Last day in Europe

Our trip to Germany would not be complete without a couple things, a concentration camp and a world famous beer hall. We headed in the direction of Munich, which is normally where most people visiting Germany go, not Frankfurt, although Frankfurt is at least registered in our travel guide, but only if you were spending like 3 weeks in Germany. Stuttgart did not. That's where our plane flew out of. We stopped by Dachau, for a depressing and sobering hour or so. It was a work camp where the Nazi's sent people they didn't like to work until they die. The first prisoners there were the leaders from the opposing political parties (if they weren't just assassinated first.) Also torture, humiliation, starvation etc. were other activities that went on there. It wasn't an extermination camp, but plenty of people died there. One interesting fact I learned is that because of their ugly history, most people don't display the German flag except in times of big national football (soccer) events. Also, most people don't know their national anthem. I kind of thought that was sad. I think they are still trying to find that balance between being proud of their country and who they are and separating themselves from the Nazi-fascist "we're gonna take over the world and everyone else is a second class citizen" mentality. From what I've picked up, most Germans weren't like that anyway, most were just ignorant of the goings on until it was too late, or really really scared. Nobody was safe.

The first sign is the plaque in memorial to the US soldiers who liberated the camp in 1945, It is just oust side the entrance to the place. The second picture is the infamous iron gate the prisoners walked through- the English translation is "work makes you free."

After that we stopped by this little family owned place for some lunch. Several things about eating in Germany deserve some comment in my opinion. First off, the price is the price. Tax and service is always included, so if you order a meal for 8 Euros, and a Coke for 2, then your total will be 10. That's it. None of this 10.72 nonsense. And mostly they don't mess around with the numbers- you rarely see 7.95, or 7.99 or anything. It was nice. I think I'm gonna lobby the restaurant commission or something and make them regulate that here. Also, since 15% tip is always included, the service is generally slow, but I didn't get the feeling that the waiters were lazy, they were generally rushing around. I think people in Europe spend more time eating, and talking, and relaxing over their meals than Americans. It's expected. McDonald's were everywhere, but that was about it as far as fast food or drive-thru's. Also, I think this little place was one of the few that spoke no English, you can tell when they write down your total and hand it to you- he gave us a menu in English, but I what I thought was funny, was that it was all Americanized food. It's like they left all the traditional stuff off the menu cause maybe we wouldn't like it. John got spaghetti, and I got chicken cordon bleu.

We headed off to Munich, or Munchen as the locals call it, (John says I need to spell it with the little dots over the u- "oom-louts"- or something, I don't know how to do that. ) After figuring out where we can park, (most people where on foot- It's a big marketplace we were headed to), and finding a space available, and parallel parking without hitting the Alfa-Romero behind us we finally found our way to John's Hofbrauhaus. (I think I'm missing some "oom-louts" again) He took German for 5 years in jr. high and high school, and every year around Oktoberfest, they would sing the famous Hofbrauhaus song. It was a pilgrimage of sorts for him, and since I dragged him to the Pantheon to see Victor Hugo's coffin, it was his turn. Which is weird cause I read Victor Hugo, but John doesn't even drink beer. It was funny to us when people John would work with heard he was going to Germany, those who didn't know him very well would be like "Have a beer for me!" and those who do know him would be like "What a waste! You don't even drink! Why are YOU going to Germany?!?"Although we didn't even order anything, we stopped to listen to the polka band play their music, and listen to drunk men boisterously singing along. Pretty entertaining stuff actually.

After this we headed to our hotel in Stuttgart so we could catch the plane in the morning. Excited to get home to our own beds and see the kids we'd been missing more each day, but not too happy about leaving the perfect 70-75 degree weather, and come home to 109 degrees. ugh. I think I really could live there in the summers.