GUTEN TAG FROM MUNICH, GERMANY!

Hello from sunny Munich...........

After two connections, two 3 hour layovers and a looooong flight over the Atlantic we are FINALLY in Munich!  It was a 10 hour flight from Portland, but we managed to get a little "shut-eye".  The last leg was a short one hour "hop" from Amsterdam.  The airport in Munich is quite a distance from town, so we opted for the train rather than a taxi.  It was a nice relaxing 45 minute ride into town, and even in our exhausted jet lagged state we managed to find our hotel without any problems.  Yaaaaay us!!

We are staying at a small hotel on a pedestrian street that is very near the train station.  Our room is tiny, but it's perfectly good enough for us!

Here's our pretty tree-lined street, view from our window:

After a quick check in, we unpacked a few things and hit the street in search of a cold beer and a late lunch.  We chose a small sidewalk cafe across from our hotel, and each ordered a "WeisBeir Dunkle"--it was nice and cold, and pretty delicious!

Here's David with his first beer in Germany:

We ordered a small cheese/snack plate for lunch and it really hit the spot. The middle of the plate was a nice serving of the MOST delicious potato salad we've ever had--mmmmmmm good!  Notice the pretzel in the basket--it was really tasty, too.

After our yummy lunch we walked around the neighborhood, enjoying some pretty architecture.  We never could find what this building was--but it is really pretty. (and huge!)

We saw a pretty park across the street and decided to stroll through.  Here's the big fountain at the entrance:

 We saw this interesting "art" installation--hammocks in the air!  They looked very inviting--but no way to get up there!

We were walking along a pretty path when we saw this sign:

OH, YEAH!! We followed the signs to the HofBrau Biergarten--it's in a really pretty setting:

Since it was too early for dinner, we just did a walk thru and looked at their menu.  YUP! That's our dinner tonight, for sure!

We explored a several block area around our hotel, all the while looking for a small (or large!) grocery store so we could pick up a few necessities.  We saw a few interesting stores, but no grocery store--that is until we were right back at our hotel.  It was right across the street---duuuuuh! We had a good laugh about that.

It's a big, nice grocery store, and we enjoyed looking around a bit.  We found some interesting beers to try, so picked up a couple for tonight.  

We decided we needed to rest a little--it's been a looooong day (or two!).  We relaxed for a couple of hours, managed to get our wi-fi working, just barely.  It's a pretty slow connection here--so don't be surprised if I don't blog every day.

After our rest we walked the short 2 blocks back to the HofBrau Biergarten for dinner.  Wow!--lots of people there.  It's quite informal--just go thru the line and point to what you want, including beer.  We each had sausage, and we wanted sauerkraut to go with them--but they were out!  Really?? Out of sauerkraut in Germany? 

Here's our dinner at The HofBrau Biergarten.  I had the German potato salad, and David chose fries.  We shared the HUGE pretzel--couldn't finish it all!

David playing with his food:

Good beer...........

And GOOD NIGHT from Munich--we're tired and need about 12 hours of sleep!

Tomorrow in Munich:

We're off to explore the "Old Town" area and the Viktualmarkt--I see more sausage, beer and pretzels in our future!

Stay tuned!