Munich is quite a big city full of squares, beer halls, food stalls & shops. Oh yes, the beer halls. We went for a beer at Augustiners during the walking tour...there really is nothing like German beer. Especially when it brought to you in a 1 litre stine, carried by a big busted wench who is juggling your stine amongst 11 others!! Quite an astonishing sight! Another interesting thing we saw was in Marienplatz....yes, another astronomical clock (the same as in Prague). Would you believe this clock was also voted the most disappointing tourist attraction in Europe....I think all our guides have been going to the the same training school & just getting their cities mixed up. It did live up to it's name for more than one reason. You see, the city still pays some old buggar to climb the stairs on the hour, every hour to press the button for the bells to ring & the show to start. Unfortunately, the old fella doesn't seem to understand the importance of time keeping for a clock & whilst we waited on 3 separate occasions, we have still yet to see the clock actually do it's stuff!! Apparantly, during last year's Oktoberfest, the clock didn't go off for an entire week!! It's ok though, Keith did a hilarious reinactment for us including the finale of a rooster squawking rather pathically once before disappearing onto the bowls of the clock tower. So our walking tour continued & before we knew it we were 4 hours in & it was all over. What an entertaining way to be introduced to a fantastic city.
That evening, we joined the infamous Munich Pub Crawl. It's slogan is "the best night you'll never remember"....sounded ominous! It started in the bar next door to the hostel & we were treated to 3 free cocktails (or beers) & 3 free shots. then it was off to the first of 3 beer halls. It was obligatory to drink a litre at each stop & there was only 40 minutes per beer hall.....a bladder control nightmare!! The night got pretty messy....lets just say that many cheeseburgers were consumed on the stagger back to the hostel at the end of the crawl & I'm sure that is the only reason why we all woke reasonably clear headed in the morning......errrr, ok, afternoon!! It was great fun though & I do recall (upon checking back over the photos) that we did come across an unfortunately dressed guy on his bucks night. He was in a full rabbit costume with a mini keg & several whisky bottles strapped to his back. His mates were having a good laugh....poor sucker!
The next day was Sunday & everything was shut....a little gem about Europe that we love...hmmmm, no Sunday trade...I like it! We wandered into town just to stretch our legs really (& to clear the cobwebs from the night before!)...it was pouring with rain by the time we hit Marienplatz (the main square) but we came across a bit of a mob scene. I guess cos the shops are shut, all the local buskers come out to take advantage of all he people wandering around at a losse end. Now when I say buskers, I don't mean the tragic mime artist you might stumble across in the Bourke Street Mall....no, every single one of these groups were incredible. First, there was a string quartet of girls playing Vivaldi & Bach...then we moved on & to a group of about 6 guys all playing random instruments. Guitar, violin, double bass, cello, giant card board box with bells hanging off it, vocals...I can't remember the rest! These guys were incredible & we would have stood & watched them for 40 minutes or more (along with about 200 other people). That's my idea of how to spend a Sunday afternoon....NO SUNDAY TRADE...what a shame I'm missing the election at home, this could have been my election promise!
One of the other awesome ways to kill an entire day in Munich is west of the city in the Engischer Gartens....or English Gardens! A massive city park complete with....
1. Nudie sunbaking
2. World's largest inner city beer garden
3. Manmade surfing wave in the river
4. Acres of rolling lawns to picnic on, play games on, ride horses on, nudie sunbake on!!
5. Giant Chinese Pagoda
6. Museums
7. Did I mention the world's oldest beer garden??
I'm sure there is also heaps more in the gardens but we walked around for almost an entire day & still only covered about a third. The nudie sunbaking was quite wierd (or maybe I'm just a prudish non-European cos there were heaps of people (mostly old men) with it all hanging out while families walked past, within wang-measuring distance & no-one seemed disturbed....except me & another English couple who were taking photos!! (Ok, so I took a photo too....but not cos I'm a pervert, just for the historical accuracy of this document.....honest!!). When Andrew looked at the photo, he said "Why would anyone wanna nude up like that & risk getting a burnt noodle??"....well said!! Sadly, as the photo suggests, this guy did have a burnt noodle but we didn't dare go any closer to ask the logic behind it....
Next, we moved on to the surfing wave. Now, we had heard lots of stories about the wave....we were a bit skeptical...being the big surfers that we are! We were soon proven wrong...there, spanning the width of the river (about 10 metres wide) was a wave...& people were surfing in it. It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen. The surfers would take it in turns to drop onto the wave from opposite sides of the bank, surf it for about 10 seconds (or as long as they could stay on) then they would be spat out down river before repeating it all over again! Not the sort of thing that would take off in Australia, but for a landlocked country it it probably the best they can do.
Then we hit the finale.....the world's largest inner city beer garden. Seats upwards of 5,000 people & serves beer (of course) & a plethora of hearty, traditional, German food. It was here that I met my next true love...the humble pork knuckle. A piece of pork the size of my head, on the bone, with a thick hood of salty crackling.....nomnomnomnom!! Heaven.....that's really all I have to say about the gardens...for me, as usual, is was all about the food.
On our final day in Munich, we shopped. We both came out with a pair of Birkenstocks....the only staple backpacker item we were missing from our arsenal....& what better place to buy them than their home, Germany! We also climbed the St Peterskirche tower...with it's 587 narrow, steep steps (yes, I counted them)...for an outstanding view over Munich. All the way over the where they will be holding Oktoberfest in a little over a month. I'll let you in on a little secret...we loved Munich so much that we slightly altered our travel plans in order to get a small taste of the festivites...how could we not, it is the 200th anniversary....hopefully I will live to tell the tale!
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