(CH)ICAGO ABROAD: WILLKOMEN IN BAYERN

Munich Parliament...glass represents transparency going forward

One of the few Surf-able rivers in the world.

Before I jump into Munich, I have a little Brussels/Belgium follow up. In my last blog, I failed to mention the "fries" story. During WWI, American soldiers feasted on Coca Cola and these fried potatoes that upon returning stateside, they aptly named "French Fries". Although Thomas Jefferson had the French style potatoes in the White House many years prior to this, the name stuck. But actually these style of frites (fries) originated in Belgium. For some reason Belgian fries doesn't sound as cool as French Fries or Belgian Waffles.

Marienplatz - Munich

City Hall

Cool Bavarian Architecture.

When we arrived in Munich, if you can remember from my last Brussels Blog, we were pretty exhausted from "relaxing" at the airport for nearly five hours after our 2.5 hour train debacle. So all we really wanted to do was get checked-in and have a few German beers. When we arrived in Munich, everyone reminded us, politely, that we were in Bavaria, the best part of Germany. Most times, when I visit a city, the locals usually tell me that their city is the best city in that particular country but for some reason these Bavarians seemed more serious than most.

But we had our list:

Take in the night life
See Marienplatz
Eat and Drink at Hofbrauhaus
Take a city Bike tour
Eat a traditional Bavarian/Turkish Kebob.
Get Planetferg well before the trip to Pamplona.

Pretty funny that #'s 1-5 would probably make #6 impossible, but we made the list and we decided it wouldn't be prudent to stray from the plan.

We quickly found Marienplatz with it's many Beer Halls, outdoor seating, and giant Dirk Nowitki billboards.

Dirk had just led his Dallas Mavericks to the NBA title.

That first night we had dinner and a few beers and asked a taxi-driver to take us to the night-life. Yeah...um...note to self, never ask a taxi-driver to take you to the night-life. NEVER. We were dropped off in an old Factory area that had been rehabbed into 10-15 bars and restaurants. Sounds interesting but we were turned away from several bars for being too old. The scene didn't feel right and after a few hours we exited stage left. Not a bad idea considering my wing man was coming down with something fierce.

The next day we learned from our hotel front desk staff that the area is popular among young Germans. Young being 21 and under. Thanks Mr. Taxi-Driver! I let Planetferg sleep in and wandered around the neighborhood. Since our hotel was basically in Little Turkey, finding a kebob (think Gyro without the cucumber sauce) for breakfast was pretty easy.

Hofbrauhaus was an interesting experience. This place is the most famous and largest Beer Hall in Munich. Lederhosen, Bavarian bands, and Bratwurst were in abundance. Plus we were able to sneak into the Stein vaults and see all the locals' beer steins held under lock and key.

We don't lift weights, we lift Beers.

Bavarian meets and kraut.

Stein vault. Those are Steins to my rear.

Planetferg singing along

After filling the bellies with beer and brats, it's obvious the next thing to do is to hop on a bike and take a tour of the city. Naturally our tour guide was.....AMERICAN. Although I don't have a picture, allow me to paint one. A University of South Carolina grad, in between his Sophomore and Junior year in college, decided to live in the German Alps for two years until his dad called and said "No Degree, no more money!" He returned to complete his degree and immediately returned to Europe and has been living in Munich ever since. His uniform: a custom built bike, khaki shorts, loafers and sunglasses...No doubt southern. You know it's a great bike tour when it includes a stop at the second largest outdoor beer garden in the world.

The pictures below tell the story, I'll try to narrate...

Typical Bavarian platz with a Grand building in the rear.

Not pictured to the left, the Royal Palace and to the right a famous Bavarian church. The church was built by a Bavarian King that promised to build a church if god would bless him with a son. After seven daughters, he was blessed with a son and an heir. He went on to build the greatest church Bavaria had ever seen. Notice that two Lions. One is growling and one is not. Our guide told us that this was done on purpose to show that you can growl at the Royal family but you must not speak against the chuch.

Church built after the King had his 1st son after 7 daughters

Golden Path

The Golden Path is the path that many Bavarians chose to take instead of passing the Nazi-German flag and monument during Hitler's reign. When passing, it was required to salute in acknowledgment of Hitler and his government. The path doesn't go the entire block, it ends about half way down the road because that's how long it would take the S.S guards to catch the people, beat them, and drag them back to the monument to salute.