Day 65-66: Munich

We arrived in Munich from Salzburg on Monday and on time. We purchased some metro passes at the Munich Central Station (Munich Hauptbahnhof) and made our way to our new apartment until Saturday. Once again, we were highly impressed with the transit system. It was very clean, modern, and easy to use. In no time we were meeting up with Markus, the apartment owner, and exchanging keys. It was only 14:00 so we decided to venture into Munich and explore before making dinner in the apartment.

We followed the introductory walking tour recommended in our guidebook, which had us starting in Marienplatz ("Mary's Square"), one of the main squares of the city. When we came out of the metro system, this was our view. This building is the New Town Hall, which was completed in 1908. It amazingly survived the bombings during WWII and was subsequently used as the US Military Headquarters in 1945.

*New Town Hall, with a very famous glockenspiel, which creates a royal wedding from the 16th century

We continued on to St. Peter's Church, the oldest in town. While an attractive church both inside and out, we have seen many nice churches on this trip (and will see many more in Italy). However, this church did stand out for housing and displaying the remains of a 3rd-century martyr whose remains were given to Munich by Rome as thanks for their devotion to the Roman Catholic cause (and battling against Protestantism). 

*St. Peter's Church

Very close to St. Peter's is the Vitualienmarkt, a lovely square that sells fresh produce and goods. It was bustling, with fruit, cheese, flower, and meat vendors, as well as many stands selling hot meals. We stopped at one stand and picked up some sausages, which were delicious. We have decided to head back on Wednesday to checkout the market during the morning rush.

*Maypole at the Viktualienmarkt (traditionally used to display the crafts and merchants that were doing business at the market each day, but now just decorative)

*Local beers of Munich (Augustiner Brau, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Spaten-Franziskaner-Brau)

*Light snack at the Viktualienmarkt

Another cool thing about the market is a beer counter where each of Munich's local breweries take turns (they change out every day or two). Of course we decided to sit down for a beer, which happened to be Hofbrau. They came in 0.5L and 1L sizes...surprisingly Daryl decided to get a 0.5L.

*Outdoor biergarten at the Viktualienmarkt

*Enjoying a beer with Ampelmannchen (and another friend?) at the Viktualienmarkt

At this point in the afternoon it was starting to get pretty chilly. We decided to finish the rest of the tour the following day and tuck into a beer hall to get warm. Luckily for us, Munich is chockfull of beer halls, with the most famous in all the world being right around the corner: Hofbräuhaus München.

The Hofbräuhaus claims to sell 10,000 litres of beer everyday. We sat down beside a nice group of Germans (a middle-aged man who works in Munich and his parents from the North of Germany). We enjoyed some more great Hofbrau beer (Daryl got 1L this time) and a very large pretzel. The atmosphere was loud and noisy, but highly entertaining. We will not likely go here again during our trip, as it is extremely touristy, but it was fun to stop in for a little while.

*Hofbräuhaus München

*Huge beer (1L) and pretzel at Hofbräuhaus München

*Cool coasters Hofbräuhaus München

We headed home in the evening, getting groceries on the way, and made a salad for dinner. Then we ate candy (it was Halloween after all) while watching a scary movie we downloaded on iTunes. All in all, an excellent day.

Tuesday we woke up, had breakfast, and went for our run. My hip has been bothering me as of late, so we decided to take it easy. While we were supposed to run 5 miles plus a middle section of aerobic intervals, we just ran 5 miles. Luckily, our apartment is VERY close to the Isar River. In two minutes, we were on a beautiful running path through parkland along the river. We saw many other runners and never reached the end of the trail. Too bad we haven't found paths like this in the other cities we have visited.

We went back to the apartment, cleaned up, had lunch, and headed out to a museum. It was All Saint's Day, which is a holiday in Bavaria, so most stores were closed, but we were told by our apartment owner that museums should be open and only 1 Euro to enter. We picked out the Neue Pinakothek Museum, which houses paintings from the 1800's through to 1920's (an era of art that we are really starting to get into). Unfortunately, when we arrived it was closed. 

*Strolling near the Pinakothek museum (right before finding it was closed)

With heads held high, we decided to just get back on the walking tour of the city that we hadn't finished the day before. The rest of the walk was quite nice and really showed off the beauty of Munich. While we haven't been here long, we are loving the city and wondering if it will end up ranked Number 2 in our favourites list, only behind Berlin. I guess we don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

Along the walking tour we came upon these two buildings which had cool glass reflections.

Churches were heavily featured on the tour. We hit up two more: the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), which was completed in 1400's, but badly damaged in WWII. It has since been restored. Frauenkirche has been the city's cathedral since 1821 and was the home church of Joseph Ratzinger (a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI) while he was Archbishop from 1977-1982.

*Inside of Frauenkirche

* Tomb of King Ludwig IV, who died in 1347, in Frauenkirche

The next stop on the tour was St. Michael's Church, which was built in the late 1500's as a home to Bavaria's Jesuits. Once again, it was a beautiful church.

*St. Michael's Church

*Rear organ at St. Michael's Church

When we had completed the tour, we stopped for an espresso and pretzel (nice combo, eh?). We then walked down a pedestrian shopping street that was full of people even though all of the shops were closed. Around 17:00, with no energy left and the temperature steadily dropping, we decided to head back to the apartment for the evening. Tomorrow, we plan to do more exploring in the city, which should be more exciting with all of the shops and restaurants open. Then on Thursday, we are heading to Erdinger Brewery for a tour. Till next time.