Schweinebraten - YA!!

Dirk, Gisela and Matthias...The Lufthansa Gang

Me n' Matthias eatin' Schweinebraten

Beautiful Bavaria

Dachau Crematorium

Entrance to Dachau

Castle in Salzburg

City of Salzburg

City of Salzburg

We've had a lot of um...RAIN

Marienplatz - Downtown Munich

Leonardo DaVinci Painting

Munchen.. or Munich to You

Well, despite the weather, or perhaps because of it (lots of grey skies and rain), we've had a pretty restful time here while enjoying the sights and the ambience of this city. Munich is pretty laid back with some amazing things to do and see. We visited the Pinakothek Museum (which I had never heard of) and were blown away by the art collection there. Ruebens, Van Dyck, Leonardo DaVinci, Botticelli, it's impossible to name the plethora of old masters here. It's a very impressive collection.. it took us 4 hours to make our way through this gallery and we still could not drink it all in. Many of the works here were acquired after the second world war but some of the works were plunder from occupied countries, it's fascinating. Still on the museum track, we visited the Deutsches Museum which is a technical museum with a collection of everything you can imagine from aircraft, space travel, ceramics, food technology (mostly beer making, go figure), clocks, astronomy, bridge building etc. - this museum covers an area of 55,000 square metres! Ok, so we didn't see everything but what we did see was very impressive.

The center of Munich is called Marienplatz and it's hip, contemporary shopping, beer gardens and markets set amidst cathedrals and towering architecture. This is old Europe at it's best. The cathedrals are magnificent and it's vibe is warm and inviting. Everyone loves to sit outside and smoke cigarettes (I have never seen such a huge smoking culture), quaffing beers and people watching, it's all very European darling.

One day we took a trip to Salzburg, Austria and visited the Mozart Museum and walked the charming streets and climbed to the fort in the middle of the old town where you can see for hundreds of miles, the alps standing proudly in the background. Breathtaking. The cathedrals in Salzburg are numerous and awe inspiring. It's so cool to jump the train and be in another country in 2 hours considering all the miles and miles we travelled through huge countries like Australia and India.

Another day we took the train to visit the Dauchau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, a very sobering and heart wrenching experience. Entering the gates the first thing you see is the inscription: "Arbeit macht frei" which translates to "Work Makes You Free" Etched across the roof of the main administration building are the words, "There is one road to freedom. Its milestones are: obedience, diligence, honesty, order, cleanliness, temperance, truthfulness, sacrifice and love of one's country." The guards within the camp were oblivious to the irony of these inscriptions as they worked the interns to death, literally.

This camp was highly important in the rise of the Reich in that it was the first camp opened and the model for all the others. It was opened in 1933 and during its 12-year history, Dachau had 206,206 registered arrivals and there were 31,951 certified deaths. The actual figures are unknown as records cannot be trusted for accuracy. Dachau was designed house 5,000 prisoners, but after 1942 the number of prisoners was never less than 12,000. Each block was meant to accommodate 180 men; in a report from April 26, 1945, the least crowded block contained 842 inmates. Most of the others had well over a thousand; the most crowded was Block 30, which contained 1800 people, primarily the very sick and invalids.

The bodies of those prisoners who died were brought to the crematorium to be disposed of. The area where the bodies were meant to be stored was usually full, and corpses were often stacked on the street. Because the prevailing wind was from the west, the camp was usually filled with the smell of burning corpses. In addition to the crematorium, Dachau did have a set of gas chambers. However, for reasons that have never yet been understood, these were never used in this particular camp.

Most horrific was the exhibition on medical experimentation on the prisoners which included submersing prisoners in freezing cold water to test for hypothermia, injection of air to create embolisms so they could study the effect of high altitude on pilots, malarial injections to find a cure but which weakened and sickened the subjects resulting in the deaths of many hundreds of prisoners, and other unimaginable atrocities. The agony is palpable at this place.

This memorial is done very tastefully, respectfully and with full disclosure. It is a brave and noble monument to the many thousands of victims who passed through these gates of hell. At the back of the barracks adjacent to the crematorium are chapels and monuments erected by the Jews, Catholics, Protestants and other denominations to honour those of their faith who endured the unspeakable through the years of 1933-1945. We were deeply touched and moved by this visit.

Staying with our friend Matthias has been good for us as it gives us a chance to rest and have some normalcy again. We cook our own meals, get lots of sleep and move at a leisurely pace. Last night was the highlight of our Munich experience as Matthias has a work colleague with connections to the Olympic park. Through great generosity we were given tickets to see the EAGLES! It was a sold out concert and it was an amazing show. They played all the old stuff from Desperado, Hotel California, Take it Easy and more and some new stuff from their upcoming album. The Olympic stadium rocked. This is a band that sounds exactly on stage as they do on their albums. As you walk through the Olympic Park you see huge mounds - green grassy hills dotted with trees which are actually the rubble from the bombing of WWII. It's hard to believe that so much destruction lies beneath these peaceful mounds and it seems a fitting tribute to the suffering of the past.

In two days we head to Prague and Dresden and then on to Poland where I finally will meet my relatives.

The Blues

Wowzer What a Day

Santorini Sunshine

Mykonos Island

Apple Tea and Furry Friends

Ruins at Ephesus

Ivan's Turkey Birthday

Now, Turn to the Left Please

Look Straight at the Camera Please

Cappadocia Caves

Ok, so how do I get down from here??

The Aya Sofia Church at Night

The Blue Mosque at Night

A Whirling Dervish - No Kidding!

Istanbul Delight

Turkey, Greek Isles and on to Munich

Turkey.. might as well be heaven after India. We stayed in an area called Sultanahmet, cobblestone streets, pensions, kitty-kats running around everywhere pausing only for a stroke and a purr, souvenir shops, jewellry stores and carpet sellers EVERYWHERE. Our room in the Noble Hotel is a little haven with a wee courtyard and a nice wall heater that we made good use of. After coming from 40+ heat everyday, Istanbul is cool - some days even cold but the people's warmth more than made up for the climate. Everyone we talked to was kind and sweet and by the day's end our teeth were floating from all the apple tea we consumed. All the shop owners and just folks along the street would offer demitasse of tangy apple tea in which we were more than happy to indulge.

I must say, for the girls reading this, Turkey has the best looking men! Charming and dashing, all meticulously GQ dressed with smoldering dark eyes and they certainly aren't shy with their charm. Funny thing is, when we were in India the women were captivatingly beautiful with almond eyes and ruby lips and dressed exotically in saris and gold - lovely. But the men were a bit on the meager side, thin and a bit worn looking, I didn't find them much attractive. India was Ivan's treat whereas Turkey was a smorgesbord of dashing dudes. Ivan says he can't wait to see the Turkish women as there are none working in the shops or cafes, they all stay home and the men do the business so, we head to the mosque area and there they are, all clad in garish head scarves, no make up - very plain looking ladies. It seems that while the ladies produce some very handsome boys, the girls are a bit left behind in the race. However, once we headed into the chic area of Istanbul, we did see some lovely ladies.

The blue mosque, The Topkapi Palace, The Grand Bazaar, The Bosphorous and all things amazing are within arms reach of our accommodation. The Four Seasons hotel is in this area built on the foundations of what was once the notorious prison of "Midnight Express" fame. It is now one of the highest voted hotels in the world. We took a tour of the Bosphorous by boat one day, the Bosphoruos being the only body of water that has Asia on one side and Europe on the other, as we floated by the Sultan's palaces and stunning homes along both the Asian and European shores. I don't think I have ever been more charmed by a city and it's peoples in all my travels. If anyone wants to know where to spend their summer holiday, I say Turkey, unequivocably. From Istanbul we took a bus to Cappadocia where the villages are carved into caves and the rock formations tower into mushroom shapes and camels and as far as your imagination will take you. This is Star Wars stuff, everything looks otherworldly. We stayed in a a cave hotel and Ivan had his birthday in a cozy little dining room overlooking a rock fortress riddled with caves. From here we headed out on an overnight bus to Pamukkale and the sight of ancient ruins. Have I ever alluded to the fact that I hate buses? I believe I have and the sentiment has yet to change. I loathe them. The seats are never comfortable, there is always music playing that I am prone to dislike, and it makes for a sore back and a grumpy demeanor but sometimes there are no other choices. And so we ride the loathesome bus. Pamukkale is a series of calcium pools cascading down the mountainside but they were not full of water so we only saw empty basins of calcium formation. Oh well.

On to Ephesus, the amazing ruins of an ancient city replete with an enormous coliseum. Onto the stage walked two little Japanese tourists who began singing in harmony the hymn, How Great Thou Art, the hair on my arms stood up and tears came to my eyes. It was a definite moment. From Ephesus we travelled to Selcuk where we enjoyed a lovely evening and in the morning hopped a ferry to Samos Island in Greece.

We spent one night in Samos which was nice but the real treat was heading into Mykonos the next day. The glistening all white and blue houses set against the hills floating in the jewel-like sea was dazzling. 2 nights in Mykonos and on to Santorini which was the most impressive of all. There is a volcano off the island that last erupted in the 50's and reformed the coastline of the island. Lean your head back and look to the sky and there cliff-top sits the village of Fira. It seems to float in the air it sits so high above the sea. Getting off the ferry we meet our driver who drives up and up and up to the top of the island. Once above you can look in either direction and see the ocean on both sides. It's hard to tell where the blue, blue sky ends and the blue, blue water begins. We eat fresh red tomatos and green cucumbers and black olives topped by thick slabs of crumbly feta cheese topped by golden olive oil - the heavenly Greek salad. I can't get enough. Red wine, gooey pizzas, sticky ice-creams. Oh, it is heaven.

After 2 days in Santorini, VERY EXPENSIVE, we catch a direct charter flight to Munich and here we are staying with our handsome, lovely host, Matthias, who works for Lufthansa and so was waiting for us when we got off our flight. It was so nice to see a familiar face coming off the plane. We are in Bavaria where beer is considered a food! We go directly to the beer garden and quaff some steins with Matthias and his colleagues and then take the train to his home. Funny here, as we get on the train, one of the guys we met handed me a beer. Drinking on the transit system is not frowned on at all as it's a food. Go figure, Germans DO love their beer. Ivan is reunited with his guitars here and is a happy boy. We are off to explore the city tomorrow. Auf Wiedersehen!

Burning Ghat on the Ganges

Streets of Varanasi

Holy Man

The Burning Ghat

Ladies of the Ganges

Bath Time!

From Varanasi to Blessed Civilization

Well...been a long time between posts. It has taken me this long to wrap my head around the sojourn to Varanasi...beautiful, stinking, mysterious, enrapturing, filthy, amazing Varanasi, the holiest city in India. We took the train from Agra to Varanasi - 12 hours in a shaky (dirty, need I say) train not knowing what to expect. When we arrived in the smoky station in the morning there was a man to meet us and we were taken through the bustling traffic to our hotel which was NOT what we expected. Omygod, so dirty, so grimy. It smelled of kerosene and we realized why when we saw the filthy rags the boys had "cleaned" our room with. We quickly asked for a new room and bless their hearts, they tried to make the new room good for us by bringing in a wee tv and showed us the balcony, but overall, it was still an unwelcoming abode. What do you do when the choice is between cheap and very, very expensive? We made ourselves as at home as was possible. Then we went out to explore the ghats and the area with our hotel guide, a savvy, kind young man who showed us around.

The ghats are houses built by various maharajahs that stretch down to the holy Ganges banks where the people basically live their spiritual lives. Early the next morning we floated along the Ganges in a small boat with an oarsman as the sun came up. A most amazing sight as the banks are swelled with the people of Varanasi bathing and socializing, hundreds of them praying, washing and children splashing about in the holy river. A corpse floated by while a few feet away a man was brushing his teeth in the water and a woman came for a jug, and the boys did the laundry. Unbelievable.

There is no rest in Varanasi and never a cool breeze, the temperatures were topping mid forties and our air conditioned room was of little consolation since they turn the power off for as much as 17 hours a day. Sadhus (holy men), cows, more cowshit than imaginable, bikes, walkers, tuk-tuks, dogs, monkeys, hawkers, beggars, no end of humanity stream through the streets by the thousands. 4 days in Varanasi such a long, long time. We are hot, dirty (FILTHY) and completely thrashed from the travel. Ivan has had a cold for going on 2 weeks now and suffers, I have Delhi belly constantly and it's depressing. It's hard to explain how you feel in Varanasi. Elation and mood swings and angry and awed and humbled by the spirit of this place and the people and the reverence of the Ganges and the powerful hum of history and life force that upholds this land of contradiction. One day we visit Mother Theresa's hospice and are heartened by this clean oasis on the Ganges. An old lady smiling and frail approaches us and holds our ankles and we are touched, and the sister there tells us that the old people come to Varanasi to die and are weak, frail and undernourished so they take them in and feed their bodies and nourish their spirits and then they get healthy so their trip to Varanasi is wasted as they do not die and leave the hospice healthy! We leave a donation and with uplifted hearts we depart.

It is morning but I am dreaming. The fires burn around me and spirits are set free - Wait! I am not dreaming. This is our last day in the holy city. We walk down to the burning ghats where cremations take place 24 hours a day and sit silently to watch the ritual. 4 bodies are burning, another is brought to the shore with great fanfare of horns and drums and streamers and cloth covering the palanquin holding the body. Down the shore another body is wrapped in white linen and rope and weighted with a rock and placed on a boat. There are 6 kinds of bodies that are not burnt - those who have been bit by a cobra, those with smallpox, lepers, pregnant women, children and Sadhus (holy men), as these are all pure. The rest are liberated from the cycle of reincarnation by cremation at the Ganges. As we watch, one of the bodies on the pyre becomes animated as the heat engulfs. The arms slowly raise to the heavens and we are amazed to see the humanness of this corpse as it sizzles in front of us. One of the family runs over with a pole to lower the arms but this one is not leaving without a last gesture to this world. Slowly they become ashes in front of our eyes and as the legs lose cartilage and form, the bottom half is flipped back by the pole bearers into the fire. It takes about 3 hours for a body to burn and then the ashes are put into the water. It gives a whole new meaning to "ashes to ashes, dust to dust".

There is much happening around this scene that emphasizes how natural this release from life is to the Indian people. Behind us are 2 drunken men in dhotis (well, they look like diapers) who are yelling at eachother and arguing, beside us are boys playing cricket, on shore are dogs and goats chewing up flowers and remains and all around us signs and activities and indications that life goes on and how fragile and hearty it is all at once. The sun beats down and across the water we watch the weighted body roll from the bow of the boat as we head to our hotel for the train to Delhi.

It has never seemed so precious this life and we have never felt such relief at boarding a plane but India does not want to let us go so they delay our flight for 6 hours before we can wave good-bye to magic and mystery that will take a thousand, thousand years for the Yukon to catch up. We are so late that our flight is delayed overnight in Dubai and so we see the city of gold and decadence rising from the desert on our layover.

We are now in Turkey and I can unequivocably say that Turkish Delight is more than a sweet. This country is a cornucopia of wonderful people, beautiful custom, amazing history; heaven has laid her hand on Turkey and we are in love with this cradle of civilization. I have never met so many kind, engaging and warm people and it has restored our love of travel. I shall write later on Turkey and it's wonders but for now, this is to let all and sundry know that we are alive, happy and embraced by this jewel on the Aegean.