Wednesday, September 16

We arrived in Munich following a two hour drive from the Fussen area. The car rental said to return it below the train station, but despite driving in circles around the train station, we couldn’t quite figure out where we were supposed to go. We finally located a shady looking garage with a tiny car rental sign and no one around. We parked the car, turned in the keys, crossed our fingers, and hoped the place was legit.

We found our hotel, GHotel Munchen City, nearby and checked in. The rooms here were typical for a European city but the location was decent, near the main train station as well as the city subway line. It was also just around the corner from the Oktoberfest grounds, which was being set up, even though we were leaving just before the start of Oktoberbest, a fact that still causes some playful arguments today. (I asked Mr. Strange if he wanted to be in Munich for Oktoberfest, and I maintain that he told me no. He maintains that he didn’t know that meant we were leaving the day before it started.)

We were pretty hungry by this point, so I picked a place from the Rick Steves guide that was fairly easy to walk to from the hotel, the Augustiner-Keller Biergarten. The biergarten was huge! I had never seen such a large eating area with so many tables and so many people. We ordered some currywurst, pretzels, and beer, then found a table. I am not a beer fan, but even I actually liked their white beer! (It is, unfortunately, not sold in the states, so I will have to return to Munich to have it again.) We were huge fans of this restaurant.

Thursday, September 17

The next morning we got on the train to head up to Allianz Arena to take a tour of the stadium where Mr. Strange’s favorite soccer team, Bayern-Munich, plays. He was in heaven. We spent a bit of time here with the tour and then going through the team museum and gift shop.

We then headed back into the city for lunch at the popular Hofbräuhaus. We ate, drank, and enjoyed the live German music.

Afterwards, we went inside the New Town Hall to look at the beautiful architecture and to the lookout point over the city. We were hoping to catch the show at Marienplatz, but we had missed them all for the day. We went into St. Peter’s Church and up into the tower to get another good view of the plaza below.

For dinner, we opted for the Paulaner Brauhaus, but I did not like the beer here nearly as well as at Augustiner-Keller.

Friday, September 18

We had considered taking a train to Salzburg, Austria, on our last day because I really, really wanted to do the Sound of Music bike tour, but due to the influx of refugees at the time, all the trains between Germany and Austria were shut down.

Instead, we spent our morning at Nymphenburg Palace, which had a very pretty garden to walk around.

Afterwards, we went into St. Michael’s Church and then finally caught the show at Marienplatz.

We also went for a run through the English Garden. I think you could run here every day for a month and still see something new every time. It was huge!

Finally, we went back to Augustiner-Keller and met up with Mr. Strange’s aunt and uncle for dinner there.

Saturday, September 19

We checked out of our hotel and took the train to the airport. Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland!