Munich is the third largest city in Germany and is the capital of the State of Bavaria. The city is renowned worldwide for its famous annual beer festival named the Oktoberfest. The Isar River cuts though the city and contains most of the attractions on its left bank.

Travelling There
Flying is easy as the Franz-Josef-Strauss Airport connects Munich with many other European destinations. The journey to the city centre is approximately forty minutes and can be made by train or car. The city’s rail links are excellent and connects to most major German and European cities. Road links within and around the city are also good and are cheaper than the rail service.

Accommodation Options
Accommodation options in Munich are vast and prices decrease towards the outskirts of the city. The busiest season in Munich is between October and May so be sure to book any accommodation well in advance. There are types of accommodation for all from hotels to bed and breakfasts, inns, hostels and campsites.

History
Over the years since Munich was first founded in the 12th century, it has grown in the reputation of being both cultural and artistic. National Socialism developed in Munich following the First World War. The city then got struck heavily during World War Two and has since had the damage repaired and had become a modern metropolis.

Sights and Attractions
Munich’s old town (known as the Altstadt) is a popular sightseeing attraction. Stroll through it towards the beautiful square (Marienplatz) and through the lanes that contain some impressive cultural and historic features. The Westend of Munich is a much more modern experience. This is the area where the Oktoberfest is held and is a great laugh for any party enthusiasts. Schwabing is home to Europe’s largest park where there is plenty to do and see.

Shopping in Munich
Munich has excellent shopping opportunities where you can pick up a variety of designer goods as well as traditional Bavarian handicrafts. There are piles of shopping malls and areas all over the city so you will never find yourself wanting more.

Dining Options
Munich has a great selection of places to eat out at ranging from restaurants to bistros, bars and takeaways. It is easy to find both traditional and international cuisine at the majority of restaurants. However, be sure to get cash out prior to eating as most restaurants in the city do not accept credit.

Article Source: http://www.travelarticlelibrary.com

Dan writes for hirecars.co.uk and recently finished this article tourist guide to Munich from Budget car hire specialist Dan also works at selfcatering.co.uk The vacation House rental comparator

Anne Frank was one of the millions of Jewish victims of the Nazis during World War II. Although she was only 13 years old when she died, Anne Frank’s story has been told many times thanks to the diary she kept whilst she was in hiding in Amsterdam. Anne was born in Germany and along with her father (Otto), mother (Edith Frank-Hollander) and sister (Margot), fled to Holland to escape persecution.

Otto had set up a successful food business and part of the company was located in a building on Prinsengracht. In May 1940, Germany invaded Holland and they brought with them, the repression of the Jewish people. Fearful about the fate of his family, in July 1942, Otto Frank moved his family to an annex at the back of the building at 263 Prinsengracht. Later, the Franks were joined in the Annex by Hermann and Auguste van Pels, their son Peter and Fritz Pfeffer.

Anne Frank House, Amsterdam

For more than two years, these 8 people hid in the Annex from the Nazis and during this time, Anne Frank kept a diary. In it, she wrote her most personal thoughts and feelings and later her father were surprised how strong her emotions were even though he was close to his daughter.

On 4 August 1944, the German authorities received an anonymous phone call telling them that Jews were hiding at 263 Prinsengracht. Anne Frank and the seven others had been betrayed and to this day, it is still not known who betrayed them. In addition, some of the people helping were also arrested although they all survived the war.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the 8 Jewish people who had been hiding for more than two years. After their arrests, they were deported to various concentration camps to the East.

- Edith Frank died in Auschwitz.

- Margot Frank died in Bergen-Belsen.

- Anne Frank also died in Bergen-Belsen just days after her sister and tragically a month before the camp was liberated by the British Army.

- Hermann van Pels died in Auschwitz

- Auguste van Pels died while being transported to Theresienstadt.

- Peter van Pels died in Mauthausen.

- Fritz Pfeffer died in Neuenhamme.

Otto Frank had been sent to Auschwitz but survived the war and eventually died in 1980 at the age of 91. However, before he died, Otto spent a lot of time getting his daughters diary published and helping set up the Anne Frank House museum. 

The Anne Frank House museum has been open to the public since 1960 and now attracts more than 1 million visitors a year. The museum’s address is 267 Prinsengracht so it covers a larger area than just the original building of Otto Franks company. Visitors should allow about an hour to go round the museum. If you are going to visit the museum independently, it is probably best to pre-book you tickets on the internet as there is always a queue to get in with waiting times up to an hour. Pre-booked tickets let you select the time you want to visit the museum but it is advisable to get these well in advance as the slots seem to sell out quickly. Alternatively, you can just turn up and queue as many people do. If you go for this option, its probably worth getting there early. There are no cloakroom facilities at the museum so if you are planning to visit at the end of your trip to Amsterdam, make sure you leave your luggage at your hotel or the station.

We got to the museum for around 9:45am and had to queue for about 20 minutes although when we came out the queue was almost double the length. An adult ticket was 8.50EUR, a child up to the age of 17 was 4EUR and children under 10 are admitted free (2009 prices). Once inside, visitors are directed round various exhibitions started on the ground floor and working up to the Annex were Anne Frank spent two years of her short life. There are various quotes from her diary displayed on the walls throughout the museum as well as a number of personal items. There are also video screens with short interviews from people who help hide the Franks, one of Anne’s friends and Otto Frank.

On the walls of the staircase leading down from the Annex, there is a quote from Nelson Mandela. I forget the exact words but basically during his time in prison on Robben Island, Mandela and his fellow inmates read Anne Frank’s Diary and it helped to inspire them in their cause. The bookshop at the Museum offers a wide range of literature about Anne Frank as well as information about the various campaigns and educational programs it helps with. The Anne Frank Museum should be a part of any trip to Amsterdam.

The final months of Anne and Magot Franks lives were at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Today, the site is a memorial with extensive exhibitions as well as a documentation and research centre. Entry is free to all visitors. The Bergen-Belsen Memorial is located around 50km north of Hanover between the towns of Bergen and Winsen. Despite its relatively remote location, there is a bus service from the town of Celle.

Bergn-Belsen

Originally, the camp was used by the Wehrmacht as a POW camp in 1939. Around 20,000 POWs died here, mainly from the Soviet Union. In 1943, the SS took over the running of the camp and established it as a concentration camp. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 52,000 men, women and children died mainly from starvation and disease. When the British liberated the camp, there were confronted with the sight of thousands of unburied bodies and many other prisoners who were barely alive.

Anne and Margot Frank arrived at Bergen-Belsen from Auschwitz in August 1944. The following winter was harsh and with the camp being horribly overcrowded, more than 18,000 people had died there by March 1945 from cold, hunger and disease. Margot died from Typhus and now Anne was all alone. She also contracted Typhus and believing her parents to also be dead, she maybe thought there was nothing to live for and gave in to the disease that had claimed her sister.

Anne and Margot Franks gravestone

After the war, the British Military Government ordered a memorial site to be created. The camp became a Displaced Persons Camp as many Jews had no home to return to. In 1948, the State of Israel was founded and some people from the Displaced Persons camp were allowed to immigrate there. The camp was finally closed in 1950. 

When we arrived at the Memorial, the we spent time looking round the Exhibition Documentation Centre this in itself can be very time consuming as there is so much to see not to mention the videos and recordings from camp survivors. There is also some very graphic video shot by the British Army just a few days after the camp was liberated. It shows the bodies being put into the mass graves (up to 5,000 people) which are still very much part of the outdoor memorial.

We spent around an hour indoors before heading outside to look at former camp. Virtually nothing of the old camp remains. The POW cemetery where over 14,000 Soviet soldiers are buried is located a bit further away from the rest of the memorial and takes about 15 minutes to walk there. Visitors also have the option to drive there if they have their own transport.

Around the grounds, there are a number of mass graves marked simply stating how many people are buried there and the date, April 1945. At the far end is the Obelisk and Wall of Remembrance where people have laid wreaths, flowers as well as many individual stones, which I believe is Jewish tradition (feel free to correct me or tell me the full story of the stones by leaving a comment).

Near the Wall, visitors will find a large timber cross which was erected on the initiative of Polish women from the camp shortly after liberation. There is also a House of Silence where people can sit and reflect. In the centre are a number of gravestones, including one of Margot and Anne Frank. The grave stones do not mark a specific resting place of the individual, they are there as a memorial.

Whilst I did not find Bergen-Belsen as disturbing as Auschwitz (which I visited a few years ago), it is undoubtedly a very sombre place where evil claimed the lives of so many innocent people. Anne Frank’s short life came to an end in this camp hidden away to the north of Hanover but the discovery and publication of her diary by her father, Otto has given inspiration to a world statesmen in Nelson Mandela and has also gave us an insight to a life cut tragically short by persecution.

If you would like to visit the Anne Frank Museum and Bergen-Belsen, it is part of the itinerary for the Anne Frank & Oskar Schindler Memorial Tour (www.battlefieldexplorer.com) which you can book with Explorer Travel.

From our base in Rostock, we decided to take the train down to Berlin on a day trip. Compared to the UK, travelling by train in Germany is luxury. It would appear the German’s consider the train to be a service rather than a business where the shareholders are the highest priority…but enough of that.

As we were travelling on a Sunday, we were able to take advantage of a special weekend ticket (Schones-Wochenende-Ticket.). For 37EUR, up to 5 people could travel on 2^nd class from Rostock to Berlin return on any of the direct trains plus travel in Berlin on the S-Bahn (city trains) was also included. The 250km (150miles) trip too around 2 hours 40 minutes on a fast, comfortable train.

As our time in Berlin was limited, I did what I always advise people to do when they want to see as much of a city as possible in a short space of time – we took a city tour by bus. The Berlin City Tour was one of a number of tour options we had and this one suited us perfectly as they had a stop at the Berlin Haptbahnhof (Main Station). The Berlin City Tour has a single route with 6 hop on/hop off points around the city taking in all the main sights of Berlin. The complete loop takes around 1 hour 45 minutes with short stops at the Brandenburg Gate, Alexandraplatz and the shopping street of Tauentzienstrasse. The tour commentary was provided in German and English by a guide sitting at the front of the bus.

Angel, Tiergaten

Most people know Berlin as the Capital of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler and more recently as a city divided into East and West by the Cold War. However, the history of Berlin dates back to 1237 and there are a number of sculptures and landmarks in the city to mark its’ 750th anniversary.  Berlin is also the place where President Kennedy addressed the crowds in 1963 and made his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” quote in a speech were he was underlining the US support for West Germany. Today, there is a Kennedy Museum located a few metres away from the Brandenburg gate. More recently, Barack Obama addressed a crowd of around 200,000 people in Berlin from the Angel in the Tiergarten.

Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi’s Gestapo Headquarters were set up on Prinz-Albrehct-Strasse just one block away from Checkpoint Charlie. Part of the original Berlin Wall still stands here. The original buildings were partly destroyed during World War II and were finally demolished in 1956. Since 1997, a permanent exhibitions has been in place called the “Topography of Terror”. Across the road (and the former Berlin Wall) is the building where Herman Goering’s Air Defence Ministry conducted their operations, including the Battle of Britain.

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin

As the section of the Berlin Wall ends, you will see a double line of bricks along the pavement and road. This line marks where the Berlin Wall used to stand and there are plaques at regular intervals that read “Berliner Mauer 1961 – 1989”. If you want a brief taste of the old East, it is possible to hire an old East German Trabant car for a short time and take part in a Trabant Safari around Berlin. One block along from the “Topography of Terror” exhibition is Checkpoint Charlie, the iconic crossing point of the East/West Berlin border. After the end of World War II, control of Berlin was given to the Allied Forces. The British, French and Americans controlled West Berlin while the Soviets control the East. In 1961 as the Cold War intensified, the people of Berlin woke up to find the Soviets were ringing West Berlin with miles and miles of barbed wire. Over time, the wall was strengthen and fortified dividing the city. However, West Berliners were still permitted to cross into the East (and back again) and foreign nationals could also cross the border. Checkpoint Charlie was one of the crossing points and it was here in late 1961 that tanks from America and the Soviet Union were involved in a stand-off that some feared could have resulted in World War III.

In 1989, as the era of Communism was coming to an end, Berlin was the city where one of the main symbols of the oppressive regime finally fell as the Berlin Wall was opened allowing people in the East to freely travel to the West of the city. Since reunification, Berlin has once again been restored as the capital city of Germany and there is plenty of rebuilding and restoration work underway throughout the city.

A visit to Berlin is part of the itinerary on a number of the Battlefield tours (www.battlefieldexplorer.com) or you may prefer to visit Berlin for a city break. These can both be arranged with Explorer Travel (www.bbmexplorer.com) 0208 816 8789.

The seaside area of Warnemunde is a few miles north of central Rostock on the Baltic Sea. The harbour is lined with various fishing and excursion boats as well as plenty of colourful shops, bars, restaurants and hotels. The New Years Day Laser Show is an annual event that organisers claim attracts up to 70,000 people. When I first heard about the show, the thought of an open air show on the Baltic Coast on 1^st January didn’t seem like the greatest idea in the world but as so many people regularly attend it, the weather couldn’t be as bad as I feared. From our base in central Rostock, we took the S-Bahn (local train) up to Warnemunde. The 20 minute journey cost around 2.50EUR return which was pretty reasonable even with the horrendous Sterling / Euro exchange rate. The station at Warnemunde is just across a small bridge from the restaurants, hotels and cobbled streets of Warnemunde.

Warnemunde, Northern Germany

The focal point of Warnemunde is the lighthouse which is located where the promenade meets the end of the harbour area. From this point, the promenade and sandy beach stretch out to the west. Most of the buildings along the sea front only have a couple of storeys with the exception of the Hotel Neptun, a favourite of the old East German hierarchy. Today there is a disco on the top floor which would offer a great view of the laser show. In the summer, the roof slides back so you can dance (and drink) the night away in the open air.

With tens of thousands of visitors expected at Warnemunde, there were plenty of little stalls set up selling seasonal hot drinks and snacks. The attitude to fireworks in the area is very different to the one we have in the UK. Everyone seemed to be carrying an array of fireworks, rockets, sparklers and some sort of lantern which would float off to heights of several hundred feet. Rockets were being set off from any spare bit of beach that could be found. They were being set off from being stuck in the sand, the necks of champagne bottles and on several occasions, out of people’s hands.

Although it was light when we arrived at Warnemunde, it wasn’t long before dusk so we soon found a decent spot on the promenade, not far from a stall selling mulled wine, hot chocolate (with or without rum) and other hot, festive drinks. The temperature was around -1 Celsius but there was no wind so it wasn’t too bad although the roof at the Hotel Neptun was firmly closed.

New Years Day Fireworks at Warnemunde

Prior to the Laser Show, music was pumped out to the ever growing crowd as the a local radio show broadcast live from the stage set up by the lighthouse. It had been dark for about 90 minutes when the Laser Show started at 6pm. For the next 20 minutes, we were treated to a fantastic show. The laser beams moved up and down breaking through the smoke from the constant fireworks – official ones. Search lights lit up the lighthouse with a kaleidoscope of colours as a stunning array of fireworks lit up the sky silhouetting the lighthouse.  As the show neared its end, the lasers danced to the music of Tchaikovsky until the finale as the lighthouse lit up the year “2009”.

With that, the crowd applauded and cheered then just as quickly started to head off. Many people stayed in Warnemunde to continue their evening of merriment whilst others like us, headed back to the station to catch the S-Bahn back into Rostock.