Munich

  Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Day 8: August 27, 2008
            We got up and met our travel buddies for breakfast.  Then we took a taxi to the train station.  The taxi driver took us to the wrong train station so we had to take a metro to get there.  We had a lot of issues at the train station and missed two trains until we finally got on a one o'clock train to Munich.  Traveling was a lot more difficult than we expected especially since we had seven people and lots of baggage with us.  It is also very difficult when you do not know the language because they make lots of seemingly important announcements that you do not understand.  Somehow we ended up on a train that we hoped was going to Munich and found some seats.  I slept on the train and saw more of the German countryside.  The hostel was very close to the train station which was a nice surprise.  I saw Le Meridian and recognized as the hotel I stayed in with my parents.  After we checked in we went straight to the Hoffbrauhos for a German meal.  We had one of our best nights here.  Sara and I shared a beer with lemonade and the boys had their pints of beer.  I had German sausages and Sara and I had chocolate Mousse for dessert.

The Hoffbrauhos

The Hoffbrauhos is a huge beer hall that has a fun atmosphere with music and lots of beer.

Getting Into the Spirit

We soon learned that beer was more important than water in Munchen.
 
Day 9: August 28, 2008

Glockenspeil

We woke up and went to the square to meet another free walking tour.  Our tour guide taught us some history of Munich and showed us many sights around the city.  We learned that Munchen got its named because of the monks that used to live there.

I love him

The city has a lot of history with the third Reich and we learned that Hitler made his plans for the third Reich in a room above the Hoffbrauhos. 

View of the City

After the tour we climbed up to the top of a tour and got to see a view of the city.  The city was a lot more dense than we realized and the red roofs reminded us of Florence. After our tour we went back to the hostel for a bit and then went to the Englisher Garten.  

The Park

This a huge park and we only saw a small piece of it.  We played on the playground, took photographs with the fountain and played Frisbee on the lawn.  After the park we all met up for dinner. 

A German Dinner All Together

We had another German dinner where we were served pretzels instead of bread.  We later found out that even though those pretzels were on the table we were charged for them.  I had a half chicken and a salad that was literally half a chicken! After dinner we walked back to the hostel and used the internet to make plans for the rest of our trip.
 
Reflection of Munich:
Munich was on everyone's list of top favorite places that we went.  It had so much culture and history and the people were very nice.  We really enjoyed the hoffbrauhos and the German food.  I loved how quaint the city was and remembered more things that I had expected from being there before.  The glockenspiel is definitely a highlight of Munich.  The clock itself is impressive how it moves with the wedding party on top and the funeral on the bottom but the building that it is in is what is more impressive.