munich

today was long. and exhausting. i woke up at 745am because we needed to get ready, pack, eat breakfast, and switch rooms before we headed out for the tour. it turned out that the wombats tour was cancelled today, so they referred us to a walking tour that leaves from the train station. after eating our awesome breakfast that wombats provides every morning (all you can eat for only 3,70 euro), we headed for the train station to reserve our seats for our trains to interlaken and rome, because we don't want to play musical seats again. once we secured our seats, we headed over to the tour building to sadly find out that the walking tour costs 18 euro and it's 5 hours long! we decided that A. too expensive, B. too long, C. we like to do things at our own pace.

so we came back to the hostel and mapped out our own tour. and it actually went really well. we saw a lot today. and i am beyond tired now. we set out to see the marienplatz, which is a large square named after mary, with the town hall. it's really beautiful. we also saw the clock called glockenspiel. then we went in a couple of stores looking for a new hat, but couldn't find one.

frozen fountain in the marienplatz

we moved on from there to the viktualienmarkt. it was one of my favorite things of the day. i really like to see the locals and what they do, and i felt like i got a good feel of munich from this outdoor market. there was a cute honey shop where basically everything was made from honey. candles, liquor, jelly, wine, etc. i bought myself a small bottle of honey wine to try later. from there we walked through a couple of tents. i bought some fresh mozzarella and tomatoes that i ate for lunch. we stopped so that heather could get some of the european apple juice that she loves, and we ordered sausage in ketchup and curry. it was actually really good. i don't think that i could eat a lot of it though.

our lunch/snack

after we explored the market and saw a ton of cool things, we started walking toward the residenz museum. that's when we walked past lacoste and saw that they were selling hats! on sale! i finally found a hat that i liked in lacoste, and figured that i better get one before i get on the train to interlaken, so i grabbed it. i also saw a gator fan in lacoste! wearing a giant puffy gator jacket like the one i had when i was little! small world.

do you love my new hat?

once we left lacoste, we ran into the odeonsplatz square, built by maximilian I in 1816, and the residenz, and hofgarten which is unbelievable. we walked through the grounds, and then decided to head through the museum. the museum is incredibly ornate. this is where my exhaustion kicked in big time. we walked through a million rooms that were covered in gold, embroidery, fine furniture, priceless paintings. but the most memorable of them all was one small room where they had in cases these weird decorated, expensive boxes that housed pieces of dead royalty. there were hands, thigh bones, skulls, and even a dead baby! thankfully they made these seriously detailed skull covers that have like pearls and stones sewn on to cover the faces of the dead. thank god. i was already grossed out enough, i didn't need to see a dead face.

the hofgarten

view from the hofgarten

this room is completely made out of shells.

as in sea shells.

one of the many ornate ceilings

me outside of the residenz museum

after i dragged myself out of the museum i decided it was time to hit the bier hall. we settled on a really famous one called hofbrauhaus. it was really big, and really packed. we sat in the back where we ordered giant pretzels and a half liter of beer (sorry, we couldn't handle the entire liter of beer).

my beer and giant pretzel

the courtyard at hofbrauhaus

me in the outside courtyard of hofbrauhaus

then it was time to come home. we leave tomorrow at 723am from munich for interlaken. i cant wait! i have been so so excited about interlaken!!

status update on cydney: still sick. she was in bed all day again. she says she's not getting better, but she's taking her medicine and sleeping a lot which means hopefully she'll get to enjoy interlaken.