Munich, Germany - Aug 17 - 18, 2009

We hopped on the train and headed south down to Munich. The trip was just over 3 hours. When we arrived we spent about an hour wandering around getting rates at different hostels/hotels. In the end we decided to stay at the Ludwig Hotel. It's kind of a dive, but it's close to everything and was the cheapest we found. As an added bonus, they had an amazing breakfast buffet!

We spent the rest of the evening wandering around near the station. It is a very weird mix. It seems like everything is just randomly thrown together. There are very poor people, rich businessmen, students, hippies and everything in between all congregating in this area. If you walk down any of the streets near the train station you'll notice that everything jumps around in the same random order, you'll have a 5 star hotel next to a sleezy sex shop, next to a pizza hut, next to a youth hostel, next to a high end clothing store, next to cheap dollar store, etc. Along the streets the cars are in the same fashion, broken down old jalopies and porsches every where.

We started walking to the old town, listening to all the buskers. Some were very good! There was a great string-band quartet (Cello and 3 violins) that we watched for a while.


In the morning we did a free city tour that took about 3 hours. Our guide, Kai, was VERY knowledgeable. He showed us quite a few things that normally on the tour, but he noticed on his own. We visited the major churches and landmarks. We watched the Glockenspiel (a show in the main plaza. The figures in the picture below dance around 3 times every day for about 5 - 10 minutes. It represents the wedding of one of the kings.


One of the funny things about Munich is the town halls. There are 2. The new town hall was built to replace the old one (we don't remember the exact years). They designed the new hall like an old cathedral so would look even older than the original. The old town hall was destroyed during World War II so the city decided to rebuild it. Now the the Old Town Hall is WAY newer than the New town hall... Confusing, but interesting.

Old Town Hall (but really the newest one):


The old town hall is to the left:



The tour guide pointed out small things like a cannonball that was still lodged in a church from the 30 years war! It actually fell out during the bombing in WWII, but a civilian kept it in his house for 2 years, returned it to the church and the placed it back in the wall.


Maximilian I's Opera House. This opera house was designed with a water reservoir in the ceiling in case of fire. Unfortunately the building caught on fire and the water system didn't work! Why? Because it was winter and the reservoir was frozen!! The architect didn't think to heat the emergency water system... The man in charge of the opera house at the time ran down the street to Hofbrauhaus (the largest beer house in the world) and convinced everyone to make a giant human line to the opera house so they could pass beers along and extinguish the fire. Great idea, except all the mugs were empty when they got to the end of the line! hahaha The entire building burned and was later reconstructed.


That evening we joined a pub crawl tour. "The Beer Challenge". We made our way through 3 of the biggest beer halls in the world and finished in a Youth Hostel Pub next to the main train station. We met some great people on the tour from all over the world (Canada/USA/Britain/Ireland/Australia/China/Japan). We had a blast and definitely had our fill of German Beer. Those 1 litre mugs catch up to you in a hurry!! We decided to only eat Pretzels in the bar, the alternative was fish on a stick! haha



Mmmmm Fish on a Stick!!!

Cologne, Germany - Aug 13, 2009

On Friday we went to Koln (Cologne) for the day. It is about a 1 hour train ride from Essen. This is definitely the highlight of Germany so far. What an amazing city! As soon as we stepped off the train we were greeted by the Dom (Cathedral). This is the largest cathedral in Germany. It is MASSIVE! I had to back up a couple blocks away from it to fit it all in the shot! We spent the morning walking along the downtown area, stopping to take pictures of the old buildings and churches.

Just as our day was getting started, disaster struck and our camera stopped working!! It had been giving us problems since Mexico and it finally decided to stop working. We continued checking out the sights without it. We were pretty pissed off at the camera, and then it started to rain... Luckily it didn't last long. The sun broke through and it turned into a beautiful afternoon.

Edgar had to write an exam in the morning, but when he was finished he met up with us. He was kind enough to head back to his apartment and grab his camera before joining us, so we were able to continue taking pictures.

We checked out an old market. The area was packed with great architecture, old churches, and a ton of restaurants and pubs. We made our way along the cobblestone roads down to the river. There is a Chocolate factory and museum along the river, but it was already closed for the day when we got there.

Since we were in Germany, of course we had to have some sausage!

Cologne is famous for a type of beer that is brewed throughout the city, called Kolsch. We had to stop for a glass! Edgar guided us to a world famous pub. The beer was pretty tasty, but we didn't have time to sit around drinking!

After exploring the old town market, we walked through the new market. It was full of shops similar to Konig Sallee in Dusseldorf. It was like a giant outdoor shopping mall. The best shop was definitely, hands down, without a doubt, the Lego Store!!! They had every lego set currently offered. Plus you could buy retro lego men and sets from the 70s/80s/90s. They also have pick-a-brick areas where you just fill a container with whatever parts you want and pay a flat fee like $15 per container. This leads me to some great news! We're going to Legoland!!!! It is about 45 minutes away from Munich, so Carolina agreed to take me while we are there! There is a very good chance that I will blow my entire trip's budget on lego, catch a cheap flight home and live in my parents basement building castles for the rest of the summer. If the blog suddenly stops, you'll know why...