Exploring Munich
Trip Start
Mar 13, 2008
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2
12
Trip End
Mar 23, 2008
Where I stayed
Saturday, March 15th, we woke to a wonderful continental breakfast- typical European breakfast with cheeses, breads, meats, cereal, etc, and were on our way, happily full of food. We walked back to the train station, figured out the German speaking machine to buy our tickets and made our way to Marienplatz, which is the center of town basically, with markets, and a huge cuckoo clock in the side of the building. We arrived just in time to wait with all the other tourists to watch the movement of the clock. But we decided that 20 minutes was too long to just stand around and wait, and we decided go to the Viktualien market, for just a preview of what we would explore later. The Viktualien market is an open air food market, and thank goodness we just ate, because we likely would have gorged on the items at that point. We made it back for the carillon or Glockenspiel (huge cuckoo clock) and watched it go through its whole dance (I have video in case you are curious). After it finished, we wandered down the street near the Residenz, which has 4 lion sculptures outside, that locals touch on the nose as they pass for good luck. So we did too. We then walked around the corner to Odeonsplatz, which is where Hitler was shot and captured. On the Feldernnhalle, (The actual spot of Hitler's capture) four young men had placed 1 beer on each step, and were moving both up and down the steps, one person at a time to drink the beers. It was odd. I'm thinking it must have been performance art, and of course, I videotaped it in case you cannot get the visual from my written description. Afterward, Geoff decided that he wanted to go to the Deutches Museum, so we made the trek there and spent the afternoon looking at all kinds of interesting items, especially the airplanes of course. I was interested in the glass and ceramic making exhibits, the toys, paper making exhibit, and a replica of Gutenberg's press. We then had to make a trip to the Hauptbahnhof (city train station) to get our train tickets for the next two days adventures. For dinner, we decided to go back to Marienplatz to visit the Hofbrauhaus, which is Munich's most famous beer garden, probably because Hitler used it as the first location for his Nazi recruitment speeches. But, no sign of the evil empire remains; it now features lots of beer in big steins, an Ohmpah band, lederhosen on the men, and good food. Geoff finally had his German sausages with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut (YUMMY), and I had Käsespaetzle, which is tiny dumplings covered in cheese. I guess it is like German macaroni and cheese, only with really good cheese. Overall, Munich was very fun, no rain today, and we went back to the hotel to sleep before we got ready for our trip tomorrow to the castles in Füssen.
