Trip 43

Thursday September 14, 2023

We arrived back in Munich from Berchtesgaden yesterday (3 hour drive). Despite the drizzle and clouds that hung down into the valleys leading out of Berchtesgaden, the drive was uneventful, stopping only to gas up the rental car before returning it. Filling up the (gas) rental car outside Munich on the Autobahn?
2.299€/liter or $45 for half a tank. $9.29/gal. Interestingly, there were EV charging stations at both the Autobahn gas stations. I did see a few Teslas on the Autobahn. Though we returned the rental car to the same garage from which we left, fortunately, I don’t have to drive it up those narrow ramps.

We’ll buy tickets on the UBahn to travel out to our hotel in Schwabing, about 15 minutes plus a 5 minute bus ride. Too early for the room to be ready, so we’ll check our bags and head back into town. We don’t have much planned for today and the one thing we tried to buy seemed to be too much of a challenge for the shop assistant to handle to look up a price ( I can ask for a price of the item she showed us, in German ). She just stood behind the counter, sort of looking busy, hoping, we think, we’d finally give up and go away, which we did.

Out in the Marienplatz, it was busy and there were a few sidewalk performers, including this group, performing a rendition (YouTube) of Mama Mia! by ABBA.

The Marienplatz is the central square (since 1158) in the inner section of Munich. The Neues Rathaus (city hall) dominates the square.

Friday September 15,2023

We’re headed down to Hofbräuhaus , not far from the Marienplatz to get some souvenirs. Entry into the beer hall was busy and a short line, but no line into the gift shop. 30€ each for t-shirts. Sheesh.

The Viktualienmarkt is not far away and we left Hofbräu to have lunch over there. It’s a beautiful day and the Biergarten is packed. It took a while to find two seats together at an unreserved table. Some restaurants have sections of reserved tables, but there’s a large open seating area if you can find seats. Once we did find seats, my wife held our spot while I went off to buy Ein Maß (9.80€)

I decided we’d get food later, it’s just so crowded.

Our table had 7 people (including us) and the two across from us offered to talk, but since I speak little German, declined. But another person later joined the table and jumped right into conversation. Nice to see people, total strangers, sitting down to talk.

After finishing our beer, we strolled around the Viktualienmarkt and some of the various food, flower and gift stalls. The Viktualienmarkt is where their Maypole is located. The flower stall had some flowering artichokes on display and the bees love them.

We bought a (footlong!) bratwurst to share before heading back towards the Marienplatz.

Though it’s not the time for this, the Rathaus is where the glockenspiel is located. We’ve been in the square when it plays and it’s quite a sight.

At 6pm, the UBahn is busy and even more so with a lot of apparent football fans wearing the shirts of their favorite teams, one group singing loudly as they went down the escalator to the rail lines. There were quite a few UBahn Bahnwachte (police) present just to make sure things didn’t get rowdy, which they didn’t.