Most of you know that we love to travel.  It is definitely a priority for, us and we look for the opportunity often.  May 29th was our last day of school and with our whole summer vacation ahead of us, we got a little "itch."  We had a nice two week trip to California and Utah planned, plus a month spent in the midwest with family and friends, but it wasn't quite enough.  We decided to just do a little search and find out what it would cost to fly to Europe this summer.  As it turned out, flights to Munich, Germany were a deal we just couldn't pass up.  So on July 27th we took flight from Chicago on a 9 hour flight to Munich.   With the time change, we landed in Munich at about 10:00 AM local time.  We quickly got our bags, some euros, subway tickets and were set to conquer another city. 

On the subway we happened to be sitting next to a couple that currently live in Florida,  However, the husband actually grew up in Watseka, IL and most of his family lived in Kankakee.  Seems crazy to travel halfway around the world and run into someone from your (Ryan's) hometown. 

While it was our plan to take the subway all the way to our hotel and check in, this couple suggested we get off at the Marienplatz stop to check out the main city center.  We did and it turned out to be a great idea.  One of the most famous sites in Munich is the Glockenspiel.  This is the town hall building that dates back to 1908.  **Side note: although Munich looks like many other typical old European cities, the city was bombed heavily during WWII and many buildings have been constructed since then.  The city planners decided to make it look like their old city again, hence the old style architecture.

The Glockenspiel is famous because of a 16th century story that is re-enacted daily on the exterior of one of the towers.  The first story is the marriage of a duke begin honored by a jousting match and the second is dancers who symbolize the first people to come out after the plague, dancing in the streets to let everyone know it was safe again.  It just so happened that when we decided to change our plans and pop up out of the subway at this stop it was 10:55 AM.  Everyday at 11:00 AM (and 12 PM and 5 PM in the summer) this show takes place.  It couldn't have been more perfectly timed if we had tried!



Munich's famous Glockenspiel

After the show we got back on the subway and headed to our hotel which turned out to be the second best hotel deal ever.  (For those of you who are curious, the first is Casa Del Mundo on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.)  The Tryp Hotel Munich was a wonderful hotel that we got for a great deal.  It was actually cheaper than staying in a hostel, our usual European accommodation, and we didn't have to share a room with anyone.  WooHoo!

Our next order of business was a Mike's Bike Tour  around Munich.  It was a four-hour tour that took us through all the main parts of the city.  We got the general history and enjoyed some beautiful views.  We road through the English Gardens, one of the largest urban public parks in the world.  Inside the park there is a beer garden (with seating for 6,000!).  On our stop here, we passed on the beer but did enjoy a large plate of "kaiserschmarrm."  It was a large pancake chopped up and cooked with (a lot of) butter and sugar.  It was then covered with powdered sugar and came with a side of applesauce.  Delicious!


We weren't kidding when we said it was a BIG pancake.


Wednesday was spent at Dachau Memorial Concentration Camp.  There is so much to relate about this day, it will get its own blog entry later. 

Thursday was another tour day with Mike's Bike.  We took their day long trip to Neuschwanstein Castle.  This is the castle that Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland is modeled after.   After a two hour bus ride, we enjoyed a nice leisurely bike ride through the countryside near the castle and around Swan lake, which the castle is in-part named after (New Swan Stone).  Next was a stop for lunch and some impressive magic tricks by our guide.  Ryan learned a few new things!  We also go to enjoy a toboggan ride on an alpine slide (no snow).   Our guide then took us on a 30-minute walk/hike through a river gorge to a beautiful waterfall and ultimately up to the castle itself.   The castle was built by King Ludwig II.  It had been worked on for 17 years when Ludwig suddenly died.  Construction was stopped, leaving only 16 of the 60 rooms finished.  Ludwig's bedroom is the most amazing room of all due to the incredible carpentry work in making his oak canopy bed.



Hopped off the bikes for a quick photo with the Neuschwanstein Castle in the background.

As luck would have it, the shop for Mike's Bikes was directly next door to the Hofbrauhaus, another famous tourist spot in Munich.  Once a men's only club for drinking this brewery and restaurant also served as a stage for political rallies.  Now it is a fun and welcoming place where tourists and locals can spend an evening enjoying great food, good drinks, and traditional German music.  The best part was the HUGE soft pretzels for sale.


Who wouldn't want a pretzel they could carry on their arm?!!?

On Friday we headed to Salzburg.  Our travels there will also be related in another blog.  But before I mention our last Munich adventure I would like to share one other detail of our trip.  As we got on the plane in Chicago, we discovered that neither one of us had a watch.  Because our cell phones don't get service internationally, we were forced to hone our skills at glancing at the watches of people walking by on the streets.  We became quite good and managed to make it through the whole week, never missing anything, without a watch.

After two days in Salzburg we traveled back to Munich with just enough time for a trip out to the Olympic Village.  The 1972 Olympic Games took place in Munich.  This is where Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals, the US men's basketball team was robbed of a gold, and terrorists put a dark cloud over the games by taking members of the Israeli team hostage.  The weather was not cooperating with us during this excursion, but we did get a quick tour of the whole village, via tram, and made a trip up the Olympic tower to get the aerial view of the complex. 


Olympic Village- you can pay to climb on the roof off some buildings.

One more stop at the Hofbrauhaus and we turned in on our last German night.  Monday morning we boarded a plane to bring us back to the States.  While it was a quick trip we were definitely glad for the chance to go and we look forward to our next traveling adventure. 

Click here for the full album of pics from Germany.

Stayed tuned for blogs on Dachau and Salzburg, Austria (home of Mozart, the Von Trapps and the Sound of Music)...