Day 13 – A Rainy Day in Munich

We’ve been on the road now for 13 days and have been so lucky with the weather. Today – not so much. We woke-up to quite a downpour in Munich; we had scheduled our Mike’s Bike Tour of the city but had to quickly plan another agenda as riding around in a pack of 35 in the streaming rain did not sound very fun! The change of plans was no problem for our happy group. We re-scheduled the tour for Friday with hopes of brighter skies and went on to our new plan – some lunch in the city center and time for shopping.

Massi, our ever so handsome bus driver, dropped us off in the Munich’s city center which was just a 15 minute ride from our hotel. We were given 2.5 hours to splash around the city and do some exploring. It was a great opportunity to take in some of the architecture and also do some last minute shopping. One of the highlights for many was having lunch in the world famous Haufbrauhaus (HB). The HB is known for its HUGE mugs of German beer, authentic and mouth-watering German fare and live polka music playing every couple minutes. Many of the team members and also the staff enjoyed lunch in this festive atmosphere. If you ever have the chance to visit Munich, you have to make time for the HB biergartin.



The Team in Downtown Munich



After some time in Munich’s city center, we boarded the bus and headed to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site and museum. This was an emotional experience for many people in our group. Each person was given an individual audio guide to the memorial as well as a map of the concentration camp and museum. Some people took this time to go off on their own and others chose to share this somber experience with some of their teammates.

The audio tour included pieces of history about the camp, it gave insight into the living conditions and what life was like day to day, and also included interviews and personal experiences from survivors of Dachau. It’s difficult to explain what it felt like to be at Dachau. We spent 1.5 hours there and as we met-up and headed back to our bus there was a quiet calmness that had surrounded our group.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of free time for everyone. We were given the option to either go back to the hotel or go back to the city center for some more exploring. The weather had improved greatly so about half of the group went over to Munich’s center of town and spent some time looking in more shops and enjoying some dessert. Some even found American flags to bring with them to the FIFA World Cup USA vs. Colombia game we are going to on Saturday!!!

The other half of the group went back to the hotel. Some napped; others browsed the internet while catching up on emails and chatting with friends from home on Facebook. A couple others even chose to spend this time going for a run to explore a different part of the city of Munich. We were lucky enough to be about 1 km away from the Olympic park of Munich. It was the location where the 1972 Olympics were held. Those that chose to run through this park were able to see the structures used for the various summer Olympic Games. There was a huge lake there as well and also a gym that members could pay 54 Euro/month to train where the Olympians had while at the games.

Another highlight to the run was the finding of the biergartin located within Olympic park. It was like a giant festival of small pubs, live music, food stands of every type and shop after shop of handmade crafts, jewelry and clothing. It was quite the site to see and the finding of this local hot spot would prove to be a great outing for some of the team to experience the nightlife in Germany later tonight.

After some free time we met back-up as the family we’ve become and sat down for dinner together in our hotel. Tonight’s meal was just as delicious as the night before. It was a buffet overflowing with salads, vegetables, pastas and meats. Everyone had their fair share of German deliciousness. After dinner many headed to the closest TV to watch the Women’s World Cup Germany vs. Nigeria game. Since we are in Germany the game was being played at 8:45 p.m. and we thought it would be pretty interesting to watch Germany play with some local fans! All in all a little morning rain didn’t stop today from being a fantastic day!