Old Munich and sightseeing



 Munich 


September 25, 2023 - Arrival in old town Munich 


I arrived on time in Munich Germany after taking a red eye flight over.  I tried to sleep on the plane, but I would guess that I got just an hour or so of sleep.  After navigating from the airport to old town Munich via the train system, I felt pretty accomplished and was ready to explore for the day.   I started a recommended walking tour and got only about 4 stops in and hit the proverbial wall!   I had to go rest at the hotel for a few hours before giving it a second go to complete the walking tour!  

If anyone reading this ever had a chance to get to Munich, it is a beautiful city.  It has a lot of old looking buildings in the city center that look  hundreds of years old - but they are not!  The allies bombed Munich during WWII and much of it had to be rebuilt.  After the war, the state of Bavaria, in which Munich is, decided to rebuild a lot of it so it looked the way it originally did. With the rebuilt center of town, the beautiful churches and the vibrant shopping areas - Munich is a great place to visit. 


The statue high on the pole is the Virgin Mary, who was credited with saving this old town from the plague   This main square in Munich is called Marienplatz after her.

Lots and lots of tourists in town mostly for Octoberfest. 

This is me, fresh off of the train, coming from the plane and before I went to the hotel!  

Town hall on the main square in old city center of Munich.

Every town has a maypole  this one is in the market near my hotel. 

Glockenspiel depicting a royal wedding and joust.  It plays 3 times a day only because someone has to physically go up and fix the knight that gets knocked off his horse during the joust! 

I haven’t seen a cigarette machine since I was a kid.  They were all around here.  

One of the old city gates surrounding the inner old town. 

Newer Jewish synagogue, built to depict the wailing wall.    There was very discreet security all around it, but also off to the side were many police officers for protection.  It still….. after all these years.  


Christine and I see statues of this pig all over Europe, so I had to include him. 

Hello from Munich. 

Here is one of 6 main beer halls in Munich - Hofbrauh house.   I will talk more about these tomorrow after I go to the official Octoberfest fairgrounds!  

Comments

  1. SueSeptember 26, 2023 at 3:35 PM

    It’s so funny, “as I was reading your blog about going directly to the walking tour after one hour of sleep, I said to Larry I would’ve had to go to bed for a while! Then, in the next two sentences, you said that you did have to go to bed for a while! No, I don’t feel so old! 😂😂
    Enjoy!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2023 at 5:33 AM

    Lol. I didn’t go to bed. I just had to sit down for an hour or so.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baking our way to Erice: the Road to Trapani - PART TWO

Image
Tuesday, March 20, 2025 (continued) As Alessandro expertly maneuvered our bus up the winding mountain road towards Erice, we looked back at an impressive view. But first, a lunch stop. We were going to experience true Sicilian hospitality at Maria's place. A simple country lunch. I tasted the almond (mandorla) wine. Definitely for dessert. After everyone ate their fill, it was time to learn the secrets of Maria's Pasticceria Grammatico. Michael was our British interpreter... ...while Maria showed us how to shape the traditional cookies. Maria's voice was incredibly quiet so we really couldn't understand her, Even if we could understand Italian, but Michael helped us out.  This book is the story of Maria's life and includes recipes. She was a nun who left the convent and started her own business making and selling cookies using the nuns' secret recipes. Sc...
Read more

Official tour time! Let’s jump right in!

Image
  On Sunday May 18, we met our Rick Steves group mid afternoon, along with our guide Andrea (pictured above).  I’m looking forward to having him as our guide because he was born and raised just outside Palermo.  I’m sure he will have a ton of knowledge.   After meeting everyone, we all took a walking tour around the neighborhood to get our bearings, learn the history and see unique things.  You can see Christine and I are fresh and ready to tour!  On the way to our first stop, we saw a fountain nicknamed “the fountain of shame”.  Legends say it got that name because in the  building in the background with the dome lived the monks, and a dome, not pictured, but in direct line of sight of the fountain and the monks dome, was the convent.  Of course, the statues are naked…thus the nickname.     We also saw a peaceful Pro Palestine parade march past us.  Our guide told us Sicily is fearful of war, since they have been occupied and ...
Read more

Taormina: Too Beautiful to Believe

Image
Monday, May 26, 2025 Taormina, Sicily  We entered lovely Taormina last evening. Andrea gave us a quick orientation to the town and then we had a free evening to stroll around or just gawk at the mountain.  The stairways do help make Taormina beautiful, but the real beauty is in the views, like this one from our room's balcony right after we checked in. Mamma Etna in her full glory! Mamma is cooking. See the steam? The town was full of lovely shops offering higher-end clothing, souvenirs, and of course - food! Here's a giant cannolo in a colorful display for us tourists. The Godfather is popular here. A very narrow stretto. Someone had a private little teatro di pupi next to their front door. Monday morning Before breakfast, we all spent some time admiring Mamma Etna from the rooftop. The rooftop views were actually beautiful in all directions. While waiti...
Read more