Day 8: Munich (Eric)

Day 8: June 4th, 2019. Before I get into how we spent day two in Munich, I’d like to give an update on Hotel Mirabell, our home while in the city. I mentioned a kind of spatial shock moving from a small apartment to a small, single room.  

While this room is little in size, it’s the little differences between the two lodgings that are starting to make this place grow on me. The first difference is the most welcome. The room has an air conditioner that would make even Houstonians proud, a rarity in Europe. We had a very comfortable night’s sleep as a result. The second is the shower here is also nicer. I’m normally not a guy who enjoys long showers, but after a hot day of wandering the city, this particular shower is extremely relaxing. Also, the room has a fair amount of character (like the sign above our bed) that the place in Frankfurt did not have. Finally, we are on the top floor, and the views are fairly amazing. The view in Frankfurt was nice too, but Munich is really starting to impress me the more time I spend here. 

Now, on to today’s adventure - we decided a good way to explore the city with a little less walking (our legs are a little tired) would be to take the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus tour. We are normally not tour bus kind of people, but for big cities, these buses can be a good way to see more sights with less walking. We did the same thing in Hong Kong and loved it. The bus company provides headphones to listen to interesting history and commentary about the landmarks you pass by. 

Plus, you have the option of getting off at some of these destinations to explore a little more. As usual, we got a little carried away in our exploring, and instead of a nice relaxing bus ride, we racked up over 23,000 steps for the day. Even though our easy today became a little more strenuous than planned, I really enjoyed everything we saw. We started by having a stroll  through the gardens of Nymphenburg Palace, a Baroque palace that was home to the former rulers of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach. It is a beautiful place, a little reminiscent of Versailles. 

Next, we were off to Olympic Park which was constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics, a rather infamous Olympics if you know your history. The grounds were beautiful, and we visited the memorial for the Israeli athletes who were killed. 

After walking a little more than we planned, we stayed on the bus for a while as we were passing some of the same sights we explored on foot yesterday. We did finally get off to explore the Munich Residenz, the largest city palace in Germany. You could literally spend several days exploring this place, but as we were both getting a little tired at this point, we hit the highlights, speeding through or skipping rooms that didn’t seem as interesting. There are a 130 rooms and 10 courtyards open to the public for a modest entry fee. 

We finished the day with another stroll through the English Garden which is still one of my favorite places in the whole city. The city dwellers clearly love it too because it is always filled with people of all ages enjoying this beautiful park.