Auf Wiedersehen, Munchen!

It's our last day in Munich. This afternoon we head to Nuremberg to board our ship and set sail up the Rhine. We've really enjoyed it here, even without an official city tour. We covered quite a bit on our own, including five brew halls. Yesterday for lunch we went to one that was established in 1358! The gang had goulash soup and we shared a cheese and bread platter that was out of this world!

I know it sounds like all we do is drink around here, and, while that may be true, we do have to navigate between the halls. Y'all remember one of the pictures we took in Sydney Australia our first day...there was a statue of a warthog?? Well, he must be following us:

On the Marienplatz (the main square) we watched part of the Glockenspiel production...every day at noon the bells ring out and all sorts of little figures prance about in a miniature tournament for the royalty. They joust and dance and spin, but they're so far up you really have no idea what you're watching...especially if you've just come from the Augustiner Brauhaus. (This is where city tours come in handy!)

And we stumbled upon the cutest little side street. Yeah, it's still freakin' cold!

We had our first experience with the train system. We had to buy a new suitcase (the zipper broke on one of Joe's), so we're wandering around Marienplatz and decide we'll take the suitcase back to the hotel via the train (it's sooo cold and sooo far to walk dragging a suitcase). But when we get to the underground station, everything's in German, and it's Saturday, so there are no helper people around...although the station is packed with locals. We get a little frazzled and finally decide to hell with it! we're taking a cab. We get back to the hotel, deposit the suitcase and set out again to meet up with everyone for lunch. This time I do what my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. McCarter always said to do. I read the instructions (I guess that really IS what all those guide books are for!). We figured it out, and in five warm, clean and comfortable minutes, we were back on the plaza. Great system...now that I get it!

Doug and Silvana arrived early evening and we all walked to a small cafe just down the street from the hotel...best Wiener Schnitzel yet! The best part of the evening was getting Wally wound up to tell some of his famous travel stories. He's like one of those tops with the string you wind around and then pull to get it spinning. A couple of glasses of wine and a little encouragement and he's telling some of the wildes tales you'll ever hear. Like the one with the CEO who missed the Carnival cruise ship but knew the line owners and got them to turn the boat around. Or the one where the Jamaican Mafia turn up at a party to shake down one of the guests. I never get tired of hearing that one!

So we're off to Nuremberg. We were going to take the train, but got a deal on a taxi instead. Door to door service sounded sooo much better than lugging all our crap up and down hills, on and off trains, in and out of cabs! Looking forward to the cruise...see you on board.

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