Munich, Germany

Our Alps Adventure concluded in Munich, Germany where we rang in the New Year. We got into Munich late and tired on the 30th, so we rested up for Silvester. We learned this is what they call New Year's Eve. We woke up to HUGE snowflakes pouring down! A great way to see the city! We went off exploring the great city of Munich anyway. It was extremely busy and crowded with tourists and locals alike. We found an open air market that was selling all sorts of food. It was really busy as everyone was stocking up for the festivities. A few blocks from the open air market we happened to walk into an open square in front of St. Peter's Church. This church is incredible! It's not only enormous (the tallest point is 301 feet!) and full of history, but when the clock tower chimes a whole production goes on in the steeple. The best way to describe it is similar to a cuckoo clock. There are different figures of people, animals and things moving and dancing about as the bell chimes. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. The church was originally built in the 8th century, but due to a fire was rebuilt in 1368 and the steeple was added in the 17th century. Being from the states we have such a different view of old something is and this trip has definitely changed my perspective! After walking around the city we decided to grab some lunch. Many places were closed for the holidays, but we were lucky enough to pass a little Turkish restaurant (our new fav!) and picked up our lunch and took it back to the hotel to eat and regroup.



After a late lunch we decide to head back downtown to the Hofbrauhaus to be sure we get good seats for the night. We get there about 3pm and it's PACKED!! This was also unlike anything I've ever experienced! There were rooms full of long tables all full of people. We begin our search for two seats, I didn't think this would be that difficult since there were only two of us and people usually shared tables. So after much wandering around Jon saw a table asks for the bill and I went over and stalked the table until they left. As soon as they got up hoards of people came rushing over to claim the spot, but I was there first to stake our claim! We let two other groups sit with us as it was a table big enough for 10 or so. A server finally came over and let's just say customer service isn't their strong suit, but carry 10 liters of beer at one time is!! So, we order our first beer and take in the atmosphere and the great live music. We were glad when the two other groups left because they were real duds. As they leave a large group of 8 asks to sit with us and we say sure. They were all great! They were locals from the area. They were very nice and so much fun to spend the evening with. A few of them were just starting here and then going back to their house where they were having a big Silvester Party and they invited us to come along. We thought it was very kind of them to invite complete strangers to their home, but we figured being in a strange city we should probably stick with what we knew. Jon even made friends with our server because he gave him a tip! The server who was pretty gruff and cold turned to Jon and said "why are you so good to me?" and then he chatted with us for a few minutes. After that, we got great service! The band played lots of German music and some good old American tunes as well. They crowd went CRAZY over the American songs, especially Country Roads by John Denver; everyone was up on the tables dancing! After lots of laughs, fun, food and beer we decided to head back to our hotel. Yes, it was only 10pm, but it was starting to get pretty crazy in there and I'm sure it would have been a blast...but we had more touring to do the next day and wanted to avoid the unpleasantness of a hangover on vacation. We had a great time and had so much fun at the Hofbrauhaus!



On New Year's Day almost everything was closed. We walked through the quite city and through the English Garten, a huge park in the middle of the city. There was a New Year's Day race going on while we were in the park. As we were walking a guy in a wetsuit and surf board walks by us. This peaked our interest. We followed him to a point in the river right behind some type of dam that creates a permanent wave in the river. There were two guys in full wetsuits and surfboards surfing in the river! That was something we'd never seen before! We ended up walking by the US Consulate and we saw a piece of The Berlin Wall. We walked around the city some more and went in a search of a place for lunch. This was surprisingly difficult as EVERYTHING was closed. We finally discovered our trusty Turkish restaurant was open and went back there for a bite to eat. We checked out of our hotel and headed to our hotel by the airport to make our final travel day easier. We settled in for a quite night with a take-out pizza and watched The Karate Kid I & II in German! We had a wonderful trip through Switzerland, Austria and German and feel so blessed to be having all of these wonderful experiences.

Here's the link for Munich pictures:
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7974734007/a=53561785_53561785/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Stay tuned for our trip to Oxford, England!