Day 8 - Germany, Austria

Had breakfast at the hotel in Rothenburg. It was a very fancy looking breakfast with all sorts of things on the buffet. Even desserts and chocolate. It was more like a very fancy brunch! The tea was loose tea that you brewed yourself in these little pots. There were all sorts of fabulous fresh fruits, breads, jellies, some scrambled eggs, cereals. It was yummy.

We were headed for Dachau and then on to Oktoberfest, but we got into a huge traffic jam on the way to Dachau (which is on the way to Munich, where Oktoberfest is) and had to change our plans. We had to stop just off the highway for lunch, which was not part of our original plans, but there are strict rules about how long a bus/truck driver can drive without a break, so it was time that Ronnie had to take a half hour break. (They have computer chips on the buses that record all the information that cops can access at any time.) So we ended up eating at Burger King!! The funny thing at this Burger King was that on the rest room doors, instead of women and men, they had a picture of Barbra Streisand on the ladies’ room door and an ancient picture of Don Johnson on the men’s room door! It was hilarious. They also had a big print on the wall of the Colony Hotel in Miami. Not sure why, but . . .



We finally made it to Dachau after 6 hours on the road, instead of the normal 3 hours! It was a sad thing to see. It was not an extermination camp, but a lot of people did still die there. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so I didn’t see all of the exhibits. It was too late to go to Oktoberfest by the time we left Dachau, so we had to drive straight to Austria. We will go to Oktoberfest tomorrow afternoon with another Rick Steves tour group.

We stopped at the luge at a ski area in Bavaria and we all rode down twice. It was so fun! The first time down we all got the hang of it and the second time down, people really flew! Teresa hit the wall and hurt her face and shoulder. The luge was right beside the castle we are touring tomorrow (the one that Cinderella’s castle was themed after) and there were cows on the mountain beside us with cowbells on. Really cool!

The rivers and lakes in this area are a very beautiful green color. And I can’t get over how many flowers there are everywhere! Almost every house has window boxes overflowing with tons of flowers. So pretty. The fields we drove through are the greenest green with taupe cows standing around in them.




We arrived at the Hotel Maximilian in Austria at about 6:30 It is a really nice hotel in this cool Austrian ski town. Our room is very nice with a little terrace. We were also able to get our laundry done for 6 euro! Yay! Didn’t have to wash our clothes in the sink today! The hotel has ping pong, pool, and foosball. Gary beat everyone at ping pong. We all met for dinner in the hotel at 7:30 for dinner. It was weiner schnitzel again! Enough with the weiner schnitzel already! We had cream of cauliflower soup for an appetizer and that was really good! Also, the apple streudel was good, also. After dinner, we all got our computers and headed to the lobby to update blogs and catch up on email. Got to bed after midnight.