Dachau & Munich

Our first stop will take us to the Dachau Concentration Camp and WWII Memorial on a journey through the stark reality of Germany’s darkest period. Located ten miles northwest of Munich, Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and served as the prototype for all the future labor and extermination camps to follow. Through a film and self-guided audio tour you will be given a sobering sense of the inhumane treatment and the terrible suffering that went on in the camp. During its 12 years of operation at Dachau, more than 200,000 prisoners passed through the camp, and 41,500 were murdered, until their liberation by two divisions of the US Seventh Army on April 29, 1945.

Next we journey on to Munich, the true heart and unofficial capital of southern Germany. After an orientation tour of the city, you’ll be free to explore its treasures. Climb the 306 steps of the bell tower of the Church of St. Peter, and you’ll be rewarded with the best panoramic view of the city and the nearby Alps; visit the Hofbräuhaus for a quintessential Bavarian experience of sausage and a “Mass” of beer, or enjoy one of the many museums within walking distance of the Marienplatz, the central square of the city, which also offers the world’s largest working “Glockenspiel" (season permitting).