Germany (July 3-5)

Since we had a three day weekend (Monday off for the 4^th of July) we decided to get our of Italy and go to Germany! 8 of us Camp Adventure people traveled together on the trip and headed out on the night train from Vicenza around 11 Friday night. We were hoping to get some sleep on the train since it was supposed to arrive in Munich at 7am Saturday. The train was rickety, hot, humid, and we were sitting with 2 smelly guys who we were afraidwould steal our stuff if we all fell asleep (we took turns staying up). The train stopped and sat for an hour in Verona to fix something we think—it was so hot and uncomfortable because no air moved even with windows open. Oh well, once we got going I stood with my head out the window looking at the scenery for a few hours and then tried to read an Italian newspaper I found because I couldn’t sleep.

Once we got to Munich in the morning @ 6, we took awhile to figure out the Metro tickets to get to our hotel. Kristine’s dad has some sweet connections in the hotel business and got us cheap rooms and half off food in a really nice hotel in Munich. We found it, dropped our stuff,

and changed clothes before heading out to the Dachau concentration camp on the edge of the city. It was free to walk around the camp and through the museums. It was really sad but worthwhile to see the barracks, crematorium, and read about the site in the museum. Afterwards, we called Kristine’s cousin who lives in Munich to meet up and go watch the World Cup quarterfinals (Germany vs. Argentina).We went to the largest beer garden where therewere over 8,000 people outside at tables, food stands, and a few screens with the game playing.We tried to fit in and be as German as possible with flag facepaint and cheering. It was extremely hot and we couldn’t get a spot in the shadeeven though we were there 2 hours before the game! Germany won 4-0 and we were ready to head back to the hotel after 5 hours of sitting out in the heat. Since we were all exhausted, we just relaxed at the hotel pool and sauna area for the night.On Sunday morning we headed out to Mariplatz (Munich’s center city square). We planned to look around the main attractions and touristy things walking from there. Everyone was gathered around watching this huge clock singing with figurines dancing so we watched too! When that was done, we were standing in a group looking at the buildings and coming up with agame-plan when 3 different bike tour people kept giving us fliers and information-we must have looked confused! ‘Lenny’s Bike Tours’ was only 10 Euro for bike rentals, a guide, and 4 hours seeing the main attractions so we decided to do it. I am SO glad we did! It was really fun riding on our bikes from siteto site (12 I think)—we would stop, listen to our guide (with a British accent), and take pictures before heading out again. We stopped at Munich’s 2^nd largest beer garden on the tour for lunch—all the food was delicious! Germans know how to eat with meat, potatoes, and yummy pastry funnel cake things. The tour included royal palaces, stuff about Hitler, churches, the royal brewery, the river (with people surfing), and a huge park-English Gardens. 3 of us climbed up the 300+ stairs of a church to see the view of the city! Then we went to meet up with the others to look around the Haufbrauhaus (royal brewery). We took the Metro to another part of town to see the BMW museum (but it was closed) and then walked to the Olympic Park & Stadiums! It was where the Olympics were held in the 70's--everything was huge. Back at the hotel, some of us at more VERY scrumptious german food at a restaurant in the hotel before going to the pool for a bit.

The plan for Monday was to go to Neushwanstein castle (like the Disney logo). We found out that it would be nearly impossible to get the right trains and busses to get there and back to Vicenza by night. L So we scratched that off the plan and went to hang out in Garmisch (a city in the mountains) for a few hours since we had to go through there on the trains to get back to Italy anyways. Garmisch is fairly touristy so we looked at the shops, got food, and then

headed on the train back home. The trainride home was one of my favorites because it was through the mountains so it was beautiful! I could actually see everything since it was daylight and even got some good pictures! We had to switch trains 3 times to get home—one time we only had 4 minutes at the station to switch and some Slavakian guy told us our first train was delayed so we would only have 1 minute to catch the next one! We had a pep talk and the 8 of us dead sprinted from platform 21 to 3, yelled to the conductor who was blowing the whistle and shutting the last door. Luckily he let us on or we would’ve been stuck in Austria for hours!

We have a short 4 day work week. I am figuring the kids out and it is more fun now. Some of the infants are starting to walk and crawl. One baby tried to eat a bee the other day though and it stung his lip so it puffed up! His mom works at the center so it was ok. One of our pre-toddler kids is moving up to the toddler room so we are transitioning him and are sad to see him go.