Day 18 - MunichWe started this wonderful day with one of the best breakfasts in our Europe itinerary - breakfast at the M hotel consisted of the usual cereal, bread and jam, together with a selection of ham and salami slices.. =D Haha.. after so many days of bread and cereal, it was definitely refreshing to see some meat on the breakfast table.. =D
We only had 1 day in Munich, and the guidebook recommended us a bike tour of Munich.. Sounds interesting? Intrigued, we headed off to the highly-recommended Mike's Bike Tours..
The meeting point was at the new clocktower next to Marienplatz, and we were there early all right, but we spent close to 10minutes walking around the whole place trying to find out where the clocktower is, before realising that we were actually walking AROUND it.. -_-""" Sheesh.
Anyway, here's a nice pic of the new townhall!! =P I kinda like the Mcdonald's umbrella in the foreground, even though it was unintentional.. Haha.. =D
So we gathered underneath the clocktower, wondering if we were actually really going cycling - u know, the idea of a cycling tour was quite surreal, to us anyway, cos i was actually quite afraid of freezing my cheeks off with the cold wind during cycling.. O_O After a quick introduction and history into Munich, we were shipped off to collect our bikes @ the tour's office. Almost immediately, I had a sense of foreboding.. Firstly, the guide was highly extroverted and, well, in the Singaporean teen context - quite extra.. Ok, fine. So he's not my type of person who I would hang around with, yah.. Secondly, there were some silly (in my opinion) rules of the game where we were supposed to go roar at every lion statue that we passed by along the streets, and... Sheesh. Definitely NOT MY TYPE.
As if things weren't bad enough, we had to contend with the bikes.. Aahhh.. We were quite unused to the bikes in Munich, as they adopted the back-pedal system as a brakes.. Well, there were handle brakes, but they were quite ineffective.. Eeps. So we coasted off along the streets of Munich for the first 1omins, skidding and almost colliding into parked vans and lampposts O_O""""" while trying to brake..
Ok ok.. enough whining.. On to the tour itself!
First stop: the famous beer house where Hitler started his political career campaigns in Germany for WWII!! (p.s. I apologise if there are any factual errors for this part of the itinerary, cos we were in such a big group, it was quite hard to hear what Frankie the guide was saying, plus take photographs with 1 hand on the camera, the other trying to stabilize your own bike.. O_O"""")
Sights of Munich! - Ok fine. I confess I can't remember what this place is.. Sheesh. So much for that whirlwind tour.. -_-"""
Ah! But I remember this! =P there are 4 of such similar statues outside this building, and the story goes that if you run 3 out of 4 of the statues, you'll get good luck! =D
Anyway, after another blitz of whirlwind sight-seeing, my mind was totally blank. The only thing probably on my mind was wondering whether it was such a smart choice taking the bike tour, especially since my nose was freezing and i was hoping fervently that it won't drop off.. Argh..
The Englisher gardens - a huge garden spanning an even bigger area.. They say that you can get lost in there for a few days.. =P (Haha.. not a bad pic, if i may say, with the camera in one hand while cycling.. =D)
Thank goodness we stopped for a lunch break in the middle of the Englisher gardens.. There was this beer garden there, the Chinese Pagoda beer garden.. O_O yes.. there's actually a pagoda-like structure there.. Quite a sight.. =D And so we stopped for a 1 hour lunch break. The7 of us actually felt highly self-conscious. Cos most of the other pple in the bike group actually do drink beer, whereas we don't.. So we felt a little segregated apart from the rest.. Still, we made the best of it and decided to ignore the rest of them..
Lunch - German Bradwurst and potato stew!! The potato stew was especially heavenly.. Hhmmm... =D
Ok, after being antisocial for the 1 hour lunch break, we headed back on our feet to tour Munich..
Remember this guy?? We certainly did!!! He appeared in one season of the Amazing Race as part of a fast-forward challenge!! The surfer dude was really cool, considering that it wasn't in the sea, but a large canal like waterway.. Woah.. =D
The Angel of peace.. After which, our tour ended.. Ok, to be fair, it was quite enjoyable, the cycling part. But I do wish it had been warmer!!! =P And i wished we had more time to stop and take photos and stuff.. Mebbe they don't believe in taking photographs here? =p
We ended off back at Marienplatz, where we decided go shopping, since it was too late in the afternoon to go see Dachau - the concentration camp memorial on the outskirts of Munich.. We split up - the rest wanted to go source for Birkenstock sandals o_O while i wandered off to the post-office to buy some postage stamps.. On hindsight, it wasn't exactly my smartest move throughout Europe. Although I advocated never leaving anyone alone, here i was, volunteering to actually go off alone. I guess the rest had faith in my map reading skills, which if i may shamelessly profess to be actually quite good.. Fortunately nothing bad happened, and i managed to find my way back to the group afterwards with the help of the handphone! - never leave home without it.. =D
A slight skirmish occurred then.. Stuck in the shoe shop browsing the birkenstock sandal collection, it was almost time to go see the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz.. Even though the guidebook said it was a highly overrated performance, it still didn't seem right to come all the way to Munich and not see it.. (kinda like going to Paris and not seeing the eiffel tower, you noe..) So the rest of us stomped off towards the Glockenspiel, leaving Christopher behind in the shoe shop.. -_-"""
The old town hall with the Glockenspiel.. Well, to be fair, it was a little disappointment, partially cos part of it was under scaffolding.. But yah, my policy of touring is that sightseeing comes first over shopping.. Oh wellz...
So we trooped back to the shoe shop, where I can't believe I actually ended up buying a pair of Birkenstock sandals for my mom.. well, if you told me i was coming to Germany to buy sandals before this, I would have laughed my head off.. But yah, the lady boss was nice enough to give us a discount based on our piety.. =D
After all that shopping, we were starved!! We set out hearts on traditional german food, so we trooped around the main townsquare areas, trying to source out the best restaurants which were actually economical.. =p Finally we gave up and entered this traditional Bavarian restaurant, which actually had a really rich history.. I guess it being close to the end of our trip, we were actually more relax with our purse strings, and decided to have a wonderful feast instead, even if its just for 1 night.. =P Even Susan had no objections.. =P
Tafelspitz!! - traditional Bavarian beef stew. The beef was so tender and delicious, even though it was boiled in the soup!!! Aaahhhhh.. (note to self: find a restaurant in S'pore selling this.. =D) Plus, more of that wonderful potato stew.. Mmmmm.. =D Dinner was such a joyous affair - the waitresses were dressed in traditional Bavarian dresses too, which reallly added to the atmosphere of the restaurant.. Definitely worth the experience!!
After dinner, we took the underground bahn trains back to the hostel for a good night's rest, and then drama unfolded...
Remember the 2 guys sleeping in Gabby's and my room? Well, they left in the morning, which meant that my small room of 4 had 2 empty beds. So we proposed to Susan & Teresa for them to shift over to our room, so that we could occupy the whole room, had our own toilets, and there would be more privacy and space for the 2 girls also. Teresa was all for it, since her bed was remade by the hostel staff anyway, whereas Susan dithered cos she was too tired to shift her luggage and remake her bed..
Ah-hah. That's when things got ugly. So Susan headed into the shower first, when the 2 new guests arrived - 2 HK sisters.. Teresa moved into my room rite? So there was 1 empty bed on my side, while in the other room of 7, there was also now 1 empty bed (due to Teresa's shift). Naturally, the 2 sisters wanted to stay in the same room, so Christopher, very HELPFULLY VOLUNTEERED Susan to shift into MY room, without even consulting her. You can almost imagine Susan's shock and bewilderment when she walked out of the bathroom to find that she had been booted out of her bed..
And so we achieved the end result which we wanted to begin with, at a cost.. For Christopher started being really pissed for no apparent reason.. and that's another story for Chapter II... =P
** Meanwhile, drama on another side of the room of 7 was unfolding simultaneously.. Daniel and WX had managed to chat up this Canadian girl called Sae (or smth along the lines..) and it was ultimately hilarious!!! Gabby and I kept popping into their room on the pretext of borrowing stuff, just to see how the "relationship" was progressing.. =P At one point in time, we saw the 2 of them sitting on the floor, staring up at the girl as she was talking to them, almost like worshipping a goddess or smth.. My goodness. They even donated all their uneaten Maggi Mee to her, and helped her packed them nicely in their ziploc bags donated to her.. =P Of course, I couldn't resist a jibe, and reminded them to pack their own bags too, for we were leaving the next day for Freiburg.. Needless to say, that earned me a 2 glares.. =D
