(German for hello)Well now, it has been quite some time since my last post. I have so many things to update on. But for right now I have 2 sweet girls at home that are desiring me to update and show them some pictures. So for now the queue will be slightly askew. :)
As most of you know Josh and I are in Germany. I am updating from the hotel while he is working.
We left home on Tuesday, and arrived here in Munich on Wednesday morning. The flight was long and, no, it is not easy to sleep on the plane. I used to be able to sleep anywhere. Guess not now.
Anyway, when we got here a gentleman from the office Josh is working with was at the airport to pick us up. We were supposed to stay at one of the employees house since the hotel was not available till the next day. But that guy was sick. So we went into the office to check other hotels in the area for the night. That didn't take too long, and then we were off to the Alarun. A cozy little hotel in the town of Unterschleißheim.
It was morning here and we had missed our Tuesday night but did not want to go to sleep or we would never be able to go to sleep that night. But we needed something. So we set an alarm and took a
little snooze.
Wow! Was that a quick nap. But we pushed through it and decided to go exploring a little bit. Or we would fall back asleep for sure. So we went to the hotel desk and bought some train tickets, got directions to the train stop, and were on our way.
Figuring out the train system here was not too difficult. I still don't know if I am heading north or south at times but as long as I have a map and street signs we are okay.
So we took the S-bahn to the Marienplatz stop. That is the main stop with old buildings, etc. This is what you see when you get off the train and up the stairs to the outside world.
(no, I did not take this photo. But I wanted to show you the whole building. All I have is smaller shots. You'll see those later.)
So this building is the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall). It was built between 1867 and 1908 and hosts the city government. You can actually go into the building and explore but we will go back to that in a moment. We did not go in the building yet because we were so hungry. So off to find food. You may be wondering, "What does one eat in Germany?" Well that is what I was thinking as well. We headed down the crowded street and what did we find?
Yup, McDonalds. We came all the way to Germany and had McDonalds. Hey, it was a safe choice for me. :)
So we had a little lunch and then decided to find a restroom before we went exploring some more. We went downstairs and found the Toilette. There was a lady at the bottom of the stairs sitting at a table with a plate on it. I had heard that you would have to pay to use the bathroom here. I guess I thought that if you paid for a meal it would be included. But nope, almost every restroom we have seen has had a lady out in front collecting her toll.
(Just FYI if your ever out of the country)We were on our way again. We headed back toward the town hall again. I was still trying to figure out exactly where we were and where we wanted to go. One of the first old structures we passed by was this one.
I was not quite sure what it was. There was an inner courtyard with these tower type structures off to the sides. All the signs were in German so I had no idea what it was. I liked the looks of it though and thought I would take a photo and figure out later what it was. Well I found out that it is Isartor which is one of four main gates of the medieval city wall. It served as a fortification for defense and is the most easterly of Munich's three remaining town gates. The gate (German:
Tor) is located close to the
Isar and was named after the river.
After looping around this we were back in front of the town hall. We decided to go in and check it out. It was a beautiful building with grand staircases, beautiful archways, columns,
and every window was stained glass. They had a room in one of the upper levels that was obviously done in an American theme. So we had to take some photos there. Here we are in front of Lady Liberty herself.
They had some windows done in farming scenes, Paul Revere's famous ride, and of course our favorite Presidents.
George Washington.
And Abraham Lincoln.
From here we really had no plan as to where we wanted to go. Just that we needed to keep walking or we would fall asleep. So we just headed down a road to see what we could see. After passing many shops we came to one of the famous streets of the city. Maximilianstraße which was named after Maximilian II I believe. Who was the ruler of Bavaria from 1848 - 1864. The royal family had their homes built in this area. As well as other buildings like the National Theatre.
We stopped here for a quick pose with Maximilian I, who was actually Max II's grandfather, in front of the theatre.
After a quick pose here we went on up the road. We passed by this romanesque statue. I think Josh was done with posing for photos. But that is what you get when you are not the one holding the camera. :)
Then on up the road just a little to this building.
Maximilianeum.
This is a school that Maximilian had built for gifted students. But is now used for government purposes as well.
Here is a statue of Maximilian II who had the school built.
After the long trek up to this point we decided to head back to the hotel. We were not sure how late the trains ran and wanted to get back to the hotel for some long awaited rest. But which way to go. Well, we had seen shops and buildings so we thought that we would like to take a nice stroll in this.
They have so many lush green parks in this city. It is an amazing country. I love our mountains. But I would just LOVE to have this in my back yard.
So we just strolled along the trail. Took a photo over the Isar river.
And then when we started seeing buildings again decided that was a good place to turn to try to get back to the train.
This is just one of the MANY churches they have in the city. Lukaskirche (
St. Luke's Church)
Just amazing buildings.
So we wound our way back to the train. Made sure we were on the right one. And tried to endure the sweltering train ride back to our stop. After just a few minutes walk...
We were back at our hotel to freshen up and go to dinner. Out in front of the hotel there was a Biergarten (beergarden). They sure do love their beer here. Josh had a steak with country potatoes (seasoned potato wedges). And I had BBQ chicken breast with a salad and country potatoes. Before our meal came the waitress served us a traditional Bavarian salad. It was basically a meat/pickle jello. For any of you who really know me you should know that I do NOT do pickles. I toughed my way through most of one of the two slices she served me. But I could not do the whole thing. The chicken and potatoes were very good. The salad had mustard dressing. Again with the icky things. :( And I had a Coke Light to drink. They don't call them diet here. It is light.
By about 9:30 we were finally done. The service is slow here. I guess they do that on purpose. They like to allow people to enjoy their meals and good conversation. We have learned that if we need to get somewhere just flag down your waitress and tell her you would like your check. Otherwise you will be not so patiently waiting for a long time. :)
So after dinner we went back to the hotel and got some sleep. That was pretty much day 1 in Munich for us. I will update more later when I have a chance.
Auf wiedersehen for now.
