How about our guest blogger @bigjoe52? As Pop said, his inaugural post was a “bulletpoint beauty,” and I think he liked writing it so much that he’ll be chiming in here and there for the foreseeable future. Hooray for all of us! I love the seasoning that his perspective lends to our journey!

We made it safely to Munich after riding the speed train from Paris. It was nice to have some down time, get some iPad / Kindle watching in, nap and honestly just sit in one place for 6+ hours and watch the beautiful world passing by.

Munich

We arrived to the Sofitel Munich Bayerpost, the former post office, perfectly situated a mere 500 feet from the train station so we didn’t have to lug our bags far. In addition, the place has A/C (praise the Lord) and everyone here speaks English! Alleluia! I have loved and been wow’d by all of the personal touches and how they enhance our experience and surprise and delight us! The kids get excited to see what’s next!

As with any Anderson travel joint, we rely heavily on who we lovingly refer to as Rickie Steve, Stevie Ricks (aka Rick Steves). We’ve had many an awesome trip thanks to Rick, his insights and his approach to creating a travel experience where you feel like a local and aren’t trapped inside the life of a tourist. We snatched up his Munich pocket guide and embarked upon his Munich City Walk. The walk was estimated to take 2-3 hours for 19 stops, but The Traveling Anderzoo only made it to 15 with the culmination at the famous Hofrbrahaus with very, very large beers.

Churches

The walk took us through a number of beautiful church’s, both ornate and simple. We started at The Jesuit Church of St. Michael and proceeded on to The Frauenkirche which was the church of Bishop Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict. We lit a candle for Uncle Tim at St. Peter’s, the oldest church in Munich (see the painting below from the ceiling of the church). We’ve prayed a lot, on super uncomfortable, very hard wooden kneelers, but prayed nonetheless, and the kids have been amazed by the decor and sheer massive size of the churches here.

New Town Hall & Old Town Hall

Walking down the pedestrian path and setting foot into Marienplatz (The Square of Virgin Mary) to see this absolutely took our breath away. It is beyond beautiful and this photo doesn’t do it’s beauty justice. This is the New Town Hall, believe it or not and was the headquarters for the U.S. Military after the Allied Forces won WWII. The green area in the tower is like a cuckoo clock with people dancing and celebrating a Bavarian / French wedding of royals of long ago and the monument in the middle of the square honors Mary and Catholicism as Munich was a stronghold for the Catholic Church during the Reformation.

The Old Town Hall is actually newer now as it was completely decimated by bombs during WWII and was completely rebuilt.

The Maypole and the Market

Campbell Farmer’s Market has got nothing on this joint! It seems to go on for blocks and blocks and there are cheese stands, sausage stands, booze stands, florists, fruit juice stands, bakers, butchers and candlestick makers. It was breathtaking, feeling the pulse and the energy of folks strolling through, taking a meal together and gathering fresh ingredients for themselves and their families. It’s amazing that it’s here every day and an integral part to local culture and living here in Munich, I’m so jealous!

Beer!

We concluded our 6-hour/7 mile walking tour with a traditional Bavarian dinner capped off with very large beers (and Fantas) and Polka music. I had a Radler, which is lemonade mixed with beer and Joe had The Munich Traditional. We had a lot of fun and tried delicious spaetzle, sausages, suckling pig, boiled beef with cranberry and brown bread with bavarian cheese.

We are all struggling with the amount of smoking that happens in Europe in general, yuck! Gus was aghast at how our table mates, of which there were two, (it’s all communal seating here) had managed to take down 6 cigarettes before their dinner even arrived. Picture his disgust and him using my hand fan to keep the smoke out of his area because he’s convinced he’s going to die after this trip from all the smoke ingestion! Ha!

P.S. neither of the boys liked the adult beverages, ;)! Lucky us!

The walking of yesterday, despite seeing a fun and full-of-life city, tuckered us out so we’ve spent the day today at our hotel, swimming in the indoor pool and ordering room service. It’s also raining so we may head out later today, but for now we’re enjoying watching the world go by outside our windows!