On Saturday morning Chris and I got up early and made the 5 minute walk to the Haupbahnhof to catch our train to Munich. We hopped on our train just in the knick of time and made the 2 and 1/2 hour trip to Munich. Upon arriving at about 11:00am we made the 1/4 mile walk to our hotel where we had made arrangements for an early check in.
While the hotel was a good value (76 Euro for a pretty nice room) there were two problems. First, it was 1/4 mile in the opposite direction of downtown Munich. Second, it was in the middle of the Turkish ghetto. So, we made sure that while being very obviously American, that we were in and out of that Hotel quickly and during active parts of the day. Pretty much in and out only one time.
After settling into our room, we made the 20 minute walk down to the Marienplatz where most of the shopping and major tourist attractions are. We hadn't scheduled a tour or anything, so armed with a camera, a city map, and a credit card, we wandered our way through town. It was Saturday, so the town was PACKED. There were people everywhere. You can tell by the photos that we couldn't get a picture without 100 random people making it into the shot. Add in that it was also Bundusliga Fussball championship day and everyone was acting like crazed idiots, and it made for some interesting people watching.
One of the main attractions in the Marienplatz is the 4 story Glockenspiel on the city hall. On this day, however, we walked into the main square to find that they were rennovating this feature. So what is usually a very fun and ornate piece of artwork was in effect a 4 story painters scaffold. Bummer.
Anyway, after the Marienplatz we walked through King Ludwig Square, and got a chance to see how crazy that guy and his son really were. While they did invent Oktoberfest, they were fanatical about building on a large scale. The square is surrounded by oversized monuments, churches, and the royal residence. Instead of walking through these monsters, Chris and I decided to walk through the adjacent park and view them all from the outside.
After walking through the park, we made our way to the Hofbrauhaus. We had been told by many people that we needed to stop for a drink here. When Chris and I arrived, the place was full to overflowing with drunk English and Americans, and it basically resembled a nicer version of the Festhalle in Leavenworth during Oktoberfest. We watched some of the antics and then decided to move on.
We walked back to the Marienplatz, found a beer garden and had some beers before deciding that we had seen what we wanted to see in Munich for the day. We decided to hit up a few of the shops we had walked by earlier in the day and found one of the most adorable bavarian dresses for Hailey...she will fit right in now during the "fests" of Leavenworth! After a little bit of shopping, it was time to head back to the hotel. We really just played the rest of the evening pretty low key and even contemplated going to the Haupbahnhof early the next day to catch the early train back to Stuttgart.
When we got back to the hotel, Chris picked up a brochure for Dachau concentration camp, which is located about 20K outside Munich. We thought for sure they would be closed on a Sunday, but to our surprise, we found that it was open. So, we decided that rather than grab the early train on Sunday we would head out there instead.
By the way, I mentioned the Bundusliga title...Stuttgart happened to win this year. We saw on the news that while we were in Munich in the Turkish Ghetto, there were 250,000 people in the main square not 5 minutes from Clemens and Judith's house partying until 5am celebrating the win...oh well.
Tommorrow off to Dachau...
Shane & Chris
