Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada

Earlier this summer, I took a quick weekend trip to Las Vegas to watch NBA Summer League basketball. It was my 15th trip to Las Vegas since 2001, which makes Vegas by far my most visited vacation destination since I started traveling on my own after school. That's an average of more than one trip per year, in case you couldn't do the math yourself.

Despite all the time I've spent in Vegas (over a month all told when added up), however, the territory I've explored there has been extremely limited. Most of my time has been spent on foot or in cabs in and around the Strip, which for those of you uninitiated in these things is pretty much Las Vegas Boulevard from the Mandalay Bay resort to the Stratosphere hotel. One year I rented a car and went to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days and I've been a mile or two off the Strip to go to eat once. I've also been to the Fremont Street area four or five times but for the most part, I've spent my month in Las Vegas within an area which is no more than 15 square miles.

One of the most famous Las Vegas landmarks is the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign which sits about a mile south of Mandalay Bay. This thing is a world famous icon and it graces millions of dollars of Las Vegas souvenirs sold each year. But in my first 14 trips to the Nevada desert, I had never seen it in person. I didn't want to let that error in judgement stand my 15th trip. And it didn't.

The sign was installed in the center of Las Vegas Boulevard in 1959 by Las Vegas salesman Ted Rogich who sold it shortly after its installation to Clark County, Nevada. The sign was designed by graphic designer Betty Willis who never copyrighted the design, insisting it was a gift to the city. As such, she doesn't see a dime from the millions of dollars of souvenirs sold each year. Somehow this gesture makes the sign all that more awesome.

As a graphic design, the sign is so simple and clear but timeless at the same time. It's a simple white diamond shape trimmed in yellow with rounded ends topped by seven circles (allegedly to resemble silver dollars) and a star above offset to the left. The sign's red and blue welcoming message is obvious. The font is easy to read and the script "Fabulous" convinces you that Las Vegas is, in fact, fabulous (it is, most of the time). The back side of the sign, which one rarely sees, is equally clear, although it's easy to see why the back side isn't displayed much.

The sign was made by the Young Electric Sign Company, the company that made most all of the iconic Las Vegas casino signs. If you go up to the Neon Museum near the Fremont Street area, you will see the "YESCO" logo adorning the majority of the signs in their boneyard. The Young Electric Sign logo can been seen on the front and back of the sign.

The sign used to stand alone in the median of the Strip but a few years ago, the city decided to make it a bona fide tourist attraction and installed a parking lot just south of the sign so that people wouldn't simply walk there and then scamper across the road to the sign. Good idea. We took a cab down there on our way to the airport, had the driver wait, and then continued on our way home. The sign is way smaller than I thought it would be. I expected it to be highway sign height but it's quite modest (25 feet high) which was probably more appropriate to the scale of roadside signs in the late 1950s.

Like all tourist attractions in Vegas, the sign has drawn people to it looking to make a buck. We ran into a guy who presumably spends all day offering to take pictures for everyone at the sign (there seemed to be a ton of couples there) for an implied tip (we did it). It's hot in July. Very hot. I know it's a dry heat but still... This had to have been one of the shortest stops I've made at a tourist attraction, maybe slightly longer than the Griswold family spent at the Grand Canyon. It was worth it. I feel like I have been to Vegas now.

I have a long list of jobs I don't want. Sitting in the sun in July in Las Vegas in a Big Bird costume got added to that list about two months ago.

Arbeit Macht Frei

It's been a few weeks since my last Bavaria post and almost three months since I set out on that one week plus journey but I still have one more to post to get through and it hasn't been easy to write. This will be the last one I publish about Bavaria unless I return someday in the future to that corner of the world.

Overall our trip was a great trip. I learned a lot about the history of the region; changed my opinion of German food (for the better) and beer (for the worse); and saw gorgeous countryside in and around the Alps. But it featured two of the most uneasy days I've ever spent on vacation in Dachau and Berchtesgaden.

One of the darkest chapters in 20th century history occurred in Germany from 1933 to 1945, beginning when the National Socialist German Workers' Party (more commonly know as the Nazi Party) took power in that country until they were defeated at the end of World War II. While I don't usually seek out unpleasant holiday destinations, I thought I owed it to myself and to everyone killed in that war to visit some sites connected with the Nazi regime to remind at least myself of what we collectively should never allow to happen again. It was worth it, but it was chilling.

We arrived in Munich on a Friday afternoon and the next morning boarded a train for the town of Dachau, a typical German town about 20 kilometers northwest of the city. Only not so much. Dachau was selected by the Nazis as the site of the first concentration camp to house persons that the Nazis thought should be removed from society. And there were a lot that the Nazis thought should be removed from society.

The camp was established in March 1933 on the site of an abandoned munitions factory to hold communists, trade unionists and other opponents of the Nazi party. Eventually, other groups were brought to the camp, including Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals and, after Kristallnacht in November 1938, a significant number of Jewish men. In 1937, the camp became a work camp, first demolishing the old munitions factory and then enlarging the very place that would hold and work many until their death. The place remained a work camp until liberation by American forces in 1945. Dachau was not officially a death camp, meaning there was no mass extermination in gas chambers (although there was one built), but for sure there was plenty of death in this place.

A guard tower and poplar tree at either end of one of the barracks' foundations.

When we first got to the site, my first impression was that the place was huge. It was just way bigger than I expected. This was not a place that held a few people against their will; it was massive. We walked the site from the south end of the complex to the north, starting at the prison and then moving through the administration block (which is now a museum), past the barracks and the memorials and chapels on the property before ending up at the crematorium. That was probably the right sequence. There is no doubt the crematorium was the toughest spot to visit.

As I walked through the place, it was impossible not to be affected by so much that was there and had happened. Overall, I was struck by the abject cruelty of the entire enterprise. There was a vision of hatred put forth by Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler that truly applied to everyone not like them and it was clear from the exhibits that it would have been all but impossible for most people to avoid their persecution. The camp was truly there to work people to death. There was no constructive purpose behind some of the labor that the prisoners were forced to endure. Some work details simply moved rocks or piles of sand from one location to another before just being made to move them back to their original locations.

Reconstructed barracks.

Originally the camp had 40 barracks, each constructed to hold 200 men. At the camp's highest occupancy, there were up to 2,000 men squashed into any one barracks. Walking through the two reconstructed barracks at the south end of the site, it is unthinkable that that many men could be packed into the bunks inside. Different types of bunks are depicted in the two barracks and none of them seems any better than the other. I can't imagine how awful it was to be kept here. In many ways it is remarkable that the prisoners didn't rise up against the guards. I guess there was true belief despite all that was happening around them that the intent was not to work everyone to death.

After passing through the barracks, you are faced with the foundations of 38 other housing units, each numbered to seemingly remind you of how many there were and how many men were kept here, divided by an allée of beautiful poplar trees, who were witness to such cruelty for the first years of their lives. It's a long walk and that walk makes you think even more about the hell that the people here must have endured.

The path then directs you to the west, through the barbed wire fence atop the deep perimeter ditch and to the crematorium. As amazing as it sounds, the crematorium initially in and of itself was not that difficult to visit. This was the place where the bodies were burned, not where people died. But once you get to the gas chamber, it's absolutely incomprehensible why man would want to do this to another man. I've read and seen stories of the Nazis building gas chambers to look like showers so I expected the "shower heads" above me as I passed through the space. But the attention to detail was absolutely disgusting. There are drains in the floor which serve no purpose since no liquid would ever pass through there. It was literally one of the most horrifying spaces I have ever been in. It was never used at Dachau and that's little comfort to me. It was designed to be used. That's enough.

As if the gas chamber weren't enough, the path from the crematorium takes you past the shooting range, where the guards used prisoners as practice. For me the fact that the gas chambers were never used mattered when I got to this place. People were gunned down here for sport by men. It was truly sickening.

Looking south between the poplars to the administration building.

I can't imagine how the German people come to terms with what their ancestors have done in this place and the guilt about what happened here is obvious. After the war, the barracks were used to house refugees until 1965. Only in the 1970s did Germany start to make any effort to recount what happened here. There is so much here that is new or recently discovered, from memorial chapels and sculptures to roads and guardhouse foundations recently unearthed. It is patently obvious that this history has been avoided in some measure. Thank God it appears there is progress being made.

Dachau is perhaps the worst place I have ever been on vacation. Despite that I suggest you go if you ever find yourself in Munich. The world needs visitors to see and remember what happened here. The main gate to the camp features the words "arbeit macht frei" which loosely translated means "work shall set you free." It's horrifying to think that whoever hung that gate honestly believed those words.

Four days after our visit to Dachau, we visited the Berchtesgaden region. Our agenda for the day featured a boat ride in the gorgeous Berchtesgaden National Park in the morning and then a trip up into the Alps to visit the Kehlsteinhaus in the afternoon.

The Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagle's Nest, was built as a gift for Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday. It is a diplomatic entertainment spot designed to show the benevolence and love for nature demonstrated by the Nazi party. It was built in just 13 months, an incredible feat considering it is sitting on top of a mountain accessible by a one way road (which had to be built before construction on the building could be started) and a gold plated elevator built into the heart of the mountain. This place is clearly a demonstration of what the Nazis could build if they set their mind to it. 

When I was planning this trip to Germany, I knew I wanted to visit the Eagle's Nest. Quite honestly, I expected the place to be a typical wooden chalet like the kinds you imagine exist in the Alps. Indeed, the trip south to the Berchtesgaden takes you by a number of picturesque chalets. But the Eagle's Nest is nothing like that. It is an ashlar masonry structure with (appropriately enough I guess) very little warmth whatsoever.

It honestly feels like an executive conference center which I guess in many ways it absolutely was. Other than its size (it's huge), it doesn't seem excessive at all. There are no Nazi motifs on the building or any sort of celebration of German power. Other than the fact that it is built on top of a mountain and you have to take a gold plated elevator to get there, it doesn't seem that impressive. I guess it would have in the first half of the 20th century.

Once you are on top of the mountain, the site is really amazing. It is not quite on the top of a mountain but the peak is just a short walk from the building. The views are incredible. It's difficult to imagine the type of men who built this place in a spot so beautiful.

While walking around the Eagle's Nest, I found myself torn about the continued existence of the place. This building and this site are reminders of Nazi power and excess and I would have no qualms about wiping it off the face of the Earth. I feel this is different than Dachau. A site like that needs to remain to remind us of what we should not become again. I don't feel the same way about the Eagle's Nest. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any purpose to razing it.

I do think there was an opportunity that was missed by the German government. The Eagle's Nest today is a tourist spot and a cafeteria style restaurant. The reasons why the building exists and what it symbolized are relegated to what used to be an outside porch type corridor, squirreled away off the main path of travel by the bathroom. I'd be much more accepting of keeping the place around if it was a museum to what the Nazis had done to the people of Germany and Europe, rather than as a beer and food place on top of a hill.

The Eagle's Nest is not an easy place to get to. From Salzburg, we took three buses there and three back (eight total with our trip to the Berchtesgaden National Park) in one day. I recommend you try though. Despite the sinister reason for it being there, the view is incredible.

It seems odd that I would devote two of my nine vacation days to these sites but I thought it was extremely important. Despite the reminders that these two places represent, we keep allowing dictators to persecute their own people. I guess we can't take on all the world's problems but it's awfully difficult standing by.