Blog #13: Everything in Temperance

Blog #13: Munich and Dachau, Germany (6/21/2005 to 6/23/2005)

Just when I thought I was really getting the hang of these night trains, I went to Munich. Maybe I had slept too well the night before and I was just not tired, but I could not get to sleep. I arrived in Salzburg at 4:28 to catch a connection to Munich, so it was a short night, regardless. It may have simply been a nightmare, but I think I woke up at one point to a group of 5-6 guys walking around without their shirts off. Maybe they were drunk and got hot. It is an unpleasant memory.

I arrived to Munich early and had to shoot some time before my bike tour. I took the advice of a friend and decided to do a bike tour of the city so I could get a quick overview and decide what to do from there. To pass the time I went into the trendiest McDonald’s I have ever seen. They even had a Big Eggs & Bacon. Not having actually seen real bacon in Europe before, I partook. I have yet to see real bacon in Europe. There is something they do not understand about smoking the meat. It is a simple concept. Since no one else in his or her right mind would order such a breakfast, I had to wait a while to get it and was repaid with an extra coffee and an OJ. I needed the coffee.

I took a short walk around the city and took a few pictures. I saw the Glockenspiel, but not in motion. Then it was off to Mike’s Bike Tour. At first it was funny because I was playing the same “Lost” game in my head that Dana was at the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Plzen. I picked out the slightly dysfunctional dating couple. The rather clueless young college girls out “doing” Europe. The bashful guys over in the corner looking like scared rabbits. The cynical, half delirious marathon runner. That was me. I was half delirious from lack of sleep, cynical because of it, and you know I am not a marathoner but I was sweating like one. I have probably said this many times before, but if sweating becomes an Olympic sport, I would be in the running for the bronze. I would say the gold, but I never like to set my sights too high.

One of the funniest things that our humorous tour guides said was in reference to Canadians. As they were giving introductions to the bike tour and the city, Frankie asks if there are any Canadians in the group. When no one replied, he just said, “Oh, good.” I do not know what it is about Canadians… maybe we just like to make fun of them. Then again, Blog #14 (arriving soon) has some Canadian references and I think I understand Frankie a little more. The second funniest thing he asked was, “Who here has seen the Glockenspiel?” A few people hesitantly raised their hands. The reply to which was, “Well, for most of you, that’s good: it is something you can never un-see.” After witnessing a similar clock tower in Prague… I understand. My question was: And people wait around to see this?

The bike tour was fun and informative. We road for a couple hours and saw a good bit of the old town. We stopped for lunch at China Garden, one of the largest beer gardens in Munich, the home of beer gardens. For those of you planning to visit Munich, beer gardens have some of the best local foods at reasonable prices. The beer isn’t so bad, either. After an hour break from riding in the warm weather, we hopped back on our bikes. I have neglected to mention that this beer garden is in the middle of the largest inner city park in the world. Once upon a time it was the royal hunting grounds, but in an effort to win the people over it was donated to the city. Like most things royal, I do not think the gesture worked. Now the park is treated as a nude “beach.” There is even surfing on the river. Check out the pictures. Fortunately for you and me, I did not take pictures of the nudes at the “beach.” Let me reiterate my rule of thumb for Europe: if it is nude, there is an extremely good chance you do not want to see it. This particular park is the favorite gay hangout.

That first night I was rather out of it because of my short night and profuse sweating. I was dehydrated all day long. Despite this, I went out with some friends and got back to the hostel late. Have I mentioned yet that it was hot in Munich? The hostels do not like air conditioning, either.

After sleeping in, I decided to go to Dachau for the day. If you do not remember it off the top of your head, Dachau was one of the infamous work camps in WWII. It was not like Auschwitz, an extermination camp, although it did have a gas chamber and crematorium facilities. While the Nazis claimed that these facilities were unused, many people were still executed or died from starvation. This was quite a sobering experience. As a history buff and eternal student (c’mon people! I’ve been at it for 13 + 8 = 21 years! Half the travelers I meet aren’t this old.), I think it is valuable to have a first-hand account of this particular darker side of humanity. While I normally shy away from such abject atrocities on any level, I think it is important to remind future generations what can happen to us. It was one of those days where I stared at the pictures and soaked it in very quietly because it felt like a place where reverence was prerequisite. It is, quite literally, the death place of thousands of people and witness to some of man’s worst accomplishments.

On a lighter note, back at the hostel I met one of the girls in my dorm room. This Aussie was meeting some other Australian friends for dinner and invited me along. I was glad she did, for meeting people and/or making friends at a hostel can make or break the backpacking experience. Thus far, I have been fortunate to meet friendly people in my travels. While I was the guide for the group because I asked where the best local cuisine restaurant was located, I was the only non-Aussie in this group of 12. Most of the group knew each other because they are traveling on the same route at roughly the same time. They all use this guide company called BusAbout, a hop-on, hop-off bus tour spanning Europe.

My tour guide from Mike’s Bike Tour, Sigi (pronounced Ziggy), works at the hostel where we all stayed. He suggested this restaurant called Lamm’s. It provides excellent Bavarian cuisine at decent prices. Much of the group went for the special: knee of pig. Although I heard it was quite good and I am always up for some good swine, I passed. This waitress, very good for putting up with and having patience for a large group of non-German speaking tourists, actually answered the question(s) I always like to ask: “What is the best? What do you like?” I have been surprised because only two Europeans have actually answered that question. It is quite strange. However, #454 was an absolutely amazing dish. There were three meats (chicken, pork and beef) in a creamy mushroom sauce, with Bavarian-style gnocci. I was in pain from stuffing myself with this wonderful concoction.

The most fortunate result of this evening, other than some amazing food, was that I met Alex. She was serious when she said she is passionate about food. She worked at a food magazine for five years and knows more about food than I do. I rarely run across a person like this. It was also nice to run across someone else who is traveling Europe, for the most part, just to experience the different foods. After Lamm’s, we visited the famous Hofbrauhaus. This was a really funny place. Inside it was quite nice… and then there were all the drunks and the Bavarian band. We had been told by the tour guides that you can pay something like 10 or 20 euros to actually conduct the band. That could be a fun picture, if it weren’t so expensive. They also said that the Asian tourists have a great affinity for this experience. Our experience confirms this: of all 6 people that conducted the German band, all of them were Asian tourists. Now that is just funny. Picture the lederhosen and the hats, the brass instruments… and the Japanese tourist, without a clue, attempting to conduct. Funny.

My last day I spent at the Deutsches Museum. This is Munich’s science and technology museum. While I only spent a little over two hours there and literally flew threw what I saw, I still did not see everything. If you can imagine it, they had it: music, airplanes, ships, submarines, atomic physics, medicine, Einstein, electrical tools, steam engines, mining, oil drilling, math, computers, and the list goes on. It was, by far, the best 3 euros I have spent in Western Europe. It would have been nice to spend more time, but I needed to catch a train and after about two hours at any museum I start going wall-eyed, anyway.

Now comes the part where Chad justifies his assertion that he has yet to miss a train. I returned to the hostel to pick up my pack when I remembered that Wendy (my middle sis, for those who do not know her) told me I had to try “café and kuchen,” or coffee and cake, while in Munich. Well, after the receptionists at the hostel stopped laughing at my reprehensible German, they told me about a great place to find genuine, homemade kuchen. I dash back across town on the subway and am unable to find this place. I actually walked by it about 5 times before I saw the minute sign. On my last attempt, just before I called it quits, I found the place and bought coffee and cake. Now it was time for a mad dash back across town with my pack, sweating in the heat and spilling hot coffee on myself.

As I said, I did not miss the train. There was not a train to miss, but if there had been a train, I probably could have jumped on as it was pulling out of the station. If I only knew how to read a train schedule, I would have known this. Now, with two hours to kill before the next train, I could eat my café and kuchen in peace.

On the train from Munich to Zurich, I was in a compartment with a Swiss guy named Chris. He commutes to Munich every week. We spent nearly two hours talking about the European Union and Switzerland. What I took away from the conversation was that the EU is even more screwed up and has fewer hopes for success than I had formerly believed. In an effort to create a market competitive with the U.S., they have imposed a ridiculous amount of quotas and restrictions on agriculture and industry. Forgive me for playing the fool, but aren’t they trying to catch up to the U.S. because we have encouraged competition and hard work? I don’t understand. Socialism makes no sense to this simple Midwestern boy.

Check out pictures from Munich: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2124754754&code=16786449&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite