Time on my own

Watch tower and Cyprus trees, Dachau 

I have been on the road now for over 2 weeks, most of it very busy with work and appointments: on and off trains and planes and in and out of taxis and trams and offices all day long. I counted and realized that I have been in 6 countries in 10 days. Finally this past week here in Munich, my resistance broke down a bit and I came down with a nasty head cold. I knew it would happen at some point, I just did not know where or when. At least it was over a long weekend here when I planned to have some time for myself anyway as you are back in London now. I was able to rest a bit, which was good and I even found a small shop in a train station nearby with a Vietnamese family doing manicures and pedicures so I had this done, and while it couldn't compare to what I get in Thailand, it made me feel somewhat better as well.  It is hard to take care of oneself when  traveling so much and one place starts to blend into another. 

Yesterday I felt a bit better so I decided to spend the afternoon out and to explore a bit. In the city, Oktoberfest is in full swing and it is too full of partying crowds for my taste, so I took a train to Dachau, an hour outside of Munich, to visit the museum that is set up there in the grounds of the Nazis first concentration camp. I spent a few hours walking around, reading and reflecting. I learned that in addition to the Jews, many thousands of others also perished here: Russians, Italians, Catholic priests, Czechs, Poles and Roma gypsies and others.  

If you had been with me, we would have talked about everything we were seeing and you would have made bold and sweeping statements about the evils of fascism and dictatorships while I would have tried to draw parallels to world events today. I would have said how lucky we are not to have had to face such a situation in our own lives and how I couldn't imagine what I would have done if I had.  In the end, we would have been glad to share it. Going alone was fine but it is not the same as if we had been together.