Trip to Munich and Nurnburg, Germany (June 2016)

Church of the Lady

Munich:        Kristin and I ended up traveling to Munich three times in relatively short span of time in June 2016. Our Croatian and Eastern Delights tour began and ended in Munich. Also, another tour from Rome to London passed through Munich for one night.

We arrived in Munich two days before the tour began so that we could explore the city, which we once visited long time ago with our children when we visited Innsbruck, Austria.

We bought a two-day pass for Hop-on Hop-off city sightseeing bus tour.

We visited Nyphenburg Palace, which was used as a summer residence by the royalty. The palace was amazing with its gigantic size along with the enormous size of the garden and lakes that spread into tens of city blocks. It was a beautiful day and the garden harmonized well with the blue sky and white clouds. We saw a gondola man who was soliciting clients, who reminded me of Venice. Many statues in the garden were greeting us as we strolled along.

We had our lunch at a restaurant inside the palace, called Palmen Haus, finishing up with a delicious slice of London Cheesecake. Yum...

We also stopped over at the Olympic Park that hosted the 1972 Summer Olympic. It was quite impressive that the park and its facilities are still in use for swimming, indoor soccer, tourism and cultural events.

We attended the worship service in the afternoon, held at International Community Church on Mozart Strasse.

Kristin and I traveled together with a Korean couple, as part of the Expat Explore group, who lived in Rwanda for two years: Mr. and Mrs. Panshik Shin. We got together in the evening for dinner at Asian Kitchen.

In that evening, there was a false fire alarm at the hotel and all guests had to evacuate to the outside. It was a chilly and drizzling day, but we were glad that it was a false alarm.

The next day, we explored Marienplatz, Viktualimarkt, Town Hall, Church of the Lady, Residenz, Hofbrauhaus and English Garden.

Marienplaz is a plaza where the city's Town Hall is located. The Town Hall has a clock that shows a doll show twice a day. All tourists waited to watch the show, but it was so simple and short. It was quite disappointing. No wonder it is called one of the most disappointing tourist attractions.

City Town Hall

Viktualiment is a market that the City of Munich intentionally established at the center of the city with a subsidized rent for the merchants so that the city may not lose the old tradition. It was quite clean and we found many things of interest.

Church of the Lady has two domes shared like onions and form an important city skyline. The church inside, however, was quite simple and unimpressive.

Residenz is a former royal palace of Bavarian monarchs. It is the largest city palace in Germany with 10 courtyards and 130 rooms. We explored artifacts and sculptures that decorate this former royal palace.

We walked around the English Garden, which claims to be larger than Central Park in New York City. We sat down at Seehaus located by a lake inside the garden and drank English tea. It was a bit chilly but the scenery was perfectly in harmony with the surroundings and the sky. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had a quick drink at Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer halls in Munich. It was reported that Germany has 1,500 breweries of which 900 are located in Barbaria, including Munich. Beer halls are a common form of public places where people come and drink beer along with other snacks, such as sausages. It was common to spot people who were drinking beer with 1 or 2 liter mugs. Wow...

As part of the Rome to London tour, we stopped over in Munich and had a dinner at one of smaller beer halls. We walked over to the restaurant passing through the pedestrian area from a hotel close to Central Station. Jamie, the entertaining tour leader, taught me how to say "Cheers" in Germany way. "Zum Zum Zum....(the process of gathering the participants in the hall)... then exclaim Prost! (staring into the eyes of other people) ...then, hit the table with the mug and E-hi-hi-hi-ha... and drink the beer" It was hilarious. He and I practiced it a few times during the course of the dinner.

Nurnburg:       Our the last day to return to Munich, we stopped over at Nurmburg, the second largest city in Bavaria, after Munich. This city is famous for the trial held against the Nazi criminals after the World War II. The trial lasted for one year from 1945 through 1946. In the market place, we ran into a Korean cart where we ate Bibimbob and Gimbob standing, but they were delicious! The Korean lady owner said that she had been living in Germany for 30 years and she had been doing the business for seven years.

As we had a reunion and welcoming dinner with the Shins, we also had the farewell dinner on the last day in Munich: Asado Steak.

Munich has so many attractions, one of which I did not manage to see was Neuschwanstein Castle that inspired the Disneyland and used the image as its logo. It is located at a location probably a couple of hours away. Perhaps, next time, Lord's willing.

Also, Munich is famous for Oktoberfest beer festival.

It was rainy and chilly throughout our stay, but overall we thoroughly enjoyed the city of Munich, the Bavarian capital city. - Jeffrey