After breakfast, we took an all day hop on hop off trolley tour of Munich. Well, that was the plan anyway. We awoke again to rain. Big rain! So we hopped on and never got off. The tour guide spoke first in German describing the sights passing by and then repeated it in English. After 45 minutes your head began to spin around and pea soup shot out of your mouth like the Exorcist in total confusion. But we saw and learned a lot.

6 - 7 million people visit Munich each year for Octoberfest alone. They drink about the same amount of beer in liters. Some $20 million euros is spent each year just on beer during Octoberfest.

WIFI almost impossible to find. Our hotel charges for it, all other contacts are protected. I even went into McDonalds, but they wouldn't let you have access unless you had a German cell phone number even after I spent 6 euros on two lattes that we didn't drink. I finally found free WIFI at Starbucks where I should have started in the first place. So this idea of easy access to WIFI is just bullsh*t! We have learned that next time we come to Europe to have Verizon turn on our cell phones and be damned with the price.

We stayed on the tour bus until lunch opting to get off near the downtown market for some wurst sandwiches and beer, of course. But, the Griswalds jumped on the wrong tram and it took us back to the train station where we started 30 minutes before. I had some sort of wurst on a Brochen roll with german mustard and a Becks beer inside the train station. Absolutely delicious. Mary had some sort of Asian soup.

Then Back on the bus.

Lots of talk by the tour guide about how badly the "Americans" bombed and destroyed this building and that building. 47% of Munich was destroyed in WWII, some parts of the city were 80% destroyed.

But, when we got to the Olympic Village not one word about the Black September killing the Israeli athletes in 1972. Oops, on the last of five trips to Olympic Village the guide finally told the story.

We drove by two Universities, Ludwig U. and Maximilian U. both of which the guide exalted for their academic achievements and the quality of their students and faculty. She failed to mention the May 1933 torch light progression of these two universities to Konigplatz, spurned on behind the scenes by Hitler and the National Socialists, where the students and professors burned the books of "Marxist, Jewish and Pacifist authors."

And we missed the Gestapo Headquarters here in Munich where in 1943 the Nazis executed six university demonstrators call "the White Rose" for producing five leaflets criticizing Hitler as a mass murderer. A fact that had been proven by 1943. Four men and one woman were executed by guillotine. Oops, on the last tour the guide mentioned this story as well, bit failed to point out Gestapo HQ.

I think that last guide was a secret conservative.

And we didn't get the chance to see the location of the "Torbrau", a beer hall where 22 men formed the "SS" in 1923. They grew and were later responsible for thinking up the "Final Solution."

We also were not told the story of the Nazi plan to completely destroy the infrastructure of Munich as the allies approached the city in 1945. Gauleiter Paul Giesler, ruler of Bavaria since 1942, gave orders to completely destroy Munich as part of Hitler's "scorched earth" policy. A small group of patriots stopped the plan. But before Giesler slinked off to Berchtesgaden he slaughtered all 5 members of the group who saved what was left of Munich. A plague lays at the spot of their executions.

Yea, we missed a lot, but it was a nice tour. We rode around and around the city until 4:30 pm when we exited the bus to see the big CooCoo clock, which only goes off three times a day, do it's thing at 5:00.

When we got off the bus for the last time, we faced a 2 kilometer walk to where we were going to have dinner. We walked the whole way holding hands like two teenagers. It'll be a long time before I forget that walk!

A short beer before dinner after getting lost at least twice. We met Mary's friend Katrina for dinner next to a cathedral that was built in the 1600's. I had the schnitzel again figuring this was my last chance to get a decent one. It was better than the night before! Katrina is an RN diabetes educator who left Seattle 3 years ago to start a new life in Germany. Mary showed her all the pictures we had of the wedding and we talked until 8:00 pm. She was a very charming dinner companion even though she and Mary were engrossed with each other and my presence was really unnecessary. At the end of dinner we walked her to her train to make sure she got home safely and then headed back to our hotel.

All in all a wonderful day. One that I'll never forget!