Munich!

I have found a city I really really like here in Germany.

What am I talking about?  I have liked all the cities here in Germany...except most of them have just been "towns" or "villages".  Aside from Frankfurt, which I got a fleeting glimpse of via bus when we first got here, I haven't been to a big city here.

Until now.

Enter Munich.

We drove to Nurnberg (which is also a lovely city...and we only saw the train station), and then took the train to Munich for a nice day trip.  We kind of flew by the seat of our pants in planning what we wanted to do.  Really, we decided to head to Munich because Jeff and Erica are on their honeymoon tour of Europe and happened to be in Munich that day!  It was very cool.  Erica wanted to tour Dachau.  John and I didn't feel like seeing the concentration camp, although it's very important to see.  It was just too nice of a day.

So we decided to see other city sights.  Unfortunately, the Residenz closed early that particular day.  So we hoofed it to the Bavarian National Museum and killed some time there before meeting up with Jeff and Erica at the Hofbrauhaus for dinner and beer!

I tell you, it was amazing what seeing friendly faces, laughing, joking and eating a good meal with great beer can do for a person.  (FYI, they have beverages where they combine beer with lemonade.  I had the weiss beer with lemonade and it was fantastic.  It's billed as "the thirst quencher" and as it was a hot day, it tasted freakin fantastic!)  We had such a good time with Erica and Jeff and I felt so physically tired at the end of the day, but so emotionally restored inside.  It was just a good idea.

unfortunately, I have no pictures of Erica and Jeff.  I was taking pictures all day, and my camera died.  Erica has pictures, and she said she would email them when they got home.

Here are the pictures I did get.  there are a lot of pictures.  Sorry about that.

 The Vegas cowboy!  In Munich!  (and much smaller here).  He was standing outside of a casino.  I smell copyright infringement.

 I think this is the outside of the train station.  John read it's the largest train station (bahnhof) in Europe.  It's really really big.  It has a hotel too.

 More train station I believe

 Entrance to the pedestrian only center, on the way to the Marienplatz

 The new town hall

 Apparently these little figurines on the new town hall move like a cuckoo clock dance at 11 am and 5 pm every day.  We were there around 3 and missed it.  Erica said it wasn't worth the trouble, but still cool that they move.

 More town hall.  (to the right of the main spire)

 Looking right of the New Town Hall on the Marienplatz.

 Rat Skeller!  A restaurant in the cellar of the town hall.  Many towns have rat skellers; the town halls are also called Rathauses.  (yes, pronounced like Rat House.  Charming, no?)

 A view of the Our Lady cathedral, which we did not visit.

 A lady playing on the sidewalk...it was quite nice.  She was singing too.

 I completely forget what this is.  bad tourist.  It's next to the Residenz.

 John next to a lion.  Lions are big in Bavaria.

 I really should look up the names of these places.  this is a nice church.  there was a big fest going on in front of it, so I don't have the full entry way shot as it was blocked by vans and people out front drinking.  Ah, Germany.

 This is the other side of the Residenz....a main entry.  very pretty.

 The front of the Residenz.  Maybe next time we will get to go in!

 a gazebo in the hofgartens.

 Hofgartens.

 Inside the gazebo.  There were 6 of these, I think.

 A view of aforementioned church through the gazebo.

This is the Bavarian Prime Minister's office.  nice, eh?

 While walking to the Bavarian National Museum, we found that Munich has a surf park.  You can find people on bikes and scooters holding surf boards going to this park.  hilarious!

 This is a park downstream from the surf park.  The water is still moving pretty fast.  People would jump in and just get whisked away!  I have no idea where they got out because we didn't walk further down the river.

 Bavarian National Museum

 I saw so much religious art, much from the 1300-1500s, it was amazing.  I've never seen so many large wooden Jesus's on the crucifixes in my life.

 I'm sad that this pic came out blurry.  I didn't notice on my viewing screen at the time.  I was quickly taking pictures as I knew my camera was dying.

 very pretty sword.

 All of the plaques, etc, were in German.  unfortunately, I never found out who this was.

 The Hofbrauhaus!  A very famous beer hall.  One of the first, I believe.  And also, in 1920, the site of the first Nazi meeting.

 But they had the yummy weiss beer with lemonade combo.  It was refreshing.

 The New Town hall at dusk.  At this point, I'm surprised I'm still getting pictures as my battery is so low, the screen won't display pictures taken any longer...

A full moon over the pedestrian walk.  At this point, Erica and Jeff are walking us back to the bahnhof so we can catch our train.  Not that you would know it as I didn't get any pics!  I need work in this department.  :)

All for now!