We needed a distraction from the huge crowds and many liters of beer of Oktoberfest. So we did some wandering around in Munich. This gave us an opportunity to appreciate crowds and beer in other areas of the city 🙂
Marienplatz (St. Mary’s Square) is the town square at the heart of Munich. It’s been around since the Middle Ages – a place in which wondrous public events like knightly tournaments and executions were held. Although we didn’t notice any tournaments or executions, there was still a lot of people in the platz.
The main attraction in Marienplatz is the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall). It’s a beautiful Gothic building. A large crowd appears in the middle of the day to check of the Glockenspiel, silly ceramic statues that parade around in a circle in the tower of the Rathaus for a few minutes.
Leading in and out of Marienplatz is a pedestrian-only street, lined with shops and restaurants. It was really nice being able to have a leisurely walk through the city center.
As we walked around, we admired many beautiful public buildings. I have no idea what the buildings were, but they looked cool.
There’s something wrong with you if you visit Munich without checking out a brauhaus or two. Needless to say, we had to stop in 🙂 Here are photos of brauhauses by Augustiner and Paulaner breweries. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the most famous of them all, the Hofbrauhaus. But hey, I’ve been to the Hofbrauhaus in Vegas many times – that should count, right? 🙂
Guess what we did inside the brauhauses? 🙂
By now, you must be thinking that all we did in Munich was go inside some brew place and drink beer. This was not the case. In fact, we spent a relaxing afternoon outdoors in the English Gardens. It’s a large park in Munich, complete with running trails and ponds. Then we drank beer here 🙂
I’m not really sure why it’s called the English Gardens. There seemed to be a bit of Asian influence at this park. Case in point – this large pagoda in the middle of the park. Lots of people liked to have a picnic on the benches by the pagoda, listening to the oompa loompa band playing in the balcony.
We enjoyed a lovely meal here as well. I was introduced to an excellent dish called schweinshaxe. Otherwise known as roasted ham hock, or pork knuckle. It’s like a turkey leg, but it’s pork! Had to wash it down with a mas of beer too 🙂
Alex, who owns his own bar in Mexico, found some work even in Munich 🙂
And that wraps up our stay in Munich. Next stop – Prague!
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