Good morning once again from the higher reaches of Europe. Overnight clouds and rain have cleared out, with a mostly clear and sun-filled morning framing the picturesque natural scenery around us. In approximately 1 hour we're going to be meeting our new buddy Karl, the bartender/waiter mentioned in the last blog post, to go food shopping at the local grocery/co-op. Karl invited us over to his house for dinner tonight, and we were certain to not turn down such a friendly offer.
Moving backwards in time, let's return briefly to our last few days in Munich. On Friday, we did manage to make our "Hitler in Munich: The Rise of Nazism" tour. The tour was led by an English fellow, about 40 years old, who studied primarily World War II history in school. He hails from near Canterbury, England, and is a proud supported of Brighton and Hove Albion FC, a small team hailing from that part of Europe. He has lived in Munich for 8 years, and spoke very highly of the city, and the quality of life it offers. The tour lasted approximately 2.5 hours, and traversed I would imagine 2-3 miles around Munich, highlighting important buildings and structures that housed early "German Worker's Party" meetings, the precursor to the Nazi Party. The tour then progressed, in a general chronological fashion showing the ascent of Hitler's rise to power, and the development of Nazism, as well as pointing out strange quirks and trivia-type facts. Our tour guide was quite passionate about his job, and did an excellent job, even earning a small tip from Renee and I. For anyone who's quite interested in World War II history, as I have been for much of my lifetime, I would highly recommend doing this tour if you ever find yourself in Munich. The remainder of Friday featured our first ever trip to a German bier garten (beer garden). The beer garden concept has been a part of German, and especially Bavarian culture for hundreds of years, and from our experiences, is more reminiscent of a family park (that happens to serve beer) than a bar. Earlier in the day I had identified several beer gardens that might be pleasant to visits, and it just so happened that our tour ended right at the doorsteps of one of these gardens, the Lowenbrau Beer Garden, quite a pleasant coincidence. The beer garden is laid out with hundreds of picnic style tables, gravel paths, lightposts, and a canopy of chestnut trees to provide shade. You basically sit wherever you want (wherever is open), and then travel up to the vending area to purchase your beer (and any food you would like), before returning to your seat. As indicated previously, the atmosphere was nothing like a bar, but far more reminiscent of a group picnic at a family park. In fact, there was even playground/sandbox area for children who had come to the beer garden with their parents. Quite different than anything you'll find in America. We had dinner later in the evening at the Augustiner Bräustuben beer hall, a mile or so away from the Lowenbrau Beer Garden. This particularl beer hall is known as one of the finest in Munich, and holds a much higher reputation with the locals than the oft-mentioned and tourist-swamped Hofbrauhaus. The evening at the beer hall was quite the cultural experience, with again, large picnic style seating dominating the majority of the giant beer hall. We shared some interesting conversation with several locals at the table, conversing in a mix of broken German and English. I've got plenty of photos to share from the beer hall, as well as a video of an old-fashioned wooden beer barrel being tapped for a large group was sitting adjacent to us
Our final day in Munich was primarily a resting day, flanked in the middle by a trip to the local English-speaking pub to watch the Arsenal match, and share in some conversation with an Australian ex-pat, avid Liverpool supporter, and Munich dweller for 8 years. We then had a relaxing dinner nearby our hotel, and went to bed fairly early with a large travel day ahead of us.
Munich is a very unique city. Arguably the strangest thing experienced on our entire trip is the public alcohol consumption law in Munich, or should I say lack thereof. Having grown up in America, it's very strange to see tons of people walking down the street, holding giant bottles of German beer, and drinking them as if it was a bottle of water or Coca-Cola. Perhaps there is something to be said for this policy, as crime in Munich is virtually non-existent, and drunk-driving type laws in most of Europe are far stricter than in America.
Sunday was primarily a travel day, with trains whisking us across Bavaria, through western Switzerland, and eventually to the local transportation hub of the Bernese Oberland (the mountainous region of central Switzerland we're staying in), Interlaken. This particular region of Switzerland is particularly susceptible to what the locals refer to as the "Foehn" wind, which is basically a Chinook-type downslope wind that accelerates steeply through the mountains and valleys of the Alps. Before departing Munich, I had noticed "Foehn Warnings" were in place across the Bernese Oberland, so I figured some disruption of our travel plans was possible. Sure enough, after arriving in Interlaken we found that the the local train to Lauterbrunnen was cancelled, and we'd have to take a bus. We then had to take another bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg, and from Stechelberg we'd take the Schilthornbahn Cable Car up to Gimmelwald, and then Murren. As we would come to find out, we were lucky to get here at all on Sunday evening, as severe winds and subsequent power outages the day before had pretty much cut off any transportation into Murren. In fact, the owner/operator of our Hotel said it was the worst Foehn storm she had seen in 10 years of living here, with winds reportedly gusting to 60 or 70 mph, and a large amount of tree damage occurring (still evident along the road through town). Renee and I would have enjoyed seeing this wind storm, and were somewhat disappointed not to have arrived sooner.
The past few days have gone at a much slower pace, and this is sort of the "vacation from the vacation" part of the trip. We've largely just rested, relaxed, strolled around the beautiful landscape, and hung out with new friends we've made. Since arriving here, we've met or conversed with people from all over the globe, including: Portugal, Sweden, Israel, Poland, Switzerland, and San Francisco. In fact, we were offered free room and board from a lovely Israeli couple, if we ever decided to travel to that part of the world.
That's all for now, have a lovely day! Pictures and videos to follow later hopefully.
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