Trip to Munich

Hah! Had time today.. like I thought. So...

Whew! My trip to Munich... well, to start off, I’ll make the same disclaimer that I made for Vienna, I had to identify most of these pictures later... so, some of them could be labeled wrong. Also, for this trip, I didn’t get to do as much sight seeing as I did in Vienna... but oh well.

First of all, when I woke up in the morning, Silvana was the one to take me to school that day, because Vio was feeling sick... so she didn’t even go to shcool. Silvana took me by Rewe for my Pausebrot, and then we got to school.

After only a little fooling around:

...we set off for Munich. This ride was only set to be 2 hours. It was long enough for all of us to talk a little and eat our food. I had a really nice sandwich with bubbly lemon flavored water for today:

.. it had turkey (I think), tomatoes, lettuce and even mayo! So nice.. :D..

But yeah... we knew we were in Munich once we passed the Alianz Arena where they a game of the World Cup 2006.

The next site we saw from the bus was the Seigestor, a big archway thing.

..but I didn’t get to go any closer to it. :P

We also passed close by the University of Munich. I got a decent shot of the fountain outside of the Great Hall.

When we were let off of the bus, we just happened to be close to the Starbucks of Munich... so we took the chance to use the bathroom xD (Public restrooms aren’t so common in Germany..)

There was only one stall though... so we had to wait... Frau was in a hurry though, so.. we decided we could just use the guy’s restroom if Steven just stood outside... it was fine until Susan came out right when a German lady was heading for the girl’s restroom xD.. haha.. it was funny, but still effective.

Anyway, we walked to Odeonsplatz where we could see the outsides of 3 big sites of Munich at once, the Theatinerkirsche (of St. Kajetan) run by the friars,

..the Feldherrnhalle with the statues of some famous German generals:

... and also the site of an illegal Nazi march / an attempted coup for the Nazi party to gain power (Hitler was arrested).

We could also see the back of the Residenz,

...which was apparently really cool insdie, but I didn’t get to see it. Here’s a close up of the archetecture of its tunnel:

Next, we walked through Max-Joseph Platz where we saw the main feature, the Bayershe Staatsoper (Bavarian State Opera):

...which was kind of covered up with modern stuff (the big sign and buses), but you can see the statue of Maximillion I. Joseph... but in this picture, he’s actually been subject to some vandilism (beer cans in in his hand! Haha).. but you probably can’t see that...

After that, we kept walking... and passed another statue,

...this one was of a guy named Ludwig der Bayer. The next little area that we came accross had a cool looking restaurant covered in ivy, a building with pictures of the Staatsballet on it and then the Hofbräuhaus:

... a famous and old beer brewery. Too bad I didn’t try any! There’s just so much to do.

We kept going straight and ran into the McDonald’s of Munich..

...which was actually a few stories.

As we went on, Bubba pointed out this little figure...

It’s apparently the symbol of Munich.

Finally, we reached the meat of our trip to Munich, Mariensplatz:

It was here that we planned to wait for the Glockenspiel (chiming and moving of the figurines) on the Neus Rathaus:

Here, you can see the little clock and also the Mariensäule (Mary Column). At 11 o’clock every day, there is a long song that plays from this meeting hall and then the jousting between Austria and Bavaria shows... and Bavaria wins every day :) It was really long, but I’m glad we got there in time to see it. xD

From that same area on Mariensplatz, we could see the Spielzuegmuseum (Toy museum) that’s in the older meeting area.

...This was around where Iva’s parents had their honeymoon. Later, when the others were shopping, Chris and I attempted to see the inside.. but we didn’t get too far before we saw the fee xD

Also on the Mariensplatz was Hugendubel, a well-known bookstore that I wanted to investigate for dictionaries later... The most important thing for our group, however, was the Fischbrunnen (fish fountain):

..which was the meeting spot after our 5 hours in Munich. After we were told of the meeting spot, we all moved as a group to the Frauenkirche (Frauen church?)...

When we went inside, we saw the infamous Devil’s Footprint:

...and then decided that we wanted to be adventurous and climb the tour to see the city. So, we paid our admission and got to the top to see a cool view of the Mariensplatz that we had just come from:

After that, and a little drizzly rain, we were set loose from the large group to move about Munich. But, our group decided to get food...! Specifically, we were intrested in trying a Weisswurst, which was originted from Munich. So, we went into some restaurant (sadly I didn’t get the name well enough in a picture)

..and sat at a nice table and got some grub! It was quick service because the waiters wanted us to hurry up and get out of there... since the table was reserved for a later time, so it all worked out. Though, I ordered Kartoffelsalat with my Weisswurst.. which is so wrong and untraditional... but we didn’t know it at the time!

...but it was still good, even though I screwed up traditions. The sweet Senf that they had on the table to go with it was just right. Plus, the price was right... in comparison to what we’ve paid before... so, props to that unnamed restaurant xD

Anyway, after that... started the usual shopping spree that my group likes to go on. The fact that they especially like shoes doesn’t help with any boredom. But, we hate splitting up even more... so we just waited on eachother like usual..

But since Vio was sick and Sonja wasn’t with us today either, I didn’t have much hope of seeing any other sites around Munich other than the shopping district.

So, off we went shopping...

..to R.P.

Saw some nice colors:

We also stopped at a nice cheap shoe store (no pics), and then want into the Hugendubel (big book store) and got some stuff... next, stopped in:

...passed by many fruit stands:

Selling the same stuff you find in Washington at this time of year. It was quite tempting!

Then, we went into a huge electronics store to pick up some batteries:

... for Chris and Amanda’s new little game thing they bought from Hugendubel. It was outside of this store that I bought some cheap bakery goods.. it was also around this time when the group split up and went to sperate stores across from eachother. But, I didn’t know that...so somehow I got seperated from everyone. But, while I was wandering around the main street (it was only one long straight stretch of shops), I got a shot of the Fountain on Strachus (or Karlsplatz)...

After a bit more wandering around, I ran back into everyone and we headed to a souvenier shop:

...for the usual supply of flags, postcards, etc.

By then, it was time to meet back up at the fountain and end our journey in Munich.

I was a little sad that I didn’t get to see more of the city’s sites... but, it wasn’t a complete waste. I did like Munich, I just really need to look up stuff about the cities before we travel... I guess I’ll do that for Salzburg. Though, the good thing is that I actually got bakery goods this time... so, on the bus ride back, I ate luxuriously:

The thing on the right is a Krapfen (a donut thing filled with apricot jam stuff... mmm) and something I grabbed really quickly on the way out of Munich... it was called something like Vanillezopf... but it was just a simple flakey danish thing... but the inside wasn’t as flavorfull as in the Krapfen. Oh well... they filled me well.

Even by the time I got home.. I was full xD! I ate so much in Munich.. haha... so, when dinner was served (Salad with this rice with spaghetti sauce)

..I couldn’t even finish the rice L

...and there was dessert too! It was homemade baklava (from Vio’s grandparents), so it was Albanian style (not as flakey.. looked like it was part cake, not all filo dough... ) !! So sad.. but I was stuffed. ;P... so... I’ll not eat so much tomorrow. Hah......

Tuesday we’re scheduled to see the Mayor at the Neu Rathaus. Bis spater!