Today was the first time that I felt we went from being on a vacation, to being on an adventure. We had done our epic trip around the USA in 2017 and that was challenging, and at many points scary, but we always had the car to rely on and felt like we were home in our own country…..even when we were very far from our house. However, On this trip, we had our backpacks, each other, and that was it. Since mom had left us, we were literally relying on our feet alone for the next two months, but that is when the feeling of fear became excitement and focus. We had a goal to see 22 countries, and many sites within the EU within the next two months.
Today was the first entire day away from a car, and it was time to explore Munich. Munich is a German metropolis known for its history during WW2, and intense German heritage. This city quickly became one of my favorite metropolis’s during the entire trip, and because there was allot to see around the area, we had planned on spending three nights there, so we could experience the best parts of it, and its outlying areas, with enough time. Todays goal however was to explore the city center, cathedrals, parks, and restaurants. One thing about me….when I am in Europe, I absolutely love going to cathedrals and learning the history behind them. Munich was no exception, even though it was a within a German country, where one may not not equate the city to a religious center.
We started from the train station that we arrived at yesterday evening, due to the fact they had a Dunkin Donuts in the terminal, and it was our favorite Go-To coffee. Since it was rare in Europe, it was nice to see in Germany. We decided to walk most of the morning without using the cities metro and get some walking in. We headed straight toward the historic center of the city (which was due east of where our hotel and train terminal was), and we explored the Cathedral Church of Our Lady, which is one of the largest churches within the city.
This church has two turrets in the front entrance that extends 323.4 feet into the air. Interestingly, There is a slight difference in the height of the towers, of .4 feet. Either way, they offer sweeping views of the city, I recommend to see first hand, if you’re visiting Munich, but for us, we explored the interior and decided it was time to head further into the city. From this point we headed northward with the intention to walk to the cities main park, English Gardens.
This is a wonderful area to visit while walking the
….. and the under ground water works …… which is more of a historic area now, but still is able to be used. There were various gardens, and even street performers, and the magic of Europe and germany in particular was beginning to unfold. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the weather was perfect as we headed in o the central park area of Munich.
On the way to the park we stoped in the Marienplatz which is the central focus to the city, and its most famous clocktower. This area was featured in many protests and videos about the city. It is by far the testament to german Architecture, and clockwork of course! The dancing marionettes in the clocktower ring every hour on the hour and are wonderful to view. During this time we had a pastry in one of the local shops and of course another shot of espresso as we had quickly learned oaths trip was the common thing to do for breakfast. we decided after a nice walk in the morning here to head to the central park of the city. Along the way we stumbled across the main garden area of the palace called…. and explored without paying a fee, which is nice in this budgeted trip! Before we arrived at the central park we also stopped along a market of sorts being put out for the day and explored the interior of a gorgeous white cathedral. The musicians of the church were practicing and performing and we were able to sit back in an angelic setting and soak in the beautiful sights and sounds.
this park was called….. and we explored the various trails around beautiful ponds, and a creek. There was a wonderful area that was actually a river that people built a wave of sorts to surf on. It was the middle of a mountainous country, and there were people actually surfing on this in wet suits, and it was awesome! Once we were deep into the park we found a piano duet playing in the park, and sat down to listen to the violin and piano. This was a great surprise and elated to do this, and once this was done we headed to the beer garden in the park which was a small part of the famous Hofbrauhaus. Though we didn’t get a large beer her we did get the typical german foods that were available in a buffet/ market style even though we were outside.
It was the perfect time to sit down and relax as we had walked almost 5 miles already and it was only noon. There was a smaller Hofbrauhaus restaurant in the park we were in, and we decided to grab a small bite and a beer before heading to the world famous location about half a mile from where we were.
It seemed to be a great time for beer now! So we headed to the world famous Hofbrauhaus (as opposed to the smaller location we were just at) for a pretzel and a liter of beer! We both had a Dunkel and a Lager which were the two most famous beers on draft. The place is world famous for its live music , beer, and overall setting of german housing. It is a truly remarkable and fun place one must visit while in the city of Munich. We decided to try one more researched bar, and it was called the Schneider Weiss brewery, and this quickly became my favorite beer EVER! I drank a Tap 7 which was actually a banana clove wheat beer. This was a great experience in Munich and we felt it was a great start to the first part of the day. It was time to head back towards the hotel to rest for the day, and we decided on dinner in the city after a nap. Along the way back on my walking tour of the city was an incredible yet small church called Jakobkirch. This was by far the most ornate interior of a cathedral I had ever seen! I highly recommend this place.
Once we woke up we headed back to the main areas of the city (the marienplatz) and there was a protest for Montenegro and Slovenia going on and we watched people speak their mind (albeit we didn’t know what they were saying in another language!). We decided from this point we were hungry and headed to dinner
bike in water
waled to main area for pastry
how for clock to go and didn’t work
cool fountain near church
main church kinda dry
great music in another cathedral
park was great
weird micheal jackson memorial
surfers in park
hofbrauhaus lunch in park
layout of memorial body fell out of window
hofbrauhaus
statues out front of cathedral for music
cookout market out of cathedral
asamkirche was big surprise
augustiner brewery
court gardens very nice
underground surprise waterworks
piano players at top of park building
maximillanium
great graffiti near river
government building went into
scheiderweiss brewery tap 6
took nap
protests in town of montenegro and slovenia while watching clock
-Victuals Market (viktualienmarkt)
-St. Peters Church
-Marienplatz
-Fraunkirche, Frauenplatz
-Alter Botanischer Garten
-Siegestor
-English Garden/Eisbach
-Nymphenburg Palace
BMW Museum
Old Town Hall
Karlsplatz
Rathaus-Glockenspiel
Asam Church
Glyptothek
beer halls-
hofbrahaus
Augustiner Braustuben beer gardens
Lowenbraukeller
EXPENSES-
6.50 pastry breakfast in plaza
26.50 lunch beer garden
19.30 hobrauhaus
5 schneider Weiss
31.80 munich dinner
Total- 89.10