Today began with a bus tour of Munich where we saw a lot of the major sites. It wasn't as good as the Berlin and Prague tours, but we still saw some very interesting things. We drove around the outside of Munich's city center and saw what remains of the wall and gates that used to enclose the city many years ago, then we went out to the summer palace which was so beautiful. The palce has an interesting history and several swans that live in the ponds and canals in front. There is also a shallow canal along the road leading up to the palace which freezes over in the winter for ice skating, and it was still partially frozen.
After the bus tour we were dropped off at the opera house near the marienplatz where the town hall and glockenspiel are. It was super sunny and i was sad i forgit my sunglasses, my eyes suffered all day! We got there just in time to watch the hourly show put on by the clock, again another pickpocket opportunity. The show was cool and I loved how at the end the Bavarian jouster defeats the French guy haha! Then we broke into groups for lunch. We headed down to a nearby market to enjoy a cheap meal of brats and potatoes. I loved taking photos of the people shopping and eating and of course all the market offerings. We had a little time before we had to meet back up so we shopped a little on the way and found an awesome hat shop. I really wanted to buy one but it was 300€ :( they were all so cute!
Then it was back on the bus for the short ride to the Dachau concentration camp. That was amazing. I mean everyone who takes a history class knows the basic story of what happened to prisoners sent to the camps during Hitler's regime, but to be there and see it for yourself makes it feel so much more real. Not much of the original building are left, but they have rebuilt two barracks for tours. There is also a museum inside the original main office building where you can watch a short video about the history of the camp and the war. After taking in the movie, we headed to the far back corner of the camp for the crematorium and gas chamber. Standing alone in the chamber, although it was never used at this camp, was probably one of the eriest moment of my life. I'm so glad we got the chance to experience this piece of history. It really makes the trip come full circle. From the bombings and communism in Berlin, to the Jewish quarter in Prague, to the nuremberg riot colliseum, and now to one of the longest running concentration camps; I really feel like I've seen it all.
After that humbling experience, we headed back to marienplatz for some free time. As a group we went to a few churches, one if which you can pay a couple € and climb the tower and get a great view of the city. Yeah I didn't do that. The stairwell was about a million yrs old and tiny and steep so I kept a couple kids with me and we hung out at the bottom. I finally bought something for myself while we waited! This candle store across from the church sold little gold pigs with a 1cent coin in them, they are supposed to bring good luck so I bought one its so random and cute :) then we walked to a couple more churches and ended up at a saturn store to look for a couple cds. We didn't find one of the ones we wanted, but we got the other one and we even got to listen to it on the bus later!
After Saturn we broke into our smaller groups (go team captain crunch!) to get some shopping done. We went in several stores and walked all over the oldest parts of Munich, but ended up not really finding much of anything that I was dying to have. Makes me wish I had spent more of my money in Berlin when I saw things I liked :( oh well! We met up and went to dinner as a group to the hard rock cafe, yay American food? I hate when the kids complain about wanting a hamburger and stuff. I mean we are only here a week, I think you can deal. After dinner we didn't have enough time to go into the hoffbrauhaus to drink, but I did go inside and look around and take a few pics just to say I've been there. We walked back to the bus and as soon as we pulled away from the curb everyone wanted to hear our favorite german song haha. It is a really catchy song, the title of this blog is the chorus of the song, we were kinda sad when we couldn't find that cd bc we know it has a few songs on it that we liked. Guess we'll all try iTunes when we get home! It was off to bed after a round of uno, that I almost won, and a few Chuck Norris jokes. Tomorrow we climb a mountain to a famous castle. Wish us luck!
Jenny
Sorry if you notice any misspelled places in any of these, I'm doing this on my phone and don't have my guidebooks handy!
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