RJKARR - May 2000

Dachau & turning your life (or your car) around - Part 3

With Xio driving and me navigating, it was off to Dachau. On the way, we stopped by Dinkelsbuhl. Talk about a photo op, the town walls and outside shots of Dinkelsbuhl would make Kodak very proud!

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We didn't spend a lot of time there because we were late leaving Rothenburg in the effort to have Xio's camera lens repaired.

We arrived in Dachau in mid-afternoon and drove straight to our hotel - the Mittermayer Hof. I would not recommend this hotel. It's cheap, but leaves a lot to be desired. The downstairs just reeks of cigarette smoke & the entry appeared to be dirty (very surprising for a German hotel). Our room was on the top floor. The problem with that is there is no elevator and the stairs are extremely steep and narrow.

The top floor is under construction and our room was the only one completed. We think they hurriedly finished it so we would have a place to stay. The room was very clean, but interesting. It's under the eaves of the building and as a result one section has a very sloped, low ceiling - right over my bed. I kept whacking myself in the head on it.

We were each only given one little hand towel. That's what we had to use for our hands, our showers, etc. There was one tiny little see-through lace curtain, which covered only a small section of the window. We could see right into the apartments of the building next door, so it stands to reason they could see right into our room, too. Not being exhibitionists, we had to be very careful about getting dressed/undressed. On second thought, maybe
we could have livened up their evening.

We took the train into Munich, arriving at the Marienplatz just in time to see the Glockenspiel do its thing. Since it was Saturday afternoon, everything was closed, so we just walked around and took some pictures.

We noticed that there seemed to be a lot more people than usual at the Marienplatz. We also noticed there were a lot of cars blowing their horns and tons of police in evidence. We learned it was a big football (soccer) tournament. We tried to find a place to eat, but everything was either closed or packed. Literally hundreds of young people were pouring into town, most of whom were getting drunk. We decided we didn't want to be caught in that
scene, so we went back to Dachau to have dinner.

The people in the restaurant located on the first floor of our hotel were really beginning to have a good time (i.e. rowdy) and it appeared to be all men, so we decided it wasn't for us. We just got a pizza and ate in our room. The cigarette smoke was so strong from the party going on downstairs that I could smell it 3 floors up. It wasn't pleasant.

After breakfast the next morning, it was off to visit the Concentration Camp.

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It was an absolutely beautiful, sunny spring morning; quite a contrast to the somber feeling the camp gives.

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We met an elderly man there who told us he had been interred in the camp when he was young. He told us he comes there every single day.

Then it was off to Oberammergau. I had become the designated navigator and Xio the driver. That may or may not have been good.

On the way out of town, we passed an on-ramp for the road we needed, but it appeared to be going in the wrong direction, so we passed it up. We drove on for 2 or 3 kilometers and didn't find another on-ramp, so we turned around and went back. Once we were on the road, I had the strong feeling we were going in the wrong direction, so we stopped and asked. I was right; we were wrong. So we turned around again and headed in the right direction.

I told Xio to follow the signs toward Fürstenfeldbruck. She thought we needed to go to F'bruck and I only meant go in that direction. She exited at a road which would take us there. We had to turn around and backtrack. We drove further, trying to reach the A96 so we could take the route which runs to the west of the Starnbergersee. Soon we saw a sign that indicated the A96 interchange was closed. So once again we turned around to go back to a road I had seen earlier that would take us on a different route. We didn't see the sign that time and had to turn around and go back again to find it. This time we saw the sign, but too late, and again we had to turn around. (Are you beginning to see a pattern here?)

Finally we were on the correct road which runs along the side of the lake. It's a beautiful area, but so built up we really couldn't see much. At the south end of the lake, we got on the autobahn and continued on to Ettal.

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As many times as I've been in that area, I've never stopped at the Monastery at Ettal. It's really lovely and I'm glad we made the decision to stop this time. That is such an incredibly beautiful area.

Passion Play, Captain Kirk, and Big Bird - Part 4

We found our Oberammergau accommodations without any problems. We were given a FeWo (small vacation apartment) which consisted of bedroom, sitting room, kitchen and bath. There must be something in our lives that attracts us to low ceilings. The bathroom was built under the eaves of the building (sound familiar?) creating a very sloped ceiling. At one end of the bathtub, the ceiling is only about 3 feet high. The other end of the tub - the one with the shower head - isn't a lot taller. I'm only 5' 5", and I had to stoop over to shower. I decided that I would either be 3" taller or 3" shorter by the time I got home; 3" taller because of the huge bump on my head from whacking into the ceiling or 3" shorter from being squashed by it.

Our dinner that evening was at the Wolf Hotel and we shared the table with a delightful couple from Nürnberg. While talking with them, I mentioned that Lebkuchen is my very favorite thing and if they don't have it in heaven, I'm just simply not going to go. He got my address and has promised to send me some the wonderful Nürnberg Lebkuchen. I think maybe I'll e-mail him and just remind him so he won't forget. :o)

In Xio's home country of Honduras, it is a Christmas custom to have a wooden statue of the pregnant Mary riding a donkey on the way to Bethlehem with Joseph walking beside her. For years, she has wanted one for her own home, but they are impossible to find in the States. We felt if there was any place she could locate one, it would be in Oberammergau, so off we went in search for the perfect wood carving. We were successful, but the prices were rather steep. So we kept hunting until we found one that was within reason and yet beautiful. She bought one that was smaller than she really wanted, but the price was also smaller making it more attractive.

The next morning (the day of the Play and reason for the trip, as if a reason was needed) arrived with rain and a cold wind. Ingrid, our landlady, offered to loan us blankets, which we gladly accepted. The weather was threatening and cold all day, but it never rained during the actual performance. We felt really sorry for many of the actors because they had bare feet and my feet were cold with socks and shoes. The actor who played Jesus was particularly vulnerable since he only wore a little "loin cloth" during the crucifixion scene. He was on the cross for a full 20 minutes; he had to have been pretty miserable by the time they took him down.

It has changed from the Play in 1990; the music is different and the costuming is VERY different. The music is still beautiful but some of the costuming is a little strange. I kept waiting for Captain Kirk and the Enterprise to land because some of the costumes looked straight from outer space. Herod looked like Big Bird in black. His costume was made of black plastic feather thingies with a shocking pink trim around the top. His attendants carried huge double umbrellas (an umbrella over an umbrella) made of the same black plastic feathers with shocking pink trim. Maybe with all the rain they have there, he wanted to be sure he was protected. The choir wore hats that looked like cone heads with the points cut off.

Children are children no matter where you are. There was one darling little boy about 2 years old who was in one of the crowd scenes. The women in the crowd had large baskets of vegetables which they placed on the ground. This little cutie went around gathering up all the vegetables and carrying them off no matter how hard the lady with him tried to get him to put them back in the basket. Another little boy carrying a palm branch saw someone in the audience and kept waving the branch to them in recognition. In one of the early scenes, Christ walks onto the stage and reaches down and picks up a small child and walks off with him. I understand that once the child became frightened when this happened and screamed "Mama" when Christ walked off with him. Don't you just love children! They make life so great.

To me one of the most fascinating parts of the Play is when Judas "hangs" himself. In the 1990 Play, he put a scarf over a tree limb and jumped off some rocks to hang himself and the tree bent with the weight of his body. I have wondered these last 10 years how they did that. In the 2000 Play, he stands on a chair and ties a rope around his neck and attaches the other end to a post on a wall. Then he kicks the chair away and hangs himself. Now I figure they don't have a different person playing Judas for every performance because they don't have that many men in town. This time I asked a member of the stage crew how they did it and got an answer!!! So no more wondering, and no, they don't have to replace Judas every time the Play is performed.

Though the Play is very long - from 9:30 until 6:30 - you don't mind because it is so very well presented. The day goes quickly and it's over before you know it.

The cast and crew of the Play had a party that night. Our landlady went and I heard her when she rather noisily returned home at 4:30 the next morning (there was plenty of evidence that she likes that good German bier). She was to serve our breakfast at 8:00 in the morning so we could be off and on our way. When we had heard nothing from her by 8:45, we felt she was sleeping off the previous night's party, so we left a little note and climbed in our trusty car to head out.

Do you know the way to San Jose (or at least Gutach) - Part 5