MUNICH, GERMANY!

We got ready this morning in our teeny tiny BARELY BASIC BATHROOM, and I’m not entirely sure how we did it! I could barely turn around in it, so I am quite certain that John couldn’t! (It made our early cruise ship bathrooms look palatial!) But ready we were and out we went in search of a good German coffee and breakfast! We eyed this table at the Moller Cafe and

snagged it! The perfect start of our day in Munich!

At breakfast, I searched my photos to see when (and if) I had been in Munich before. And, lo and behold, I found pictures of John and I in Munich during our very first international trip in March of 1984!

And, would you believe, I “blogged” our trip way back then before anyone even knew what blogging was all about! (Oh, how I wish I had done this for all of our vacations. Luckily, I started blogging in 2010 when we moved to Dubai and have kept it up for every major trip we’ve taken. Oh, the memories I have captured! So grateful!)

We loved walking the streets of Munich back then and we still did! And, of course, walking the streets of anywhere (when you are with John Diedam), meant venturing in any church that was close by! This one was the Church of St. John of Nepomuk. WOW!

We made it to Marienplatz, the main public square in the center of Munich, that was famous for its historic architecture and daily clock shows. It was there that we found the infamous Rathaus-Glockenspiel,

the large mechanical clock with the 32 figurines that reenacted the 1568 royal wedding and jousting tournament of Duke Wilhelm V,

while the lower level performed the traditional Cooper’s Dance (Schafflertanz) to celebrate the end of the 16th-century plague!

The Finale was when the small golden rooster at the very top flapped its wings and crowed three times to end the show!

We arrived to the square at 9:30AM and diligently waited to see the 10:00AM show. With cell phones in hand and aimed at the figurines, we waited (with everyone else in the square) for the show to start. And it didn’t! Just then our (very helpful) waiter came up and told us the show only ran at 11:00AM! So, after consuming 100+ euros in coffees, water and beer, we were finally able to capture the show!

After the performance, we moseyed into yet another nearby church,

past some really cool nearby neighborhoods,

until we reached John’s biggest dilemma ever! There was a Hard Rock Cafe on one side of the street and the Hofbrauhaus on the other side! Because it was lunchtime, the Hofbrauhaus won!

This was truly John’s “Happy Place!”

We got a table in the beer garden and John got to sit next to “his people!”

I was a “Happy Camper” as well, when I ordered the biggest pretzel known to mankind and a beer for lunch! (I had been dreaming of this very moment the entire trip!) It was a three course pretzel, to be sure! And they even served it with spicy mustard!

We listened to the band playing some traditional German tunes and finally it was time to cross the street so that

John could do some shopping! (Yes, ANOTHER Hard Rock t-shirt!)

We hopped on a nearby rickshaw (and it did not end well)!

Once the driver quoted us a price, we took a seat and he started pedaling IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! Once John got his attention, he stopped, studied the map again, and upped his price! Say what? You’ve never seen John move so fast as when he hopped out of that rickshaw and said, “We’ll walk!”

And walk we did! We went past a cheese shop (we missed you Scho and Joe),

inside several more churches (of course),

and past some really busy shopping areas.

After putting on some miles walking all around Munich, we headed back to our BARELY BASIC hotel room to put our feet up for a while. Thank goodness we did because the minute we got to our room it started to pour down rain!

Not long afterwards, we were out the door once again, with several stops in mind. It was time to take a walk down Memory Lane! (Thank goodness the rain had stopped and the temperature dropped by ten degrees!)

First, we walked through some seedy areas to get to the hotel where we stayed in 1984, the Hotel Drei Lowen. John and I agreed that it now looked like a pay-by-the-hour hotel! We didn’t remember it at all, but we can assure you that back then we paid for the entire night!

Our second stop, as we continued our walk down Memory Lane, was the Paulaner Brauhaus where we took Jon and Jas in 2007 during our Germany vacation to visit some of John’s German relatives.