First Day in Munich
Car Delivery
Went this morning to take delivery of my beautiful new car in Munich. =)
Marienplatz
Wandering around, got lunch at Andescher am Dom. Tried my first real beer in the heart of Munich.
Frauenkirche church
We visited this really pretty church which was near where we ate.
Back to the Hotel and Glockenspiel
Took a break at the hotel and went back to watch the 5pm showing of the Glockenspiel.
Car Delivery
Today we picked up my car! 
lIt’s gorgeous and has really cool features; we took public transportation, got aittle lost, but found the place anyways. We found out the insurance didn’t cover the few extra days that we paid for, but we came up with some solutions for that- find a loaner car or do trains. Our leg from Amsterdam to London’s already by plane, so the only other things we’d have to arrange is from Paris to Brussels/Antwerp and from Antwerp to Amsterdam.
We were a bit nervous about driving the car, so we used public transportation for the rest of the day after we parked it in the hotel, and planned to read the manual tonight. Driving around in Munich, not knowing our bearings was a bit scary. Thank goodness for the navigation and navigation DVD loaner program!
Marienplatz
We missed the glockenspiel noon show by a few minutes because we didn’t know our way around very well. There would be another show at 5pm, which we planned to stay around for. We hung out around Marienplatz a bit, got lunch at Andechser am Dom. There were a lot of local businessmen doing well, business, and some locals eating Bavarian sausages. Evan had an Andechser sample plate of meatloaf and sausage while I had pork with potatoes and a salad. Both were rather delicious and affordable. We also sampled a small
Andechser Hell. I don’t particularly like beer, but from the sip that I took, it was okay. There wasn’t a horrid aftertaste. Evan says the more he drank it, the more he disliked it. I’m not much for alcohol either, but we decided in a place like this, we should try something. I suppose it would be a shame not to try some beer while in Germany, especially since we were legal age of drinking in Germany and we weren’t driving. An old couple next to us was rather friendly, and the man spoke a little English. He grew up in East Germany and ended up as a prisoner of war in Russia in WWII. That was rather impressive. I don’t think I could have handled anything even _close_ to that. His wife did not speak English, so he translated; he had visited Boston previously and some places in the States. There was a strange guy who came by our table with a steady camera. We really didn’t know what was going on since we couldn’t understand German very well. I postulated that it was a politician at first because he was talking to businessmen, but then I think it was a German food channel of some kind, since the camera did focus on the food. There was a reporter behind us taking notes on a little recording machine.
Frauenkirche Church
Then we visited Frauenkirche church where the restaurant was near. It had amazing stained glass windows and paintings. There were little caricatures of people climbing out of the corners of the arches on the ceiling. There was a carving of Saint Christina, which I thought was interesting. There are also very detailed carvings and statues around a tomb in the church. Evan went to the top of the church and took some very nice pictures of Munich, which he stitched into a panorama.
Back to the Hotel and Glockenspiel
We went back to the hotel to try to upload pictures and put some blog entries online. The internet was very finicky, so we couldn’t get too much done. Then we went to the Glockenspiel, right on time for the 5pm showing. It’s a fifteen-minute presentation with mechanical characters- don’t get your hopes up on something rather advanced, it was made a long time ago… so for today’s over-stimulated selves, it’s rather hard to concentrate on these small, basic wooden people. Made me realize how desensitized we are today.
I was really tired, so I wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep, so sleep I did. Evan worked on organizing pictures, which is a huge task. I tried to do it earlier, but it didn’t work as nicely as I hoped it would. Evan likes pictures more anyways, and knows much more about it. =)