Munich

Next (and last) on our trip was Munich, yet another German city I'd never been to.  Seriously, for having lived in the country for two years as a child, and having traveled there three times as an adult (before this trip), how did I manage to not have gone to these cities?!  

We had a slight adventure on our train ride from Berlin to Munich.  We'd booked a direct ticket so that we wouldn't have to lug our suitcases off and on to several trains.  Once per trip is enough stress for my mind and my back.  It was going to be a long ride--6+ hours.  On German trains, you can pay extra for an assigned seat, or you can take your chances on finding seats together.  We took the chance and didn't book assigned seats.  We got seats together straight away, and after an hour, we were able to move and get seats together with a table.  This was great, because with the wi-fi on the trains, we could get work done on our computers with plenty of space to set up the "office."

Well, about 4 hours in, I notice (despite my headphones), that there was a lot of commotion and noise.  We were stopped in a small town, and nearly everyone was getting up and getting their things to get off.  It seemed slightly chaotic, which is weird for Germans.  After seeing the confusion on our faces, someone explained, "The brakes are stuck.  This train is not going anywhere.  We must all get off.  There is another train for Munich right now...if you cannot get on that one, there will be another in 30 minutes."

Ugg.  So we packed up our computers, quickly put away all our things, and got off the train in Nowheresburg, Germany.  We stood out on the platform in the cold, windy rain, confused about where to go to get on the other train to Munich.  Before we figured it out, the train conductor announced that they'd fixed the brakes, and we could get back on our original train.

Here's what is weird/funny about what happened next.  All the Germans dashed to get back on the train...I would assume to score a good seat within the non-assigned seating system.  Nope.  Everyone went back to where they originally were...leaving the rare table seats open for me and Maple.  I'm still not sure that I understand why we had to get off and back on if the brakes were that easily fixed...but I wasn't thrilled about having to lug my suitcase off and on for what seemed to be almost any reason at all.

That said, we arrived in Munich a few hours later, happy to be done with trains for a good long time.

One day while there, we went to take an afternoon walk to see the city and get some lunch.  We stumbled upon a restaurant that it turns out is a pretty famous one in Munich!  You can read about the Augustiner HERE.  I ordered Bavarian wild boar meatballs with mushrooms and a German type of pasta.  It was delicious!

The inside was beautiful to look at!

The outside of the building.

Next, we headed to .  Here's a funny story for you... Maple is notorious for pretending she speaks the local language.  She's really good at making up gibberish with the accent of wherever we are.  So when we had been back in Bonn, she couldn't remember how to pronounce the name of one of the cities we were going to, and kept calling it Glockenspiel.  I thought it was one of her made-up words. Later, when I was reading about the top things to see/do in Munich, I read about the famous Glockenspiel--a giant cuckoo clock in the tower of the town hall.  I got so excited to tell her that the word she made up is real and actually exists!... only to learn that she already knew the word had existed and had used one of the few German words she knew to refer to the town we'd gone to.

Here's the town hall (called a Rathaus) with the famous Glockenspiel.  We didn't hang around to see it cuckoo at us.

Those people in the middle green part move around when it cuckoos.

We wandered around until we found the Marienplatz ... It had this giant maypole for festivals.

What was amazing was that even though it was a weekday and 3pm, the square was filled with people drinking huge steins of beer.  This fountain had probably 12-15 people around it, all with their beer steins just sitting on the edge of the fountain.

I was trying to get a picture of all the beer steins when I noticed that guy's hat.

I mean, that is one awesome hat!

All of a sudden, the church bells began ringing and it was so beautiful!!!  Just from this one spot we were standing, we could see 3 churches with bell towers that were sounding out the hour.  But we knew there were even more all around.  It was so pretty to listen to!

We stopped into a tourist souvenir shop to buy some gifts (for others and ourselves).  One of the main things this store sold were decorated eggshells.  The egg is blown out of the egg, and then other decorative holes are punctured into the shell, and it is dyed and then hand painted.  They were so beautiful and obviously so fragile.  Well, you know something had to happen, right?!

I had picked out one that I wanted to buy, and had the ribbon it hangs from secured around my fingers, and the shell held safely in my left palm.  With my other hand, I was looking at another shell. The saleswoman was nervous that I was holding more than one in my hands, and so she reached to hand me a bowl to hold the eggs in.  It was a really tight space, and this one tourist refused to move to give us any space.  As I reached for the bowl...I knocked the shelf holding the eggs and several went flying up in the air...and then down to the ground in a crash.

Everyone in the store just cringed.

I stepped aside so that the cleaning woman could clean up the mess.  The tourist still refused to move from the spot, so the saleswoman assumed she had broken the eggs.  I spoke up to say it was me.  She kept apologizing that I would have to pay for the broken eggs, and I said I understood.  When I got up to the counter, that same tourist had gone and planted herself there!  I was sort of ready to push her out of my way.  Anyway, I paid for the broken eggs, plus the one I wanted (which was still safe in my hand...).

A few minutes later, Maple went up to the counter to purchase hers.  I saw that she had one similar to the one I'd been looking at when the crash happened.  I told her there was a prettier one than the one she'd chosen, but she didn't want to leave the line (due to the pushy tourists), and so she asked me to go get it.  As I walked back over to the scene of the original crime, there was a slight gasp across the store...as if everyone thought I was the world's biggest (and dumbest) klutz.  I grabbed the egg, handed it to Maple, and said, "I'm outta here!)

I went outside to wait and got to look at this pretty pretty while she bought her eggs.

The cleaning lady had hid one of the broken eggs in the trash, signaling at me to be quiet about it.  While I appreciated her kindness, I also wanted to do the right thing and pay for what I'd broken.  But I also didn't want her to get in trouble.  So when the saleswoman was ringing me up, she said, "You broke two, correct?"  I answered, "Well, actually, I believe that I broke three."  She responded, "Well, I only saw two, and I think they were from the cheapest rack."  I was thankful for both women's kindness in an awkward moment, and only ended up paying about 15 euros for the two broken and the one that I did want.

On our way back to the hotel (with our treasures in tow) we saw this pretty building...

And this gorgeous door.

It was a good time, and I enjoyed Munich a lot.  Before we knew it, we were back in Italy, and then back in the Middle East.  It was a great trip, and yet we were so glad to be home once that time came!