June 9-13, 1984

June 9-13, 1984

We continued our journey north from Venice to Austria and the town of Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck is famous for hosting the winter Olympics of ’64 and ’76. In the morning we took a gondola up to the top of Stubai Glacier where we skied in t-shirts. Skiing in June! Amazing. Unfortunately I got sunburned. The sun is fierce at that altitude.

Our next train stop was Munich (Munchen), Germany where we stayed at the Jugendgastehaus Munchen. It was our first hostel of the trip. After check-in we went to Marienplatz, the main square, to see the old and new town halls (Altes Rathaus and Neues Rathaus). The new one has a famous clock tower, the Glockenspiel, with chimes and huge moving figures. Not too far away are a couple churches, St Peters and the Renaissance-era Michaelskirche, with its St Michael statue out front. On the way we passed by the Museum of Hunting and Fishing with a big bronze statue of a catfish. I had to take a photo for my relatives. We also spent a few hours at the Deutsches Museum of Technology. It had working demos on technology including lots of automated chemistry experiments.

Germany is famous for its beer and Munich is famous for its beer gardens. We checked out several. The first was the Hofbrauhaus, where very strong barmaids toted and served pitcher-sized steins of beer. We also went to Mathaser-Bierstadt beer city for real Lowenbrau (not the fake US version) and Oompah band music. We didn’t go to these beer halls just for the refreshment. These old public houses were also centers of German history. Hofbrauhaus, in particular, is famous as one of Hitler’s meetinghouses. We also visited the outdoor Chinesischer Turm beer garden in Englisher Garten.

The next day we took the train to the nearby suburb of Dachau, home of one of Hitler’s concentration camps. It wasn’t as notorious as the ones in Poland. Most died here from disease and malnutrition. The iron entrance gate contains the cynical motto “Arbeit Macht Frei” – “Work makes you Free”.

We continued our northward travel. For some reason our Eurail pass is also good for the KD Line Rhine River cruise boat. We boarded it in Mainz and took it downriver to Koblenz. This stretch of the Rhine is one of the prettiest with lots of old castles lining the route.  It was one castle after another. After awhile though they all start to look alike. It must have been more difficult in medieval times making this journey. Many of the castle lords extracted a fee from every passing boat. And I thought Chicago had too many tollbooths!