shower. They would then be ushered into the "shower room," which was actually a gas chamber. During a period of 15-20 minutes, up to 150 people could be suffocated to death with the use of prussic acid poison gas. The bodies were then put directly into the ovens where they were cremated.

Even though I felt eerie the entire time, I was pretty much able to keep myself together. However, as soon as I stepped into the gas chamber, I felt instantly ill and I had to get out as soon as possible. I can't even fathom how many people were killed in that room. Moreover, I can't imagine how one human being could do that to another.
It definitely wasn't a pleasant visit. I learned some things I wish I didn't know, but I've found that the more I study history, the more I realize how important it is to do so to make sure that it doesn't repeat itself.

How to Wear Out Your Parents in 7 Days

Day One:
-Trocadéro

-Eiffel Tower

Day Two:

-Buttes Chaumont
-Père Lachaise

-Arc de Triomphe

Day Three:

-Champs Élysées

-Bois de Boulogne
-Montmartre and Sacré Cœur

Day Four:

-Giverny-Mont St. Michel

Day Five:

-Versailles

Day Six:

-Louvre
-Shopping!
-Dinner with my Host Family

Day Seven:

-Notre Dame

-Marché aux Fleurs

-Walk along the Seine

It was so wonderful to have my parents here for a whole week and to be able to give them a glimpse into the life I’ve been living for the past three months. I wanted to take them so many different places and show them so many different things that it was hard to decide what to do. Plus, I have had such a “go-go-go” attitude for such a long time now that it was hard for me to slow down and let them go at their own pace. I was glad that my mom got to be in Paris for her birthday, and that we got to spend some quality time together as a family (even when I’m at home in Milwaukee I don’t see them enough). I thought it was weird on Friday when we went to the airport together (they were heading home, I was heading to Munich) that we were not all leaving as a family. It was hard to say goodbye, and I will definitely be excited to see them again in June!

Joan of Arc and Monet - All in One Day

Our last trip with the Accent program was to Normandy to see the city of Rouen, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and to visit Giverny, where Monet's house and gardens are.
Our tour guide in Rouen was an older lady who was so excited to have a group of American students who were interested in learning about history. She took us all throughout the town - I thought it was amazing to be in a medieval city that was still pretty much intact. The main cathedral (and the one where Joan of Arc was "sold" to the British) was really old and really big - it was almost impossible to get it all in my camera lens. Inside they had all the original stone statues that used to be on the outside of the church. They were almost eerie to look at, and it reminded me of the ghost people in Lord of the Rings.


The architecture of the city was amazing - the houses were built in the middle ages and so they were very close together. Some of them were even built to hang over the street (a practice that was banned during the black plague because people thought one of the causes could be the dirty water that couldn't evaporate from the street because the houses were so close together). We also got to see la Rue du Gros-Horloge (Big-Clock Street), which has been a very busy downtown area since the middle ages. There was a market at the end of Big-Clock Street where they were selling fresh seafood - it smelled SO good and it took all the personal strength I had not to buy a huge bag full of oysters!

Our last stop on the tour was the square where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. In the middle, there was a plaque that read, "The location where Joan of Arc was burnt on May 30 th 1431". This square, filled with flowers and a statue of her as a memorial, was so inspiring to me that I decided to write one of my final papers about Joan of Arc and the symbolism relating to her life and death.


It was about an hour-long drive to get to Giverny, and I was in awe from the moment we stepped off the bus. On the walk to Monet's house, we got to see all these really cute little country houses. I know I've said this before, but I love the French countryside. It always reminds me of Beauty and the Beast.
Monet's house are gardens were some of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It was so wonderful to be able to see the place where he spent so much of his time and from where he drew so much of his inspiration. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the house, but it was so cute and so perfect that I had to buy some post cards for myself. Here are some pictures from Giverny:


I feel so lucky to have been able to visit both of these beautiful places, both with so much history. I'm also glad that I have had the chance to explore some of the French countryside!

"What a friend we have in cheeses!"

-William Cole

Last Thursday, we had a wine and cheese evening with Professor Busby, one of the coordinators of the program. We got to try four different cheese, paired with four different wines. It was wonderful to be able to try the French cheeses, because in France you can get cheese with unpasteurized milk that has been aged for less than 60 days (it's illegal to sell it in the United States). Most cheeses in the United States are made with pasteurized milk, but when the milk is pasteurized, it kills all the bacteria, which in turn kills off the flavor.

The first pairing was Brie de Meaux with a Bordeaux. The brie was really delicious, and I was glad that we started off the evening with a cheese that wasn't too strong. The second cheese was Comté, which is a nutty, smooth cheese that is similar to a cheese made by Pleasant Ridge Reserve (a Wisconsin cheese company). It was paired with a type of wine from the Rhône Valley called a Beaumes de Venise. The third pairing was a goat cheese called Sainte Maure and a type of wine called Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalans (which means it's from the South of France). This was my favorite cheese - it was smooth and delectable and it actually melted right in my mouth. The fourth pairing was what Professor Busby called a curve ball - a really strong artisanal bleu cheese called Roquefort served with a sweet white wine. Because the Roquefort is so strong and salty, pairing it with a white wine makes it easier to enjoy.

It was nice to make conversation with some of the girls on the trip that I don't know very well, and I feel so lucky to have been able to try the French cheeses!

Wanderlust and Oysters

This weekend I took another one of those really great, adventure-filled trips - this time to Normandy. We left on Friday morning and the drive was so much fun. There was definitely more to see than on the way to the Loire Valley - it seems as though the North of France has more towns along the freeway. We had a GPS so that we would be able to do some unplanned exploring, and we chose the voice setting whose name was "Jill." Jill had a terrible French accent, and it was hilarious listening to her pronounce names of roads and cities.


It took us about three hours to get to Mont St. Michel, which was the first stop on our trip. As we were driving up to the causeway that leads to the abbey, we could see it in the distance. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The morning fog hadn't quite lifted, and Mont St. Michel looked like a mirage off in the distance. The abbey at the top was constructed in the 8th century, but before that, the island was called monte tombe. According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared before a bishop in Avranches (a town in Normandy) in the year 708 and instructed him to build a church on the rocky island. The bishop, St. Aubert, repeatedly ignored the angel's instructions, until Michael burned a hole in his skull with his finger.
I had so much fun exploring the little winding streets that take you up to the abbey at the top. The buildings are so delightful and there are so many cute little restaurants. The view from the top is incredible, and the abbey itself is beautiful. It's no wonder that in the middle ages, this was considered to be the ultimate pilgrimage site in Europe.


After we spent some time walking up to the top, taking pictures, and looking through all the sweet little shops, we decided to unpack our food from the car and have a picnic so that we could enjoy the beautiful weather. The picnic consisted of apples, baguettes, brie, and little chocolate muffins. It was the perfect little lunch, and we had such a wonderful time just sitting in the sun and eating our simple food.
Then we discovered the mud flats. Because the tide comes in fairly regularly, the ground all around the island is made up of black, muddy sand and puddles of water. We had the best time running around in the mud, and the sun was starting to set so everything looked so pretty. Occasionally one of us would slip or fall or sink down into the sand a little too quickly, and then we would scream and laugh about it. I felt like a little kid, and I swear I would have started a mud fight if we hadn't been using a rental car. I also got some really great pictures of the island.


I was sad when we had to leave, but as the sun was setting and people started leaving, I didn't think it was such a great idea to be playing out there in the quick sand in the dark with no one else around. So we decided to drive to our hotel, which was only about 20 minutes away. We were so exhausted from driving and from running around that we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant (which turned out to be delicious!) and then passed out pretty early.
On Saturday we got up and hit the road right away because we wanted to do as much as we could before we had to have the rental car back. Our first stop was Bayeux, an historical town only an hour away from Mont St. Michel where the Bayeux Tapestry (in French, la tapisserie de Bayeux) resides. To get there, we had to drive through the country, using mainly country roads rather than the freeway. We got to see all these charismatic, provincial houses and some truly captivating landscapes. We even stumbled upon a medieval castle that was simply gorgeous. I've never seen so much beauty in one place in my entire life.

The town of Bayeux itself is gorgeous. There is a little house with a waterwheel on the river and there is a beautiful cathedral - you can see the top of it over all the trees and houses. I have always been intrigued by the tapestry - I learned about it in middle school, and even though I saw it in high school, I couldn't wait to see it again. The tapestry depicts the Norman Invasion of 1066 and the events that lead up to it. It's 224 feet long, and you don't realize just how long that is until you see it in person. I can't believe how long it would have taken for someone to make this tapestry, and the scenes are so detailed. Luckily, the price of our admission included a free ear set, which played cute music and described what was happening in each part of the tapestry. I took pictures of a few of my favorite scenes:

Horses and soldiers get stuck in the quick sand around Mont St. Michel

Halley's comet appears - it is taken as a sign that Harold will be punished for breaking his oath, and that William and his troops will soon invade Normandy

Harold dies from an arrow that struck him in the eye

After the tapestry museum, we decided to drive up the coast to see the D-Day beaches and the American Cemetery. These are both things that I had seen on my trip to France in high school. I don't want to say that I wasn't able to fully appreciate it when I was younger, because I remember that it was actually a very profound experience. I think because I'm older and more grown-up than I was the first time around, and simply because I know more than I used to, that it meant more to me somehow to have the opportunity to visit these places again.
There are over 9,000 people buried in the American cemetery. That means that when you look out across the cemetery, all you can see are white headstones for a long time. Walking through the cemetery, I had to constantly remind myself that most of the people buried here were my age or younger. That's something that doesn't leave you untouched.

After walking around on the beach for a while, we had worked up an appetite and went in search of a restaurant. Being so close to the coast, I had really worked up an appetite for seafood. Luckily, we were able to find a seafood restaurant in a quaint little fishing village close by. I had two HUGE oysters that were so fresh and so delicious that I think they may have been caught that morning. Then I had a HUGE pot of mussels that made me so happy! I would move to Normandy just so that I would be able to eat their amazing seafood every day of my life.

Our last stop before heading back to Paris was Pointe du Hoc - a clifftop location just west of Omaha beach, where the Germans had set up a battle station. It was one of the first things that the allied soldiers were instructed to take out on D-Day. I couldn't believe how high up the cliffs were - and what was more unbelievable was the fact that soldiers actually had to climb these cliffs to get to the top. It was eerie to see all the craters that had been dug out, and I think it's interesting that all this stuff is still there. Even the barbed wire on the edge of the cliff was in tact from the battle.




When I got back I realized that I only have two more months here, and I got really sad. I feel like there's so much more I want to do, and I just don't have enough time to do it. I guess I'll just have to continue to make every moment count!