Much to do in Munich

Our hotel was quite nice and very close to the heart of the city.  A quick walk took us through streets crowded with people down to the Marienplatz where we wandered around endlessly looking for a restaurant that I had read about on Yelp.  Later we found out that it has been closed for some time but apparently Yelp was not aware of this.  We ended up going to the Ratskeller where I got pork schnitzel that came with a strange but tasty cucumber and potato salad.  Maren got spaetzle with cheese that was incredible.

On the walk back we spotted one tram that was blaring Britney Spears and packed with people dancing.  We could only assume it was some sort of party tram.

We stopped at a bar called Shakespeare next door to our hotel.  They had pints for 3 Euros and a couple of different shots for 2 Euros (one was Sambuca and Jaeger and the other was Apfle (apple liquor) with cinnamon on top.  We ended up stopping in at this place every night we were in Munich. They play great music while showing a mashup of unrelated music videos.

The next day we took the S-Bahn to Herrsching, which took about 45 min.  The town is on Lake Amersee.  The weather was wonderful, and there were lots of people sunbathing or walking along the lakefront or sitting at cafes, including some street musicians with a guitar made out of a pitchfork.

From there we hiked through the forest to the Andechs Monastery, the real reason for our trip.  The hike is about 3 miles, so by the end of it we were quite thirsty for beer.  The Monastery has a big Beer Hall with a patio that can seat 1,500 thirsty pilgrims.  I wanted to try their doppelbock, but thought that might not be the most refreshing of their options so I settled on their weissbier while Maren got their radler (of course).

We had worked up quite an appetite too so I ordered a massive deep fried pork knuckle and a big Bavarian pretzel.

When we finished our food and drink we thought we might as well peek our heads into the cathedral which, as it turns out, is pretty amazing.

We met a group of young German guys in lederhosen sitting in the grass outside the cathedral that wanted me to take their picture and talk with us.  Apparently they are touring the West Coast in August.  Also there was some hugging.  Like these guys, we found Germans for the most part to be drunk and friendly.

The next day we toured the Munich Residenz, which was the palace where all the Bavarian dukes, electors and kings lived until they were kicked out in the early 20^th century.  You could tour through an enormous amount of rooms, though almost all of them had been reconstructed because it was pretty much blown to smithereens during World War II.  On the whole it wasn't as awesome as the Royal Palace in Madrid.

In the same complex they exhibit the royal treasury, which has all kinds of crazy jewel swords and ornate reliquaries and stuff.  The number of items and the caliber of the craftsmanship were astounding.  I really can’t recommend the treasury highly enough.  If you are in Munich don’t miss it. It is 11 Euros per person for both the museum and the treasury.

Then it was time for lunch (i.e., time for beer and pretzels again). We walked to the Englisch Garden, a giant park with a beer garden. We hiked up to a gazebo atop a hill to check out the view. What we found was a man with a loudspeaker playing hip beats while he occasionally blew a few notes on the saxophone.  Clearly not an actual saxophone player. But a nearby dog was clearly interested.

Randomly, 0n the way home we stumbled upon a statue covered in Michael Jackson memorial at the Promenadeplatz.

We ended our German day at Andy’s Krablergarten for cordon bleu schnitzel and spaezel. The next morning we snagged a mass amount of breakfast goodies from the hotel for our 8-hour train ride to Budapest.

See you in Hungary!