Day 16

WOW! That is still all that comes to mind when I think about Switzerland but sadly we had to leave so off to Munich we went.  We left around 7:30 in the morning and in a couple hours we arrived for an early lunch stop in the small country of Lichtenstein.  Small country, large prices like Switzerland for food but we ate something nonetheless and got back on the road to Munich.

Since we had gotten off early enough and traffic wasn’t too bad there was an additional stop on the way; the former Nazi concentration camp Dachau.  We had an hour to visit the camp which sadly wasn’t nearly enough time to see and read everything but it was an extremely sobering experience.  To see first hand the conditions the prisoners were exposed to day after day and the tragic efficiency of the extermination process really shed more light on this horrible part of human history.  Certainly depressing but these reminders of our past are still important to inspire future generations to hopefully avoid making the same mistakes.

On a more lighthearted note we then descended upon Munich to drink their beer!  Well we stopped at the hostel first but soon left with the group for an included dinner at a local beer keller where we were treated to a plate of mashed potatoes, three different kinds of sausage and sourcraut (did not appreciate the sourcraut fully but wasn’t too bad).  All received a small 250ml glass of beer and then several of us indulged in some more traditional 1L steins of beer.  Tracey instead had a drink of something called Camprini which the menu we thought described it as orange flavoured soda but there was nothing orange about it.  It was the most bitter, revolting thing that either Tracey or I had ever drank.  Tracey tried to make it bearable by adding sugar to it but it was no use.  The dark side was far too strong with the drink.

After dinner we did some sightseeing but most things were closed being the evening.  We did make it to the Hard Rock Cafe and on the way back to the hostel stumbled upon a fireworks display.  It wasn’t as large as the Freedom Festival fireworks but several of the munitions were of that size.  Still slightly affected by the drinking of earlier and generally sleepy from the consistent early morning starts we turned in for the night.

Tomorrow we greet Vienna!