North to South

We went to Munich! But more on that later...

After our "water walk" day in Norderney, we spent the day enjoying more scenery on our bike tour, and learning much more about the ecosystem of the tidelands out in the North Sea, both on the bike tour and once we were back on land. On the mainland, we got to visit a seal rehabilitation center on the coast and a "Waloseum" or "Whale Museum." The museum reminded me a lot of something out of a natural history museum, but focused more specifically on the North Sea and its ecosystem. The coolest exhibit by far was the while sperm whale skeleton suspended in its own room.

From there, we all went our separate ways once again- this time our group went to Munich! I've been excited about this trip ever since another group went last weekend and told us all about it, and it's been everything I could have possibly hoped for and more!

Our first trip was to Dachau. The sadness in this place is incredibly overwhelming. I don't consider myself naive to what happened in concentration camps, but spending so much time in one and really immersing yourself into what it must have been like to have something like this thrust upon you in real-life is extremely intense. I think one of my peers described it best when she said that coming out of that museum to the sun shining and the birds chirping is surreal. There's a lot of darkness in something like this. That said, the numerous memorials, mostly dedicated to those unknown that perished here, were beautiful. It's not something one is likely to forget any time soon, if ever.

That night we went to a beer hall and I tried my first radler (beer with lemonade) in a liter glass. It was delicious. I'm in love.

Day 2 started off spectacularly with one of the most amazing bike tours I've ever taken. It was technically a "5 hour" tour, but it included and hour's stop for lunch at the beer garden in the middle of the English Gardens- the one with the Chinese pagoda. But it was so much fun. The tours are meant to present a broad spectrum of the history of Munich and some of it's most famous locations, while still including a lot of folk lore and popular locales (like the part of the Isar River where the Germans literally surf). The weather was fantastic, which only added to the experience. Much of the rest of our time was just spent walking around and seeing the city. I feel like there was so much more to experience, and hopefully this is somewhere I'll get to come back to once the program is over!

From Munich we headed up to Basel, Switzerland, where, hosted by Novartis, we'll be staying in what is probably the most luxurious hotel we'll stay on our entire time in Europe! The lap of luxury...hot water! Never underestimate the power of a long, hot shower after traveling.