Munich, Germany

And then we reached Germany! Munich (Munchen) is a classy city. Pretty beat-up during WWII, the city has been restored beautifully. Everything is so nice, new and clean, and absolutely gorgeous. There are many different churches there, many excellent restaurants, great beer houses and beer gardens... and beer.
This is inside the first church we entered, St. Michael's, or St. Michaelskirche. The outside is under heavy construction, so I didn't have a good shot of that. But the inside was impressive, and almost completely reconstructed. Along with its sparkling white walls are artistic and structural relics from centuries past that were saved from the destruction of the War.

This one is a different church, the Frauenkirche. A two towered monster, this church gave us wonderful views all around the city. Including the next picture.

The center square, main square, of Munich is featured in this shot. Located between all those big buildings (the new Rathaus on the left--the new townhall--, a church on the right, and the old Rathaus behind it), the square is known as Marienplatz.

As you can see, there are many people gathered in the square below. It's normally a busy square, although the tourists all come for the hours of 11 and 12 to see the famous glockenspeil clock at the new Rathaus.

We are standing here in front of the new Rathaus in Marienplatz, the main square. The glockenspeil is on the front of the gothic building, and you can see the two towered Frauenkirche church in the background.

Here's a closeup of the glockenspeil in action. For 12 minutes or so on the hours of 11 and 12, the life size figures spin and turn to the traditional German music. Slightly melodramatic, though still interesting. It's worth checking out just because of all the hype, all the people, and the wonderful square that it takes place in.

We went to Munich's famous marketplace, the Viktualienmarkt. This market has all the fresh foods and spices as well as beer and sausages of all kinds, all ready to go. It's German custom to have their baked sausages and pretzels or bread (and beer) before lunch--although, being a bit behind our descendants, we got there a little after noon. There are beer gardens (biergartens), which by the way, are freakin huge in Germany, and it's all located right next to the main celebration area for Oktoberfest in... yes, that's right... October.

This is a famous beer house that Ab and I visited called the Hofbrauhaus. The ceilings were very nicely painted, which made the beer go down sooo much smoother.

I had a 'dunkel', which is fun to say. It means dark.

We cruised out to the Olympiapark to check out the artistic design to the home of the 1972 Summer Olympics.


Abby is standing in front of the Olympic Stadium, where soccer teams dueled it out for world supremacy back in 1972, and a few days from when we were there, Cher went on... I think.