Munchen - part two

After lunch in Munich, I decided took a bus tour of the city.

Winding down the streets on our double decker, covered due to cold weather and imminent rain, our driver explained, first in German, then English, the significance of each of the sights marked on our maps.

Numerous times, the words "Third Reich" and "Hitler" came up in her discourse and often in a matter of fact manner......oh yeah, this was Hitler's main office....this was where he organized rallies, etc.

It was chilling to be in this city, the epicenter of atrocity only such a short time ago in our history. History does not even seem like the right word, because we are talking about mere decades, really the present.

In any case, I disembarked from the bus on the fourth stop, near Marienplatz and saw the new city hall with the glockenspiel, as well as the old city hall and a church (St. Peter or Paul....?).

But, what was really moving was the synagogue.

Reaching completion only two years ago in 2006 (!), it already has more than 10,000 congregants.

One of the more beautiful synagogues I have seen, and also one of the most eerie. As I told my brother on the phone, I am used to synagogues being old...because they are supposed to be old, smell musty and have a certain Jewish mystique that can only be developed over time.

But this synagogue was brand spanking new, and in some ways resembled more the lobby of a five star hotel. It is a beautiful thing that there is such a nice new synagogue in Munich and a shame that there is not an old one.

On the walls entering the main part of the synagogue were inscribed the names of the Jews from Munich that died in the Holocaust.