Today was not a fairy tale...(Thursday's post)

We left Houston at 3:45 pm, and after a 9 hour flight, arrived in London at 6:45 am. After going transfering terminals and clearing security again, we had a nice breakfast at the airport. Mmmm....italian coffee how I missed you! We had a 2 hour layover, then boarded the next plane for Munich. Did I mention that even though I had requested our seats months ago, we ended up not sitting beside eachother for both flights? It was probably better that way because I think we ended up getting more rest on the plane. We headed right for the ATM at the Munich airport, took out 300 euros and marched to the nearest taxi stand. We were heading for Dachau--luggage and all. This was the only opportunity we would have to get there. After the taxi driver loaded our luggage into the trunk and we had fastened our seatbelts, he asks us the address for Dachau. Address? No where in my guide book was there an address listed, and this taxi driver did not know where to go. So out we went, unloaded our luggage, as I frantically searched the guidebook again. Finally someone passed by, and the taxi driver asked him. He told him where to go, and we got back in the taxi. Dachau was approximately a 30 minute ride away, but I wasn't sure we were going to make it one piece with the taxi driver zigzagging and racing like he was trying to win a trophy at Indy 500. 57 euros later, we were there. Dachau was a very sombering experience, and definitely not a fairy tale way to begin our journey, but we are so glad we went. It is hard to describe what you see and experience when you walk where so many were tortured and killed. We are glad we went, but it was exhausting in every sense of the word, especially since we had just gotten off the plane.

Next we were on our way to tackle the subway and train system of Munich. We ran into a very nice family from California who helped us figure it out. An hour after we left Dachau, we were standing in Marienplatz, gazing up at the glockenspiel. Then we rolled our suitcases and backpacks (hmmm.....what happened to us traveling light?) through the streets about 4 blocks away to our hotel. We dumped our bags and headed out to Hofbrauhaus, a German beerhall. The weather was a bit chilly and damp, but we sat out on the balcony anyways and ate pretzels and bratwurst with sauerkraut. Then it was back to our hotel for 5 hours of sleep before out next day began.