Day 150-seeing the sights in downtown Munich

   June 2-Our lack of sleep the night before almost made us feel jet-lagged today.  At least that is the excuse we used for sleeping in this morning.  We finally got up and around, dropped by a bakery for some yummy German pastries and rolls, and arrived at the Zink’s around 11 am.  Martina was off celebrating the birthday of a work colleague, so Hape and Julia showed us around Munich.

   We headed downtown to watch the glockenspiel, shown above, play at the neues Rathaus, on the right, at noon.  Then, we wandered the pedestrian zones with all of the other tourists, checking out the shops.  We walked through the Fraunenkirche church, which gave the kids an idea of the Gothic style of decor.



Statue of St. George killing the
dragon, inside Frauenkirche.



   Our wanderings finally led us to the Obletter toy store, which had been Spencer’s goal since we had arrived in Germany.  He had been told for the past couple of months not to buy any more Playmobil toys in Iceland, because they are cheaper in Germany.  Finally, the moment had come!  Sally and the girls were also looking for Playmobil figurines that were only released in Germany, where Playmobil is based.  Spencer came away happy; prices were definitely cheaper than in Iceland.  However, the others did not have any luck finding German-only Playmobils.  Thereafter, Spencer’s primary interest was to return to the hotel so he could play with the new toys!  Unfortunately for him, we did not do that, but continued to see the sights of Munich instead.  

Fruit stand in Viktualienmarkt.



Traditional May Pole in Viktualienmarkt.

   Since everyone was hungry by this point, we walked through the Viktualienmarkt outdoor market which had all kinds of food vendors.  Only Shan and Hape found sandwiches to their liking, so we all stopped in at a Bierstube restaurant and Sally and the girls had more Bavarian dishes.  We also drank some fine beers from Schneider-Weisse brewery. 



Strolling through the English garden.



   Martina caught up with us there and we all walked through the Residenz, which housed the government offices of the Bavarian state in the Renaissance and early modern times.  We crossed into the English garden, which is a wide park that follows the Isar river out of Munich to the northeast.  Spencer found a Hofbräuhaus Mass glass, which we picked up to save for him.  We wandered around the park’s paths and enjoyed the Sun and warm

Surfing Munich.

weather.  Hape led us along a canal of the Isar, that it was built solely for the aesthetics of the park.  In one location, the underlying concrete generates a wave in the canal and this wave has become popular among the locals to use for surfing.  We stood and watched them for a while.  One guy was quite good at it.  He boogied around on the wave for a while and then would slide back into the side and sit down on the concrete wall.  All of the others would take short runs before falling into the water.  

Martina, Hape, Sally, Alex, Spencer, Shan, and Joslyn
enjoy the beer garden at the Chinese tower.

   Continuing on, we came to the beer garden at the Chinese tower.  There we stopped for a couple beers and pretzels and to listen to the band play some traditional beer hall songs.  Spencer got to pull out his Playmobil toys and play with them and the kids also ran off to explore the area, so everyone had a good time.    We also got to watch a parade of various bachelor and bachelorette parties wander through.  It looked like they were all having a lot of fun.  Sally and I found a new mixed beer drink that is very tasty and refreshing: the Russ’n, which is a mixture of a Weizzen and limonade.  It has joined the Radler (biker), which is a mix of the helles (light) beer and lemonade that was popular over here twenty years ago, as a refreshing summer refreshment in Bavaria.  



Spencer slides down the hill.

   We left the beer garden and headed back towards the city center.  Along the way, we came across a hillside with one side covered in a plastic mesh.  I think that the plastic is in place to protect the soil to allow the grass to recover, but the many kids out enjoying the weather were using is as a long slide, instead.  We wandered around downtown for a short bit and then made our way back towards the hotel and Hape’s place.  We said good-bye to Hape and headed to our hotel.  Shan put the new SIM card he had bought today into his phone, so he now had a phone that works on the Continent!  The kids finally got to play with their toys for about an hour.  Then, they went to bed, and we adults got a little work done, before we hit the sack, too.