Munich!!! Day 2
Trip Start
Mar 19, 2008
1
18
61
Trip End
Jul 01, 2008
Munich,
Bavaria,
Germany
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Munich again, oh damn. But seriously, this city rocks. I
woke up today to some surprising and pretty disgusting news; apparently some
drunken idiot (American teenager, aka retard) had come back to the hostel and
proceeded to pee all over a girls bed while she was sleeping in it. It caused a
lot of commotion and yelling for about an hour; I didn't hear a damn thing (got
insomnia? Drink a liter or two of Bavarian beer). He was lucky and didn't get
kicked out of the hostel, or arrested (he really should have). I heard his
friend recalling for him the events of the evening ("dude! You fell down an
escalator" "Haha, really? Awesome" "And you pissed all over someone's bed"
"HAHA, wow, that's great. Sorry?") Dumbass. Anyways...Today we were planning on
going to a museum, maybe touring a few places; but Germans love their holidays,
and May Day is definitely not an exception to that. Almost nothing was open
today. We walked around town for a while, and ended up stumbling upon a labor
rally; whole families showed up to the event with signs, stickers slapped to
their clothing, and labeled t-shirts. It had something to do with the Bavaria
area; I'll translate it later. We didn't have much hope of it being open, but
we decided to head up to Nymphenburg Palace anyways. Rick Steves only gave it a
"Try Hard To See It", but I'd give it a "Don't Miss It" rating. This place was
absolutely amazing. Construction began in 1662, and the palace was actually a
present to Henriette Adelaide from the Bavarian king Ferdinand Maria, the
occasion; Henriette bore a male heir to the family. The palace was owned by the
Wittelsbach family and was actually just their summer estate; it must have been
nice to be a elector or Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (for nearly 200 years
a Wittelsbach served as one of seven electors to the Holy Roman Empire; after
that Napoleon declared them Kings and Queens instead). The family actually
still lives in one wing of the palace and refers to themselves as princes and
princesses. King Ludwig I ruled from here, and King Ludwig II was born here.
Only 21 rooms were open to the public, but photos were allowed, and a very
informative audio guide cost only 2.50euro. Paintings, tapestries, tile work,
amazing carpentry, and extravagant furniture filled the place to the brim. I
can't even comprehend what kind of wealth that must have taken. After touring
the main palace, we walked over to a museum containing mostly royal sleds and
coaches; holy crap. These were rolling pieces of art. Most of these were
actually owned by the eccentric King Ludwig II. The amount of detail, and
quality of the carvings was spectacular. I could hardly believe it. In addition
to the coaches, we saw a large quantity of fine porcelain and china owned by
the royal family; I wasn't as interested in this, but it was still amazing to
see. After the museum we decided to tour around the palace grounds; not knowing
just how spacious this was. We walked for at least two hours through forests,
gardens, streams, ponds, mini palaces, sculptures, and fountains of the palace;
and I'm sure we didn't see everything. Of course, before I left I had to have
another delicious Bavarian beer. So good, so good. I am most definitely going
to check to see if Washington international beer stores carry REAL beer, Bavarian
beer. After spending a good 3-4 hours touring the palace, we went out to the
Olympiapark; Munich hosted the Olympics here in 1976, and some games were
played at the soccer stadium here in 2006. The park was enormous, and amazing.
The architecture here was stunning, and ultra modern. Rolling hills, a large
pond and lots of greenery made this a great walking and relaxing destination.
At the far north end of the park sits a tall hill with a commanding view of all
of Munich and the surrounding cities; I could even see the Alps from here!
Sitting just below the hill, a medieval fair was going on; we could hear the
music and see all the crazy nerds all dressed up in "medieval" dress. It was
beginning to get late at this point, and I'll be damned if I was going to miss
the BMW show hall. It just opened up this year after a four year remodel; they
did a great job. The interior and exterior was so modern and abstract; great
for the eye (it also shows just how much wealth BMW has...). We walked around
inside for a bit, ogled all the new Bimmers, choked on the listed prices of
some, and then left. Tonight was another Brauhaus night, and second on Rick
Steves list was the Weisses Brauhaus; damn good choice Rick. I sampled their
signature Weissbeir; wow. Why couldn't Bavarian immigrants have founded the
U.S. instead of a bunch of prudish Brits? Why damnit. We didn't have any
friendly Bavarians to converse with tonight, but I did try a traditional bread
and cheese spread platter; which was delicious. We got back to a our hostel (a
new one this time, this hostel chain is amazing; I'll stay in their Berlin and
Vienna branch for sure) ok, we got back, and was greeted by two hilarious
drunken Brazilian guys, and one very passionate (and drunk) Canadian, his
ramblings about his travels were hilarious; but dead serious. I managed to get
to sleep, but was woken up at about 3:30 by two German police officers
conversing with the Canadian and his friend. I listened to what they were
saying for a short time, and from what I could hear, the Canadian's friend was
being hauled off to jail (not sure why); he would stay there for up to 3 days
if he was unable to pay the bail. Sucks to be him, whatever, I was tired so I
quickly lost interest and passed back out.
