Munchen Land

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Guten Tag everyone! We have been quite busy since arriving in Munich last Thursday. Finally found some time and a reliable internet cafe to update this blog. Tomorrow we will take the midnight train to Prague.
It has been mostly overcast with some rain here, everyone says that this is unusually bad weather for this time of the year. Nonetheless we are enjoying this city and making the most out of our time. We have visited several castles built by the royals of Bavaria (the Wittenbachs) including King Ludwid II. A late 19th century eccentric monarch. His most famous legacy might be Neuschwanstein castle, inspiration for eccentric, Walt Disney. While the castles are truly magnificent, the sorrounding country side look even more inviting to me. This would be a great place to tour on bike.
After the castle we took a more sobering but very essential trip to Dachau the following day. A visit to a concentration camp is definitely a must for everyone at least once. Profoundly moving, difficult emotionally but necessary moreso now than ever. For me it was a strong reminder that we must be vigilant against any attempts to marginalize, stereotype and demonize any group in the name of "nationalism, national security or patriotism".
On Sunday we took a day trip to Salzburg. Fortunately this was the one day when we had bright sunshine and clear skies. The pictures don't do enough justice as to how glorious it was. Being a Sound of Music freak, I've been looking really forward to this part of the trip.
We signed up for Fraulein Maria's Bike Tour and had a blast seeing the sights from the movie and pretending we were Von Trapps in our bicycles. It really did feeel like we were in the movie. I half expected the Baroness Schrader to appear (for a very funny blog regarding the shound of music check out vontrapped).
It was nice to be on a bike for 3 hours and work up a mild sweat. Salzburg is definitely one of the prettiest cities I've ever seen albeit very touristy. It was good that John and I got there early before the hordes decended on the town.
Our last 2 day here in Munich has been spent walking the squares or the old town, browsing in the shops and "pigging out". The food here has been, to say the least, satisfying. We usually start the day in our hotel which has a gread buffet of typical Bavarian breakfast. German food, especially Bavarian, is heavy on pork dishes. I've had pork knuckles, sucking pig, roast pork and it seems every imaginable type of sausage. John has sampled the beers and found them more impressive in volume than taste.
Munich was definitely a very pleasant town to visit. It seems very liveable even though it has the third highest rents in Europe (next to Moscow and London). I read somewhere that it was also voted the most liveable city based on quality of life and a vibrant economy.
That's it for this entry. We are headed to Prague but had to cancel our sidetrip to Czesky Krumlov since the weather does not look too encouraging for outdoorsy pursuits.
I hope all is well and even though we've been gone for only a week and a half we miss you all very much.

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Comments

[John A]

The Hills
Are Definitely Alive!!

[Tony]

Lovely Pictures
The sights are amazing. Great pics also. Surprised there is no pic of the Eiffel or did I miss it. If you can make a stop at Berlin, I would highly recommend it. The musuems and their collections are amazing. You are not missing much in terms of the weather. It's raining on and off for almost a week here in Chicago. Hoping my flight tomorrow to New York will not be delayed.