Day 3 - Munich

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  Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Sunday, December 28, 2008

We rose early and went down for breakfast after 8 to a sumptuous feast of cereals, yoghurt, fruit, and a varied array of German bread rolls, ham and cheese, meatballs (!) and other things upon which we dined lavishly, washed down with our pot of German coffee and many glasses of orange juice. We then went back to the room and grabbed our cold weather garments, then headed down Lessingstr. and Goethestr. to the Goetheplatz U-Bahn station where we caught the underground to the Allianz-Arena. By the time we got there the skies had cleared and it was nice and sunny as we took the "cooling-down" walk to the stadium. We wandered around the outer part of the stadium checking out the history of Bayern Munich but found that the next tour was too late to wait for, so we headed back to the station. Darren was not disappointed, but rather most impressed with the photo displays. Penny was most impressed by what she saw in a (luckily closed) shop - a Bayern Munich waffle maker, which she considers the best souvenir she has ever seen

Antiquities Hall in Residenz

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We jumped back on the underground and headed to the Residenz, which fortunately also has its own underground stop, and were greeted at the end of the escalators by the sight of the Theatinerkirche, which was just magnificent. We entered and listened to some of the service and basked in the splendour of the interior with its high vaulted arches and crucifix, most of which was white. We then went back out and inspected the Feldherrnhalle, then went into the Residenz. We decided to do the full tour, beginning with the Cuvillies-Theater, which is a fine example of rococo design. It is quite lavish with red velvet seats and lots of gilt carvings - absolutely breathtaking. We went back to the main palace and visited the various chambers, antechambers, second antechambers, bedrooms, sitting rooms, waiting rooms, smoking rooms, etc., most of which are now replacements of what was bombed in the 1940s. We also enjoyed the best example of a renaissance dining hall north of the Alps. Darren abandoned the use of the audio guide early in the tour due to its over-abundance of detail - the tour would have lasted about 10 hours. We went through the Treasury, looking at the collection of hundreds of crucifixes, the gold collection, the crystal collection, and the other valuables of the royals, some of which Darren wouldn't pay that much for, mind you.

Darren and Olympic Park

We wandered in the Hofgarten outside the Residenz and admired the views of surrounding buildings, then took the U-Bahn to Olympic Park. Leaving the station we were struck by the awesomely impressive (Penny) / ugly (Darren) BMW museum and BMW offices. We bought ourselves a bag of roast chestnuts and munched on them as we headed to the olympic swimming pool, which fogged up our glasses and camera lenses, then walked around the partially frozen lake and up Olympic Mountain, taking some photos of the Olympic Hall and Olympic Stadium as we went. At the top we were rewarded with great views of the park and of the many spires and towers of the city. Penny rained on Darren's parade by telling him that the mountain was made from the ruins of houses bombed in World War II raids, an impressive pile of rubble now covered in grass and many walking paths, which were being well used in the great German tradition of the Sunday walk. We then wandered back down and decided against doing a tour of the stadium. Instead we paid our entrance fee and did a quick walk around the circumference of the stadium, admiring the track and pitch and the hall, hill and lake that could be seen from the higher points. That is, Darren says it was quick - Penny thought there were just a few too many "photo opportunities".

After this we headed back to the station past what we think was a memorial to the slain Israeli athletes from the 1972 Olympics

Darren in Allianz-Arena

. Penny was initially keen on a trip to the Neue Pinakothek to check out, amongst other things, van Gogh's Sunflowers, but after inspecting the public transport map and checking the time we decided to quit while we were ahead. Instead we caught the train back to Goetheplatz and walked back through the increasingly cold air to the warmth and comfort of the hotel for some internetting and journal writing and to prepare ourselves for the dinner ahead.

We walked the 15-20 minutes to the Augustiner Keller for dinner. After first choosing a silly place to sit in a big beer hall-type room with lots of noisy kids and no service, we moved to a much better room with quiet kids and good service. Darren had a Mass (litre) of beer and Penny had a half. Darren had a "Grosse Wuerstle-Pfanne" with lots of different sausages, fried potatoes and sauerkraut, accompanied by a Brezel, and Penny had duck with a potato dumpling and red cabbage. Both meals were delicious. Darren threatened to cry with happiness more than once and declared this the best meal he had ever eaten, and Germans in general masters of cuisine. It was -3 degrees as we walked back to the hotel, which was pretty cold! But we are now nice and warm again in our lovely room.

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Darren, swimming pool and Olympic Tower	Feldherrnhalle	Grotto Courtyard in Residenz	Olympic Park
Olympic Stadium	Opera building on Max-Otto-Platz	Outside the Allianz-Arena	Penny, Olympic Hall and Olympic flame
The cheap seats?	Theatinerkirche

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