Days 22-25- Munich

We got to Munich Wednesday afternoon with literally no idea where our hostel was located. As we were looking for an information booth at the train station, we conveniently found instead, an ad for the hostel indicating that it was less than a km down the street.

In addition to being just down the street from the train station our hostel was right across the street from the Augustiner Brewery/Beer Hall. We had dinner there shortly after checking into the hostel and I felt obligated to order the "Big XXL Bavarian Meat Plate" (no joke, that's what it was called on the English menu even though it was only one word on the German menu). Though maybe not a direct translation, the description was certainly appropriate, because about 10 minutes later I had three kinds of meat cooked six different ways all smothered in a "dark beer gravy" and it was excellent.

We got up the next morning hoping to take a free bike tour at 11:30. For the second time in Germany we just missed getting into the morning tour and were promised that we'd be able to catch the second round at 2:30. In the meantime we visited the famous Haufbrahaus, where a liter is the smallest beer available, and wandered through the Englischer Garten, complete with another Biergarten.

We got back to the tour starting point at 2:30, seeing as that's when it was supposed to start. It didn't actually start until 4:00, but that's ok, because it gave us more time to hang out outside a subway station. The tour, by the way, was not on conventional bicycles, as you might expect a bike tour to be; instead the tour was conducted on a four wheeled contraption with a steering wheel at the front, a bar in the middle, and fifteen seats around the bar, most with peddles beneath them. I think on the 3 hour tour we may have reached a top speed of 10 mph (while going downhill); I don't think the beers they kept handing us did anything to speed our pedaling. Apparently we got "lucky" to take the apparatus tour for free because the next day they were planning to start charging 20 euros for it. We had a lot of fun on this tour, but it was by far the least informative of any that I've ever been on; one of the guides, who was still in training, actually admitted that they made up certain aspects of it.

After the tour we went to a different hostel's bar, which sold beer for 1 euro during happy hour, with some other college students from the tour. We debated going out, but decided that we needed to be up too early the next morning to make it worth it.

We got up yesterday and took a two hour train and a thirty minute hike to Neuschwanstein (sp?), which supposedly inspired Walt Disney's design for Sleeping Beauty's castle and is apparently the most visited tourist attraction in Germany. He we got the polar opposite of Lenny's apparatus tour from Frau Finn, who led us through a very informative, but obviously scripted tour in the most monotone voice possible. The castle was somewhat interesting and there were some incredible views from the castle and the surrounding grounds. One interesting point from the tour was that the castle was never actually completed because King Ludwig mysteriously died one day after being deemed mentally incompetent to rule. You can kind of tell as you walk through the castle (which was built in the late 19th Ce) that he might have been a little bit off his rocker, because every room is decorated with huge murals depicting myths and legends; it all seemed a little over the top for the time period.

Once we finally got back to Munich, we an into our same friends from the apparatus tour at a restaurant between the train station and the hostel. We went with them back to the Augustiner Brewery, where I happened upon what was quite possibly the strangest drink I've ever been served. The menu was in German and identified it only as a "Russ'n", but I'm ninety percent certain that it was half white beer and half lemon soda. After leaving the Augustiner we made started to make our way to a club mentioned in one of the city guides, but wound up following two German guys to a different set of clubs. One of the guys had spent a year of high school in the US & seemed really excited to have someone to talk american football with.

This morning we got to the airport to find that our flight to London had been delayed, and then it wound up sitting on the tarmac for several more minutes waiting for some rain to clear. We finally got into London around two and then to our hotel about two hours after that. We'll be here until Monday morning and then we'll head back to Madrid. I'll try to make at least one more post before I fly home net Wednesday.