Day 19 - Thu 18 Jun 15: Munich

12-19 deg C, cloudy and cool.  

The brekkie at the place we are staying, NH Hotels Munich, is impressive. Besides all the fruit, meats, cheeses, cereals, yoghurts, cooked food, breads, coffees, teas, and spreads of every description, they offer you an individually cooked breakfast of your choice.  Afterwards you feel like riding a 100km (well Greg does) just to settle the food.  However today we'll have to walk it off as it's another “rest” day.  

After brekkie Gunther, Yvonne, Mick, Kate, Wendy and Greg purchased group tickets for the bus/train/tram and away we went.  We decided to do the three hour guided tour of the city.  So we killed some time having a wander in the city and then lined up for our "free" tickets in Marienplatz (you pay the guide what you believe he/she was worth) for guided tour.  There were too many participants, so we were split into two groups of about 36 each; we ended up with a South African bloke who had married a German woman and is now living in Munich.  He was an excellent guide with a wealth of knowledge about the history of Munich from the dark ages right up to recent times. We walked through some great churches, the new Town Hall, landmarks, statues, beer hall, markets and monuments.   It was good to get those little details that the tourists brochures and guidebooks don't tell you.   Anyway it all went well and we all enjoyed it very much.  

It wasn't such a nice day weather wise, we suspect it didn't get to the predicted max temp of 22 deg C, more like 18. So after the tour we had a quick look at The English Garden and returned to Hofbrauhaus (the world’s most famous beer hall) for a beer. It was good but we all only had one each, mostly due to the fact they were 1000ml, ie. 1 litre!!!  

Munich is such an interesting city that you would need at least a week just to scratch the surface. So we will have to come back as sadly tomorrow we ride away to the east towards Austria.

We then went to the Main Train Station to purchase our rail tickets for our trip from Regensburg to Stuttgart, in about a week’s time. We saved about 50% by buying in advance.  

We'd all just about had enough by this time so it was back to the hotel for a nice hot shower and some dinner. Greg and Wendy chose the pasta place across the road and it was just as good as it was the other night.  The others all made their own dinner arrangements.  




Devil's footprint in Frauenkirche

Frauenkirche

A section of the Castle that survived the war

Toy Museum

Church of St Peter


Feldeerrnhalle (Field Marshall's Hall)

Lion statues gurading the Hall

Theatin Church of St Cajetan

Bavarian State Chancellery adjacent Munich Residence

Surfing the Eisbach Wave



Wendy, Greg, Mick and Kate at Hofbrauhaus

The beers

Coming out of the Underground


Our tour guide



Kate, Yvonne, Gunther, Wendy, Greg and Mick

Flash ceiling in the Hofbrauhaus

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