Tuesday, June 8th 2004, - Munich & Tegernsee, Germany

Well, Geo & I expected to get much colder weather after flying North for 4 years from Athens, but itīs just as hot here in Germanz during the day & colder at night.
This morning we went to Dachau, the concentration camp just outside of Munich. We tagged along w/ a our group that was going too so that weīd know which trains & buses to take. Geo & I decided to splurge ;) & bought audio guides that explained everything about the site. They had a barrack set up that you could walk through (reconstructed) & the others were just foundation that you could see where they used to be. There were memorial monuments around the site as well. We walked through the crematorium (that was the most intense part for me), the gate into the camp which has the words "Work will set you free" written across it, the prison cells, etc. Unfortunately we didnīt get to see much of the museum on site (not enough time) but it looked like the same sorts of stuff we saw at the Holocaust exhibit in London. A very sobering bit of sight-seeing this morning.
We followed the same tour group back into town & left them to go meet Isabelle & her boyfriend, Sascha. (Isabelle & I worked at Horse People summer camp together 5 years ago). Sascha had to go back to class (university isnīt out for the summer here yet) so Isabelle drove Geo & I out to a little town in the Alps called Tegernsee (felt very Geman driving down the autobahn in her VW Golf). The houses there had the typical Bavarian look to them - really neat. We sat by the lake & chatted, catching up, meanwhile Geo & I were just staring up at the Alps. Itīs all so lush & green here & the water is very clear (but cold since it runs off the mountains).
For dinner, the 3 of us stopped at this little restaurant out in the country in the middle of a cow field. The cows come right up to the fence at the restaurant. And they actually wear cowbells which totally amused Geo & I. We ate some German food & drank German beer. Geo & I both tried Radler, which is popular here; itīs got a neat taste - not too bad.
We drove back into town & met Sascha at a beer garden near his apartment. Basically, in the summer, people hang out to drink at the "biergartens". Thereīs row upon row of picnic tables & benches filled w/ people drinking from 1 litre glass beer steins called Maß (Mass). Geo & I both (w/ Saschaīs help) pulled off the covert operation of stealing a Maß each to bring home w/ us.
Back to the campsite for a few minutes by the campfire, then sleep.



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