Munich....its all beerhalls isnt it?

---

Another typical morning loading ourselves onto the bus and heading to the next destination. With everyone onboard, we headed down the road to pick up the extras that were paraponting early in the morning.

So we are surprised to see the hostel van turn up while we are waiting, with someones bags. Now to me (and everyone else on the bus) it seems like a pretty hard thing to do, forgetting your bag. You put your bag under the bus then get on. Watching everyone else put their bag on should trigger in your mind that you yourself hadnt put it on.... Turns out the bags belonged to our beloved bus driver (Waz, a kiwi). That was lucky as we had five days to go until we made it to Amsterdam where another bus would be able to intercept the bag and deliver it to us!!

With everyone on board, and bags, we headed across the border to Munich. This was a short drive that took around three and a half hours. As Europe is now part of the EU, there are infact no physical border patrol checks (most of them are being taken down). You can drive freely through these countries - so no stamps in our passports unless you fly! BUMMER!

Our first port of call in Munich was a concentration camp called Dachau. This was one of the first camp, made for political and academic prisoners. It was infact the original camp that others through out Germany and Poland were built off.... It housed tens of thousand of men through out its existance with 30,000 deaths. They were worked very hard and some executed, however most just died from nutrition issues and overwork. Although there was a gas chamber built within the camp, it was never properly utilised....and people were instead taken to other camps. The camp is one of the more famous ones as it was the second to be liberated by the US/British troops...They say that the Germans here are very aware of their past history and very ashamed with what happened during the war. Many are very strongly opposed to any Nazi uprising or symbols from the past. They are also very strict on the younger generation where camps are a regularly part of schooling so they understand the significance.

After spending some time exploring the camp by oursleves we headed to our hostel, and on a quick walking tour. Did you know Munich has a man made wave on its river that people surf (right in town). The town has some fabulous buildings, and history. There is a plaza right outside this fantastic glokenspeil (cant spell) which we unfortunately didnt see go off.

After the tour, we all headed to the Hofbrauhaus. Munich most famous beerhall. We had some great steins and some pork knuckle. Pork knuckle is fantastic, it is obviously the knee joint of the pig that has been slow cooked and then grilled at the end for the crackle to crisp on the top. Chris picked the poor food option here with some random sausages. He did have food envy!!

The beerhall had some singers and lots of waitresses dressed up. In these places there are no bars to get served, you have to be sitting at a table to get a drink. Good luck to those going to beerfest!! If you pay the waitress the correct change they wont come back to serve you, you have to pay a tip on top. But hey, it was something like nine Euro for a massive stein....not to bad compared to other prices.

After another big night it was time to hit the hay and get ready for another quick bus trip off to Prague and a couple of days exploring here!!

---

Photos

Chris and I
yuck i dont like photos for this reason

Munich
I think it was St Peters?

Dachau
This is looking at the main buildings...where alot of the nazi offices were

Crematorium
Cant spell

Dachau
All the 'houses' have been taken down except for the first row as a memorial (at the very back of photo). The gravel would once of been rows of long barracks...