We got up at 7am and packed up all our stuff, heading to the train station at 8am after a few coffees. The walk took about 30 minutes from our accommodation, it was drizzling lightly. We arrived at the train station in Nuremberg at 8:30am and bought a coffee at a shop and proceeded to track number nine where our train to Munich would arrive at 9:10am. We had a few of the sandwiches I had made and packed the night before. This train trip was the shortest trip yet on our two week journey to Europe. 

We arrived in Munchen at around 11am. We excited the station and walked 10 minutes to our hotel, where we hoped to drop off our bags before check in, but on arrival the receptionist said we could just check in now, at 11am!! This was super exciting as we were pretty cold and wet from the rain on our two walks that morning. Our room was on the top floor, next to the breakfast space. It was a simple but lovely room with a large balcony to sit on (when the rain had stopped). We unpacked and dried off. 

After a brief stop in the room we headed out in the rain once more to see the town. First we walked down to the church at the end of the street, St.Paul’s, to check it out. The church had lovely gargoyles. We then went to see the grounds and the remnants of Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest had just ended a few days previous. The grounds were huge and they seemed to still be putting stuff away (I’m not sure how much of the Oktoberfest grounds remain all year). There were ferris wheels and rollercoasters and massive tents where the beer drinking happens. There was also an interesting house nearby with stone unicorns, harp playing monkeys, frogs and babies all over it.  

We then started our 18 minute journey to the city centre. We stopped to go inside a church called St.Micheal as the exterior looked so interesting. It wasn’t immediately obvious that the building was a church, as it had the step style renaissance exterior. It looked more like a city hall than a church. The interior of the church however could not have been more “church”., but it was also almost like a Roman style something, with huge white marbled arches and golden details. 

We then walked around Frauenkirche, another gothic style church nearby. The two main towers of this church were destroyed in world war two and it has “the devil’s footprint”, a footprint in the back of the church that is said to have been made by the devil. It looks much like a size 12 man’s shoe print…so if you have a size 12 man’s foot you might be the devil. The stained glass in this church was very impressive and there was a golden gate at the front of the church with intricate golden roses on it. We then visited the crypts underneath the church, before heading back outside. 

It was raining quite a lot at this point so we quickly glimpsed the main town square of Marienplatz before walking a few quick blocks to the original beerhall, Hofbrauhaus! 

We walked through the first room of Hofbrauhaus and could not find an empty space for two on a bench, so we entered the second room and stood awkwardly. Eventually we saw two men get up from a spot so we jumped on it. We ordered two beers, one 1 litre and one .5 litre. How the servers keep everything straight here is beyond me!! So many people end up sharing the same tables and benches. We facetimed Jives’ mom to show her the oompa band that was playing. Three guys were in the oompa band, a tuba player, a horn and an accordion. It was lovely and exactly the experience that we had dreamed of in a German beerhall. The ceiling of the beerhall was so beautifully painted as well, if you visit, don’t forget to look up at the ceiling! We also bought a massive pretzel from a pretzel lady walking around the hall, it was only 5.60 euro and twice the size of my face. 

After spending a lot of time at the beer hall warming our bones and bellies, we stepped back out into the rain. We headed to the Viktualien Markt, a large collection of market stalls selling all sorts of things. I waited in line to get a freshly made grilled cheese sandwich with onion in it, whilst Jives went to a different stall and bought us a radler. We then sat on a little bench and enjoyed a picnic. It was lovely and warm. A man was picking through the garbage trying to find food and I watched as a warm hearted stall owner called that man over and offered him a hotdog. The hungry gentleman’s face lit up so much as he walked away with his treasure in hand. It was lovely seeing something like this happen, it made me feel like humanity is not as doomed as it often feels. 

We then walked back to Marienplatz thinking that the glechenspiel might do its thing on the hour, but it didn’t … I gave my empty radler bottle to an older lady that was collecting them from the trash for the deposit (and handed her a euro as I wanted to pass on some kindness). 

We took quite a few photos in the main square with the beautiful flowers in orange and purple and red. We also attempted to “retake” a photo I had taken back in 2006 in front of the Old Munchen town hall. 

We then headed back to our room to dry off a bit before heading out for dinner later at a different beerhall nearby that was more like a restaurant. One half of the beerhall was like a restaurant with table seating and the other was a large hall with tables and benches made of barrels and wooden boards. I wish we had been able to sit on the “hall” side of the beerhall. We ordered two beers and two meals. Jives ordered a dish with sausages, sauerkraut and mashed potato and I ordered a mystery vegetarian dish that ended up being very disappointing. It was like gnocchi with no flavour and boiled cabbage and carrots. Jive said that his dish was the best of the entire two week trip, and mine was probably the worst meal of the trip. As we were leaving the beerhall a bus full of police officers stopped in front of the hall and plain clothed cops went into the beerhall, presumably for a team building beer drinking good time!

We then went back to our room and called it an early evening, sitting on our balcony and watching the bats fly as we had a non-alcohol beverage.