The Zurich trip's main purpose was to meet with a fellow student, Malcolm, in Zurich to talk about our project and share ideas because he is working on something similar. However, you really can't expect a group of four students to hop on a train and go to Zurich and miss out on all the fun along the way. So Wednesday before we left a friend of ours here at the school helped us find a local small car rental company where we were able to rent a Scoda Fabia 1.4 for a total of 140euros over 6 and a half days.
The car that barely could.
Thursday night we went to go pick up the car. The rental place was literally a some guys house with a bunch of Skodas parked out front. It was interesting to say the least but he was very friendly as was (we think he wife who translated for us). After Steve signed some papers the showed us the car and handed over the keys and we drove off to pick up supplies.
After picking up the necessary road trip food we turned in for the night as we planned to leave before dawn. Very early the next day while it was still dark out we loaded up the car and took off. I was in the right rear passenger seat and passed out for a good while so I don't know what happened but we made it out of Slovakia and into Austria just fine. Later that day we made some detours of the high way just to see the country side. We were driving down some dirt roads with big fields on either side of us with some very nice country homes around them. When we convinced Laura to get out and ask this women if we were near Munich and how to get to Munich. We where no where near Munich and it was pretty clear but the women played a long a little amused and gave us directions back to the highway and which direction to take (this conversation took place in German between Laura and the woman so what I write now is based only on facial expressions and Laura's translation). We thanked her continued on our way. While headed back to the high way we came across this pleasant little stream and stopped from some pictures.
While driving we decided to stop in Braunau. The town of Braunau is the birthplace of Hitler. There is a memorial stone in front of the house, which now is a center for children and people with learning disabilities. The stone reads
"For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn (us)".
I have mixed feelings about including this here, but I feel it is important to remember history both good and bad. So that we do not let such horrors repeat them selves.
There was also a very nice church in Braunau. It had very nice stone work on the outside, and a guy with a beard that puts mine to shame.
Before returning to the road we stopped in a Bakery. I mean how could you pass this stuff up.
We got back on the road and took another detour. After our little pictures stop I stole the wheel from Steve and did a little driving through the country roads. The cars here are a little different. Reverse is in the wrong place. It is on the left side of first gear but you have to push down on the stick to get it to go over far enough and engage.
The car is still a little too clean.
While flirting with the Austrian German border we encountered a number of beautiful sights.
We turned this big corner and all of a sudden this thing was in our face.
Germany here we come
More spectacular country roads!
It was getting later in the day and we found this lake, but we couldn't find any place to stop so we drove around and around and we eventually found this little park and dock so we stopped and had our packed lunches. It was so pretty it was almost surreal.
When we finally pulled in to Munich we freshened up and headed out to see the town. We wandered down to the Rathaus which was this imposing gothic style building.
Unfortunately the little dancing people under the clock didn't go off while we were there but we caught a live musical street performance instead. The group was quite good and I have no idea how they had the dexterity to play considering it was close to freezing out!
After the group finished playing and started to pack up we wandered our way to the Hofbrauhaus. For what was to be only one beer. I mean we couldn't very well go to Munich and not have one could we?
The place was incredibly crowded but this nice German family who had come into the city specifically for beer that night let us join them. The father and daughters were very happy and were doing their best to talk to us and they were all nothing but smiles. It was very pleasant but after a good bit of prosting we ran out of beer and well ordered more. 
After two liters of strong beer they had to return home for the night and we were joined by a group of Canadians allegedly part of the National Canadian Ski team. After almost 3 liters of strong beer I had to turn in for the night. Steve and I made it back to the Hostel where I conked out, first and not sure what the rest of the team did for the night. Munich to Zurich coming soon.
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