There was a major thunderstorm overnight. I slept through
it. Karolin, our Airbnb host told us about the wind and downpour. They were out
in the middle of the night lifting tomato plant pots that had blown over and
moving them on to the patio. Sheila also said that the rain was very heavy and
woke her up, but only for a few minutes.
Sheila convinced me to go for a run in the morning even
though I was not that keen. As usual, she pushed me and I got dressed for a
short run. When I stepped outside, I found a light, but steady drizzle and
decided I would be soaked in just a couple of minutes. I’m not committed enough
to run in the rain and I came right back in and told Sheila I wasn’t going to
run in the rain.
The forecast calls for three days of non-stop rain in
Salzburg – just over the three days we’re going to be there. Sadly, that’s what
ruined my last trip to Salzburg in 1998 – incessant rain. I’m a bit depressed
at the thought, but hey, it did little to diminish my love of the city last
time …
We sat at breakfast and planned our day. We were both very
keen on going to the Dachau concentration camp and then the Salt mine outside
of Salzburg. But that would mean very little time for going back to Marienplatz
to see the Glockenspiel operate. We finally decided to skip the Glockenspiel
and head straight to Dachau as we didn’t know how long we would want there and
would hate to feel rushed.
The drive to Dachau was faster than expected. The memorial
site was interesting. Dachau was the first concentration camp set up by the
Nazis in 1932. There was already a prison camp on the site, but the first
prisoners the Nazis sent to Dachau were then forced to build the new camp.
Initially, it was German dissidents – political prisoners. Later, after the war
started, very many Russian soldiers were sent there and there is no count of
how many thousands of them were executed. Then it grew to a location to send
homosexuals, Jews and other “undesirables.” The camp that was designed to hold
about 2000 prisoners held as many as 65,000 at some points resulting in
extremely cramped quarters and numerous deaths. One typhus epidemic wiped out
tens of thousands of prisoners. At times, bodies were piled all over the camp
as the gas crematoriums couldn’t burn the bodies fast enough. Mass graves were
created to dump bodies. Although they built gas chambers here, they were never
used (for an unknown reason). Dachau was often a stopping point before
prisoners were shipped off to Auschwitz, Buchenwald, etc. This camp provided a
lot of the labor for the armaments industry and, in fact, when the death toll
at the camp rose dramatically, Himmler insisted on improving the conditions so
that the Nazis didn’t run out of slave labor. Two of the barracks have been
rebuilt and the main prisoner camp building still stands pretty much in the
same form as it did in the 1940s. This was one of the camps that provided a lot
of the video footage you sometimes see in newsreel film of the era – of massive
piles of emaciated bodies and skeleton-like prisoners staring blankly into the
camera. That was the condition in which the Americans found this camp when they
liberated it in 1945. Over 30,000 prisoners were killed at this camp.
The information bombarding you at the camp, with details on
prisoner conditions, treatment, and medical experiments conducted is overwhelming
and a testament to the cruelty we’re all capable of inflicting on our fellow
humans under the right conditions. It also actually made me happy to be an
atheist. Forget about the religious motivations of many movements to
exterminate people. The fact that any God would allow this to happen convinces
me that if (s)he exists, (s)he is not worthy of any praise, prayer, or respect.
If God can’t intervene in those circumstances, I cannot see any reasonable
circumstance where we can expect any meaningful or merciful intervention from
this supposed benevolent being. If any God can turn a blind eye to such a
situation, it’s disgusting that you would think of ever singing his praise or
worshiping him in any form. Well, that’s the end of my politically-incorrect rant.
Feel free to defend your favorite deity in the comments if you’re so inclined,
but I’ll admit to be fairly confident in the morality of my views on this.
We had a quick, but excellent meal at a Greek restaurant
near the memorial and hit the road to get to the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine. It
started to pour. And, I mean pour. I have rarely ever seen such consistently
heavy rain. Driving was extremely difficult and stressful. Then, the GPS said
that traffic was at a standstill on the highway and rerouted us to the point
where we knew there was no chance we were going to be able to make the salt
mine before it closed. So, we decided to head straight to Salzburg. It took us
4.5 hours (what would normally be a 2-hour drive). It rained heavily almost the
entire way. Of course, I checked the weather report and it says it is going to
rain heavily for the next three days (that’s how long we’re in Salzburg) and
then clear up for a lovely sunny weekend (when we’re in Budapest. Flashback to
1998, my last trip to Salzburg. It rained the three days we were here. It seems
Mozart wants me to enjoy Salzburg only in the rain. Thank you, Mozart. Maybe
this is result of his little conversation with God for my apostasy and blasphemy
in the previous paragraph.
We got to the Bloberger Hof hotel outside of Salzburg at
about 6:30 PM and decided to have dinner in their well-regarded restaurant. I
decided to have some nice Riesling instead of beer and had mushroom ravioli in
brown butter and fresh parmesan. Delicious. Before going to bed, Sheila and I
decided to drive into town, walk around a bit and just get our bearings. We had
a lovely walk along the river and in the old town center and it brought back
many fond memories of my last trip here. We are both looking forward to heading
back in there tomorrow. We’ll probably take the bus and buy one of those
Salzburg cards. I’ll say a little musical prayer to Mozart to at least keep the
rain light.
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