Our European Adventure Begins

Bob and I made it safely to Munich after 10 1/2 hours on our Lufthans jet. We both got a bit of sleep and arrived a bit tired but without issue. By the time we went through customs and unpacked it was 4:00 pm. Our hotel is clean and nice and centrally located and convenient to the train station.  We both are surprised a bit at how crowded the streets are with people cars, motorcycles and tons of bicycles.

We went to a very good Italian restaurant last night located right up the street from our hotel and we both were asleep by 8:00 pm Munich time. Bob slept most of the night but I woke up at 2:00 AM and stared at the ceiling for a few hours, finally falling back asleep until 7:30. We woke up fairly refreshed and ready to take on our day. 

Our hotel has a wonderful buffet breakfast with good strong coffee. And once we were refueled and refreshed we headed over to the Marienplatz and were amazed at the sights. 

We strolled through many of the streets and made our way to the New Town Hall in time to watch the figures and glockenspiel at 11:00. We actually climbed the stairs (307 but whose counting) to the top of St. Peter's church across the way for a bird's eye view of the clock and plaza at the New Town Hall joust and perform the Dance of the Coopers. 

At the top of St. Peter's we also had wonderful views of the entire city including Olympic park and the BMW Weld, our destination for tomorrow. 

We then wandered down to the Viktualienmarkt to check out the beer gardens and enormous outdoor market. 

After all that climbing and walking around it was certainly time to try a beer and have a bite to eat. We headed over to the Rathskeller and did just that. We had our first beer - delicious! And an incredible salad. So far no Wienershnitzel for us!

Once refreshed we strolled around a bit more and located the Hofbrauhaus and did a cursory tour - we definitely will be coming back here! 

We are both surprised at the number of people smoking everywhere as well as the large numbers of women in fully covered - even seen a few in burkas.

Finished off our day at the recommendation of the hotel concierge at the Lowenbrau beer garden where we enjoyed yet another beer and pretzels of course. Enjoyed. My delicious meal of stuffed cabbage and Bob hade the sausage platter with some outstanding sauerkraut, which I don't normally enjoy. This was tasty!

So many interesting sights on our walk back: bicycles have their own pathways AND signals.

And apparently you CAN spell Bob with more than one "O." 😃😉😉

 

Back in our room and now it's time to catch some zzz's - off to see the "BMW Welt" (apparently a holy place) tomorrow.