München (Munich) and Dachau

Dachau is a haunting place where the past hangs thick in the air and visitors instinctively speak in hushed, somber tones. Every student in Germany must visit a concentration camp at some point during their school years, though Germany only relatively recently (in the 1980s) began to see a benefit to reflecting on the horrors of WWII. The center of all the grisly planning of such camps, Dachau is only a 45-minute ride by train and bus from the center of Munich, so we made the trip during our weekend stay in the city.




We started our time in Munich with a trip to old town and our hotel, only to find that a large rainbow festival blocked the historic center for the weekend. After slowly making our way through the crowds, we headed for the Englischer Garten, Munich's own beautiful, three-mile-long "central park." True to the guidebook's promise, we found surfers riding the waves on the park's river.

Visits with Old and New Friends

Last Wednesday we visited some old friends in Tübingen whom we met some years ago in our homeschooling group back home. They are living in the quaint university town for the summer, and they directed us on a tour of the beautiful new botanical gardens there.




Meanwhile, the kids continue to enjoy spending time with U.S. friends they met here last summer; like us, they are temporary university guests. The apartment building is hosting more children this summer. Maya delights daily in a small group of friends from Scotland, Australia, India, Germany, and Pakistan, two of whom do not speak English, and at least two of whom are trilingual. Some of them attend school here in the mornings. The children from Scotland and Australia (who also speak Russian and Croatian, respectively) serve as translators for Maya and a German friend.

One afternoon, the Australian friend was unfortunately ill, so Maya played all afternoon with her German friend. Somehow, despite not sharing a language, they managed to engage in make-believe together and enjoy hours of play. Until I saw what they were doing, they also enjoyed purloining landscaping stones from the university building across the street and placing them in the university pond to create a tiny island.

(Later Added:) Near the end of our stay, non-English-speaking children from Italy and Greece joined the group. The preschool-age Greek boy doted on Emma, while Maya and the Italian boy developed a hand signal to indicate to each other when they wanted to wrestle. My little tomboy gave it her all and really seemed to relish the intense physical exercise!

Paris!

I feel most at home in the wilderness, so going to large cities such as Paris wasn't high on my "bucket list." But what can you say about Paris? I was surprised by how much I loved it. It is so full of energy, youth, and excitement. I found myself wishing we'd made the effort to come in our younger days and yearning to come back.



On Friday evening, following our second wild ride on the Metro (it reminded us a bit of the Hogwarts night bus), we enjoyed a remarkably quiet and uncrowded tour of the Louve. Even though our travel guidebook told us Friday evenings should be less busy, we were still surprised and pleased to roam unhindered. We enjoyed easy access even to the popular Denon wing with its Renaissance paintings and sculptures. The collosal building itself impressed us as much as the seemingly endless collection of masterpieces inside. On the following free Sunday (admission to several Parisian museums is free on the 1st Sunday of the month), we returned to see sections and pieces we'd missed, including the ancient Egyptian collection, Venus de Milo, and Michaelangelo's "Dying Slave." On that day, we were just as startled to see how tremendously vast an ocean of people poured through the halls by early afternoon.








Tough job holding up that pyramid!


On Saturday, we visited lovely Jardin du Luxembourg, where children sailed small sailboats in a pond and people settled in droves to sit together and eat lunch or chat in folding chairs under a canopy of trees. In this and many areas of Parisian parks, especially under trees, no attempt is made to grow grass; there is simply a layer of what might be fine sand or lime and gravel. (Before we left on Monday, as the city was setting up for the Tour de France, large wind gusts wafted the fine sand/dust aloft in great clouds.)




The original model for the Statue of Liberty



A Parisian who showed us his American Legion membership card (he said he had served in WWII) demonstrated how to hand-feed birds at Notre Dame de Paris. Things went a little farther than Maya anticipated!








Although inner Paris had looked so large on the map at first, we began to know the layout and walked back to our hotel near École Militaire and Tour Eiffel (about a mile and a half) from Cathedral Notre Dame, seeing more sights and vibrant Saturday evening crowds on the way.



We hadn't realized how popular people-watching is in Paris, nor how undisguised are the attempts to do so. Everywhere--in street-side cafes where tables and chairs are often set less than a meter from the edge of the sidewalk--customers unabashedly sit facing the sidewalks and street, as if we passers-by are street theatre itself. (I wish we had been bold enough to take a photo of this.)

On Sunday, after another look at the Louve, we walked over to Musée d'Orsay to see some Van Gogh paintings and impressionist masterpieces, but the "free first Sunday" crowds were too oppressive. Instead, we continued walking to the Musée Rodin, housed in a hotel where Rodin lived concurrently with Henri Matisse, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Isadore Duncan. We strolled through the quiet gardens where some of Rodin's most famous sculptures reside. (Had we read our guidebook more thoroughly, we would have gone inside the museum building as well. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we would have been able to see a few Van Gogh paintings collected by Rodin.)




On Monday, our last day, Cam took the kids before opening time to climb Tour Eiffel (vertical distances are not my thing). It was the perfect time to go--no line! They decided to climb to the first and second levels on foot, then went the rest of the dizzying distance by elevator (the only way to reach the top). The views (as well as the hike up) left their hearts racing.









We ended our time in Paris with an inspiring visit to Arc de Triomphe, site of great moments in Parisian history and great sadness (the Nazis marched through the Arc when they took Paris in WWII), then a walk down Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The Arc was larger than it looked from a distance. Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a world-famous street and busy shopping district.