Christmas 2009 (Part 1)

When we first moved to Qatar one of the pieces of official business that we had to undertake was to hand in our passports so that the visas could be affixed inside. Consequently, for the first few months of our time here we were not able to leave the country. This meant that we got to explore some of Qatar and to know more about our new home town. However, what it did not do was satisfy the itch to visit even more places. We had intended to take a driving holiday at the beginning of December but for a variety of reasons this did not work out. Consequently, as Christmas approached we knew that we wanted to fly somewhere and so we asked Brock and Quinn if they had anywhere that they particularly wanted to go. In the end, the only requirement was that it be somewhere where there was snow.

In order to arrive at a time that allowed us to see all that we wanted we needed to catch a 3pm flight from the airport at Doha. Fortunately Qatar Academy was having a half-day for the final day before the Winter Break so Wayne, Brock and Quinn were able to finish at 11:40 and head home. The traffic on the drive back in to the city was terrible but Meg had all the bags down and in the taxi so all that was required was the boys getting changed and we were off to the airport. Once again we had not told the boys where we were going and at the airport it was only Munich, where would change planes, which would give our destination away.

Doha Airport is only relatively small but busy. However, as we discovered when we first arrived, they have a service called 'Maha' where you are met by a representative who will take you through everything making sure that you have someone to translate in case there are any issues with different languages. They also wait in line for you when you are coming back in to the country and make sure everything to do with passports, visas and luggage is looked after while you rest in a lounge. We hadn't tried using it on the way out, so we decided to give it a go this time. In the end everything seemed fairly easy and we didn't feel like we actually saved anything in relation to time or queues so we will probably not use it again but it was worth it as an experiment.

Although our flights had been booked through Lufthansa the first flight itself was on a Qatar Airways plane, which gave us the opportunity to fly using our new 'home' airline. We had heard differing reports from people but we had an excellent experience. All the staff were courteous and helpful, the plane seats were roomy, and (much to our surprise) they served alcohol. As we were seated prior to take off we realized that two of the P.E. staff (who are married) were there with their two girls (both of whom Meg had taught during her relief appearances in the Primary School). They were off to Austria skiing for the holidays and would be picking up a car in Munich to drive the short distance to the ski fields. Although the boys complained that they couldn't go anywhere without running into a teacher from school it made the flight seem even friendlier.

Perhaps the thing that astonished us the most about the flight was the route that we took to Munich. We travelled north over Bahrain, and Kuwait, which was only to be expected. Then it was off over Iraq, and (much to our amazement) flying directly over Baghdad and Mosul. From there we trekked across Northern Turkey and the Black Sea before crossing the north eastern corner of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, before reaching Germany. In all it took around 5 ? hours and we touched down at "Franz Josef Strauss" International Airport to the sight of snow covering the sides of the runways and blanketing cars in the car park.

Disembarking at Gate G18 we had to walk off the plane, up the ramp, up a number of flights of stairs to the top level of Terminal 2. We then had to walk along through the Arrivals lounge to the area where connecting flights were arranged. This took us back in the direction we had come but down to the next level of the Terminal, along to Customs where we produced our passports, and down another flight of stairs. After a walk to the gate from which our allocated flight was to be leaving, we found ourselves at Gate G17, which exited down the same ramp as we had ascended when we had left our Qatar Airways flight. Approximately 20 minutes walking to find ourselves almost exactly where we had begun.

Otherwise Munich is a fabulous airport at which to have a layover. There were a variety of free newspapers (both German and in other languages) and free coffee, tea or hot chocolate available. If you are a smoker then various cigarette companies have sponsored special smokers' rooms with lovely glass windows, so the smokers can bask in their own carcinogens and everyone else can observe them as they walk past. There is a wealth of shops of various types in case you have the shopping itch and wireless internet is free throughout the Terminal. All in all it didn't seem very long before we were called for boarding and a small group of us boarded the bus to be taken out to the much smaller plane we would be taking to our destination.

Brock has made it pretty clear that he is rather hesitant about boarding any airplane that seats fewer than 100 people. Consequently, when he laid eyes on the plane he wasn't overly enthused. 'Still, at least it is a jet and doesn't have propellers'. This flight was conducted by one of Lufthansa's subsidiary airlines and was perfectly satisfactory. There was only really enough time for us to take off, be served some drinks and then come back down after the 45 minutes to Krakow. None of us had ever been to Poland before and our first experience touching down at the John Paul II Airport was an extremely positive one. As we came through Customs and out into the Arrivals lounge we were met by a taxi driver who held up a sign to indicate he would be taking us to the Hotel Aspel. As we went out to the car park we discovered a fairy land. There was snow everywhere (courtesy of the cold snap that had covered Europe for most of the preceding 2 weeks) and it hung on the branches of the pine trees like something out of a Christmas Card. The lights decorating the terminal added to the effect.

The drive through the snow covered landscape from the airport into the centre of Krakow was magical. Old fashioned European houses with snow covered roofs, beautiful old churches likewise, many places covered with fairy lighting and then finally a town which was lit up like a Christmas tree as well. Although we had been travelling for a considerable time it was still only 9pm as we headed for the hotel, yet there were very few people on the streets, perhaps because it was so cold. While we thought that the -12°C was quite nippy, the driver told us that only two nights earlier it had been a significantly frostier -24°C.

The tour guide that we were to be meeting the following morning had organized everything for our arrival, however there were a couple of mix ups over paying for the taxi (the hotel was meant to pay and invoice our guide, instead we ended up paying and having it deducted from our costs) and the rooms (Meg and Wayne's room was originally a twin, however they soon moved into a double) but these were soon sorted. With everything organized, including breakfast which would be brought to our rooms the following morning, and a winter wonderland awaiting us outside, it was only left to fall into bed and get some well earned sleep before our holiday properly began.

Perhaps because we were working on body clocks which were still a few hours ahead, on Doha time, we woke early and were able to enjoy the breakfast which had been delivered on a large trolley. From cereal and toast to bread rolls, a variety of sliced meats, juice, coffee, milk and fruit; there was an extensive range of food to choose from. Getting dressed in as much warm clothing as we had been able to muster (given that we are now living in a desert country) we headed down to the foyer to meet Aron our tour guide. Aron was not only taking us on our Eastern European Christmas Market tour but was also the boss of the agency through which we had organized it. While he is Hungarian he had spent considerable time in Poland, Slovakia and Austria conducting these tours, so he knew the surroundings very well. Much to our amazement we discovered that his wife was Australian and that he had spent quite a bit of time there. Most impressive was that he had driven up from Budapest only that morning, having left his wife and two young children asleep at home at 2am.

Outside the hotel was a tram stop which we would make use of to catch the tram into the centre of Krakow itself. Aron had a supply of Polish Zloty, although there was nowhere to buy a ticket. Not to worry, this could be sorted out once we were actually in the city. The trams were quick, clean and efficient and we were soon leaving the combined train/tram station and walking through the connected shopping mall out into one of Krakow's large squares. Here we were beset by tour guides wanting to show us all of the sights of Krakow, as well as the nearby Wieliczka Salt Mines and Auschwitz-Birkenau. One, in particular, was quite determined to take us somewhere for a sum of money but we had Aron to answer his entreaties and we were soon walking through the streets on our way into the centre of Old Town Krakow where the Christmas Market was being held.

Krakow used to be the capital city of Poland (from 1038 to 1596) and has a long and substantial history. It was named after Krak, who was a legendary prince of the Vistulanians (for whom the river, the Vistula, which passes through Krakow, was named). Like so many of the older cities of Europe it used to be much smaller and walled to protect it from invaders. There are still a number of substantial remnants of the walls and we were able to pass through and see these as we walked. The streets were cobbled and several of the signs on the buildings made it clear that they had stood in this position for hundreds of years, which wasn't entirely surprising when you consider that the city of Krakow dates back to the 7^th century. There is also evidence of a Stone Age settlement on Wawel Hill. Because of the snow and ice it was somewhat difficult walking, however there was very little in the way of motorized traffic on the streets which made things easier.

Sadly, the beautiful Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) at the centre of the Old Town Square was undergoing renovations which made it difficult to see fully. However, our first Christmas Market was still an exciting experience. The square was filled with small wooden buildings of various shapes, including some in the shape of barrels which were dispensing hot, mulled wine. There were all sorts of things for sale including; traditional Polish craft; Christmas decorations of a multitude of varieties and colors; Polish foodstuffs, especially a large selection of sausages; prints and postcards representing Poland and Krakow in particular; an extraordinary number of types of sweets, and many souvenirs linked to Pope John Paul II, the Polish Pope, who had been Archbishop of Krakow before being called to the Papacy. We had a lovely time browsing, taking photographs, and sampling some of the local delicacies.

Having toured the markets, Aron led us out of the Old Square and down through the park which runs alongside the Vistula. Having been away from England for so long it was wonderful to see so much snow on the ground once more. As we wandered along, admiring the surroundings and listening to the commentary that Aron provided, Brock and Quinn decided to indulge in a little snow ball fighting. Fortunately, neither of them is particularly accurate so when they turned their attention to the adults it was only Aron who received a blow (which you can be quite certain was not aimed at him). In the end, in order to get one another, they resorted to running up and pushing snow into their persons. By the time all of this had taken place we found ourselves near the base of Wawel Hill.

As well as being the oldest known settlement in Krakow, it is a legend that Wawel Hill was the home of a cave inhabited by the dragon Smok Wawelski. As it towers above the surrounding countryside it is the site of both Wawel Castle and Wawel Cathedral and has been both the residence and burial site of Polish kings. This made for quite a steep walk up the side of the hill, somewhat treacherous because of the snow and ice, but the views when one reached the top were tremendous. Interestingly, much of the building, including the Cathedral, looks rather piecemeal because each new conqueror of the area brought their own additions. This included Nazi Germany who, after the invasion of Poland, in September 1939, established the General Government (led by Hans Frank) in Wawel Castle. This diverse approach still manages to look spectacular.

Unsurprisingly, one of the first things we were confronted with when we reached the top of the hill was a statue dedicated to Karol Wojtyla, who in 1978 was both the first Slavic Pope and the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years to have been elected to head the Roman Catholic Church. The church is a huge presence in Krakow, with over 120 Roman Catholic places of worship alone, about half of those being built during the 20^th Century. Perhaps because it was the seat of government for the Nazi regime, very few of these buildings were damaged during World War II. Even the Communist rule which followed did not seem too inclined to do damage to the historical architecture and consequently, Wawel Castle and Cathedral is a very impressive spot. Even the drain pipes are beautifully decorated as gargoyles.

It is beautiful to look from the top of Wawel Hill down to the river. This was especially true on the day we were there as there was so much ice. From the walls of the castle we could also see into the region of Krakow known as Kazimierz. This was an influential centre of Jewish culture leading up to World War II when the Jewish population of Krakow was moved into a walled zone known as the Krakow Ghetto, from which they were sent to extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Plaszow. The movie director, Roman Polanski is a survivor of that ghetto, while the Oskar Schindler of Schindler's Ark and Schindler's List fame recruited the workers for his factory from there. From a population of around 70 000 prior to the war, the post holocaust Jewish population of the city was around 5 900 and by 1978 the number was down to 600. While most of the many synagogues were destroyed, the Old Synagogue (the oldest in Poland, built in the 15^th century) managed to survive although all its artwork and relics were looted.

On our way back down the hill we saw evidence of one of the other areas for which Krakow is renowned; education. There we saw the Arcybiskupie Seminarium Duchowne which prepares Polish men for the Catholic Priesthood. It is one of more than 10 tertiary institutions in Krakow of which the Jagiellonian University is both the oldest and best known. It was originally founded in 1364, making it one of the oldest universities in Europe and some of the buildings associated with it date back to that time. Aron informed us that Krakow is a place where many people come to do university exchanges, to continue pursuing their degree while doing some study in a foreign land. We can completely understand why you might want to do that here. It is a very beautiful part of the world.

We walked back into the Old Town Square (although we would have loved to take one of the horse drawn carriages that were traversing the streets, something for later on in this trip), stopping to admire the St. Mary's Basilica. It is amazing to think that this building had stood on this site for over 700 years since it was constructed, surviving all sorts of conflicts and other catastrophes. It is the model for many other churches built by Polish people throughout the world and is the original of what is known as the 'Polish Cathedral Style'. It was made even more familiar to English speaking people by a book, originally published in 1929, and called The Trumpeter of Krakow. This book tells the story of a famous 13^th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city. As a consequence, every hour, a trumpet signal - called the heynal (hejnal) - is played from the top of the taller of St. Mary's two towers. It breaks off in mid-stream in memorial to the original. Midday's hejnal is broadcast by the Polish national Radio 1 Station and this is able to be heard throughout the country and around the world.

With a couple of stops for refreshment and to look in some of the local shops we headed back to the tram station to catch a tram back to the hotel. Aron had indicated that we would be able to still fit a visit to Auschwitz into our schedule before the end of the day, so we quickly changed into some warmer clothing and headed down to his van. We would become very familiar with this van over the next couple of days as it would be transporting us from Krakow to Vienna and then on to Budapest. This was our first encounter with it, as we made the 50 kilometre journey (it took a little over an hour because of traffic, ice and a couple of missed turns) to Oswiecim.

We had seen the entrance to Auschwitz in movies, such as Schindler's List and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but to be visiting the actual place as sunset approached and the whole area was covered with snow is something we will never forget. It is all still there, much as it was 64 years ago; the long wire fences extending toward the horizon on either side, row after row of old wooden buildings that had once provided a resting place for the 1.5 million people who had died here, the guard towers rising ominously toward the sky, even the railway lines on which so many of those people had entered the camp on their final journey. It was a sobering experience, particularly once you went inside one of the latrine huts and saw some of the conditions under which they were kept. The dormitories, even now, look cramped and we were glad that it was so late that we would not have time to visit the gas chambers and furnaces in which the bodies were first killed and then burned. Only a week or so earlier someone had stolen the sign that hung over the entrance to the facility but, thankfully, it had been returned. Our hope is that retaining this site will mean that future generations will remember what took place and such things will never happen again.

Our trip back to Krakow, with a detour to buy some fuel for the mini-van and some food and drink for us, was one filled with a mixture of excitement and seriousness. We were back in Europe and visiting some fabulous cities as we prepared for Christmas, but some of the other places we were going to see were going to be more downbeat in the manner of where we had just been. Our route lay along the River Vistula which we had seen earlier in the day covered in ice. While closer to Krakow this ice had been broken into pieces, further down river it was completely iced over. By now most of the traffic was either off the road or moving in the other direction so our trip back was faster than the trip down had been. When he reached the Hotel Aspel we headed off in different directions; Aron to stay with a friend of his who lived nearby, the boys to their hotel room, and Meg and Wayne to the supermarket next door to get some supplies for the drive on the following day.

A slice of Bavarian.

An historically significant person once wrote, “a man without a sense of history is like a man without ears or eyes”. While much of Europe maintains buildings and works hard to preserve positive elements of history, how people respond to more negative historical events is informative. Acknowledging the flaws of the past without revelling in them must sometimes be a difficult burden to bear. Australia has struggled with how to most appropriately deal with the actions of those in the past toward Aboriginal people. For the people of Germany, at whose feet are laid the blame for two World Wars and the Holocaust, the baggage must sometimes feel extraordinarily heavy.

We had intended to rise around 4am to depart by 4:30 for Stansted Airport to catch our flight. You might therefore appreciate our alarm when Meg looked at her phone at 4:37 and found that it hadn’t gone off. 11 minutes later we were throwing the last of the bags in the car and setting off for the airport, consuming breakfast as Wayne drove. Ultimately, all the connections and traffic worked in our favour and we even had time to look around the shops before being the first to board our flight to Memmingen in Germany.

£57 for the four of us to fly return to Germany was a fabulous deal. However, when you factor in that it costs an extra £20 per bag you want to check in; £4 per person to avoid the graceless swarm for seating by choosing priority boarding; the money spent on food and drink because nothing will be provided on board the flight; let alone the cost of transporting us all from Memmingen in to Munich (rather than being able to utilise the subway or the free Lufthansa run shuttle buses from the main airport), then the price looks a little different. That we discovered on a recent bank statement Ryanair charges a fee of £9.50 per person to use a credit card in booking (which is the only method you can use in order to get the cheapest flights) made us even more wary. Finally, that Ryanair’s owner, Michael O’Leary, decided to state that the swine flu “is only of real concern to slum-dwellers in places like Asia and Mexico”, demonstrates the attitude lying behind the airline. After our next trip (which is already booked) we will not be flying with them again.

The flight itself was relatively short (although, to Meg’s frustration, still long enough for all the males to have a nap) and we found ourselves descending upon Memmingen Airport. The countryside we were flying into was beautifully rural, at times looking like a postcard of what you might expect from an old fashioned, European, farming scene. This contrasted somewhat with the airport itself. It was quite clear that, as with our previous flight to Germany, that this airport had a history as a military base. Signs of camouflage were everywhere, from the storage bunkers built with the ground rising up and over them, to the larger buildings still with the old paintwork upon them.

Once again we met an Australian while waiting in line at Customs (people have to get their passports out which makes them much easier to spot) where the queue, even on our half empty flight, nearly went out of the building. From the look of the pipe work there are plans to expand the terminal building, although how they will do this without spoiling the integrity of the design was difficult to see. Possibly it was just that the building wasn’t quite finished. Soon enough we were through (and Quinn had a German stamp in his passport) we were outside and climbing into a taxi to take us into Memmingen itself to catch the train to our ultimate destination for this trip, Munich.

Even though we were headed to Munich, Memmingen itself has a significant place in history. It is believed that on the site of present day Memmingen during Roman times there was a small military town. In the 5th century a settlement was established and in the 7th century there was a palace belonging to the king of the Franks. While it has the official motto, Memmingen – Stadt mit Perspektiven (Memmingen – a town with perspective) in recent times it has been frequently referred to as Memmingen – Stadt der Menschenrechte (Memmingen - the town of human rights). This refers to the Twelve Articles, considered to be the first written set of human rights in Europe, which were penned in Memmingen in 1525 as part of the response to Martin Luther. Every four years there is the Wallensteinfestspiel, with about 4,500 participants, one of the biggest historical reenactments in Europe. It commemorates the invasion of Wallenstein and his troops during the 30 Years War in Europe, between Catholic and Protestant forces. It seems like a lovely town although we were only passing through.

Once on the train, even though we were now heading east (having come from the west) it felt like the countryside we were seeing through the windows was the same that we had flown over. The landscape was dotted with farmhouses that looked like they could have been hundreds of years old, tiny village churches, and people riding bicycles. As we had previously experienced, the German public transport was brilliant; clean, modern, quiet, relatively cheap (we bought a ticket that would cover the 4 of us on any public transport in the whole of Bavaria for the next 24 hours for less than €30), and on time. Although our journey took well over an hour it didn’t seem that long before we were travelling through the suburbs on the outskirts of Munich. Like cities we have been to all over the world the suburbs adjoining the railway line were not that attractive, although there were some fascinating sights (such as the multi-story car display building, where it seemed they must have lifted the Mazdas and Fords in by crane).

Munich Central train station is the transport hub of the city, with all the different types of trains, buses, and trams making their way there. In moving from one rail line to another we misunderstood where we were headed. Instead of going on to the subway, we boarded one of the suburban trains (in our defence, there are four different line types which converge on the station) and headed out to where we thought the maps indicated our hotel would be. Fortunately, Wayne was on the ball and realised our mistake and we quickly jumped off at Ostbahnhot and went down the stairs to the subway boarding the train that was waiting there back to Rosenheimer Platz. The Novotel had signage up all through the subway station and shopping area which was attached, and a short walk found us at the doorstep. We left our luggage (this early in the morning the room was not yet ready) and walked back to the subway and caught it a couple of more stops into Marienplatz, the real centre of Munich.

It was a beautiful spring day and the crowds were out. The staff at our hotel had explained that the German May Day holiday had been the day before and there were lots of visitors up in Munich for the long weekend. There was also a big football game between Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach being played in the city that afternoon (which would attract a capacity 69 000 fans) and many of the spectators were taking the opportunity to lunch in the city centre before heading out to the Allianz Arena in the suburbs. Consequently, we emerged from the subway into a swarm of people milling in the pedestrian area outside the Rathaus (Town Hall). Lunch was our priority, so we wandered amongst the masses through the Beer Garden (bigger than any beer garden any of us had experienced before) around the food market and found ourselves a seat on the street called Tal.

Perhaps because it was the holidays there were all sorts of people out in, what looked to us like, costumes. We had probably all just assumed that lederhosen were the national dress but that no one wore it any more (at least not in public). How wrong we were! As we sat and ate all sorts of people walked past us wearing traditional German dress; men, women and children. We were so inspired by this that we hit upon the idea of buying an outfit for Brock to wear to his school Prom and had the boys pose outside one of the many shops that specialised in this sort of clothing. Strangely, Brock didn’t take to the idea as warmly as the rest of us and that, plus the price of the clothes themselves, will probably mean that he wears much less interesting clothing on the night.

The cobble-stoned streets also presented us with plenty of other amazing sights. Once again bicycles were well in evidence, with long lines of identical looking bikes almost begging to be rented out and put through their paces. Europe is way ahead of Australia as far as embracing eco-friendly forms of transport (although one suspects that the prevalence of bicycles existed long before the term eco-friendly was even invented). Munich is a relatively flat city so it is not as difficult a form of transport to manage as it might be elsewhere. There was also an amazing motor bike, which the owner had covered in fur, with the head of a deer mounted on the back. Hunting of game has long been a popular sport in Germany, and this was a vivid reminder.

While we were sitting we also noticed a number of open topped tourist buses drive past. Part of our plan for the next two days involved catching these, much as we had done in other parts of the world, in order to facilitate some of our sight-seeing. We had grabbed some brochures at the hotel before we came into the city and were able to read through them and compare routes, prices, etc. This time we opted for one run by Viator which had; two different tour routes, was the type which you could hop on and off, and was much the same price as the other (which didn’t have either of those features). Fortunately, a stop was visible from our table, so we wandered across the road and boarded, finding out that it was right at the end of one of the routes, so we rode the couple of blocks back to Central Station where we needed to purchase the ticket.

The route from the station at this end of the day ran out through the north-western suburbs of Munich to Schloss Nymphenberg, a beautiful palace with even more beautiful grounds. At the front is a lake, complete with white swans, geese and ducks, fed by a series of canals which we had driven alongside on our way. Because we were going to spend more time there on the Sunday we elected not to get out (except for Wayne to take a few quick snaps) but it was already clear that this was a place that would be worth exploring.

From Nymphenberg we headed east to the site of the 1972 Munich Olympics, much of the buildings from which still stand and are used regularly. Interestingly, the foundations of the Olympic site and particularly of the amazing parklands which lie next to it were constructed from the rubble left after the destruction of much of Munich at the conclusion of World War II. A number of times over the next few days we were to hear how more than 80% of the buildings in Munich were damaged or destroyed and when the rebuilding began the rubble from this destruction was brought out to this site. Part of the Olympic bid was premised on making something good out of the horror of the past. This part of Munich is known as the "Oberwiesenfeld" ("upper meadow-field"), and the Park continues to serve as a venue for cultural, social, and religious events such as events of worship.

Also out in this area (across the highway from the main Olympic Stadium in fact) is the huge BMW Complex which includes their corporate headquarters and the colossal BMW museum which looks at the creation of BMW engines, their use in all sorts of machinery, including aeroplanes and racing cars, and a history of the corporation. Those of you who are particularly wealthy can visit there and, apparently, order a car and have it delivered to the front door at the end of your visit. It all looks very impressive and, should we have had time, the boys and Wayne would have enjoyed the opportunity to take a look inside.

Back across the walkway which spans the Georg-Brauchle-Ring our tour paused so that we could take a better look at both the main stadium roof. This included large sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by steel cables that were used for the first time in a large scale. The idea was to imitate the Alps and the effect is certainly striking and readily visible from a considerable distance. Following the Olympics, the stadium became the home of FC Bayern München, with their cross town rivals TSV 1860 München moving in during the 1990s. It was only in 2005 that both moved out to the purpose built Allianz Arena. For Wayne one of the exciting things about this stadium was that it was the venue for the 1979 European Cup final, which saw Nottingham Forest winning the trophy against Malmö FF (from Sweden) 1-0.

Another impressive piece of architecture is the Olympiaturm, a tower which is somewhat reminiscent of Black Mountain Tower in Canberra, Australia. The Olympiaturm has an overall height of 291 m (making it almost 100 metres taller than Black Mountain) and a weight of 52,500 tonnes. At a height of 190 m there is an observation platform as well as a small rock and roll museum housing various memorabilia. Since its opening in 1968 the tower has registered over 35 million visitors (as of 2004). The tower also contains a revolving restaurant, seating 230 people, which completes a full revolution in 53 minutes. In the visitor lift to the top of the tower the travel time is about 30 seconds. Because of the general flatness of the landscape of Munich itself, views from the top are said to be spectacular, once again this is an example of us finding interesting places that we will have to revisit in order to experience.

It has been said in a number of places that for a substantial time after the war the people of Germany seemed to suffer from ‘collective amnesia’. Given the actual events that many of them experienced, as well as the revelations that came out of Auschwitz etc. this seems a reasonable post-traumatic stress response. Given that a couple of generations have passed since the war that trauma seems to have moved on. Without celebrating some of the terrible deeds that took place, our guides had no trouble in pointing out; where Hitler and the newly formed Nazi’s attempted their Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, where the Munich Treaty of 1938 was signed, the bar where Hitler used to like drinking, and a variety of other spots related to those times. Were ‘Fawlty Towers’ to be written today Basil Fawlty’s entreaties to ‘Don’t mention the war’ would have nowhere near the same resonance.

Perhaps the same thing might happen with the Munich Olympics given some time. For, with maybe the exception of the feats of Mark Spitz (only broken in Beijing 2008 by Michael Phelps), surely the main thing that the Munich Olympics are remembered for are the terrorist attacks on the Israeli team accommodation and the subsequent murder of eleven team officials and athletes as well as one German policeman. Even though Wayne was only three at the time he claims to have some memory of seeing the image of the terrorists in balaclavas on the balcony (no doubt accentuated by repeated showings on television over the years). Steven Spielberg’s relatively recent feature film, ‘Munich’ and the Academy Award winning Documentary Feature ‘One Day In September’ have both recounted the events that took place. How it could be that we could then visit the Olympic site itself with three different tour guides and not once have it mentioned seems to defy belief. There are plaques and monuments to the events, but no one seemed to want to even mention them.

Reflecting on this, and so many of the other marvellous things that we had seen, we eventually found ourselves back at Munich Central. This time we successfully made it on to the underground and headed back to Rosenheimer Platz and made the walk once more up to the Novotel. Now we were able to collect our bags and head up to our room. Dinner consisted of Subway (for Brock) and enormous pretzels for everyone else, before Meg and Wayne retired down to the hotel bar to read and relax while the boys watched some television. Wayne already knew the result of the big game (Bayern Munich had won 2-1, as the supporters flooding back in to town had made clear) but was able to catch some of the football results from other parts of Europe.

A visit to an internet café (less than 200 meters away at the bottom of the street) to research the next day, to check our emails, and to look after our Farmtown Farms on Facebook was the last item on the agenda for the day. Having travelled so far and seen so much over the course of the day meant that falling asleep wasn’t as much of an issue as it might have been. Having the four of us in the one room and various examples of snoring, groaning, and sleep talking meant that not everyone slept as well as they might however, but we knew that the next day would also prove to be one worth the wait.