Munich: the Heart of Bavaria

Wir sind in Deutschland! :)

We finally made it! After a long but successful overnight flight, we arrived in Germany as of 12:45 pm (German time) Wednesday. We had the opportunity to hear and use our German for the first time on the plane and then while doing some shopping in the airport before beginning our tour of our first German city- Munich. A stop at Starbucks was a must for some and others tried out their first German snacks.

Our four-hour bus/walking tour took us all around this capital city of Bavaria and we discovered where many of our stereotypes of Germany come from. The first of which was the Germans' love for cars which we saw first hand at 'BMW Welt', the BMW museum! Here you can see us in front of the museum as well as everyone actually getting the opportunity to try out the motorcycles and cars first hand.

On our tour we also saw: the world-famous Glockenspiel at the Rathaus (town hall), Odeonsplatz- the site of memorial marches during the Third Reich commemorating Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, the Residenz- the home to Bavaria's former monarchs, and the Schloss Nymphemburg- the birthplace of King Ludwig II, who is most famous for the building of his summer home, Neuschwanstein.

We ended our day on a high note, enjoying dinner at the famous Ratskeller, a wonderful and high-end restaurant in the basement of the Rathaus right in the center of town. We were treated to delicious Broetchen  & Brezeln (rolls & pretzels), Salat mit Wuerstchen (salad with bratwurst), Schweinshaxe (pig knuckle) and Kartoffelnknoedeln (potato dumplings). It was a wonderful, authentic German meal to end our first day!