We visited two historic and very different places on our last day - Dachau and Rothenburg on der Tauber.
Dachau has the distinction of being the first Nazi concentration camp. I wasn't sure what to expect when we arrived. You might not know it was there if you weren't looking and didn't notice barbed wire on concrete walls lining a regular city street. The site consisted of an information center with cafeteria, recreated barracks, crematorium, memorials and museum. We did the self-guided tour with audio sets. It was informative, reverent and sobering. The tragedy here serves as a reminder that we must fight hatred and discrimination of all kinds wherever it exists.
It was a two hour drive to Rothenburg, a walled city founded over 840 yrs ago. It was the inspiration for the village in the 1940 Walt Disney movie Pinocchio. It was also the location for the Vulgarian village scenes in the 1968 movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I was expecting a live version of a renaissance festival. It was actually more touristy than I expected and while beautiful to see, I didn't think there was much to do beyond shopping. We had our last meal here and then drove another 90 miles to Frankfurt for our departure the next morning. While Chunky was looking forward to going home, Sassy and I were melancholy as we felt like we could easily make Deutschland our new home.
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