Sophie's travels 2011-2012: 27/8/2011 Munich, Germany

We got up and it was cold and raining – quite a shock to the system after 39 days of pretty much late 30s and early 40s temperatures! We did a bike tour of Munich which was brilliant, we had a great guide which made for an entertaining ride. Luckily the rain stopped for the tour too which helped! We rode around the city past Max Joseph Platz and the Residenz then to the Royal Palace where the Nazi ruling began and the golden pathway and Thea Tiner Kirche. We rode through the English Gardens and saw people surfing on the river! They basically wedge a plank of wood in the water flow to create a wave against the current which they take it in turns to ride on – cool to watch but would have been freezing!! It was glacial water and not a warm day! We returned the bikes and visited the Hofbrauhaus – a big beer hall where the Nazi headquarters used to be based. It had a great atmosphere inside with a typical German band playing in traditional dress and loads of litre steins being knocked back! They even have a locker section where regulars can store their own steins… We walked through the food markets in the rain then back to the coach and out to Dachau: the first Nazi concentration camp built in 1933, more than 200,000 people were sent there and more than 30,000 died. Jews, Political Prisoners, homosexuals, and others deemed ‘undesirable’ by the third Reich were imprisoned there. It was a horrifying display with gas chambers etc – we didn’t have nearly enough time to see it all so I hope to return with Kim in September.