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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.
I mentioned that we had put our luggage into storage before we took the train to Centraal Station into Amsterdam. Well, when we arrived back at the lockers to get our stuff out, the most amusing incident unfolded. Turns out, NO ONE knows how to use these lockers. They’re very confusing, and they only take coins and credit cards. No bills. Europeans are big on coins. I get dirty looks everytime I don’t pay with exact change. This could be because 1 euro and 2 euros are both coins, along with 50 cent, 20 cent, 10 cent, 2 cent and 1 cent. I can’t help it that I have a 50 euro note, and I need to break it down. I certainly don’t do it for a 4 euro purchase, but this doesn’t seem to matter. Even if I use a 5 euor note for a 4.30 purchase, dirty looks inevitably ensue. So, here’s what I over heard:
Some people looking at the screen, confused: “Ok, what do we do? How do we get English? Do we just put the money in?”
Attendant: “What language?” (Because you can select up to 8 different languages)
People: “English.”
Attendant: points to the British flag button.
People: “But we’re not British, we’re Canadian.”
UHHHHHH. I about peed my pants. That should give all you Montanans some ammo.
Day One, 3-22, Saturday
Woke up at 3:30 am to the radio and Hubby Bee’s phone alarm. We couldn’t trust the iHome today. We had breakfast at home and headed to the airport at 4:50am. Early, Early. But, I think there were at least 4 flights leaving Bozeman this morning. It was so crazy! We got in line behind a familz with 4 children and 8 bags. Nuts. Oh well. We ran upstairs to security to beat the crowd. Totally uneventful. Besides the guy in front of me who apparently stuffed the entire hotel mini-bar in his suitcase, and as the TSA lady-agent began to pull out the bottles one-by-one for the whole security line to see, tried to explain that he “forgot” they were in there. How one forgets about 6 bottles of Jack Daniels, I’ll never know. Bozeman, a small town airport? Don’t try telling the TSA that!
Currently, We’re over the clouds, looking at my personal in-seat screen, where it says I’m somewhere over Gypsum Hills and I’m thinking, where the HELL is that? Turns out, Oklahoma. People around me? Family of 4 plus one (grandma); cute, but are totally going to miss their connecting flight. Family of 3? Behind. Sweating about missing their flight. They’re on some other international flight that leaves 20 min. before our. And older guy, across aisle, who is CONSTANTLY blocking traffic. Meanwhile, Brother Bee’s watching Wedding Crashers on his iPod eating the entire bag of Goldfish because neither one of us is going to pay $5 for a snack box. Christ, we just paid $200 for 116 Euros. Ouch.
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