the weather on our second day in munich was still cold but not freezing and raining as it was the day before so we went on the free walking tour of the city. over 100 people turned up, and we were eventually split into smaller groups, and we went off with our pommy guide for a tour of the sites of munich..
started at the new town hall..which is strangely older looking then the old town hall which was rebuilt after ww2. The glockenspiel was definately more exciting then glockenspiel in prague..which im not naming names..but a certain member of our group..coughamycough..announced to everyone in our group when asked "how was the prague glockenspiel?"...SHIT. but it was. munich glockenspiel had a bit more action, but in general glockenspiels play bells in no particular tune and have wooden characters moving very stiffly around the clock...great. Our tour guide was awesome and did explain the history of the area really well, and made everything interesting..and most of his questions could be answered with "beer". Munich is the beer capital of the world and EVERYTHING revolves around beer.
From the town hall, visited several churches..church of our lady which has the devils footprint in the entrance. The devil made a deal with the architect to help build the church in record time as long as there were no windows..however when the devil returned there was light in the church..he complained and the architect replied "can u see any windows?"..all the windows are covered by pillars but the church is very light.in the devils fury he blew up and left his mark on the church floor..thats the legend anyway!
Saw the very very modern new jewish synagogue..looks more like an art museum, but its more of a statement by the jewish community that they survived and are still a very active strong community in munich.
Stopped for beer and sausage at the markets, learnt a little maypole history...we were wandering what the poles with christmas trees on top were..everytown has a pole displaying what skills or what the town is famous for..in munich the maypole is covered in drinking and partying. quiet a few years ago the police stole the airport fire fighters maypole..the police then demanded that to have their maypole returned, the firefighters must repay them in beer..and not just a keg!as i said our guide was awesome, and had a alot of stories.
After lunch learnt a little hitler history, and then visited the royal residence. Crazymking ludwig..roughly late 1800s, bought his wife therese a field..woopee..anyway to celebrate they had a massive party in the field, which from that year on became an annual event now known as octoberfest! Between the end of september and start of october for 10 days the population of munich swells from 1.3million to roughly 6 million, 60percent of the annual beer production is drunk in 10 days and the australian consulate sets up a special office for 10days because of the ridiculous number of australians who loose their passports and cant travel to the berlin consulate because its illegal to travel without a passport...its that crazy. dan and i want to go...mel ur coming to.
The tour ended with beer and stew for 5 euro, and everyone tips the guide because he does a really good job.
after all the walking went back to hostel..jaegers which is on a street with wombats and euro youth hostel..and the party never stops along the 3 hostels. we made friendly with the pommy bartender and decided to stay at the hostel bar. ended up playing a drinking card game called kings..pretty much everyone drinks on different cards that are drawn, everony chugs on aces and on kings people put a little beer in one cup that the person who draws the last king must drink..it made me feel a little sick watching the poor girl who had to chug all our backwash...yuck.
Was an awesome night, met 2 finnish girls, few canadians, a mexican...a couple of americans who said "y'all" ALL night..soo annoying..and then crashed in bed for our last night in 40 bed dorm..
