Munich Day 4

Continued from Munich Day 3.

I had forgotten to mention that taxis in Munich are this odd cream colored things. Now that we got that out of the way, we shall continue.

Two days of partying, it’s time to rest this tired body a little. I can feel my body wearing down. So that means an easy day of sleeping in and then strolling around Munich checking out some of the sites in city center.

Germans love their meat.

First stop is at the Marienplatz.

Again, the New Town Hall. Looks pretty old to me…

The Glockenspiel at the New Town Hall. It’s basically a giant cuckoo clock. There are many life sized figures that would move around to the tune of the bells. The bells were to go off at 11am, 12pm during the summer, and at 5pm. We arrived with about 15 minutes til 12 so we waited around the plaza and watched the place slowly fill up with tourists.

The 12 o’clock bells went off. Then the other clock tower in the same plaza went off immediately after the Glockenspiel did(I guess they were synchronized not to conflict). Then we all sat there for a good 2 minutes while nothing happened. Did it break? Crickets? Nervous laughs and clearing of throats happened. Awkward…

Finally it starts and I must say the show was disappointing. The figures go around in a circle and then there are two knights on horses jousting.

The knight from Bavaria(in blue and white) wins the jousting and knocks the other knight back on his horse. Other than this, the figures just go around in a circle. Been there, done that. If you are ever in Munich and was debating if you should see this, I would suggest drinking over this.

Look at all the disappointed people.

Felt shop.

I hate cyclists. It’s universal. Pedestrians hate cyclists. Motorists hate cyclists. Even cyclists hate other cyclists. Fuck them all! Did I tell you that I am getting a new bike when I get back to Austin? I actually really am getting a bike. Must hate myself.

A piece of America in Munich, Starbucks.

Ass. No, wrong. Horse.

Everything is always getting restored year round. Everything!

The famous Hofbrauhaus!!!! It’s actually owned by the state government and over 400 years old. I shall drink and have lunch here.

Errrrrr….that’s a dog gnawing on a piece of meat almost as big as he is. These were our tablemates.

Meat and potatoes, how German.

Weisswurst, boiled in water.

You are supposed to eat it without the casing. Cut it in half and peel the skin off of the meat and eat it with sweet mustard. Or you can eat it by cutting both ends and sucking the white sausage out. Now the other phrase sheet that we saw the first night in Munich makes so much sense. Still funny though.

Of course, there is a band.

Hofbrauhaus is huge. It contains many different rooms and sections. Here’s the beer garden portion of it.

I believe Hitler used to make speeches here.

Italians. This week in Oktoberfest is known as Italian week. Not sure when the tradition started, but it’s been known for a long time now. This week, all the rowdy trouble making loud Italians descend onto Munich to go to Oktoberfest. They are definitely the rowdiest bunch. Some of them would drive up in an RV, park it and then others would drive a car up from Italy, stay at the RV while the original people in the RV would drive the car back to Italy. This would happen several times until finally the last group would drive the RV back to Italy.

Germans just can’t keep themselves from breaking shit.

Another view of the beer garden.

An area around city center contains a very high end shopping street. Many nice cars can been seen driving around in the area. This isn’t one of the more expensive ones, but I love these long hood vintage 911s. Speaking of 911s, I’ve seen many aircooled 911s getting driven around town. Doesn’t quite happen in the US as much.

How creative.

They love boobs in public places over here.

Lemon in coke. How European.

This again.

English Garden. It’s a huge park inside Munich.

Look at the size of it. This is just a small section of the park. Beautiful and serene.

Errr…..WTF. There are nudists just standing around in the park! There they were, conversing normally with fully clothed people. Apparently, this is very normal behavior here in Germany. Culture shock for me. They were also so tan(typical of nudists) that the Germans refer to them as “Orange People”.

I moved away from the nudists, not that there is anything wrong with it, and found a nice spot by the small stream. The weather was perfect in the low 70s and sunny. Time to relax and just take it all in.

Too bad it’s 110 degrees in Zilker Park, or else I would do this same thing over in Austin. There is one other odd thing that happened in the park. It’s weird enough that there are nudists just standing around in the park, but at one point, I saw a little girl of about 7 running around completely naked playing with another girl who was completely dressed. Then the little girl who was dressed got completely undressed and they both started running around the whole park playing. WTF!! They even had adult supervision, but no one else seemed to think that this was strange behavior. This is a pedophile’s heaven. Definite culture shock for me.

After being thoroughly shocked, it was time for me to turn back and get back home early.

Another one of those matte vinyl cars. Getting overplayed.

Sweet ass rides parked along the expensive shopping street. It felt like every other car was a Porsche 911. Here’s the funny thing, all the German sports car drivers were very civil. Then the people who drove the Ferraris and Maseratis would peel out at every chance they get and rev their engines. Look at me! Look at me!

Went to the post office to mail a postcard. In Germany, they print the postage amount right on the stamps. Now what sucks is that they won’t return you changes in the kiosk, so you end up with just more stamps with various values printed on them. Ugh, what use do I have for these now that I am leaving Munich tomorrow.