Germany -Munich

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Before heading to Munich we stopped at Mauthausen, a tiny wee town that housed the concentration camp run by the Nazis from 1938-1945. I can't describe the eerie feeling that surrounded the area. We watched a video inside, it's hard to believe that such things went on and the locals didn't even know about it.

The Nazi's took in 190,000 Jews, Convicts and anyone they thought to be anti-nazi and 100,000 of those people died inside the concentration camp. It was mortifying to see what went on but i'm glad we got the chance to go there.

In the afternoon we stopped in a little town called Mondsee and saw the Chapel where the Captain and Maria got married in The Sound of Music. It was one of the most gorgeous little towns i've ever seen.

On arrival in Munich we had Pork Knuckle (like pork with crackling but on the bone) for dinner at a Beerhall and drunk our beer from one litre Berrsteins. They are so heavy and the waitresses can carry ten at a time!

We headed back into the Austrian Tyrol next to stay in a small place called Hopfgarden. On the way we stopped at the River Inne and went White Water Rafting, it was so much fun, although i've done it at home in the Wairarapa there's something a bit more special about rafting in Austria. We had loads of fun and by the end of it everyone was jumping boats and throwing people in etc -as to be expected! After Dinner there was a 'white out' party in the pub in the Hotel we were staying at.

The following day in Hopfgarden was one of my favourites of the whole trip. We spent the morning Mountain Biking through the countryside over a mountain track and over bridges and hills. Once at the top we had a bbq lunch and then went back downhill to the Contiki Site to meet our shuttle driver. It's safe to say that I was reaching speeds downhill that even Brucey (my car) would struggle to compete with!

A small group of 8 of us reached the gondolas on our shuttle and were each met by a Paragliding Instructor, mine was named Leo and he was a huge All Blacks Fan, it was very amusing hearing him tell his Austrian Friend what the haka was.

Once up top Leo laid out our Parachute and after lots of waiting for others to go and then lots of moving around to get our Parachute in the right position (did I mention he made me trip over at least twice? Talk about trying to make me nervous!) we ran down the hill and away we went. We would've been in the air for around 10-15 mins and it was just like floating in the air.

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Photos

Paragliding
Leo and I in the air

Mountain Biking
Through the Austrian Tyrol

Paragliding
This is the view where we paraglided down to

My Parachute
It was like wearing a huge nappy (or what I imagine it to be like!)

My Parachute
One last photo before the big jump

Paragliding
This is where we take off from

Paragliding
Okay so this is the last photo before we jumped! (or should I say ran)