REALLY Long Overdue Vacation post, #5 - Munich

I was going to try to combine the rest of the zillion vacation posts into one, but it would have just gotten ridiculous, so I decided to soldier on.  If, before you decide to dive into the latest long overdue vacation post, you want to catch up on the others (numbers 1 through 4.5 ), click here, here, here, here, here and here.  If not, feel free to jump right on in. 

We had just left St. Goar and were on our way to Munich, without luggage but with two brand new beer steins...It seemed that we were in multiple climates throughout the trip - heading to Munich, we began to notice snow on the ground.  After the winter that we had, I was NOT happy to see the snow, but for members of our tour, they were fascinated.  A lot of them had never seen snow before.  It was very cool to experience someone seeing and feeling snow for the very first time.  Our driver and tour guide made an impromptu pit stop at a rest area, just so everyone could enjoy themselves.  We watched people sitting in it, playing in it, throwing it, taking pictures of it and calling home about it.  We hung back with the guy from NJ and watched everyone else running around.  It was pretty cool. 

After the snowball fight, it was back on the bus and business as usual.  We arrived in Munich at a Holiday Inn (yippee!), had time to settle a bit (for us we had nothing to settle) and then got BACK on the bus to head into the town.  First stop:  Marienplatz, which is the Town Square and home of the most overrated tourist attraction in Munich - The Glockenspiel, which lives in the New Town Hall, which looks like an Old Town Hall.

We were told, and tend to agree, that if you really wanted to see this thing, do its thing - to go to YouTube.  It wasn't running anyway, since it was March.  If you want to see what all of the fuss is about - here you go.  I was more excited about this little shop that was located right on the town square.

After a quick overview and a plan to meet up later, the group scattered to do some exploring before our evening tour of the city.  While we were walking, we ended up finding a department store.  Both of us were very excited that German clothes fit lots better than Dutch clothing, must be all of that beer and sausage.  We blitzed the store, picking up more incidentals and then went off in search of something to hold our new wardrobe.  Voila!  We found the giant orange bag.

The good thing was that we now had a real piece of luggage, versus plastic bags and reusable shopping bags.  The bad news was that we (Nick) had to lug it around for the rest of the evening.  In all fairness, I took the giant camera bag while he carried the humongous orange bag full of clothes.

After a very chilly walking tour of Munich, it was time to visit The Hofbrauhaus!!!!!!  Oh yes, beer mecca.  The sign on the building said that it had been there since 1589. 1589! Can you imagine?!

It was everything that we hoped it would be, and more.  The building was enormous, lots and lots of rooms filled with people enjoying beer and food and music and beer.  We ended up sitting at a table with some of our group, enjoying yummy food and a cool atmosphere, oh and SOFT PRETZELS.  I ordered enough food for an army - I think I ended up with a big mug of beer, a sausage platter, pretzel basket and a side of German potato salad.  I ordered it as German potato salad, but we were in Germany, duh - so that was kind of dumb.

After some beer and lots of food, we decided to head out to do a mini-Bier Hall crawl to check out some more of what Germany had to offer.  It was a quiet night in Munich, but we managed to get to a few, before we went to McDonalds, ordered two Happy Meals and called it a  night.  We didn't really have an agenda other than seeing what we could see before closing time.  Stop #1:  Ayinger - we've had this before, but it tasted SO much better there.

Stop #2 - Franziskaner.  We decided that we needed some Apple Strudel here also.  It was also yum.  We liked the logo - the yellow dog holding an armful of beer.  Come to think of it, I'm surprised that I didn't steal this glass...

Stop #3 - Schneiderweiss.  This was our favorite Bier Hall.  It just felt old with lots of interesting woodwork and a maze of rooms and tables.  It was also our last stop before we ate some McDonalds, hailed a cab and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Munich was a whirl wind and was definitely a place that we'd like to go back to.  The atmosphere was welcoming, the city was easy to navigate, the people were friendly and the clothes fit!  We're both looking forward to a time when we can spend more time on the history and the beer selection of this cool city.