Munich in the Rain
May 29 , 2007
by Megan Petratis
Yesterday, on our Neuschwanstein Castle tour, we were told that before the summer weather comes for good there are a few days when it gets really cold and rains non-stop. These days are known as Schafsk lte (sheeps cold) and our group definitely experienced this pre-summer weather while in Munich. Though the weather is comparable to Nebraska I do not think I have witnessed such a continuous rainfall (it rained all day and night Monday and then again on Tuesday!).
We tried not to let the weather affect our plans. Monday for our castle tour it didn t but today we were planning on doing a three-hour walking tour through Munich. However, with the immense rain and wind the tour was canceled. So, for the first half of the day we split into two groups. Sawyer, Jeralee and I left early in the morning to make the trip to the well-known concentration camp, Dachau. The second bunch was Frauke, Stacie, Kathryn, Anne and Kristen and they still did some site seeing as well as shopping.
I m trying to figure out a way to explain what I experienced at Dachau but honestly, it is hard to find the right words. Intense, powerful, sad, horrific, real and eye-opening are a few words that attempt to explain how I felt while touring the museum. As Jeralee and I were reflecting, we discussed the horrible facts that were portrayed in the pictures, stories and videos about several of the victims at Dachau. This experience showed what cruelties man is capable of doing to other human beings. This is an extremely dark page of history but I admire the reasoning behind leaving the camp around and making a museum for people to try and see an ounce of what took place during a time that was not all that long ago. And while thinking about everything I saw it made me just as upset knowing that horrible acts of violence are still going on every single day all over the world.
On a brighter note, the other girls seemed to have quite the day seeing Munich sites. They said a lot of their time was spent viewing the Frauenkirche, which means Church of Our Lady. It is one of Munich s symbols and can easily be recognized by its two iconic green domes. The Catholic Church is the final resting place of Kaiser Ludwig. Another point of interest was Marienplatz, the center of the city. The group was able to witness the famous Glockenspiel chimes with the display of a Bavarian jouster on top of the new townhouse that was built in medieval style at the beginning of the 20th century. In the middle of market square is a 17th-century monument to the Virgin Mary, the Mariens ule.
Our group came back together at 4 p.m. to make our way to McCann Erickson Munich. I was really excited to be able to see to McCann agencies on this trip so that I could compare the two offices. Our time at McCann consisted of a tour and then an in-depth conversation with their Managing Director, the Account Director for Microsoft and their Executive Creative Director. We discussed several issues about global advertising, how their office works with other McCann offices and how and why they may change a brand s campaign based on the specific country. I found this discussion extremely interesting and think that several things we talked about will be useful in our Global Advertising paper that we will write when we arrive back to Lincoln.
After our informative two-hour meeting with McCann we had dinner at a famous monastery called Andechser am Dom. I think everybody was completely satisfied with their meal - I know I was! And something that made the dinner even better was when the owner sat down to talk to the Americans he heard were visiting and while we were talking he taught the group some really fun German cheers! This dinner was the perfect way to end our stay in Munich.
