October 16th - Traveling to Munich.

A sad morning for me - leaving Salzburg behind.

I really liked Salzburg; I didn't want to leave. But, I'll be back in a few years.

This is a shot of the train station, on the way out in the morning. It's a short trip to Munich (1.5 hours, if I remember correctly), so we slept in and took our time. No rush at all.

We had given our travel agent a budget for each night's lodging, and Munich was definately one city the budget bit us in the ass. Our hotel (the Hotel Germania) was fairly close to both the train station and the Marienplatz and other tourist sites, and Munich is a larger city, so the money spent here didn't quite get the same level of hotel as we had in Salzburg. "Not quite" being an understatement.

Tracy and Rob's room smelled like vomit, and we're pretty sure that's what it was - the cleaning crew kept telling them to come back later, as they hurredly cleaned it.

My room was on its own little hallway, and had been broken into at least once previously. The door latch was shattered, and had been "repaired" with a flimsy piece of metal.

The first picture is the gorgeous view I had from my room.

And the second is the world's worst toilet paper. It was a little silly seeing fishes and sea shells on it, because there was obviously broken glass and metal filings in it. Man, that stuff was brutal.

But, as I said, we were close to the Marienplatz (the town square with Munich's famous glockenspiel), so I'm not going to complain too loudly. I will just remember to adjust the hotel budget upwards for my next trip.

The first picture is of a series of fountains next to a large north-south street. I thought these fountains were awesome! The second picture is right across that street to the east, of a cafe where we ate lunch the first day. I had a fantastic meal of several types of meats on spaetzle, covered in cheese, and then smothered in gravy. No sir, I did not eat healthy.

The third image is of a Pizza Hut restaurant, with the Neue Rahaus' clocktower in the background. It never ceased to amaze me, seeing something so new in an area that was so old.

And the final picture is Rob walking down one of the streets. As you can see, Munich was a lot more "large city" than it was "historic German city" in our immediate area.

As we wandered onto the Marienplatz, there was an accordian player playing for tips to the west. He was very good - he got a 5 Euro tip from me.

And right behind me, to the east, was the Marienplatz.

Just to give an idea of the layout, the Neue Rathaus (new city hall) was on the left with all the flowerboxes in the first picture. The Alt Rathaus (old city hall) is the whiter building to the right, with the three copper spires.

My sister and I disagreed on which was the Alt and which was the Neue Rathaus, since the Alt Rathaus looked so much whiter and newer. But, she was correct - the Alt Rathaus had recently been restored.

Here are some more pictures of the Alt Rathaus. Now, I will be the first to admit I'm not up to speed on architecture (hell, not even close), but even the style looks more modern to me. But, the plaques proved it.

Here are the first of a series of the Neue Rathaus. According to the plaque on the front (the picture didn't turn out), it was built from 1867 until 1908. It's huge, and has a ring of shops along the bottom floor, with government offices above.

The Neue Rathaus had a fantastic little courtyard in the middle of it. Here are some photos of the walls facing the courtyard, as well as a pair of beautiful archways leading back outside the Rathaus.

There was a golden statue with a sword in the walkway between the Marienplatz and the courtyard. It's hard to see with the light, and the flash only made the statue glare.

A shot of the Glockenspiel in the waning light.

We wandered a bit more before dark, and found the Hofbrauhaus and the Hard Rock Cafe. We definately wanted to try out the Hofbrauhaus, but we were in the mood for something a little more quiet that evening.

There was a nice little restaurant right next door to the Hard Rock Cafe, and we gave them a try. It was fantastic! I had a Bavarian meatloaf, which consists of a loaf of a ham and sausage mixture, with a fried egg on top. The beer (Ayinger) was absolutely delicious, and the dessert (chocolate cake with fresh cherries) was out of this world.

Wrapping up our first day in Munich...

The Neue Rathaus from the Marienplatz, just as the sun was setting (photograph #1), and finally after dark (pictures #2 and #3).