Day 8: Munich

 Day 8: Munich

We're excited for the day. We decided to do something a little touristy, but necessary. In order to cover a lot of Munich in a day, we decided to take a Big Bus Tour, which is a hop on, hop off double decker bus. We grabbed some coffee and a pastry on the way, purchased our bus tickets, and chose the first of the three available routes: the Schwabing route. This route goes through a very famous artsy neighborhood, including an area where a young bohemian Hitler lived.

    On our way on the upper deck of the bus. Beautiful day!

The bus had headphone checks on the seat back that could be adjusted for language. We learned so much from this basic bus tour that we would have missed if just wandering around or trying to figure out through research.

The first touristy thing we saw was a makeshift memorial to Michael Jackson in a public square.

    As Dave Chappelle says, "Thriller... Thriller..."

    Theatine Church

We hopped off the bus at the English Garden stop. It is a gigantic public park with many attractions. There are many bike, horse and pedestrian paths, with several creeks running through it. It would be easy to spend an afternoon, but our goal is to spend two hours checking things out before the tour bus returns (which stops hourly on weekends but every two hours on a weekday). We enjoyed a beautiful walk.

We wanted to check out a Greek temple, called the Monopteros, that was built in 1838. It is atop a hill and offers great views of the park and Munich spires.

    Monopteros

After a few moments of contemplation, we decided to search for the surfing spot. Yes, you read that right. In 1972, the local government added some concrete blocks under the nearby bridge and it creates a permanent wave that surfers can ride. We greatly enjoyed watching the action.

We even captured some video:

We still had some time before our bus was scheduled to return. So, we sought out the Chinese Tower (known as the "Chinesischer Turm"). The original tower was built in 1790, but it was destroyed during WW2. This is the rebuilt version. It is a gigantic beer garden that can accommodate 7000 guests.

It was impossible to be in such a large beer garden, around lunch time, without sampling the cuisine. As usual, the offerings were largely 1) some type of bread, like a pretzel, 2) some type of meat, like sausage or chicken, and 3) some limited type of beer option. I chose the "German meatloaf," which resembled spam. There was a lager (Helles) and a wheat beer. I chose the Helles. The beer was great, the meat thing did, in fact, provide calories to continue life.

    Yummy... meat stuff.

After this life sustaining nutrition, we walked back to the tour bus stop. In German fashion, the bus arrived on time and we finished the tour loop.

We decided to do the second of three tour loops. This time, we chose the "City Tour." We quickly passed a memorial to the WW2 genocide -- a flame in a cage. It was moving in its own way. Average Germans must pass this daily and be reminded of their grim history, which is a heavy thought.

We decided to hop off near the German Museum because April had researched one of the best ice cream places in Munich, called True & 12. It had many choices and we enjoyed it greatly.

    A terrific break.

We were thirsty, so we decided to walk back to Marienplatz to find a beer garden. 

    We saw this when we arrived at Marienplatz. Not sure what it is, but looks like something out of Harry Potter.

Then, we stumbled onto the local farmers market, called the Viktualienmarkt. It was great. It's been going for a century and some families have had the same stall for generations. 

There was a beautiful beer garden that was tempting, but the beer garden only serves one brewery's beer per day, on a rotating basis. Unnecessary. We were hoping to try Hacker Pschorr, which is a friend's favorite and he wanted to know what it tastes like at the source. So, we passed on the Viktualienmarkt beer garden and found a local seller of Hacker Pschorr.

I was hoping to try their Oktoberfest beer but, of course, it is only served September and October. So, I chose the one beer available, a Kellerbier (or "cellar beer"). The interwebs says this type of beer is fermented in a cool cellar and is unfiltered. So, yeast and vitamins remain in the beer and give it a cloudy appearance. April had a lager from another brewery. After all that walking, the beer was welcome. And, the beer garden was inside a well lit, beautiful historical building.

April really liked this place.

    Sup?

    Nice dried hop decoration

April especially liked the beer robot. It would bring full beers out to the waiters who would then stack it up with empty mugs and plates. Pretty cool. 

The robot was much friendlier than our waiter...

After our refreshments, we walked back to the tour bus home office area and caught the third of the three tour buses, the Nymphenburg line. There were two main highlights of this line, which took us much farther out of the city center than the other two lines.

The first highlight was Nymphenburg palace. This was the summer palace of the Wittelsbach family (descendants of which formed the House of Windsor). This family ruled significant parts of Southern Germany, and elsewhere, starting in 1180. Ballers. After WW1, their status was questioned.

    Pretty nice summer place.

Then, we went to the Munich Olympic grounds, which held the 1972 Olympics. The area was undeveloped, so it was perfect for massive development for the Olympics.

    Cool stadium with a roof that looks like a tent. Maybe Denver airport is inspired by this?

    Famous Olympic tower

We also drove by the BMW headquarters and foundation. Maybe Garrett can get a car from here one day...

    The building is designed to look like 4 cylinders.

After we finished this third tour, we were beat. We relaxed a bit back at the hotel and then decided to go big. We're going to check out the famous Hofbrauhaus. We thought this place might be empty on a Monday night. To our surprise, it was relatively full, but we were able to find a table in the inner courtyard beer garden. The rules for this place require you to sit down at a table with strangers before they will serve you. So, we found seats at the end of a table next to a party of folks who had driven from rural Austria to check this place out for the first time. Their conclusion: Germans are snooty and they made the gesture of an uplifted nose. Their English was good enough that we could talk and laugh with them. It was great.

    Let's do this!

    More sausage and potatoes. It's good, but we may need a change... April needs something with a crunch and some spice.

    Interior room with Oompa band.

    Fun and loud!

This was a long day. But, the tourist bus really helped us see a ton of Munich. It was fun and tiring. Time to get some sleep and then on to Nuremberg tomorrow.

    Marienplatz on the way home.