Go On Without Me

The Hofbrauhaus regular, Ol' Greybeard, didn't appreciate being documented.

Back at Chris's in Basel, Mike and I debated for a while which German city to visit, between our hike in Lucerne and his splitting off to Amsterdam. The options were Munich, Freiburg, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt. We had little doubt that Munich would be most interesting, but it was a difficult destination logistically. Munich put Mike and Mark a twelve hour bus ride away from Amsterdam, and my return to Basel was no straight shot either. Yet in the end we decided seeing Munich's offerings was worth our time. Forcing an overnight twelve hour bus ride on Mark was deserved torture also.

Supermarkets still had plenty of "American" Independence Day specialties a week after July 4.

A train got us from Lucerne to our "layover" in Zurich without a hitch, but then the bus from Zurich through Austria to Munich was a pain. German border patrol at Lindau selected our bus for a random search at 0600. About a quarter of the bus passengers needed to unpack their stuff for a search by the police. None of us were searched; Mike was thanking the heavens that he didn't need to unpack his perfectly packed bag. The whole ordeal delayed our arrival by about an hour and a half.

Neuhauer Straße, the main pedestrian/tourist artery

Hirmer, a men's clothing store, keeps these red flowers up for three seasons.

Upon arrival, our hostel wasn't ready to put us in rooms yet, but they were happy to store our bags. Then off we went to explore. Our plan was to explore the heart of the city on the first day and then the outskirts on bike the second day. A path to the Englischer Garten park via the Viktualienmarkt allowed us scope out all of the middle of Munich and figure out what we wanted to do for dinner.

Karlsplatz

Neues Rathaus at Marienplatz with the Mariensäule monument to the Virgin Mary

Odeonsplatz

Our walk took us through Karlsplatz and then Marienplatz before arriving at the legendary Viktualienmarkt. Marienplatz and Odeonsplatz, for you history buffs, were two sites for Hitler's infamous Beer Hall Putsch, the failed Nazi coup which lead to Hitler's rise in popularity and also his brief imprisonment.

Classic German figurines atop a tower of the town hall

Viktualienmarkt was our lunch stop. I have never seen so much meat in my life. You cannot help but start window shopping for meat. It is store after store after store of chicken, beef, and pork. Sausages and rumps and ribs are hanging there for the taking. Mouthwatering. Plenty of public tables in the area for the lunch-goers. With cheap German prices, especially after being conditioned to Switzerland's steep costs, I wish I could have eaten there for a whole week. Even with that much time, you couldn't come close to exhausting their offerings.

Dinner awaits!

After lunch, still waiting for our hostel check-in to open up, it was time to stake out a resting spot at the park to the north. From the meat market, we passed the Hofbrauhaus, Bavaria's state-run brewery and restaurant. A quick look inside all but secured its spot for our dinner. The raucous free-for-all inside with scrumptious heaps of meat and large mugs of beer instilled doubt that any other restaurant in the city could tempt us more. What could be better?

Every bite was amazing, but I just can't get enough spätzle noodles.

Hofgarten

Looking for a place to rest in the Englischer Garten, we ran into the same problem here as Phil and I did back in Italy and most of Europe: they don't have a lot of fluffy grass. But we did eventually find a spot to lie down in under a tree and recuperate until check-in. On the way back to the hostel, we saw a couple other landmarks, but Mike and Mark were set on showering before doing anything else. They fawned over the hostel's shower. Hofbrauhaus was calling after a bit of proper rest in a bed.

Kӧnigsplatz

Glyptothek at Kӧnigsplatz

The next day required a decision on which museum to visit in Munich. Mike, as a car buff, was really keen on the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum, a museum featuring a large assortment of old cars, trains, buses. Mark and I had no objections. We entered after a breakfast of Greek rotisserie lamb and a walk by Theresienwiese, the original Oktoberfest location. Theresienwiese wasn't much to look at, under construction in preparation for the next Oktoberfest.

One of the competitors in the first round-the-world automobile race, from New York to Paris across the Pacific in 1908.

To me the museum was a very worthwhile visit - I was the slowest one to be done with exploring the place! Though mostly in German, it was still very educational. Once out, we tracked down a set of bikes and rode over to Schloss Nymphenburg. (Bikes in Munich were much more expensive than either Paris or Lucerne, by the way.) This was a marvelous palace to stare at even from just the outside. It stretched for what looked like hundreds of rooms. After a walk through the palace's forested grounds and a little snack break at which I learned that the Saturn variety of peaches are one of the world's best fruits, we picked our bikes back up and rode off to Munich's Olympic Park from 1972.

Looking back on the palace from its "backyard".

The Nymphenburg Palace's foyer building

In an effort to get me to my bus on time, we rushed through a small part of the Olympic Park. None of the stadia lent themselves to good pictures anyway, so nothing lost in that department. Unbeknownst to us, there was some sort of ongoing event. We wandered with our bikes onto a race track, and a policeman had to usher us away after we stood around for too long. It's not Germany if you don't get yelled at. After taking the below pic beside the race track, I wasted no time saying quick goodbyes and getting my bike rolling. Olympic Park was a bit of a maze from which to escape, and I had to make sure that I had time to figure out the bike rental return. Also I needed to get my bag from the hostel's storage.

I don't have many days left on my great summer adventure, just Bern, Zurich, and Japan - but from here on out, I'm on my own. Time to put the travel skills I learned in the company of friends to the test by my lonesome.

😵 My heroes...

Phil and I were a well-oiled machine which I took for granted. I had an amazing time with all my other friends along the way, of course, but few people communicate with ESP as well as he and I do. I was probably too hard on Mike for not coming into the vacation knowing things like how much can be done in a day, the best times of day to eat, how to save money, and so on. You pick up a lot of this wisdom when you are away from home for months. I wanted to save Mike the trouble of making the mistakes Phil and I did, but I think I came off as pushy. I suppose part of the adventure is to experiment and figure these things out for yourself. Mike was agreeable as always but seemed wary of, or put off by, my decisions. If you're reading this, Mike, or more likely Danielle, I want you to know I'm sorry for being so pushy.

All the nights I don't remember
Are the ones I can't forget
When all your heroes get tired
I'll be something better yet

The lively Hofbrauhaus band keeps the party rolling 15 hours a day.