Munich

We started the day with a very cold walking tour of old Munich. We had a guide who was a native of Munich, but she spoke English pretty well. We started in Marienplatz, which is the center of the old town. It contains the 'new' and 'old' Rathaus, city halls. They are called new and old, even though they were both heavily damaged and rebuilt after WWII. The Neues Rathaus has the Glockenspiel, which is a tall tower with a clock on one face, and below it are some figures that dance and move with music. Not all that exciting. From here we walked to the Viktualienmarkt, which is the old open air market that is still in use today. The Hofbrauhaus was the next stop, though only for a quick visit, no beer involved. See the picture below of the cages where the locals lock their steins up when not in use. We then walked to the National Theater and the Residenz, which was the residence of the Bavarian kings. The front is covered with scaffolding for renovations and a huge Apple iPod billboard. The final stop was the steps where Hitler's attempted coup was met by the police and several were killed. During Nazi times, a memorial was here, and the citizens were required to give the Nazi salute as they passed. It's obviously not there anymore. The rest of the day we walked around and did some shopping.

We decided to alter our travel plans. We are going to skip Zurich since it is mostly just a big financial city. Not as much history and museums as other places. We are going to spend tomorrow on a 10.5 hour tour to the royal castles, including Neuschwanstein, which is the castle that the one at Disney World is modeled after. It is on the Austrian border in the mountains. Supposedly there is going to be a lot of snow there tonight. We are excited. The next day we are going to Salzburg to spend the night, and of course, do the "Sound of Music" tour. I am SO excited. Corley is too. From there we will go to Lucerne, Switzerland.

We have this funny little old man that works the reception desk at our hotel. He tried to tell me a joke today when he was booking our tour. He said that Americans always show up with heavy bags. He always tells them that our Rocky Mountains are just going to be Rocky Hills soon because we keep bring over chunks of rock, which makes our bags so heavy. At least I think that's what he was saying. He thought it was hilarious, so I just smiled.