Day 7: A Day in Munich

Today we spent the entire day wandering around the city of Munich. We spent the morning on what was supposed to be a 2 hour bus tour but it became a 3 hour tour (insert Gillian's Island theme song). But seriously, our tour guide was extremely long winded and not in a good way. She rambled about the most worthless things. But some important notes: 78% of the city was destroyed in WWII. Einstein was born in Munich and at a young age diagnosed as mentally retarded by his teacher. As a side note, I learned that the word Bernstein means "amber" (Bernstein Bears anyone?). Anywho, after our bus driver Johann's risky driving, (I swear we almost hit a train! Haha) we stopped at the opera house as a meeting point. Side bar, I don't know if I mentioned this before but we travel on a double decker travel bus and I make a point to sit in the very front on the second floor so I get the best views!

Once off the bus, the plan was to head to the Hofbräuhaus, an extremely famous beer hall, which is the epitome of German beer culture. Well, our tour guide had a different idea and wanted to show us all these worthless things. I'm normally for tour guides but she would point out places and say "I have a cousin that used to live here" and things like that. Why do I care? Well a couple of us broke off from that and just went to the Hofbräuhaus by ourselves. On the way there Rob stepped out of a pub and waved for me to join them so I went and joined them for lunch. We had lunch in Augustiner Bräu München, the oldest pub in Munich established in 1328. I had golouch and it was very good especially because it was a bit chilly out. From there Jban, Rob, Lars, and myself went to explore a bit. 

Photo: Us outside the pub!

We walked around downtown for about 20 min then had to go back to the bus because I had left my wallet on the bus and Jason wanted to go back and sleep before we had dinner and a night out at the Hofbräuhaus. 

After almost getting caught in the bus bathroom as it was taking off, Rob, Lars, and myself took off to explore. We walked around seeing the city hall which is ridiculously ornate. It even has life size statues that move at certain times of the day! Side note, since I can't post pictures at the moment I suggest googling these places! 

Photo: The city hall. (My picture doesn't do it justice)

Anyways, we then went to St. Peter's church which was simply stunning. And it had a watch tower to go up for €1 that allowed you to see the entire city scape. It was totally worth the hike up! 

Photo: View from the top of the tower

The downside to being there was that it was a holiday (day after pentacost) so all the shops were closed. Although I did see a tie store with the lowest price of €168. We tried to go to the Opera House and tour but it was closed and we were just about out of time so we went to an outdoor pub and had a drink just people watching and then headed over the Hofbräuhaus. 

The Hofbräuhaus is AMAZING. It is the beer mecca! They had a whole floor (essentially a whole beer hall) just for us! 

Photo: The Beer Hall! I don't know if this gives a good reference but its huge! This floor holds 3,000 people!

Upon entering we all got a free .5 L weisbeir (a white beer) and it was delicious. They have us an appetizer of meat and cheese and then we started drinking steins. Each one holds 1 L of beer. They are fantastic. When drinking out if them, it is hard to not wish I had a huge burly beard. Haha. They also provided a live German Band as well! We had learned a German drinking song before coming as well and the band kept playing it and everyone was singing at the top of our lungs. 

Photo: A full 1L Stein!!

When they took a break, all of us got turns singing on the stage. The random other people there absolutely loved it! All in all I had 7 steins there! It was delicious. I just had to pee a lot. Afterwards, a Purduettes graduate Erin Handy's  roommate who is a party planner had blocked off part of a club and provided transport there. So all of us ended up there for the night then headed home afterwards. We had a blast!