Now that summer is officially over I guess I can write a little bit about my travels. Sarah has been bugging me for at least a month to write this post and now I am finally doing it. For someone who has done very little travel in their life, this summer I spent a lot of nights in hotels in foreign lands. First came my trip to Anchorage, although this was my second trip up there this year. At the end of July I left for Munich, Germany and spent nearly 3 weeks site-seeing (and doing hardly any work!). Then the last week of August I also got to go to London for a week. This was a lot of fun for me, but I am glad to be back at home with my wife and kids.
Munich was pretty awesome, except for the fact that I don't speak any freaking German. Somehow I got by. Munich is a beautiful city and I really enjoyed my time there. Lucky for me I was there long enough that I had two full weekends to explore. The subway made life extremely easy and I was able to get around quite easily. Some of the highlights for me were running through the English Garden, walking around the Olympic Park (Munich hosted the '72 Summer Games), and visiting the concentration camp at Dachau. That last one was a pretty heavy experience, but something I wouldn't trade for anything. It really puts life in perspective and makes me thankful for what I have and hopeful that mankind has learned from our past.
The English Garden was pretty sweet. I went for an epic run throughout the park and along the river. It was so much fun and super mellow. There were people from all over the world taking in the park and all that it offers, including river surfing!
If you are ever in Munich I highly suggest taking a stroll through the garden and taking some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful park. Even go for a swim! As they say, when in Rome do as the Romans. You can even go nude if you want, if thats your thing.
For me the Olympic Park was awesome. Some people might not get that psyched on it, but being a sports nut like myself I was super hyped to see the Olympic stadium where Steve Prefontaine ran and felt like I was a part of history being there. The whole place is kind of turned into a fair of sorts now, but I certainly enjoyed checking out the grounds, see the Olympic Tower, and imagining what it was like to be there 37 years ago watching the games.
That tall building off in the distance is where I was working while in Munich. Here you can see the Olympic stadium where all the action is! I'm a total sports geek.
I also went and checked out some old palace. The place was huge. Unfortunately I am cheap and refused to pay money to actually go inside and see whatever it is they charge you to see. The outside was impressive enough for me so thats what I took some photos of.
My last weekend in Munich I ventured out to the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau. This was a pretty intense experience and taking it all in really blew me away. Its just sad that human beings have the ability to be so cruel to one another. Its hard to even verbalize the range of feelings and emotions I felt that day. But I will say this, the place made me want to cry. Imagining what life in that camp must have been like was too much.
This is the gate to the camp. Apparently they all read "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work Shall Set You Free". To me that is just sickening, basically trying to fool all these people into working their butts off in hopes of one day being freed, only to lose their life. The nazis were truly sick people. I ran out of memory while I was here and didn't take very many pics. But it was truly an experience I will never forget.
A few days later I would leave to return home, but only temporarily as I was off to London for a week. This was really fun for me as I have wanted to visit London my whole life for some odd reason that I am not really sure of. Anyway, London was great and thankfully I could communicate just fine with everyone! I even played a game of football (or soccer) with the locals, holding my own if I do say so myself, haha. I saw a lot of the big touristy sites: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, The London Eye, The Tower Bridge. It was pretty awesome. Since I have spent most of my life west of the Mississippi I have never been exposed much to real old architecture. London is full of it. Heck, the building directly across from our office was used by Benjamin Franklin apparently. It was older than the USA, by many hundreds of years!
Okay, I am getting tired of writing. Maybe I will post some pics of London later. I had a lot of fun though.
