Adventures of an Air Force Wife: Munich - Dachau Concentration Camp and the Deutsches Museum

This past weekend, the Archdiocese of Military Services, along with the Military Council of Catholic Women and the Knights of Columbus, hosted a pilgrimage to Dachau Concentration Camp for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. I have previously been to Dachau, but my husband had not. I felt it was ok to take our children, and I would just prevent them from going to certain areas.

Unfortunately, we left the house much later than we wanted. We only had about an hour and a half to see the grounds, so I quickly gave Jon a tour. We saw the camp prison, the area where they did roll call every morning, and Jon went to the incineration and gas chamber area while the kids and I stayed outside the building and took a seat to rest.

Then we headed to the small chapel owned by the convent on the premises. There we attended a Mass with the Archbishop of AMS, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, and the Episcopal Vicar for Europe and Asia, Bishop Spencer. The Mass was beautiful, with the Knights of Columbus in their full regalia. It was also nice to see a few friends from other areas in Europe as well.

We did not take pictures inside the concentration camp, as it did not feel appropriate.

Outside Dachau, a daddy and his girls

We made plans to spend the night in Munich. After leaving Dachau, we headed to our hotel which was 12 minutes away and figured we'd get food closer. No such luck! There was no food place anywhere near our hotel. I told Jon I saw a restaurant right next to the parking at Dachau, so we headed back. It was greek food. The food was delicious and the staff was wonderful! I definitely recommend this restaurant.

The Restaurant we ate at.

We spent the night at this hotel. It wasn't anything special, but it was a hotel room with 5 (twin) beds, and we snuck Beka in. It was nothing special, but for price, it worked. The description made it sound like breakfast was free, but it was 7 euro, and I said no thanks. We scrounged some of our food and had yogurt, fruit bars and fruit at the little table in the room for breakfast.

Then we headed out to the Deutsches Museum. This place was a lot of fun. There was a huge astromony area. Our oldest is really enjoying learning about astronomy lately, so I knew he'd love it. The guys planned to attend the planetrium show, but when they got there, they were asked for their ticket. Apparently you had to buy tickets elsewhere, not pay when you walk in. That wasn't mentioned anywhere we saw. Poor boy was very heartbroken.

Aside from that, there was a huge area on ships and we all really enjoyed that. Plus areas on ceramics, machines, mine exhibit, and more. There was a lot more, but we were unable to see everything. A note about the mines- don't do them last. They are long, and if you're at the end of the day, you just want to get out. :)

In front of the river that surrounds the museum

Having a snack at a rest stop

Z with the Sun

Watching a movie about space on the ceiling

In front of the ship (Right after Z was told they couldn't do the planetarium)

This was cool. They have a real boat house like this, and they test the boats in the house. So this had 3 boats that went across the pool, and we got to talk about how they were each different, like how the water was displaced. We were all impressed by it.