Adventures in Munich

We had more train adventures leaving Salzburg and going to Munich. I bought our four tickets at a ticket machine, but only three tickets were printed; we went to the ticket office, but they could not print the fourth until later in the day when the transaction from the ticket machine showed up in their database. We went back to the ticket office the next morning when we were leaving for Munich but found out that we were too late to reserve seats- so we were again looking for four unreserved seats on a train. The first-class cars had compartments, and three of us were in a compartment with a German man who ended up being very helpful in arranging all our luggage in the compartment; we were packed tightly. Jake ended up in the compartment next to ours. We were delayed between Salzburg and Munich because the freight train accident that had disrupted trains in Vienna on Monday was still being repaired and trains had to take turns going both ways on one track. The German man also helped us unload when we finally made it to Munich. We left the station through the north exit after looking at Barbara’s phone for directions to our hotel and we crossed the street and as we turned left, we realized we were at the hotel, so that was easy. We checked in at about 1 o’clock and thankfully they had our rooms ready, and we spent an hour resting and then met up and headed east towards the main square (plaza) of Munich in the old town. The Townhall has a clock tower with figures that move as the bells in the tower are chiming for about five minutes. From our guidebook, we determined that the clocktower figures come out and do their little show from about four stories high at 11 am, at 12 noon, and at 5 pm so we determined to return to the plaza by 5 pm. Meanwhile we needed lunch and we stopped at a sandwich shop that had all the sandwiches displayed in a glass case, and also had pastries displayed in the case, so we decided on what we would like- a sandwich and a pastry- and then sat at a table on the side of the restaurant, under umbrella shades, and ordered and enjoyed a nice lunch, watching all the people walk down the main pedestrian street towards the old town square. 

One of the things that Barbara and Jake had seen on their trip to Munich a few years ago was the residence of the prince-bishop with his collection of rooms, decorations, art, and furniture spread through about 100 rooms. We walked there from the main square and were ready to buy tickets to go and see it, but the ticket person told us there wasn’t enough time, and that we should come back the next day when we could see it all. We took his advice and walked through the gardens that adjoin the residence and made our way to a subway station to return to the City Hall and watch the clock tower figures at 5 pm. 

The old town hall with gothic decorations and a clock tower in the middle

The "new" town hall with another clock tower on the main old town square

The clock tower figurines moving as the bells played at 5 pm

An important task each day when you’re traveling on your own like we were in Munich is to find a good dinner spot. This first night we asked the hotel clerk, and he sent us into the neighborhood, perhaps six blocks away, to a very nice Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed very good food and relaxed, and congratulated ourselves for making it on our whole cruise trip together to our last city. We always choose hotels that have a nice breakfast bar and so our breakfasts for our two mornings in Munich were very good, just like our breakfasts in Budapest and in Salzburg and at the beginning of our trip in Amsterdam. We always started our days with our favorite breakfast foods. 

Barbara and Judy waiting for our Italian dinner- we were late diners (9 pm) for Munich

Russ and Jake happily waiting for our lasagna to arrive- they still had some for us!

Friday morning was the last day for Barbara and Jake in Munich; they were flying home the next morning. Barbara and Judy were approaching their limits for traveling and visiting buildings, museums and castles. Jake and I wanted to visit the Bavarian history museum and asked the girls to come along with us for a morning activity. After breakfast, we all went to the museum on a trolley line that took us on a big loop in the southern, part of the city, and were surprised at the number of items in the museum; not just history materials, but also a full collection of some of the folklore furniture from the Bavarian area. Lots of paintings and church art, because Munich is very full of churches, and the region is full of famous artists who worked in decorating churches. The museum also had porcelain and silver and gold plates and a favorite room for me was the old musical instruments that they had collected. Each of us found parts of the museum that we enjoyed a lot. 

Bavarian wooden and painted furniture 

Painted armoire for clothes

Ceramics from Bavaria

Figurines playing musical instruments 

Ceramic relief of the shepherds and animals at the birth of Jesus

Ceramic statue of St. George and the dragon- not big and not scary 

World globe and star globe (showing constellations) from about 1500

Old Bavarian musical instruments

River flowing through Munich

We were then trying to go to a building from about 1900 that was one of the city baths, since we had such a fun time at the Budapest thermal bath. We thought we would have lunch at the café at the baths that was recommended in our tour book. The walk to the bathhouse was along the river that flows through Munich, and it was a very beautiful walk completely under large trees with grass areas on the hill along the river and several beach areas where people were swimming or sunbathing along the river. I’m sure it’s a favorite place for people in Munich- to have such a nice parkway along the river. Unfortunately, the bath building was being restored, and the café was closed, and we couldn’t look in the bath pool rooms without buying a ticket, so we were directed under the bridge to a neighborhood café that turned out to be very good; Jake and I both enjoyed their special which was lasagna. We rode the trolley back to the hotel and everyone took a rest or nap for a couple hours prior to trying to find a dinner spot. I thought we should try the most famous beer house and beer garden (patio) that was located down past the main square and so we determined what trolley would take us closest and walked to have dinner in this restaurant that holds more than 2,000 people when is full during Oktoberfest. But it was too noisy for us and so we walked along the street and found a nice restaurant with patio tables; ours was near the main inside restaurant and not far out in the sidewalk area where there was lots of smoking. This was our last meal together because Barber and Jake were leaving the next morning to fly home and Judy and I were getting up early the next morning to take our bus tour to two of the castles that Ludwig II had built.

There are about 100 large and elaborately decorated churches in Munich 

The 1900 bath house cafe was closed- Judy is asking for another cafe suggestion

One of the old city gates of Munich- across the river from the bath house