A Day in the Life of Munich

With only one day to spend in Munich, it was really up to us to figure out how we were going to spend our time. I guess u could say we figured it out... We arrived by train at 7am and luckily, we were able to check into our HOTEL. We watched a little MTV, saw a commercial for this annoying bird ringtone about 25 times (during an hour span) and then got ourselves up and ready!

We made our way down towards Marienplatz and on the way we saw an ice skating rink! We promptly decided that we would hit that up during the evening hours, which we did (we will discuss later). In walking down the street, we walked right into the Glochenschpiel ceremony and got some great footage for u folks! We were dying because we read our little pamphlet and they basically gave it to us straight- u would watch this thing for 5 minutes, be completely over it and want to bail. But it said u had to wait for the end because there was this rooster, named Hans, that would come out and if u didnt see that part, u didnt truly get the experience. Us being the stupid American suckers that we are did stick around to see Hans... OMG, probably the dumbest thing we have ever seen in our whole lives! And when he cockadoodledoo'd, it didnt even sound like a rooster. We were dying!!!!

On the way to the Kartoffelhaus (potato house) where we wanted to have lunch, we were disappointed to find out that it didnt open for another half hour (it was 11:30am and we hadnt eaten yet). But we did know that the Hofbrauhaus was just around the corner and would provide the perfect "shelter" to absorb our extra time! Oh boy... where do we start with this one!!!!!

The Hofbrauhaus is the oldest brewery and beer hall in Munich and we were told by Colleen's Mom and Alison that this was a "must see." And they were right!!!! At 11:30am, in we stumbled to find the place full of people, the oom-pah band in full force (and u cant wait to see the pictures and video of these guys!!!), and every single person in the joint was staring at us! We saddled ourselves up with some huge steins of beer and started making friends left and right. All we wanted was a picture with the band, but they INSISTED that we come up on the stage, Colleen was forced to sit on the accordion player's lap, and at this point, we were a full-fletched spectacle! People were making faces at us, taking our pictures (this is when we were back at our table) and really just entranced with the two of us. We decided that this was getting a little out of sorts and we NEEDED to eat by this point. So off we went to the Kartoffelhaus, a little later than our initial ETA (estimated time of arrival), and had the best beast of a potato lunch. We took pictures :)

It was certainly time for a nap after all of this stimulation so back we went to the HOTEL and took a little cat nap. We woke up and were so pumped because it was ICE SKATING TIME!! You have to understand, too, that Munich was unusually hot (it was like 45 degrees) for this time of year so we were so thankful to have nice weather once again. We made our way down to the rink and $20 later, we were on ice skates, trying to figure out whether our skating skills were condusive to videotaping. Colleen decided to stay back and let me have the first crack at the ice- surprisingly enough, those lessons I took when I was 5 paid off... I didnt eat shit once! Colleen was thoroughly amused and caught the entire thing on camera but after about 3 laps and the 80s song had ended, it was her turn! She made her way out onto the ice, a bit shakey at first, but she was doing just fine until this older lady completely bailed (think banana peel) right in front of her. I was manning the camera from the sidelines, trying not to laugh, but I knew that Colleen was going to try and help this lady up and I wasnt sure how it was going to pan out. Sure as shit, she bent down and somehow got this lady back on her skates without so much as losing her balance- nice work Colleen!!!!! We got braver as the session went on, and we were getting really bored because the music sucked, so we decided it was time to take the camera for a spin on the ice. We actually did just fine and neither of us fell down once! Yeah team!

With sore legs and thirsty, and HUNGRY, palettes, we decided it was time to vacate the rink and hang up our skates in Munich for good. Luckily, there was a little bratwurst stand adjacent to the rink and I was able to get the brat I so desperately wanted. Praise the Lord I did, that was one of the best dogs I have ever had! Colleen, the veggie, opted to hold out for the carmel cone explosion at Haagen Dazs- we had canvased the place earlier in the day to make sure they had her favorite flavor and they did!!!!! Ok, that takes care of the hungry part, so what does that leave us with???

Ahhh, the thirsty part!!!! Where could we go to quench our deepest thirsts?? THE HOFBRAUHAUS!!!!! Yes, we went there twice in one day! So much for landmarks, tourist traps (maybe this was one but who cares!!!), sites, etc... we needed a big beer and we needed it now! The place was seriously overflowing with people and we had no clue where to sit. A waiter found us a place for two in the middle of this table (think picnic bench) but we couldnt really figure out how we were going to climb over the people on the outside. I guess the waiter kind of took care of that by rushing the poor people at the one end to make room for us!

So, now its us and this other older couple at our very own table in the back! We were sitting there for about 10 minutes, again, everyone in the place staring at us like we were famous or they had seen us someplace before (probably at the Hofbrauhaus in the morning!!!), and we were spotted by these two Russian guys with Dumb & Dumber haircuts. We had been chit chatting it up with the couple on our right, they were a very nice married couple from Germany and they were with their son, but the guys desperately wanted to come and sit with us and that is exactly what they did. It wasnt really that fun though because they couldnt speak a word of English, so thru broken Russian and English, we established that A) they still didnt speak English, B) our beers were bigger than theirs (we made fun of them) and C) we needed a large and in charge pretzel!!!!!!!!!!!! U have to see the size of this thing, we took a picture (that would be weird!), it was bigger than our heads and equally as tasty! Finally, the Russians got the point and took off into the sunset in search of some vodka or something. We immediately started talking to the family again, laughing about the Russians, and saying "PROST" (cheers!) about every five minutes so we could get those big beers down quicker!

I think the waiter wanted us out because all of sudden, he just came up and told us how much the bill was. Since the father and the waiter were speaking German, we didnt understand that he said he was paying for our beers too! We pulled out our money to pay and the waiter told us "no, he paid for them so its all taken care of!" Wooooooo hoooooo!!!! I dont think we have been that happy this entire trip- Trip to Munich- $500, Large Pretzel- $5, Big Stein of Beer- $10, Having your big stein of beer paid for by the couple on your right- PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!

We exchanged email addresses and home addresses with their son, he was really nice, and told them we would send them the 47 pictures we took at the table. They were truly a great find! The rest of the night was not quite as eventful as the former part of the day... we ended at Hard Rock over some nachos that actually tasted like nachos and some electric ice teas and a free beer! It was certainly time to go home at this point, we had a long train ride in the morning to Florence, and we needed to catch some ZZZZZ's in the HOTEL bed that was sooooo comfortable!

All in all, we love Munich and would have loved to have spent more time there... guess that means we have to go back. Damn!

Thats it for now and we will catch up with everyone from Italia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PROST,

Kyle & Colleen