Onto Rothenburg, last days in Munich

Our second day in Munich we got up early to take a tour to the Dachau Concentration Camp. We had a very knowledgeable and intelligent tour guide who helped us understand some basic factors that led up to the Holocaust and what life at the concentration camp would have been like. We were amazed to find out there were actually hundreds of camps throughout Europe. Dachau was the first Nazi camp and was the training ground and "parent camp" of all the others that would be formed. It was a difficult trip to make but ultimately an enlightening and valuable experience.

After those heavy hours of weighing the horrors of history, we needed a little downtime. We returned to our room with some German snacks from the train station store- chips, cookies, sodas, and juice and watched a little tv. After having some time to unwind, we headed out for another walk around Munich. The weather forecast was predicting rain and thunderstorms by 6pm, so we wanted to get out while the sun was still shining.

The sun wasn't out for long. By the time we got to the famous Glockenspiel for the 5 o'clock joust of the clock, it raining fairly heavily. People were lined up under the eves of the buildings ready to watch the show. The clock has characters of a duke and his wife watching the Bavarians beat up their enemies. Just as the knight was getting knocked off his horse, there were big flashes of lightning and thunder. So dramatic! And just when I thought it was over, the barrel-makers danced a jig of victory. It was pouring when the Glockenspiel was done doing it's thing, so we ran to the next major tourist attraction: the Hofbrauhaus.

The Hofbrauhaus is one of the world's most famous beer halls where we ate. In the tour book, it said the oompah bands in lederhosen start playing around dinner time. We were there at five and figured the fun should be starting before too long. We sat next to a kind Japanese man and read the menu that was entirely in German. I was scared of ordering some unknown sausage of unknown ingredients but he was eating a massive piece of meat called a "pork knuckle." We heard about those and thought that would be a fun food experience to have. I didn't know what it was called so I just pointed at it and shook my head yes to the gruff waitress. Long story short, we ended up being there past dinner time and made several new friends! As the place started filling up with tour groups, table space was harder and harder to find. Two middle-aged Japanese women sat down next to us, so we scooted down the large wooden table to make room. Before too long, a group of 5 people from Spain joined our table. They were all hilarious. The Japanese women knew just a little English. I knew just a little Spanish. And the folks from Spain didn't know Japanese or English. It was a hilarious table! There was a lot of pointing, and laughing, and drawing, and nodding of understanding (even if no one really understood.) Jason and I were at this point trapped at the end of the table, but the scenes unfolding in front of us were too interesting to leave. Eventually our Spanish friends left and they were replaced by two young Italians. What an evening!

The next day we had planned to visit the picturesque "Mad" King Ludwig's Castles about 3 hours away in Fussen. However, the weather forecast called for rain and we didn't feel like being on a train for that many hours with only a day left in Munich. We decided instead to tour the Residenz because we were so impressed with the English Gardens we saw the first day. It was a good choice! The palace certainly was grand! Full of gold, velvet, jewels, and relics. Afterward we wandered back through Viktualien Markt and admired the stalls of fruit, meat, and flowers. With the raining overcast day, we shared a perfect bowl of organic tomato soup at SoupMama, bought some more goodies at the store (there's a snack called Snack), and spent the raining evening at our hostel.

Now we are getting ready to head out to a small medieval town of Rothenburg. We might not have internet access there because it is a smaller town but if we do we will update the blog shortly.