Didn’t end up doing the official walking tour, but did some more exploration on my own of the old town center. I went up the tower in the center of town and took a couple pictures. This is the New Town Hall in Marienplatz. Inside is the Rathaus-Glockenspiel which lots of people enjoy watching.
Here’s the panorama from the tower.
Then I wandered around the Viktualienmarkt, which sells a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, and has stands selling typical German meats and things. I wandered most of the way through the Englischer Garten to the beer garden in the middle, and strolled around that part of the city.
Then I took a train out to the Olympic Stadium and arena, although none of it was really open. In the same area was the BMW Museum and BMW Welt, so I browsed those as well. It was a pretty cool showroom.
I decided to extend my stay in Munich by a day and take a ride out to the Dachau concentration camp. Probably wasn’t necessary to do a second one (the presentation was very similar to Sachsenhausen), but still worth seeing.
That afternoon I was working in the hostel when Erica arrived, and we decided to walk around and check out the famous beer halls. We walked up to the Englischer Garten (a different part than I was before) and saw the Eisbach Wave – a little manmade surfing area, and there was actually a guy surfing.
And then we headed down to Hofbräuhaus, the most famous beer hall in Munich. We got some super manly 1L beers, and I had a Cauliflower casserole. It’s a “sit wherever” eating arrangement which is kind of cool, and there was a band in traditional garb playing throughout dinner.
And then we decided to check out another beer hall. And then another beer hall. At one of them we met German Harrison Ford (Richard Kimble-esque) crossed with Christian Bale. We drank a lot of beer. My body is voicing its displeasure with the quantity today, which made for an uneasy train ride but I’ll be fine.
I arrived in Frieburg and will be here for a couple days. I assume it’s named after Free Bird.