München (Munich to all of you english speakers!)

We woke up early on Monday morning so that we could catch the train into Munich and spend the day in the city. Just based on the amount of people on the 9am train we knew the city was going to be packed. After about a 1 hour ride, we got into the train station, luckily there were still a few lockers available so we stashed our stuff and headed out to catch another FREE walking tour (love these!) The tour met at 10:45 and the guides had just enough time to tell the 60+ people waiting about the world famous Glockenspiel. Our guide told us about how almost all of the bells are out of tune, but that no one in the city of Munich cares because it is something only for the tourists. Honestly, it was kind of underwhelming and we both liked the astronomical clock in Prague much better!


The carillon (glockenspiel), not actually a very old building, just built to look old.


Munich was a main headquarters for the Nazi party and as such, most of the city was bombed by the Allies. Everything in the city was carefully recorded and photographed by the Nazis before the war so that every detail could be rebuilt. However, in the re-building process, some corners were cut to save money and so there are many details that are simply painted onto the facades of buildings.


St. Peters church: They only rebuilt one of the two original towers and then just painted the clock faces on.

The maypole in Viktualienmarkt (a big market in the city). If you steal someone else's maypole, they have to pay a ransom... In beer! Our guide told us a funny story about the Munich Police department stealing the maypole from the Munich airport, the airport then had to throw a huge party for the police force.


The 6 main beers in Munich: Augustinerbrau, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulanerbrau, Hacker-Pschorr Brau and Spatenbrau. All of which have huge tents at Oktoberfest and of course all of which have been tried by us! The yellow and black symbol in the middle is representative of Germany's pure beer laws.


We got to visit the famous Hofbrauhaus.

Huge beer halls

Practicing carrying the heavy 1 liter mas mugs.

Live bands in every beer hall/tent.

The church the devil made (rumored to have been made with the help of the devil because it was built in only 20 years, in actuality is was built so quickly because it used local, easy to use building materials.

The devils footprint inside the church (actually the architect's footprint).

Weird shrine to MJ all over an old statue.

Painted on facades on the Residenz building.


When we finished up our tour we got word from our host for the night that he was home so we headed out towards his house. We were greeted by friends and beer (of course) and Tobi (our host) took us out for the night.

The Isar river that runs through Munich. We sat by the banks and had a drink.

Kurtis with a Weisbeir, Amy with a Radler.

Second bar of the night with Tobi, not nice Kurtis.

We didn't stay out too late because we needed to be fully rested for Oktoberfest in the morning! We could tell already that we were in for a great day.