Alison and I went to visit my cousin Oliver in Munich. This gave us the opportunity to explore the area and drink lots of Augustiner.
We started our time in Munich with my cousin’s 40th birthday celebration. Here he is being an exemplary family man.
My aunt came to the celebration as well. We hadn’t seen each other in a long time so it was great to meet up again.
We spent one day visiting Dachau. It was one of the first work concentration camps in Germany. I thought I already knew the story of this place: The evil Germans incarcerating the Jews. Turned out to be a lot more than that...
Thanks to a very interesting guide I learned a lot about the camp. In the beginning of the rise of the socialist party the camp incarcerated many German citizens, political opponents, homosexuals and anyone that did not fit the ideals of the party.
After all that I needed a beer. Good thing Augustiner is on tap all over the place. Yum!
We spent another rainy day visiting the German Museum. The place is huge and amazing. It covers just about any form of human technological development and probably would take weeks to explore the whole museum.
We meet our friend Ros and took a tour of the mining exhibit where we traversed salt mines, coal mines and precious metal mines with different technologies over time. Who could have guessed mining could be so exciting?
The museum has a giant Foucault pendulum that proves the earth is turning around and around.
After a day at the museum we met with Peter for a Gresshoff family reunion. Good beer and yummy pretzels were at the table as well.
We spent one day at the Münchner Residenz. The palace where the Bavarian royalty lived. Very impressive indeed.
Here is a room in the palace. It is probably what my mom wishes her living room looks like.
Note the elaborately adorned furniture. I am sure my mom would like to have that too!
Here is a ceiling decoration. The themes revolve around proper governance, such as having a justice system and law being as strong as the sword.
Here we found the dining set. Alison would like to have that set for her dinner parties! All those silver pieces were melted in a pinch and used for cash more than once.
The relicarium is considered the most valuable asset in the collection. Worth more than gold and Silver the bones and remnants of saints and other religious figures are supposed to bring good luck to the owner. See the feet and hands stuck in there?
We used our rail pass to ride the famous Glacier Express. The train had gigantic windows, a bar train, and dining service all while we chugged along beautiful mountain scenery and through UNESCO areas.
Just an idea of what life was like on the train.
We finally made it to Zermatt, 7 hours later, just in time to see the Matterhorn emerge from the clouds over the town.
We visited the mountaineer’s cemetery, where about 50 souls who died climbing the Matterhorn and neighboring peaks now rest… when hoards of tourists aren’t cruising the cemetery to take photos.
Our main plan in Zermatt was to spend the day hiking in the Alps. 
Which was not hard to do.
We did have to stick to lower elevations though as there was plenty of snow - no surprise really with the year round skiing here just a cable car ride away.
We could have gone swimming in this Alpine lake but after dipping a toe in - no thank you!
We spent an afternoon in the Alpine Museum looking at how trekking equipment has changed over the years...
And learning about how the Matterhorn became famous after the first 4 people to ever summit the peak, died on the way down when this support rope broke.
Omar in front of the Red Cross Museum in Geneva. I didn’t even know the Red Cross also uses a red crescent for some countries!
I learned how Red Cross used to catalog and look ok up soldiers or missing people for family members during previous wars. It’s all done electronically now.
The only thing that could have made this picture better would have been if the tour was open that day!
A giant chair sculpture outside the UN to honor the disabled - from around the world I am guessing?!?!
