Munich, Germany - July 26

Hitler's former office - now a music university

28 degrees, clear, hot

A tour describing the rise of the Third Reich was on our to-do list for today. All the tours we have done here in Munich have met and started in Munich’s main square which is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel – super convenient! Today’s guide is the first

Third Reich rallies were held here, now it's meeting place

German to guide a tour – the other 2 being from the UK. This guy was very interesting and as were the other guides, didn’t just stick to information about the specific tour topic.

Although this 2.5 hour tour had us we walking all over the old part of Munich, there really wasn’t much to actually see – not too many photos today. Hitler and the Third Reich certainly aren’t commemorated or memorialized. What we did see

Lowenbrau brewers and beer gardgn

were locations such as streets, parks, buildings today used for other things and heard stories of what took place in these locations during the rise of the Third Reich. There were a few memorials to victims of the Third Reich, so those are there to look at.

One thing our guide told us that we’ve heard again and again is how clean and drinkable the Munich water is – I guess it seemed clean, it tasted fine to me. People fill water bottles straight from decorative fountains, not drinking fountains, but the kind of fountain designed to be looked at - interesting.

obatzda

Our tour ended very near to the Lowenbrau brewery and beer garden, so ‘when in Germany’… This place was a lot smaller than the other brewery beer gardens we visited, and more ‘local’ filled with what looked to us to be workers on their lunch break. We decided to make this our lunch stop also. We had Obatzda a German cheese spread made from Camembert, butter and spices. We ate this with a couple small loaves of bread.

refill

Next, we realized that the Augustiner brewery was just around the corner, so we stopped to check that out. This place was by far the biggest beer garden we’ve seen. They even had little flat-bed trucks driving around to pick up used glasses! This was a lovely place to spend the afternoon under the shade of huge trees, enjoying a beer and people watching. Many people bring pic

Augustiner beer garden

nics here and set up their feasts on the tables. Apparently, as long as you are buying their beer, you can bring in your own food. There is still food for purchase of course. I did have my eye on another giant pretzel but didn’t bother. One thing I wish I took a picture of was the guy filling beer glasses. He was filling 1 litre glasses with a hose! An actual hose! Everything to do with beer here is serious business. My first instinct when we get

Augustiner beer garden

these giant beers is to think I got cheated out of a bunch of beer because the foam is about 1/3 of the glass, but in the end,  it settles and most of the glass is full – plus…if I don’t get the full litre of beer I don’t think I’ll suffer!

Before we headed back to the hotel we stopped for a bit of Bayern Muchen soccer shop shopping – of course we did. It never ceases being hilarious that Chris is an XXL in European sizes…they didn’t have shirts bigger!

A bit of napping, packing as today is our last day in Munich and we headed out for dinner. By this point we think we’ve had our fill of German food and go for good ol’ Italian, followed by a pint at an

Irish pub – another thing that is always funny is how no matter where in the world we go, we seem to be able to find an English/Irish pub.

post shopping and hotel in the distance

It seems like so long ago we were unpacking to start our time in Munich, but it’s only been 6 days. I guess this is pretty long to be on one place. I think we’re able to check most of the things on our Munich to do list…there are a few left for next time.

Lori – yup, the surfing was super cool