All good trips have to unwind at sometime and we have reached that moment for this one. We got lucky on the ride from downtown Palermo (Yippee! I did not have to drive!!) to the airport, the driver was quite talkative and it was almost a mini tour for the hour drive. Born in Palermo, he had family in the United States (NY/NJ) and had lived there for a few years giving him a curious accent. Very talkative (he apologized at the airport, we loved it) he mentioned the following along the drive:

• Although he has lived in Palermo the majority of his life he really, really (really) hates the traffic.
• The UNESCO requires pedestrians only areas in places it grants world heritage status. This will bring big changes to to central Palermo and big headaches to people in the tourist industry if they do not make accommodations for parking and the handicapped which is non-existent at this time.
• Many in southern Italy feel like the unification of Italy shafted them. Before unification the southern part was rich and prosperous, after all the wealth was sucked north and the south is looked down upon.
• Sicily is starting to emphasize the quality of their foods and agriculture, Eco-tourism and Agro-tourism now popular around the world has always been present on the island.
• The Sicilians (and Italians in general) put up with a lot with regards to government. Taxes, bad laws they will tolerate. Complain but tolerate. But Football (soccer in the US) however is what will trigger real disagreements.

There was much more than this, he provided details on all the points of interest we past. He was quite energetic, entertaining and informative, both Kim and I would have loved  to have a tour of the area from him.

But our time in Sicily was up time to move on to… Munich!  As part of our trip planning exercise when we decide where we are going we see what airlines can get us there and what stops would (or could) happen along the way. “Build a trip” is what I euphemistically call this part of the planning and Munich, one of Sydney’s favorite cities would be an easy layover on this trip. So a few extra days were added on so we could hang out, stopovers in places we have been are nice because we feel less pressure to tour and if we feel like it visit places we have been before ‘just because’.

On this trip (besides the beer halls) we decided to go back to the Deutsche Museum, one of our favorite museums in the world. Covering many topics it is a tour de force science and technology museum for those who are inclined and we highly recommend it. Glad to come back! The electricity demonstration is particularly interesting, although some of the demonstrations can be seen at Maker Faire (and Burning Man) seeing the electrical show in a laboratory setup (and in German) gives it a particular gravitas.

Last night last dinner, this time in Ratskeller München. Ein gutes Essen, um unsere Reise zu beenden!