We arrived in Munich a little after 9am and immediately checked into our hotel to freshen up a bit. It was a very gloomy arrival (overcast, rainy, and about 50ºF. After not having slept very well on the flight, we decided to nap for about 2 hours and then head out to explore the town.
Taking the train around town is very easy, and most of the signs are in both German and English, which is also very helpful.
Once off the train and in downtown Munich we walked through the Marienplatz part of town. Lots of great old, classic buildings, mostly filled with shops and restaurants. In the heart of Marienplatz is the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel. It's basically the biggest coo-koo clock ever. At certain hours of the day it plays music and the figurines (life-size ones) dance around to show the story of Duke Wilhelm V.
Then, we made our way to the central train station to meet up with our guide for our Beer Tour. It was fantastic! But first, you must eat. Since the alcohol content is much higher in a lot of the beers here, you do not want to drink a bunch on an empty stomach, so we did the obvious....we bought a massive pretzel!
Then onto the beer tour. We tried out several local beers made specifically in the state of Bavaria (where Munich is located). Most of the sample sizes were about 6-8oz. We had four of those before moving on to the Oktoberfest Beer Museum. Very fascinating history of how Oktoberfest started and what it is today. On average, Oktoberfest brings in over 1 billion Euros to Munich! Our tour group had a wide variety of people from different countries. We had Germans (yes, it was an English speaking tour, but they still came anyway), Australian, British, Dutch, and Americans.
In addition to the museum, we also went to several restaurants to try their beer and also some food. We ate at the HofbrauKellar (not to be confused with Hofbrauhaus, this is separate, but we did go there as well).
Sometimes, you couldn't finish all of your beer quickly enough to move on to the next location (the beer samples quickly went from 6oz to a pint), but it's no big deal here because you can just take it with you. Literally, we finished drinking one of our beers while walking on the sidewalk and getting on the train. The rule in Munich is, if you can eat there, you can drink there. In other words, if it would be an inappropriate place to eat food (apple, sandwich, etc), then it is inappropriate to drink (church, department store, etc.).
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| The ceiling of the original Hofbrauhaus |
Tomorrow we are off to Fussen to see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle!
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