Day 32: Retail Therapy and Authentic German Beerhalls

Our first full day in Munich began with the unusual aspect of having nothing concrete planned for the day, which allowed us the equally unusual ability to sleep until we felt like getting up. For me, that still usually means I’m up by about 7/7:30. Brandon typically is a later sleeper than I, but, not only was he awake before me, but we were both up and heading down for breakfast by about 8:30! We felt rested, so that was good :)

Breakfast at this hotel is another slightly larger spread that includes scrambled eggs. They also have bacon! There was also tons of rolls, meats, cheeses, etc. so we certainly were not going hungry! After breakfast, we caught the Straßenbahn to the Marienplatz. Brandon noted that seems to be where all the stuff is. When we first got off the train, we found the local Deutsche Bank and popped in, hoping to exchange our remaining Swiss francs for euros.

We had to wait in line for a little while, which was fine. One of the encounters we witnessed was pretty neat! There was an older woman getting some kind of help with her account. Her and the teller were going back and forth for a while figuring out what she needed. At one point, I heard the teller ask about the woman’s Pass (passport), and she handed it over. I thought it looked like an American passport, but I couldn’t entirely tell as we were about 8 feet away. I could just see it was similar shade of blue. Soon after the passport was exchanged, the women (teller and customer) swapped to English! Brandon and I were both so confused, but also equally impressed with the level of German conversation that had been happening that we had assumed the customer herself was German! Our working theory (well, mine at least) is that she may be an American living abroad. Doesn’t really matter, but I like to try and make sense of things sometimes. After another 10 minutes or so, we were able to do our currency exchange. Excluding the small fee, we got nearly what we turned in for exchanging, which was nice as that means the rates between euros and Swiss francs are nearly 1:1.

Finishing up at the bank, we headed to Marienplatz to wander. We checked out a number of very cool stores, including several that had beer steins and cuckoo clocks. Brandon debated for a long time about getting a stein, but he did finally convince himself after a while to get one, and I am glad he did. It is very cool! Jury is still out on the cuckoo clock, but one may still be in the cards… Besides the shops, there were a number of vendors set up with tents and kiosks in the plaza, selling anything from fresh fruit to woodcraft pieces. I found a really nice wooden cutting board, as well as a nice canvas tote bag and a gift for a friend of mine who is getting married in October! We also found a stand selling these special heart-shaped gingerbread cookies (Lebkuchen), so we bought one to share later in the day. :)

From the marketplace, we went to one of the churches in the vicinity to check it out, and then we wandered a little aimlessly for a while. It was only midday, but my legs (my knees really) were particularly tired and Brandon was also feeling like he needed rest. We found one other church, the Frauenkirche, took a look around, sat in the pews for a bit, then made the decision to go to the hotel to relax for a little. As we left the church, Brandon noticed the tactile model of Munich in the church plaza, so we both got some pictures of it before hopping the train to the hotel area.

We relaxed for a couple hours and then both started to get hungry. Our dinner plan for the night was the original Hofbräuhaus in Munich. We had the privilege of living near a satellite location when we were in Pittsburgh, but we were very excited to check out München. When we got there, we got a little confused about if we could seat ourselves or not, but we eventually figured out a)we could and b)because it was a little busy and there was only limited areas where they were actively serving at the time, we would be sharing part of a table (which is also a traditional way of German dining). We found a table with two girls who looked about our age sitting at one end and asked if they’d mind us sharing the other end of the table. They were very kind and gave us the indication it was no problem, so we had a seat and looked at the menu.

Unlike the menu at Pittsburgh, this one had a more limited variety of choices, but all of them sounded AMAZING! We ordered a cheese spread plate to start and were told by our waiter that someone was going around selling pretzels. Almost immediately, a female server came walking by with a giant basket of HUGE soft pretzels, so, of course, we bought one! It tasted great with the cheese, too :) For our main dishes, I had a venison goulash that came with spätzle and cranberries. It was divine! Brandon had a roast pork knuckle (which was amazing!) with a potato dumpling (which tasted pretty good but had a weird texture to it. Not good, not bad, just weird.) For dessert, we shared Apfelstrudel, but we couldn’t finish it because of all the other goodness we had eaten :/ Once we finished eating, we checked out the store, buying a couple things for ourselves and some of our peeps at home :)

Feeling a little reenergized, I wasn’t 100% ready to go back to the hotel just yet, so I had found a local shop that sells dirndls and lederhosen and we went to check it out. We very briefly scanned the racks before deciding we would come back another day to give it more dedicated time to perhaps get sized and try things on. None of it is particularly inexpensive, so it may not be an investment right now, but we may consider it eventually…we’ll see!

After that, we went back to the hotel to clean up and settle in. Tomorrow is a planned day to a VERY well-known German locale, but we’ve got to be ready to meet the tour group by 8:45, so we’re gonna be up and ready a little early so we can have a relaxing breakfast first :) For today, enjoy the photos!