We got up this morning and headed to catch the subway to Dachau to visit the site of the concentration camp and now memorial and museum. We got the the station and finding the bus was easy as we just followed the 100 junior high kids heading there as well. We got our audio guides and headed into the complex and began our tour.

We did the museum first as it had a film about the history of Dachau and the Nazis rise to power. Dachau wasn’t the biggest concentration camp but it was the first and became the model for other camps.

It’s a sobering story and I won’t go into the details here but would highly recommend all to try and visit one of these spots so we never forget what can happen. After finishing our tour we took a quick break in the cafeteria then headed back into Munich to see another Christmas market and to grab lunch. After lunch we decided to tour the Residenz which was home to the Wittelsbach family, the rulers of Bavaria.

The first part we saw was the treasury which was the crown jewels dating back to 1100AD and other royal treasures. Pretty ridiculous to say the least but definitely beautiful. The next part was to tour the rooms of the Residenz itself.

This part I would say dragged on a little long but there were many beautiful rooms to see. They just seemed to have you wind through a lot to see the best rooms but that is the nature of the building. Many of the rooms were reconstructions due to bombing in WWII including a cathedral that they have partially rebuilt. It is always interesting to see these palaces as while they are beautiful and a part of history you also certainly can see why most monarchies have died out with the crazy over the top opulence. After the Residenz we quickly looped through the Christmas market behind it and then went to the hotel for a rest before the game later tonight.

We headed to the subway and immediately knew we were in for an interesting night as we crammed on to the subway and chanting and singing began immediately.

The long walk from the station to the stadium with the crowd was definitely boisterous.

We got through security and ticketing and I bought a scarf to commemorate the game and we headed to our “seats”. I knew going in we has gotten standing section general admission tickets (and paid way too much for them) but we weren’t quite prepared for what we had until we got there. The area was packed! We squeezed in on the back row and luckily Becky was able to sit on the railing and see over people while I moved around a bit to find openings so I could see the action.

I watched a lot of replays on the TV monitor just outside our section. Overall a very good experience but next time I am definitely finding seats even if they are more! Oh and as you have to try the local stadium food I had a spicy sausage and another helping of curry wurst, Becky had a brat and a couple of beers. The crowd was very nice and I ended up with a free cup of gluhwein from a fellow back row fan. We made the long trek back to the station and squeezed on to the second train that arrived and made like sardines back to the main station and then to our hotel. Will update with pictures and more tomorrow.