Munich is home to thousands of historical events that I had barely even uncovered from the two times I had been there previous to Dani's visit. This time, we had a bit of time to stroll around the city, and decided to take a tour from our favorite company; a student-run tour group set up in almost every major European city. They are technically free, but it's more of a tip-them-what-you-think-is-best kind of deal. To them, knowledge shouldn't come at a price. Not being much of a tour fan, I'd say this was the only tour I'd actually ever take.
Suppose I won't bore one with details of Munich. Because of that, I won't mention that Oktoberfest actually began as a wedding anniversary party for Mad King Ludwig and we still celebrate it 200 years later, nor will I bore you that almost every historical event was effected in some humorous way by beer. =)
That day we met up with David and his family who had come to visit him. We ended the day at the famous Munich Hofbrau Haus. After prosting my 1/2 of dark beer with Dani's dark Radler, we ate traditional Bavarian food, listened to brass music from musicians who played in Lederhosen and exchanged stories of our recent adventures.
The nest day, we met up once more with David and his family. Before Dani had come to visit, she had only one main request; she wanted to see a concentration camp. Since I had not yet seen one, we decided the very first permanent concentration camp outside of Munich was the very one to see. Full of a sad history, I learned more about what humanity is capable in that one day than in any history book you could read.
The morning of April 1st, after saying farewell and thank you to Lisa's aunt and uncle who housed us for the last few days, we drove up to the most photographed place in Germany, Neuschwanstein, the castle of Mad King Ludwig. I had previously seen in covered in snow in January, so this was my chance to see it in spring time. Hmm, I guess I wasn't told that in Bavaria, snow is still pretty common in April. Awesome. We drove into the parking lot and were greeted with a downpour of snow. It was snowing more than in January. I wrapped my thin wind breaker around me and put on one more pair of socks as we wished Lisa and Dani a fun time taking the tour of the castle. I had been once before and didn't need to spend money on it again.
Finally, by 5 pm that night, we had driven back to Tubingen, dropped off our belongings and grabbed some food and hot chocolate in my favorite (and most frequented) bakery, Padefke. Since that was the last night Dani would be in Germany, we invited David and his family out with us to our only Mexican restaurant for a farewell dinner. We sipped Capirinias and Mojitos and reminisced about our time in Munich and Paris. But as soon as we arrived back home, I collapsed on my bed in such a state of exhaustion that I almost forgot to take off my shoes.
There's nothing like a warm and familiar bed after a month of traveling. =)
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