Day 29: Vienna to Munich

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On to lively Munich where we experience Bavarian hospitality with a chance to visit a favourite beer hall.

Early start for our driving day today, had breakfast at 6.45am. Had a very sombre experience at Mauthausen, a german concentration camp from 1938 - 5th May 1945, the last camp to be liberated by the allies. 200 000 people were brought here to work, and 105 000 of them died. We went into the barracks where they lived, some had bunks where it was 5 people to a bed, others slept curled up on the floor and if there was nno room they slept on top of each other. They had roll call at 4.15am, and worked in the quarry carrying boulders up the 200+ steps until dusk. They were fed once every 3 days and only allowed 5 spoonfulls. Emaciated, they were pretty much just skin and bone. Underneath the infirmary they had gas chambers which they were told were showers, and in one part there was a tape measure on the wall where they were told to stand to be measured, but there was a hole in the wall and they were shot in the neck. We walked and saw the quarry and all the steps leading up from it. We watched a movie that had interviews with survivors, and some pretty horrific footage from the end when the US allies stormed and put an end to it all. After that we had free time to wander around the barracks, the gas chambers and the crematorium.

Had our lunch stop at Mondsee, where they filmed some of The Sound of Music. We saw the church which they used the outside of for the wedding, and climbed the trees where the kids hang out of in their curtain clothes. We had lunch at a pizzaria and strolled around the streets for a while.

Arrived in Munchen in the afternoon, and checked into our youth hostel which turned out to be really cool. Matty reckoned it used to be a hospital, the way it was set up and everything. I was rooming with Ange, Julia and Emily, and we just hung around killing time until we left for the beerhall. The beerhall was in the Bavarian area of Munich, so we drank out of muss (1 litre steins). We were the only people there, so it was cool to have it all to ourselves. The steins were really cool, but very heavy. Managed to do 'around the world' without spilling it everywhere, but it was only half full. Ended up drinking 2 steins, Mark and Gill had a competition and he drank 4, then chucked everywhere in the beerhall. They had dancing and singing and stuff which was really cool. I had the pork knuckle for dinner which is their tradition, I was a bit sceptical at first, but it was really nice. We got home at about 10, then went to the nightclub under the youth hostel which was fun, but full of 16 year olds.

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