I made it to Munich which was a quick 1 hour train ride with no changes needed. It’s interesting how the populations for these first few cities is so different. Rothenburg was about 15,000, Nuremberg was about 500,000 and Munich is 1.5 million! (And they say during Oktoberfest, which starts in two weeks, the population swells 4 fold to 6 million people! And probably at least that many liters of beer!!)
Maybe either how the city is laid out or the fact that much of it in the center is pedestrian only, but it doesn’t have the feel of a big city. So like most first days in the city, I took one of the “free” tours. The tour guide explained that Munich got its name from the monks that lived here and were making all the beer. That’s why Munich is known as the beer capital of the world and celebrates it every year during Oktoberfest. Munich also has that medieval feel to it. And with the larger size comes larger buildings, churches and landmarks. That is what I love about Europe is all the old architecture and feel of it. It truly feels like you’ve gone back in time. So I shared several pics… the large building with all the spires is their Town Hall. There’s a famous clock called a glockenspiel that portrays a little story 3 times a day. I wasn’t there today during those times so I haven’t seen it play out yet. The other white building with green spires is their old Town Hall. Do they have some fancy town halls or what??
I included pics of a couple other streets that I thought looked cool. Like the other two cities, every corner you come around is like a post card!
Along the walk the guide pointed out the statue of Juliet (from Romeo and Juliet) and said that legend had it that if you rub a certain part of her anatomy that you’ll find true love. Well I gotta tell you her whole body was dark before I started rubbing on it so I hope it works! (Lol. Just teasing!)
We then were at our half way point in the tour and we took a break at the world’s most famous beer hall called the Hofbräuhaus. The original brewery was built here in 1589. They have women dressed up in garb selling things so of course I took a pic. Look at the size of those pretzels! Guys, seriously, look at the pretzel! Lol.
For the last stop on our tour we went to this place that had a shrine to Michael Jackson. Too weird! I guess he came to Munich a lot and always stayed at this one Hotel and this shrine was set up across the street from the hotel. And no, this was not the hotel where he dangled his baby over the railing, that was in Berlin!
Tomorrow should be a fun day. I’m meeting up with my father-in-law Rich’s cousins Peter and Waltraut who live right outside Munich. They said they’d show me some of the castles in the area. It’s always nice touring with a local!
So I hope everyone had a great weekend and that your NFL team won their opening game. Go Panthers/Steelers!!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 