Dachau, Germany 🇩🇪 2023

Date: 26-28th August 2023

Travelled: 150 kms from Regensburg to Dachau  

Visited: Bad Abbach and Dachau  

Stayed: Stellplatz Sulzemoos, free, N48.28170, E11.26130  

Budget: 96 days @ €91 per day

---

After a couple of strenuous weeks including Budapest and Prague. We decided on treating ourselves a a couple of days relaxing at the spa village of Bad Abbach. The fact the weather looks pretty ordinary for the next few days sealed the deal. It’s less than 30 minutes from Regensburg so an easy run.

The Kieser-Therme is about a kilometre from Abbach. As is common in Germany it has a stellplatz attached for some 35 motorhomes. At €20 a night it’s not cheap but it’s fully serviced and you get 20% of entry to the spa.

---

---

So we spend the next two days bobbing around from one pool to the next watching ourselves get wrinkly. From memory there are 5 pools of different temperature and purposes. It basically drizzled the while time we were there.

We did strike up a friendship with Grant and Carolyn from Newcastle north of Sydney, they are touring in their Hymer which is much newer and bigger than ours.

Obviously I haven’t got any photos to share as both phones and cameras are prohibited but your can check out the link above and there’s plenty of photos of the spa.

We have run out of dry towels signalling it’s time to continue moving west. Our next planned stop is Munich, but as we will pass through Dachau on our way, as the rain has stopped we decide on visiting the memorial site there.

---

---

Arriving in Dachau we refuel and do a quick stop at the Lidl for the usual supermarket stuff. The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site to use its proper title is only about 600m from the Lidl. There are no signs to the site, which suggest the locals don’t want to be reminded of it every day.

Visiting Dachau is free but parking is €5 for a motorhome. At the visitor’s centre we cough €4.50 pp for an audio guide which proves to be excellent. As the afternoon progresses and buses arrive it become quite busy, just showing there’s still a lot of interest in visiting places like Dachau.

---

---

Visiting a concentration camp is a sombre experience at best. Having experienced Auchwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Sachsenhausen on previous tours through Germany we know what to expect. We learn that Dachau was the first such camp, it became the model of the National Socialist vision.

Dachau was used as a training facility for SS troops who would later be transferred to other Nazi concentration camps. The intent being to ensure the standard of brutality was maintained.

---

---

Dachau was captured by US forces relatively intact, in fact the complex was used by the US Army for several years after the war The remaining two barrack style buildings are copies of the original wooden structures, the other brick buildings are original. The audio guide is not overly long winded and to the point.

The crematoriums were found intact and remain so. According to the blurb there was no industrial murder here at Dachau. The deaths were predominately from starvation, disease and savage disciplinary beatings although hangings were common place. The crematorium used to dispose of the bodies.

---

---

Having finished the audio tour we walk the fence line back to the visitors centre and the Hymer.

---

We flip a coin once again, Pam is keen to find a laundromat but Google has no hits in Dachau. There is a Hymer dealer on the outskirt of Dachau who kindly maintains a stellplatz next door. I want a part for the sink, so we head off to find what turns out to be one of Germany’s largest motorhome and caravan dealerships.

---

---

Apart from being an amazing place to walk around, the spare parts department have exactingly the part I need in stock. Pretty good considering the age of our Hymer. To top it off the lovely stellplatz is free.

---

Michael + Pam