...my true love gave to me, five Olympic rings!
Well today was our big touring day around the city. Again the weather is not playing nice. It is 36 degrees with off and on heavy mist. The good news is we never needed an umbrella! (we were optimistic and didn't pack one) However, we are starting to think the sun doesn't shine in Munich, as we have no proof it exists here. :) So we bundled up and ate a couple of granola bars in the room. We were out the door just after 10, first stopping at the main train station to check into train tickets from Salzburg to Cortina. Apparently we have to buy those in Salzburg...so no biggie. While at the train station we picked up a few pretzels to have as emergency bus snacks. As we left the train station we saw where the hop on hop off bus was stopped, so we went over and bought our tickets for the day. The gal at the desk was having a "Monday" and snapped at us when we asked a question, but the driver was pleasant. We hopped on and lucked out with a spot up top in the front row (the top was covered of course). We had our headphones in and as we were listening to the narration, it was also over the loud speaker in the bus, only in German - and really loud. So it was kinda hard to hear. The older folks had their hands over their ears to try to block out the speaker in the bus. This is the first time we've had that happen as everyone just listens with headphones to their own language option. Plus by the end of the tour the windows fogged up and that made seeing a bit more difficult. I was a little disappointed in the "Red" hop on hop off as we usually go straight to this company because of our good experiences in past cities. After today my loyalties may not be as strong. ;)
As we were on our first route (there were three) it took us out to the Olympic Village. This area was built up when Munich had the summer Olympics in 1972. It has a brutal history - if any of you have seen the movie "Munich" you know what I'm talking about. The games were overshadowed by the abduction and murders of Israeli athletes. Yikes. There is also Olympic Hill, a 60 meter high hill made from the debris of WWII. In the winter people ski on it and in the summer people climb it to get an overview of the city. It was amazing to see and think about what was underneath. A very interesting area to be in. - As we hopped on our second route, it took us to the English Gardens. We only took half this route as it only ran twice that day, but we wanted to see the gardens so we hopped off. It was a beautiful walk and we can only image its beauty in the summer. We asked a nice older gentleman where the Christmas market was and he pointed us in the right direction. It was a smaller market, but still had 20 or so little shops to look at. Even though it was still early in the day, the Gluhwein was cooking and the smell enveloped the market. After checking everything out, we headed back for town as we passed the Medieval Christmas market on the bus ride. We were at the wrong market last night (our bad) but happy accidents as we got to see the Sendlinger Tor market last night and then this VERY unique market today. Yep, everyone was in medieval attire and they had full sized pigs on spits and torture devices. LOL. It was really fun to look at these shops. Again each market is a bit different. I just read on the Internet there are 24 markets in Munich. LOL. I think we hit the big ones.
Let me jump back a few months. My friend Mary Stoffel is married to Mark, who is from Munich. We had lunch with them several months ago when we were planning this trip to get pointers from them. Mark gave us the lowdown on what to see and markets to be sure to hit. He was right about everything. I just wish they were here - now that would have been fun!
So after the Medieval market we decided to head back toward the main market at St. Mary's (Marienplatz) as I needed to pick up some ornaments and we were contemplating dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. We were there a few days ago, but it was too crowded to find a seat. Trip Advisor says it has both tourists and locals as regulars and even though touristy, it has excellent traditional Bavarian food. So deciding to go ahead and have an early dinner, we headed through the shops and back roads to the restaurant. It was just getting dark so I stopped occasionally to snap a few photos of the city lights and the Christmas lights. They were beautiful.
At the Hofbrauhaus we chose a seat and lucked out to have a very chipper waiter. As we struggled with the German menus, he said "How about English menus?" After seeing our sighs of relief he said "I'm a good boy". Ha Ha. So as we thought over the menu, he asked if we wanted drinks. In the past beer halls they have just said "two beers?" with the answer always being "water and diet Coke". So this time we ordered the usual - water and diet coke. Guy looked at me and then looked over at the beer being poured out of these huge tanks. I knew what he was thinking. One of us needs to try it and since he is allergic to alcohol that meant me. So I looked at the menu and saw they had different kinds of beer mixed with lemonade. Hmmmm. So when our waiter brought the coke and water I told him I didn't like beer but it was our last night in Germany and wondered if he thought I'd like the lemonade one. He said "Yes, it is delicious, my mom even likes it!". I'm not exactly sure how to take that...but I said ok and waited for its highly anticipated arrival to the table. When he sat it down it looked like beer and when I sniffed it, it had a nice smell, but when I took a swig...it was gross. He came back and asked me if I liked it, and I said "no, but I'm in Germany so we had to try it". He agreed it was an acquired taste that not everyone likes. :)
So on to the food. I ordered some kind of crispy pig belly with a bread dumpling and kraut. Guy ordered potatoes and pork sausages. Mine arrived first and I was told by my co-pilot to dig in. This was kinda like a prime rib...you work around the fat, but the meat in the middle is outstanding. I definitely won for the best meal tonight. The dumplings were like a round circle of dressing minus all the spices. However, the kraut was the best I've had so far. It wasn't as tangy as most but was more on the savory side. I even made Guy take a bite (he still isn't a kraut fan). We topped off the meal with apple struedel, of course, and it was spectacular. As we left, our waiter was taking an order from another table, but he made a point to look up and tell us goodbye. That was nice. :) The crowd at the restaurant was fun to watch. All kinds of people, both young and old, were enjoying the big open areas and by the time we were finishing up, the band was just beginning. A lady was dancing all by herself and apparently Guy cut a quick rug with her as he walked by, which evoked a huge smile from the lone dancer. I was walking ahead of him, so I missed his dancing with the stars audition, but was glad he made some old gal's night.
So we walked back through the Marienplatz market and smelled the gluhwein one last time before heading to the train. I snapped a few more pictures and it was a wonderfully crisp-cold night. On the way back to our hotel we talked about the past few days and what an adventure it had been. The markets are perfectly entertaining. There is always something to do, food to get, and music to listen to. Plenty of shopping and items were not outrageously priced. Our hotel was situated right by a subway station (Heimeranplatz) and was a quick train ride to anywhere in town. We never once got on the wrong train and even if we had it would have been no big deal to get back on the right track (pun intended). We never had a bad meal and the people are very kind to those who do not speak German. So with these lovely Munich Christmas market memories dancing around in our heads, we are off to bed as we have an early train ride tomorrow to Salzburg, Austria.
Stay tuned...more adventures to come!!
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