It's warming up as we head south through Germany and to points beyond. This change is most welcome. I brought so few cold weather clothes, thinking "summer" meant "summer" everywhere. The constant 50s and 60s in Amsterdam were quite unpleasant. I'm far happier now.
Stopped at a rest stop again on the way. They had a big cafeteria-like area with schnitzel and bratwurst, then right next to that, a Burger King. I don't get why Burger King is so ubiquitous in Europe, but it is. McDonald's I expected. But not Burger King. I'm a little curious to try it and see how similar it is to America, but for now I'm sticking to local/traditional dishes. I'm finding that food is as big a part of experiencing a place as seeing the sights.
We are staying at the same franchise of Hostel in Munich as we did in Frankfurt, and I like it better than the Amsterdamian one. I'll have lots of opinions about European hostels by the time I get back.
As usual, the first item on our agenda was metro cards and a journey downtown. We got off the tram at Marienplatz, the plaza named for the Virgin Mary. There's a big fancy building there!
Walked around and saw the standard stuff:
God I love Germany.
A number of people went on a bike tour, the rest of us went to find dinner. Even though we're in Germany, what people really seemed in the mood for was Italian. So we got some delicious pizzas and pastas. I feel like I should be having only local foods within each country, but I guess that doesn't have to be a rule. Besides, I had my sausages already. I can make my own choices! I'm an adult!!!
After dinner, we went to probably the most well known beer garden in Munich, if not all of Germany: Hoffbräuhaus!!
Got the big ass beer, as you do:
Alright, fine, you caught me: I got two. Pretty soon our table looked like this:
Yes, we got cards and played a drinking game. Did you know in Germany instead of Jacks and Queens they have B and D? It's true! I suspect that's simply what their word for Jack and Queen starts with - king is the same because the German is König - but I'm not 100% certain. Also, that didn't help us figure out which was which. We were playing a game where you have to guess if a card is going to be higher or lower than the one before, and someone guessed "higher!" And flipped over...a "B". And we all just sort of stared blankly at it, as if hoping it would explain itself to us.
The Biergartens close relatively early, at least for a place where one is expected to do some heavy drinking. So we journied on back to the hostel via the tram and turned in for the night. The next morning was slow and sleepy, at least for me - we had nothing scheduled til noon, and I was in need of some catching up. Ambled down to breakfast 10 minutes before it ended to find a lot of my group had made the same choice. We tossed around ideas of things to do until our meeting time, and a few people wanted to see a church they had passed on the bike tour, so we set out for that.
We also saw the clock tower do its little show:
The little figures move around to glockenspiel tunes. Woop woop.
The church is under reconstruction, so the outside kind of looks like those sections of a mall that they're redoing where they have a big flat wall with promises of what's to come painted on:
But the inside was nice. Very churchy.
The rest of the group wanted to check out a flea market of some sort, but I am all but totally uninterested in souvenir shopping. My souvenirs are experiences (and/or this blog). I wanted to see the Munich cathedral, which is apparently the biggest church in the city. So I set out to find it on my own.
I love seeing these big European churches. I think religious leanings aside, anyone would have to be impressed not only by the imposing structure - which on its own is grand enough - but also by the reality that the architects, the builders, the stone carvers - every one involved was putting forth their best effort not for themselves, but for something greater.
When I got into the Munich cathedral, the sign at the front said photos could be taken for private use only, so I thought, okay, here I go:
Picked a pew and sat for a bit. Maybe 10 minutes later, I decided to also take a picture of the ceiling:
And immediately a man in a suit appeared and barked, "kein photo! No pictures!"
You sure about that?
On my way out, I checked out the sign again, which now said "No sightseeing! No photographs!"
Well how can I be expected to know the sign changed its mind. Come on.
We met back at Marienplatz at noon to load up on the bus and make our way to the day's excursion: Schloß Neuschwanstein, a castle about 2 hours outside of Munich. Here is some scenery from the drive there:
And some scenery from the there there:
That smaller yellow castle is not the castle. It's the other castle.
We had to hike, or really just walk, up a winding steep road to get to Neuschwanstein itself. Here it is, finally in view:
And here's the scenery from the top, AKA the reason they built it here:
Took the tour of the place, which I expected to be extensive, but it was actually quite short considering the size of the place. The castle was built by and for King Ludwig II who died before its completion, and since he was funding it privately, it never got finished. We got what felt like halfway through the tour and the guide just sort of stopped and said "well, those are all the rooms that got completed. Enjoy the gift shop."
The Biltmore House tour is way better, go America rah rah.
More views:
Apparently this castle was the insipration for the one in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Neato.
Back down the steep road and onto the bus. On our drive back to Munich, the news reached us that SCOTUS had ruled gay marriage legal in all 50 states. Everyone cheered. No one on the tour seemed upset by the decision. Kind of gives you hope. Makes me wonder if my kids and grandkids will see this like my generation sees the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Like: gay people used to not be able to marry? What the hell was wrong with you guys??
As expected, Facebook was blowing up with people's comments and opinions by the time I got back in Wi-Fi range that night. It pleased me to see almost everyone in support. The few that had a dissenting opinion, though, without exception cited Christian strictures as their defense. Here's what I don't undestand: no one in America, NO ONE, would ever try to defend a law with "Allah wills it" or "Hinduism decrees it". Those are the kinds of statements that would end careers in this country. So why does a mangled version of Jesus's message get so much leeway?
Alright. That's as far as I'm going to venture into that dangerous territory. Back to traveling.
Arriving back in Munich, the bus dropped us off just a block from what is apparently the other famous beer garden, Augustiner-Keller:
It was basically the outdoor Hoffbräuhaus. Had a cookout kind of vibe. Big line to order your meats (I got spare ribs) and get yet another big ass beer. But before the sun even set, I was tired, and many people felt the same. Some people turn up; we turned in.
It was much-needed. I am on the thin thin border of running myself ragged on this tour. Partying every night, waking up early every morning, and running through a whirlwind of European cities in the process. By the time you read this, I will have visited two more destinations. I'm not even falling behind on this blog, that's just how fast we're moving. On the day we arrived in Munich, I could still say that I had been in Amsterdam "yesterday".
I hope that doesn't sound like a complaint, of course. Just the facts.
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