Munich

Successfully navigating the public transportation we make it to our place which is considerably outside of Munich.  It's in this quaint little area that had a particularly good beer garden where we had some great traditional German food.
After lunch we make our way into the city.  Up until now, I have been particularly impressed by the metro stop in Milan that exits right onto the plaza in front of the duomo.  It is just such an incredible sight to welcome you into the city.  I a, not sure Munich topped this, but the metro that exits onto Marienplatz is pretty outstanding.  You have the new town hall and the old town hall welcoming you as you climb the stairs from the station.  Yes.  Two town halls.  One old, one new.  Actually, they are both pretty new.  The new town hall being from 1903 or so and the old town hall being from... well, was built about sixty years later.  What? Yeah, the second war was pretty hard on many German cities.  Berlin was ninety percent destroyed or so.  Munich was bombed pretty heavily too.  A lot of it had to be rebuilt after the war.  Which causes you to have the old town hall being rebuilt after the new one.

Either way, these buildings are nice.  Especially the new town hall.  It is this outstanding neogothic structure towering over the square.  And one of the most important parts, again, probably Meghan's favorite, the Glockenspiel.  If the astronomical clock sounded in incredible, you would probably also be let down by this clock.  First, there is a jousting match.  Except this jousting match is quite slow.  Actually, exceptionally slow.  Slower than walking pace.  The Bavarian knight always wins.  Figures. Following this thrilling bout, there is a nice little cooper dance.  This comes from the time when the plague was over the coopers all went to the streets and danced to show that it was finally safe to go out again.  Other than that we saw a few churches and checked out the steins and called it a day.

The next day we started off in Viktulien Markt, the main fresh produce market of Munich.  Everything was so fresh.  Oh, and there were a ton of meat stores.  A ton.  All selling weisswurst and bratwurst and pork knuckle (whatever that is).  We grabbed some fresh pastries and headed for the free tour of Munich.  

The tour took us to a few churches, some beer gardens and halls including the famous Hofbrauhaus, and some sites from the beginning and formation of the Nazi party.  Apparently Munich was the city in which it all started.  Hitler used to give speeches at beer halls around the town.  I wondered if he ever spoke at Oktoberfest.  Talk about a buzz kill.

After the tour we went for food.  I tried leberkase (sp?) which supposedly means liver cheese.  It is neither liver nor cheese.  It is compressed pork or something along those lines.  Yea.  I don't know why any of this made it sound appealing.  Anyways, it tasted like a hot dog in patty form.  Yum.  Really no.  Save yourself the time and the money.  And the space in your stomach for more German food.  Also, skip the currywurst.  It is essentially hotdog and curry powder with some ketchup.  A huge let down.  Well after the food we tried out a beer hall.  Augustiner I think it was.  After a half liter we went to the Deutsches Museum.  Sadly we were just a few hours too late.  We missed the opening times.  Well, just another reason to return to Munich again (if you are keeping track, the first reason is to come to Oktoberfest.  I hope this was implied.).

Disappointed and dejected, my dad and I decided the only thing to do in Munich to make things better was to drink heavily.  Really, we just joined Hillary and her brother Steve on a beer challenge guided by the same tour group as the free tours and the castle tours and essentially anything else we have done while traveling.  The challenge brought to a number of beer halls, beer gardens and bars where we drank our liters and learned German drinking songs... Ein prosit ein prosit...

Well, after a good amour of liters and just being extremely tired, my dad and I caught the U3 instead of the U2 metro.  Mistake.  We finally realized our mistake when we made it out to the BMW museum outside of the city.  We waited for another metro in the other direction but nothing came.  We the. Tried walking around.  There is nothing even close to the museum, and so had no luck finding a cab.  Back down to the metro.  Back up to the street.  Finally we catch a cab by some god given luck and make it back to the apartment.
Luckily tomorrow I get to wake up early to go on a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle.  Europe is full of good choices.