Adventures in Deutschland: Day 40

Therese, happy even without a nap

Wow, Munich... Where do I begin? We started our day nice and early by catching a train at 8:00 armed with baked goods and a DVD player to keep Therese occupied. She did wonderfully on the trains, looking out the windows, singing songs, and watching her DVD player. The second half of our 3.5 hour journey was on an ICE - one of the really fast trains. We had reserved seats for 4 EURO after Birger told us about a time he didn't and was stuck with no seat - meaning he had to stand for a five hour train ride from Hamburg. The reserved seats were so nice and were completely worth the extra money. We were in a little cabin with 6 seats with a nice sound-proof door that closed like in Harry Potter. There was only one other person in the compartment with us and she was thoroughly entertained by Reese's insistent begging to see ducks in Munich ("Reese want to see duck in Moonich," said with a drawn-out whine).

As soon as we stepped off the train I knew I was going to like this city. The Munich train station is a proper train station - tall ceilings, dark walls with white floors, 15-20 places to eat, very modern... With this said, I am so glad we are not living in Bavaria. I had enough wursts to last me a lifetime.

From the train station we walked to our hotel, which was right down the street. We can thank TripAdvisor for the great hotel pick. It was very affordable, in a great location, and had a large, clean and quiet room with a bathroom and shower. There was plenty of room for Therese's Pack-and-Play. Plus there was a tv- something I haven't seen in 6 weeks. We were supposed to meet our friend Jesse at the hotel at noon, but by 12:30 he hadn't checked in. The hotel had a computer in the lobby for residents to use so Todd thought he'd better check his email. It turned out that Jesse's train had some problems (it literally stopped in the middle of the trip and they made everyone get off). As we were reading the email, Jesse walked in the door. He had managed to make his way to Munich only an hour and a half later.

After Jesse checked in, we headed out into the city. We embraced our role as tourists and decided to grab lunch at the Hofbrauhaus (which we will now refer to snobbishly with its proper German pronunciation - "hof-broy-house" <-- this is a note from Todd). We walked through the Karlsplatz with its huge fountain. Adults and kids were sitting all around, benefiting from the blowing spray of the fountain as they ate and drank and talked. From the Karlsplatz we walked through the huge city gate, the Karlstor and into the busy pedestrian streets of the Old City. The wide walkways were lined with tables and umbrellas and window displays. I particularly liked the windows housing modern maniquines who were trying to look sexy while sporting traditional lederhosen, but I digress... The buildings, like the city gate (and the rest of the city center for that matter) look like an updated, freshly painted version of beautiful old architecture, which I guess it is. Most of Munich had to be rebuilt after the many bombings of World War II. From what I understand, they tried to use as much of the old pieces as they could, but in essence they had to start from scratch making Munich very friendly to modern transportation and navigation.

Walking through the main streets, it was difficult not to get caught up in looking around. We saw the New Rathaus (which is the oldest looking thing in Munich), the Old Rathaus (which looks very clean and new), and countless fountains. When we finally reached the Hofbrauhaus the biergarten was packed. We ended up sitting at a table whose end reached right to a window sill so that Therese could climb from the bench to the open window (it was at the same height) and entertain the throngs of people in the biergarten by clapping enthusiastically to the accordian music. We had wonderful beer and a truly Bavarian lunch (white wursts, pork, dumplings, and pretzels).

After lunch we walked through the Hofgarten, past the Residenz (the old mansion that housed royalty centuries ago), and to the Englischer Gartens (or English Garden). This "garden" is an enormous chunk of land that was set aside and made into a kind of park/greenspace/garden in the 1800s. The area includes streams and a lake and more green space than we were prepared for. The area is known for its horses - there were police horses and carriage rides - and, what my guidebook refers to as Munich's top site to see, nude sun bathers. There were people littered all over the green space, but it was only 70-something degrees so I figured we'd be free from the sun bathers. Naturally, as soon as I mentioned this whole thing to Jesse, we saw our first naked people - two older men. Nice.

It was in the Englischer Gartens that we decided to grab dinner. There is an enormous biergarten in the middle where they serve Hofbrauhaus beer and over-priced food. Some drunk guys were hugging in the middle while singing a song in what was unmistakenly American English. We joined in the festivities in our own way, eating more wursts and fries and drinking beer. Jesse had what is called a Radler, a very popular drink here in Germany (at least in the south) that is marketed as beer mixed with lemonade. Apparently it is particularly popular for lunch when one would want to drink something with a lower alcohol content. I skeptically tried a sip. It was actually pretty good.

After dinner and drinks, we headed back to our hotel to put a napless Therese to bed for the night. She slept very well, not making a peep as I surfed the three English television channels - CNN, BBC, and MTV.