We thought we wouldn't overload you with two days in one blog so here's the 12th August first :)
Today we had organized a tour to Dachau in the morning and then a brewery tour in the evening. We started with a hearty breakfast of cereal, croissants and multivitamin juice, then we set out to find our tour meeting point. Which would also be the meeting point for the evening tour.
We met our tour guide, Stephen, under the glockenspiel in Marienplatz. He was a funny and informative tour guide with an interesting American/British english accent although he was born and bred in Munich so his first language is German.
Stephen took us through the subway and then to the railway to Dachau. Our group was an interesting mix of people from Namibia, Ohio, India, Russia and Spain.
Dachau was semi similar to Auschwitz although completely different. Dachau was the first concentration camp for the third reich. It wasn't necessarily a death camp as that was 'outsourced' to other camps including Auschwitz. It was an all male camp which had beautifully manicured lawns, flower beds and a massive courtyard. This all gave the Nazi's the deceptive illusion they needed to hide what they were doing to innocent people. The tour went for about 4 hrs and it was a very eye-opening experience much like Auschwitz was.
Then it was back to our hotel for a few hours and then back to Marienplatz for the brewery tour. We met our tour guide, a French/Tunisia born man who moved to Munich for love.
First stop, Augustiner beer garden and our first beverage of the evening. A lager. We learnt some history about when beer was first discovered and how it was originally brewed in Germany by monks. Prost!
Next stop, Paulaner microbrewery. There are 6 major breweries within the 700km radius around Munich. Here we were shown how the microbrewery operates and even the cold room at a pleasant 2 degrees :P
It was then upstairs for three of the house brews, a lager, wheat beer and a dark wheat beer. We got to also order some real German cuisine. Jess had a schnitzel and I had the roast beef with veggies and pasta. It was nice sharing a meal with new friends, we even started some drinking games of catch the coasters. The furthest anyone could get was 6 coasters. We'll show you sometime how to play.
Then it was on to Hofbrauhaus. Munich's largest beer hall. Here I was in my element. Stein in hand we learnt that the venue could hold over 6000 people at one time and some culture of drinking in a beer hall. This particular hall doesn't believe you are a regular until you come twice a week for 20 years continuously. A challenge I think I could accept.
We stayed on with our guide until midnight, the time most venue close in Munich. To reduce the noise to the neighbouring houses. Then gathering our things we left with a group of American tourists who were heading in the same direction as our hotel.
Home at 1am, we got our things together for the next days tours and off to bed.