We got ready for the day and went down to the lobby for breakfast. I think this was our best breakfast so far: eggs, sausage, bacon, cereal, yogurt, cheeses, meats, croissants, bread, donuts, coffee cake, fruit, tea, coffee and juice.
After filling up for the morning, we walked about 15 minutes into the heart of the old city. Along the way we stopped at two department stores. Both were Galleria Kaufof, a German chain. The first one had an excellent selection of Lego and Siku cars. We chose to wait and see what other things we might find in Munich. The second store, same name only bigger, was the best I have seen in a very long time. They had a huge selection of Siku, an even bigger selection of 1/87th vehicles, and the nicest selection of model trains I have seen in Europe so far. Their train section (in a department store!) was bigger than most hobby shops I’ve visited in the US. Although I am still partial to American trains, they make some very beautiful and quality models here in Europe. I ended up spending a good chunk of my money here and could have spent so much more.
In the toy section they had a very impressive assortment of Legos. Katrina found something new and very cool looking – Lego Games. One is like Pictionary, but players use Legos to build the subject instead of drawing. The Toy Factory needs the Lego Games…..hint to Errol.
After our shopping spree, we had to move on. Our destination was Marianplatz where we planned to take a guided walking tour of the old city. We met Bridgett who would be our guide for the 2 ½ hour tour.
The tour began at the Rathaus. Bridget gave us some background information about Munich, then we moved to the back of the square to listen to the bells ring at 11am and watch the famous Munich glockenspiel. There was quite the big crowd that assembled to watch from the square. The glockenspiel figures go around and dance for about 10 minutes.
The famous Glockenspiel.
Brandon loves figuring out the city maps of each place we visit.
The next two hours were spent walking around the old town of Munich. We visited many historical sites and monuments.
The Kindel Munchen, symbol of Munich.
Some of the monuments we visited.
Bridgett pointing telling us about the open air market.
Notice the chunks for stone missing in this column. These are from schrapnel damage during WWII, when much of Munich was devastated by allied bombing.
Even though Munich is landlocked, the locals still manage to get some surfing in.
After our tour we were a little tired and very hot. We found some ice cream in the market area and walked around a little bit. Brandon wanted to return to a relief map of the old city that we passed on the tour. We headed that way and hung out until we decided we were finally hungry enough for a late lunch. The Haufbrau Haus was our destination.
We headed that way, making our way through the crowds in the pedestrian zone. The Haufbrau Haus, or HB, actually has 4 different choices of places to eat: the bier garten, the restaurant, the buffet or the bier haus. We chose the latter, which is where the band plays. We had a great lunch. Brandon had two pretzels. I had a beer and Katrina had a mug of ½ beer ½ lemonade – called Radlers. We shared another Radler and some apple struedel for dessert.
Katrina ordered a Radler - 1/2 beer 1/2 lemonade. Very tasty!
Brandon's cat, Lollipop, even had a taste of beer.
...and finished the mug! Did you know that cats can drink 4x their body weight in beer.
We were tired, so after leaving the Haufbrau Haus, we wandered slowly wandered the pedestrian streets back to our hotel. I spent some time working on this blog. Brandon played with his toy tram setup. Katrina did some reading.
Late in the evening we walked across the street to pick up some dinner and take it back to the room. We had a good day in Munich. If only our room, and European rooms in general, had AC!
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