What can I say about Munich? I love it!!
We arrived to Munich bright and early Sunday morning after taking an overnight train. After dropping our stuff off at the hostel and grabbing a quick bite to eat we took a train out to Dachau to visit one of the concentration camps from World War II. The best way to describe the visit was disturbingly peaceful. It was surreal to see the barracks, the crematorium, and where the prisoners lived. There were signs up all over the place showing what life was like for the prisoners during the war. I was amazed to find out that the barracks where the prisoners lived were meant to hold 200 people, but towards the end of the war each one held over 2,000 people! I’m glad we took the time to go. It will definitely be something I won’t forget.
Monday- another bike tour! Today we attended Mike’s Bike Tour of Munich- 5 hours of riding around the city. We met our tour guide, James, under the Old Town Square Tower and it was immediately apparent that the tour was going to be very informative and fun! The tour took us to some of the major tourist areas including the Hofbäuhaus, the Hofgarten, the Chinesischer Turm Biergarten, Munich’s surfers, and the Friedensengel (peace angel). Our tour guide provided us with a lot of information and kept the tour light and funny. It was definitely worth the time and money- I would highly recommend the tour to anyone going to visit the city. After the tour we walked around the city and did a little souvenir shopping before a few of us headed off to check out the Olympic Park from the summer Olympics that were held in Munich. The Olympic park was amazing- the architecture of the arenas was very impressive considering it was designed in the 70’s. It was neat to see what they have done with the buildings so they are still in use today. The old swim hall is currently open to the public as a gym. If we were staying longer it would have been fun to go work out in the Olympic swimming pool J That night we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant near a family friends home of Katy. The food was fantastic and it was nice to be outside the hustle and bustle of the city for a little while.
Tuesday morning we had a little while to explore before heading off to Basel, Switzerland. Bill and I took a train just outside the city to go to Alliance Arena where some of The World Cup soccer games were held last year. The arena is also where the FC Bayron Munchen team currently plays. We were able to walk around the stadium some and see a little bit of the field. There was also a youth soccer camp occurring down on the field. It was cute to see three little groups of kids practicing! Upstairs they were doing a lot of construction and remodeling of the arena so unfortunately a lot of it was blocked off. They do offer tours of the arena daily. However, there is only one tour a day that is in English and unfortunately it was after we needed to leave to head to Basel. The rest of the day was spent on trains going to Basel. We arrived to Basel and checked into our hotel. It was freezing and raining outside- no more nice, warm, sunny weather L Dinner was a quick bite to eat at a pizza place and then off to bed. The hotel is amazing! We are very fortunate to have Novartis paying for us to come and stay in Basel!
I thought Wednesday was a lot of fun and very interesting! We spent the day on Novartis’ campus. The first location was right near our hotel so we walked over and got name badges to wear for the day. The first lecture we had was about the company itself- where it started, what it’s become, and where it is looking to make advances in the future. I had no idea about all the large animal options available from Novartis. They also talked about some of the new products that Novartis has developed and brought into the European market over the last few years. Two products are set to be released in the US in the next few years- which is very exciting! I was especially excited about the Onsior- finally a good NSAID for cats J We then learned about the different areas of testing a product goes through to get approved and toured the labs in the building. I thought the temperature and humidity set chambers in the basement was very interesting. I would have never thought a product had to go through so many tests to be proven safe and effective during all situations! It was amazing to see! After our tours we took a long bus ride out to Novartis’ location outside the city where they test their products on animals. At first I wasn’t very sure how I would feel about seeing the facilities, but Switzerland has very strict animal welfare laws and the animals are treated well despite being tested on. Afterwards we headed back to Basel and had the evening off to relax J
Thursday was a catholic holiday so a lot of the city was shut down. We started the day off with a walking tour of the old part of the city. The city itself was surprisingly beautiful- and the weather cooperated too which made it even better! After grabbing some lunch we went to the Museum of Natural History and explored around inside. All of the signs were in German, which made understanding everything difficult at times, but for the most part I was able to get a basic understanding. As we were about to leave the beekeeper for the museum came to remove the honey from the hive. It was interesting to see what he did, but I stayed towards the back so I missed out on a lot of it- not sure if I’m allergic to bees or not and didn’t want to risk it! After leaving the museum we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags then it was off to Italy for a nice long weekend! I can’t wait to be back in Cinque Terre again J
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