Syrup on my sausage?!

Greetings from Germany! Here we are, almost ready to leave Munich...1 country down, 4 to go! Berlin was fantastic, so much to see and tons of history. We did a exceptional walking tour the first day and saw all the main sights...Brandenburg Gate, Berliner Dome, Berlin Wall (well, what's left of it), Checkpoint Charlie and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, among other things. Erin and I ventured out to make a reservation for our train to Munich, and to our great surprise, there was not a single person that spoke any English! Let's just say that with a lot of hand gestures, we eventually got what we needed. A minor panic attack ensued, with us not remembering if we pointed at a date or not....as it turns out, we did, and panic attack was over! We finished the day off with a pub crawl organized by the walking tour company. 5 pubs, met lots of people including some Canadians (we did burst into the national anthem at one point!) and good fun was had by all. We ended up having to take a taxi back to the hostel because the trains had stopped running by the time we left our last destination!

Our second day we revisted a couple of the places from the walking tour. We went to the Museum associated with the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and saw the Brandenburg Gate lit up at night, as well as the Reichstag. Our last Berlin day was spent wandering around. We found an exhibition started by the UN promoting tolerance...it was called Buddy Bears. Most UN countries commissioned artists to decorate bears representing the country....Canada's bear sucked! We think it had all the provincial flowers on it, but we're still not sure. What the international community will think of us! :) At the end of the day, Erin and I said goodbye to Pio and ventured to the train station to catch our train to Munich.

We arrived safely in Munich yesterday morning and found that our hostel was only a block from the train station, which is nice when you are hauling big backpacks. The weather was really not very nice, cold and rainy, but we set out on the walking tour...the same company that did the one in Berlin. Again, we saw all the main sights including the world famous glockenspiel, the old and new town halls and lots of different chruches. At the end of the tour, we traced Hitler's steps when he marched through the town of Munich.

We were up and at 'em fairly early this morning as we set out to the Dachau Concentration Camp. The experience was amazing and really emotional...I know it's something Erin and I will remember for a long time to come. The most 'real' part came when we walked through the gas chambers and crematorium. Just thinking about what happened within those walls was scary and gave us both goosebumps. We arrived back in Munich and strolled to an open air market, had a beer in the Beer Gardens and picked up our dinner. We took the train up to the Olympic Stadium...great architecture, but not a ton else to see without paying the 11 Euro admission!

Tomorrow it's off to Prague for 4 days, then on to Budapest. So far, our European Adventure is turning out to be everything we thought it would be! My time on the computer is running out so it's time to sign off for now. We will update again soon!

Megan out