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Ok, I mentioned that there was a couple that insisted on making out in the children-friendly Botanical Gardens. Well, this seems to be a common theme in Europe…the making out part. Maybe it’s my prudish ways, but QUIT WITH THE MAKING OUT. This isn’t some quick, “HI! I’m SO glad to see you” peck on the cheek or on the lips. It’s the, “HI! I have no awareness of my surroundings, so I’ll kiss you like they kiss on Soap Operas,” full blown make out session. When does this happen? When one of said couples gets off the airplane, meets in the train station, meets for lunch, is in the romantic botanical gardens with Foreign people walking all over, waiting in line for the train, waiting in line to be seated for dinner, waiting in line to check out at the grocery store, picking a bottle of wine, picking out a book at the bookstore. Ok, maybe a BIT over dramatic, but so is the making out. Ok, I’m done.
Ok, where was I?
Oh right…Munich. I don’t have a clever title for this one, so you’ll just have to get over it. Sunday in Munich was another fabulous day. The weather even cooperated and it turned out to be somewhere in the mid-50s all day. Wonderful. Saturday night we sat down and planned out our now-limited time in Munich. Though our plane wasn’t leaving until 8:30pm, 7:30pm at the airport, 7:00 at the Hauptbahnhof…we still needed to make a list of what we wanted to do before we left. Yes, I know, that’s just good planning.
Our day started off with us heading back to the Schloss Nymphumberg to tour the inside of the palace. I mentioned that this was probably my favorite thing (put to this point) that we had done on the trip, and this trip just enforced that feeling. The palace, well, looks like this:
Like I said, amazing! So, on with the day…I have a lot of catching up to do! We toured the palace, which was beautiful, and made our way to the OTHER palace…yes, Max Joseph and son really used up the living space. So back to Alstadt Munich.
The Residenz is the in-town palace of the royal family of Bavaria. This palace has over 140 rooms…it’s so large, you can not visit the whole thing in a day, so they make 70 rooms available in the morning, and 70 in the afternoon. We got there in the afternoon, so I guess we got to see the afternoon chunk. Let me tell you, that was plenty. The rooms were as gorgeous and spacious as the palace above, but there were so many! It was interesting, because most of this palace was destroyed during WWII, so the Munichers have taken it upon themselves to rebuilt it all exactly how it was…which is amazing. After touring the 70 rooms and the treasury, it was time for some grub.
Now, if being in a palace wasn’t enough, let me explain the area that has grown up around the palace. This being Maxamillian Place. The likes of Louis Vitton, Prada, Gucci, etc. live here. So, touring this area can be quite interesting. Picture that scene in Mighty Ducks 2 (you know you saw it) where the players are touring Rodeo Drive and they try to enter the store and are blocked out?? Yeah, that’s totally how this was.
We grabbed some lunch at a local eatery…that was very authentic. It was wonderful food, especially for a Sunday. And dessert was Bavaria cream. Oh gym, how I need you at times like this:
Looks like Ice cream, tastes like heaven. Now, I mentioned that we were on “high society” ground. Well, while we were enjoying our peaceful Bavarian lunch, German Bee leans over and nods to the four people behind us. I hear her say, “That guy is trying to pay with a 500 Euro note.” A 500 Euro note! Who even carries that kind of money?? People on the Rodeo Drive of Munich do. Funny thing is, the restaurant never would accept it, and so he and his friends had to scrape together their cash to pay for the meal. How embarrassing!
Alright, onward and upward (literally). To burn off the million calories we just ate, we set our sites on St. Peter’s Church and the 306 stairs to the tower to get an amazing view of Munich. Unfortunately, we reached the top just in time to meet all the crazy tourists that want to see the aforementioned Glockenspiel. Wonderful.
Last but not least, to the Peace Angel. This is a gigantic gold angel on top of a pillar overlooking this particular part of Munich. She is beautiful! We hung out there and enjoyed the last of our beautiful warm day. After that, we headed back to the hostel to pick up our things, and then to the airport. Goodbye to Munich.
3-29, Saturday, Munich
The two days we just spent (over the weekend) in Munich were great! German Bee got to come with us this time, so it was fun. We actually booked a 3 bed room at our hostel so we could be by ourselves (antisocial) and have a private bathroom (germaphobes). We got there about 8pm, and went completely antisocial, and straight to bed.
When we got up in the morning, we decided to check on a Free City Tour that a company offered. I’m telling you, city walking tours are the best. And this was great, because it was free. We ate a semi-traditional German breakfast with rolls, bread, meat, cheese and fruit and got on our way. The tour started at 10am, so we headed out. Our tour guide was a hockey playing Canadian. No, seriously. All stereotypes aside. How he ended up in Munich, I’ll never know, because he stated that he did still play hockey for Toronto. Interesting…Anyway, he was no German History Masters degree, but he had amazing insight to Munich and the sites. Our started out with us looking at the Neu Rathaus in Marienplatz. Location is totally unneeded, but this is the location of Europe’s #2 Most Overrated Tourist Site-the Glockenspeil. Apparently millions of people flock to watch this thing go off. Here it is on YouTube. After that 15 minutes of nonsense, we proceeded. Again, I won’t go into detail about the tour, but we pasted some amazing 15th, 16th and 17th real and reproduction buildings, rebuilt after WWII. Apparently Hilter was a genius at one thing-he took photographs of Munich before the war so it all could be rebuilt after the war. How’s that for planning?
After our 3 hour tour, we headed back to the Viktualienmarkt to get some fresh fruit and a cutting board which I had been eyeing earlier. Yes, a cutting board, but a very small cutting board. Anyway, we were quite over the crowds and people at the Marienplatz and the Market, so we decided to head to the Schloss Nymphemburg or Royal Palace. This was amazing! It looked exactly like a palace you would see in the new Marie Antionette movie, or Emma or Pride and Prejudice. It was calm, the grounds were extensive and we just walked around until our feet grew tired and we had to head back to the hostel. Here we cleaned up, and headed out to the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous and busy Beer Hall of all of Europe for a pint! We had some great German food, Bavarian Dessert and a beer and called it a night. Of course, we didn’t without getting a great Hard Rock Cafe shirt for my collection!
Oh and the Devil’s revenge? Long story that has to do with this incredibly huge church in Munich that is so big it makes the wind whip around it. Chicken-Lizard things? There is this huge statue of Mary in Marienplatz (hense the name) that is solid gold, and other than total video watch, it is guarded by four charibs. One is trying to kill a chicken thing with a lizard tail that represents poverty or something…like I said,Chicken Lizard thing. Actually, this all came from our tour guide. Good thing this load of crap was free!
Yes, today (Sunday) I successfully completed my SECOND daylight savings time change of the year. Well, almost successful. We were supposed to check out of the Munich hostel (I know, I’m getting a head of myself) at 10am, which we did. And we got to the Tram stop at 10:15, or so we thought. I looked up at the biggest clock in all of Europe (ok, maybe not) and it said 11:10. I was like, that’s not right, “Brother Bee, what time do you have?” He replied, “10:15″ Now, how could the biggest clock in Munich be wrong?? It wasn’t. We had forgotten about Daylight Savings Time, European-style. And we weren’t the only ones. Here is a note on a sticky note written from a guy in the hostel to some people he had apparently met while there:
“Oy! The time changed, so I missed my flight. I’m in Munich for the next week now. Find me if you’re still around.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! We were thinking about you while we were in Munich. Hope you had a great birthday!
Love,
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