Munich, Germany

June 26, 2009

I took a day trip to Munich on Friday the 26th. In the morning I rode with my host's husband to his work, which is just north of Munich. From there I took the subway to Marienplatz, the main center. I stood in the center with absolutely no idea where to go and what to do with my day.

When the information office opened I went in and got a map, which wasn't any help at all, so I went over to the wall of pamphlets where I found one that said "Walking Tours". They offered a city walk, beer and brewery tour, third reich, and Dachau memorial tours among others outside the city.

I decided to take the city walk tour for a couple reasons. One being that it started soonest so it gave me time to wander around afterwards as well. Two, I'd come to see the city.

We started off in the Marineplatz and saw both the old and new town halls and then stood and watched the Glockenspiel. From there we made our way to the Frauenkirche, which has the tallest towers in the old town of Munich (I was told they were allowed to build anything taller in that area). After that we hit a lot of other near spots such as: surfing in a river, the old palace, the Field Marshal's Hall, and the Viktualienmarkt.

In the market I got a pork sandwich with what I believe was a large porkrind of some sort on it. It was rather odd, but really good. However, halfway through I had to take the crispy porkrind-like thing off so I could finish the sandwich cause it was filling me up too fast ... which is odd cause that was very little compared to my usual lunch/dinner back home ...

After eating I made my way back along the track the tour had taken. I went first to the Frauenkirche and climbed the tower to a room the top where I got a pretty awesome view of Munich.

Then I went back to a spot near the national theater where they had statues outside. The statues were lions holding shields that had little lion heads on the bottom. For the most part the statue was dark grey to black with years of dirt and stuff, with the exception being the small lion head on the bottom which was polished to its original color. Our tour guide informed us that this was because people rubbed the lion nose for good luck.

At the time I'd just passed it up, thinking it was stupid, but as soon as I passed it I regretted it and felt like the stupid one. It hit me that what was truly stupid was that I let what I believed other people would think of me because of something. It seemed an odd way to live, passing up the interesting little things because of what other people think. After the tour I made sure I went back and rubbed the lion's nose.

After that I just went back and met up with my host's husband at his work around the time he was off. While we waited for the friend he was giving a ride to, he explained what he did a bit, which was pretty interesting. After that we headed back.

Munich Photobucket Album: http://s645.photobucket.com/albums/uu173/jordanftravels/Munich%20Germany%20-%20June%2026%202009/