Vienna, Mauthausen, Mondee, Munich

Hello from Munich everyone! I really love this second half of the tour.. the weather is beautiful here in Munich today. It was raining in the morning but it cleared up to a nice and sunny day. It's so wonderful here especially with the place we are staying. We are staying in these service apartments which are quite funky and really homey. Fantabulous! So here is what I did in the last few days. My free day in Vienna was really relaxing and quiet. Most of us went into town and did our own thing. Jeff (another tourmate) and I decided to hang out together and explore a little bit outside the main city. We saw St. Stephans Cathedral and then headed towards a tram to go and see the cemetary where Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, and Shubert are buried. From there, we had just enough time until we had to meet the group up to go to the Vienna Shnapps Museum. That place was so COOOL! I definately drank my 5 euros worth of Shnaaps (about 14 shots ) I bought a bottle of Vienna blood and I can't wait to get home and open it up... apparently its also a cough curer.. I had a sample shot of it and boy was I cured! hehe. From the Shnapps Museum we went for about an hour walk around Shobrunn Palace.. I wish I had enough time to go inside and discover the rooms but it was beautiful just from the outside. I wanted to go in the outside maze and labyrith but Jeff wouldn't let me because he said I wouldn't beable to find my way out since I was a little tipsy. Oh well.

Yesterday morning we headed out of Vienna towards Munich which is the capital of Bavaria. On our way to Munich, we stopped at a place called Mauthausen which was a former concentration camp in Austria. It was a really sad place to be and I have no words to describe the feeling you get when you are there. I was shocked when I realized that such horrible things had happened in such a beautiful place. We walked over to see the Quarry and the Stairway of Death and later on explored the Gas Chamber and the Creamatory. Just the smell of that place was disgusting 40 years later. We had a happier stop later on and stopped at the Church that was in The Sound of Music. It was located in Mondee, a very cute little touristy town.

We arrived in Munich last night and went into town and had dinner at the Haufbrou house and had the HUGEST STEIN ever! Everyone was drunk last night, it was hilarious! This morning, we went back into town and just walked around. I saw the Glokenspeil, Deutches Museum of Technology and went around the fruit market. Checked out some shops for shopping and came back. Tomorrow we are heading to Mt. Pilatus and then Amsterdam! Woohooo! Catch ya guys later!