The location of the hostel is really good - it's just a couple of minutes away from the train station and close by from the city centre. Just outside the hostel there was also the meeting point for a free walking tour in Munich. The hostel itself was ok and the staff was rather friendly, but I didn't like the rooms much. The dorms were noisy and the beds uncomfortable, so I slept really badly there. The bar in the hostel was very nice though, because it was decorated with good taste and the music was good there, it was big enought for even a big groups of people, so it was easy to find a table even late on Friday and Saturday evening.

The Deutsches Museum in Munich has exhibits of pretty much anything you can think of that is related to science and technology with lots of hands on exhibits. With over 10 miles of exhibits you need to decide which exhibits to see and which to skip. The Deutsches Museum is the one museum I really wanted to see (being a big science geek myself). And I wasn't disappointed in fact I was like a kid in a candy store. I started in the mines - tracing the history of mining with equipment and samples of materials mines. Next was the marine ship area then the aeronautics area filled with old planes. I was excited to see the "cave" but it wasn't really much of a cave - it did have replica cave art in it. The electricity and magnestism area had some great hands on activities. There were big trains and model trains and a few rooms of old instruments. In fact, I walked in on a curator "tickling the clavicles". I got my own private performance. Photography is allowed, but I was too absorbed in the exhibits to take pictures. The cost of admission is € 8.50 for adults. This museum is amazing and sure to have something for everyone.

I walked down the Pedestrian Zone and I loved that there was such a long traffic free shopping zone.  So unlike back home.  First stop was the Frauenkirche - straight out of my middle school German textbooks!  I was so excited.  After years of practicing how to say "Das ist die Frauenkirche" I finally get to say it!  But there was nobody there to hear me.  The Frauenkirche rises above Munich with its twin domes that survived the bombing of WWII.  I didn't go in the church - and I can't remember now if it was closed or I just didn't bother to find a way in.  You can climb one of the towers but I wanted to climb a different tower so I could get this church in my photos.

I continued on to Marienplatz - where the Rathaus with its famous Glockenspiel sits.   I climbed up the tower of St. Peters on Marienplatz so I could get some nice photos.  I also wanted to be up there on the hour so I could get a nice view of the Glockenspiel dance.  But I was confused because it didn't play - neither did St. Peter's chime.  Apparently in winter the Glockenspiel only runs at noon.  So I missed that.   

A little disappointed, I descended and made my way to the Hofbrauhaus.  My sister was a huge fan and her boyfriend took over her sweatshirt so I decided to buy him his own Hofbrauhaus sweatshirt.  I popped in and found most of the tables full so I asked an older German-speaking couple if I could join them.  I'm glad I read that this is the common practice in Germany - seat yourself and join others when tables are full.  I ordered the sausage plater with three different types of sausages, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.  I watched some young Koreans at the table next to me try sauerkraut for the first time and it was hilarious!  Maybe they didn't know it was sour before they tried it?  My German couple also found it amusing.  We made some small talk - they didn't speak any English.  I realized I finally had the opportunity to use the restroom without hauling all my stuff in with me and losing my seat.  So I asked the couple if they could watch my bag for me.  I didn't quite conjugate the verb correctly, but they understood and kindly corrected me (and agreed).  I felt I could trust them.  So I finally got to use the restroom unencumbered.  Yay!  During my meal there was also a polka band playing making it a more fun atmosphere.  After I ate and paid, I said goodbye to the German couple and bought the sweatshirt on my way out.

My final stop was the Asam Kirche, a few blocks off Marienplatz.  My uncle said it was a great example of a Baroque Church and after the beautiful church in Zwiefalten I was eager to see another.  Boy was I disappointed!  The church had metal bars at the entrance so I could only look in from the entry.  The church was so gaudy - full of intricate gold details, marble pillars, more gold statues, paintings, more gold figurines and some neon lights with the light reflecting off the gold.  It was sensory overload.  It was not the nice clean, pretty church from Zwiefalten.  It was too much.  I took a few photos and wondered if my uncle really thought this church was beautiful and left.  Maybe it looks better during the day. 

The Hotel Monaco was a pleasant surprise. It was one of those budget-oriented pensions/hotels that actually looked better than their website. The hotel is near the main train station in a commercial area, yet on a quiet side street. It is close to the tramlines and metro, which you may not even need because the old town is only a five minute walk from the hotel. The hotel had a very bright, cheery atmosphere and the breakfast buffet was very good. The coffee was excellent, and for me that says a lot about the place. The only complaint I had is when we checked in they said they accepted credit, and when we checked out, they were VERY reluctant to do so. Still the price is right, the rooms have character, and the bathrooms clean. A great place to stay when you're in Munich

Hotel was great, staff very friendly. Unfortunately the location is terrible. It is only a few blocks from the train as well as the main center in Munich - the only nice thing about the location. However, the surrounding areas are not very 'acceptable' (and far beyond family friendly). The location was like we were walking in the redlight district with all the strip clubs and casinos all over. It would have been nice to have a better selection of restaurants close by but all there was were small cafes that didn't look very inviting. We did visit the hotel restaurant where staff was nice and food was great. Only issue we ran into was someone from a room a few floors up decided to pour what we hopefully thought looked like beer out their window onto the outdoor shade that hung over the patio. One of the customers got wet and looked a bit puzzled as to what was poured out the window.......I would more than likely never stay at the Courtyard again and pay the extra money to stay in the Marriott on the other side of Munich.

Today was another early morning as we have 3 countries today.  We left Lucerne and made our way on the coach over to Mt. Stanserhorn. Arriving in the small town of Stans, we all got our funicular ticket that would take us all the way to the top of the mountain with views of the surrounding Alps. The entire group took this optional and we all boarded this little train that would take us to the furnicular. It was a very relaxing ride with cool crisp air mixed with the sounds of cowbells ringing in the distance. We then all got into a very tight squeezing funicular for the rest of the ride. Everytime the funicular dipped, I got a little uneazyness in  stomach and some people let out a few gasps. For those in the front, there were really cool views of the surrounding area as it was a perfectly sunny day. It was definetly no place for someone afraid of heights. We finally arrived a the top, and we had an hour to walk around and explore before heading back to the bottom. Suzanne, Clay, and myself decided to do a little exploration down some random trail. We thought this trail would lead us somewhere interesting but apparently it was only going down the mountain. So we decided to turn around and we found the correct trail that lead us higher up the mountain. However, being out of shape I decided not to go any further up the mountain and was content with just enjoying the fantastic views of the valley below. The rest of the time up here was just spent shopping for souvenirs and having a light snack. While riding back down the mountain on the funicular, my ears desperately needed to pop but despite my best attempts was not able to. My inner ear was in agonizing pain and I spent the next half hour yawning and chewing gum trying to get them to pop. We had a lunch stop over in Liechtenstein, one of the world's smallest countries. There wasn't much to do or see here. The highlight was getting my passport stamped for 2 euros. We had lunch at a small gyro shop, looked around a bit, and saw the castle from a distance. Other than that it was back on the coach for the drive into Germany and the beginning of Oktoberfest in Munich. We drove along the Autobahn for a while where Matt began his usual speel on the history of the country we were about to check out. I could usually count on his talk to put me into a good sleep but this time his lecture on German history was really interesting and kept my attention. Matt was proving to be a wealth of knowledge when it comes to European history and so far is turning out to be a great tour manager. We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in the suburbs of Munich.  Patrice and I got a room overlooking the courtyard and when I looked out over the balcony, there was Patrick below trying to get my attention. He had apparently missed the coach again in Paris and took a train to Munich to meet up with us. This room was by far the best of the entire trip. Finally, a nice comfortable bed with huge fluffy pillows. Too bad, the rest of the hotels couldn't be like this. We had about 2 hours to kill before we were to head on over to the center of Munich. I just took a walk around the courtyard of the hotel while Amy and Mar walked over to a nearby Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies. We all met up in the hotel lobby and proceeded to walk over to the nearby subway station to take us to the center of Munich. It took forever for all of us to get our subway tickets. Some of us just couldn't figure out the machines. Finally we all got in, boarded the subway and within a few minutes were standing in front of the Glockenspiel. Being the night before the beginning of Oktoberfest, there were a lot of people out and about. There wasn't that much to see and do in Munich so we decided to just walk around before going to the Hofbrauhaus to meet up with everyone. The Hofbrauhaus is a famous beer hall in the heart of Munich complete with a traditional German band and waitresses in typical German attire. We found a restaurant to have dinner at not too far from the Hofbrahaus. Being that it was really busy, we had to separate into 2 tables. Patrice and I at one table and everyone else at another. I had the schnitzel which turned out to be really good as well as a Radler, which was just lime soda mixed with beer. After dinner, we decided to try our luck at the Hofbrahaus which was totally packed. As we were trying to get in, Suzanne was pulled off to the side and wasn't allowed to get in. Apparently, they won't let you in if you have sandles on. After trying to argue with the security and seeing others with sandles get in, we decided to leave and go searching for a pair of cheap shoes to buy.  Already a bit annoyed at having to leave the Hofbrauhaus, it had now begun to sporadically rain. We visited a few shoe stores and there wasn't anything that Suzanne found acceptable in both looks and price. She finally settled on a pair of shoes and we made our way back into the Hofbrahaus. Once we got in, we weren't able to find any Contiki people nor anyplace to sit. We wandered for a bit still trying to find any place to sit but to no avail. It was so loud and packed and I can tell everyone was a bit irritated so we all decided to just leave.  Suzanne had bought a pair of shoes for nothing. We walked around a bit trying to kill time and found an internet cafe to check up on e-mails. Suzanne and Clay tried to call their airline to see if they can extend their stay all the way to Athens. They were unsuccessful unless they wanted to shell out another $1,000 to change their flights. We just all decided to call it a night and hailed a taxi to head back over to the hotel and hang out in someone's room. Back at the hotel, we all changed into more comfy clothing and brought some snacks and met up in Mar and Amy's room where we began to play some cards. Clay ran into Fridge somewhere in the hall and told Clay that the Hofbrahaus was staying open late tonight. According to him, it was going to be happening tonight and that we should head on over. Back in the room, Clay, Suzanne, and myself realized when is the next time we are going to be in Germany for Oktoberfest? We decided to put our party hats back on and head back out. Patrice, Mar, and Amy decided to just be party poopers and call it a night. So the 3 of us hailed another taxi and went back over to the Hofbrahaus. By now, it was a bit past midnight and when we got to the front doors, they were letting people out as they were closing for the night. "This sucks" we all thought. As we stood there not knowing what to do next, we ran into a few Contiki people who said that they were all going to meet up at the Hard Rock Cafe right across the street. We waited in line to get inside Hard Rock with Kevin and a totally wasted Patrick while being pushed and shoved from behind by all these drunk and loud people. It was total madness and once we got in, it was completely packed and the music was blaring. We had lost Patrick at this point and we tried to find some other Contiki people without luck. We decided to make our way over to the bar and get a few beers. On our way to the bar, we ran into this group of 10 drunk guys wearing skirts. One of the guys drunkenly fell to the floor totally exposing his twig and berries. All of his buddies then proceeded to feel him up. It is only the night before the beginning of Oktoberfest. I can only imagine what the next few weeks were going to be like here. We finally got to the front of the bar and ordered our beers and a water for drunk Kevin. We searched around for a place to sit when we found Michael from South Africa, and the 5 girls from Australia later to be known as the Aussie gossip crew. We made our introductions, watched all the drunks, and hung out with them for the rest of the night.

Once we arrived in Munich, we were so tired and wet that we decided to grab some Thai food and stay in our nice hotel room to catch the Italy football game. Suprisingly, this was a really nice night, just relaxing and getting cleaned up :)

The next day we met Martin at our tent hostel... yes I did say tent. This hostel was 1 big huge tent full of 100 dorm bunk beds. This unfortunately was the only hostel left for reservation. The first day we toured the city, found a traditional german clothing store and tried on durndels and leiderhosen, and went to a biergarten to watch the game... we´ve been loving the football over here! The next day we visited the Neuschwanstein Schloss (about 2.5 hours from Munich). It was gorgeous and the one that Disney designed it´s castle after! That night we went to the famous Hoffbrauhaus which is a beer hall with live music, bratwurst and 1 litre beers! Prost!

Since the Tent was a bust... we treated ourselves to a hotel for the next two nights. We were right in the heart of the city with comfy beds and privacy! The rest of the time in Munich we ate Bavarian food, had a walking tour of the whole city by this sweet tour guide, Marcos, and saw Dachau, one of the concentration camps outside of Munich. It was very interesting but sooooo sad. Learning about how the people were treated and how many people were sent to these camps. Devastating. We had a really good tour guide who was extremely knowledgeable and we learned a ton from him... it put a lot into perspective for us.

And now onto some relaxing, amazingness near Stuttgart with my mom´s cousin Nicole!

Once again in Munich, we were arriving late. We caught an overnight to Bruxelles and secured a cabin. When we slept on the train, we had it to ourselves everytime. We never had to share during the night. We had decided to sleep on trains instead of pricey hotel rooms most nights. We chose Bruxelles because we could be moving and get a good nights rest. we were just winging it! 

Much like Frankfurt, Munich was just a connection point for us. Our first real site seeing would be done in Oberammergau. So after seaching out the train we made the scenic ride into Bavaria.

Oh my goodness, I had no idea what this international travel really included. My flight out of Salt Lake left more than an hour behind schedule. It was about eleven hours long, and I have to say, extremely uncomfortable. I could not find a sleeping position that was suitable, and my back was (and still is) killing me. The flight attendants were kind of rude, too. But there was lots of turbulance, so at least it made for a fun ride. =)

Well, we arrived in Paris at about 12:45...5 minutes before I was supposed to catch my connecting flight into Germany. Then there was something wrong with the jetway, whatever that means, so we sat on the runway for about 45 minutes waiting for a gate to open up. When none did, we deplaned on the tarmack, and were bussed over to a customer service area, since most of the people catching a connecting flight had already missed it. I got placed on a flight leaving an hour later, and arrived in Munich, Germany around 5 pm. This time I had to ask a couple people where in the world I was supposed to go and what to do, because Delta only got me as far as Munich, then I had to check in with a different airline in order to get to Windhoek. I got it figured out, though, and got through security, and have a couple hours before I board the final stretch. I requested a window seat for this flight, so maybe I'll be able to lean against the wall and actually get some sleep...maybe I won't have a seat buddy either so I can stretch out. That would be heaven!

I made a stop back in Munich for the night.  I think it has been one of my favorite cities so far, but I don't really know why.  I just really enjoy walking around and everyone is really friendly.  Not much else to report from here, just thought I'd add an entry.

Somehow we ended up taking an earlier train so we arrived in Munich about 20 mintues ahead of schedule.  We were meeting my relatives that I've never met before.  Michael and Christiane had agreed to let us spend a night with them and Julia would be meeting us for dinner.  But none of us knew what the others looked like.  We decided to wait at the end of the platform our train was supposed to come in on and we stood there like idiots looking at every couple that passed - wondering if it was them.  The second couple I asked turned out to be them!  (I even got to use my German when asking!).  We waited a few more minutes before Julia joined us - she had just gotten off work.  We dumped our bags in the car and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. 

Dinner was at the Altmunchner Gesellenhaus a few blocks from the train station.  The food was delicious and the waiter even wore Lederhosen!  We did the small talk - get to know eachother, etc.  The conversation was mostly in English for our benefit.  Everyone was really nice and we enjoyed visiting with them.  After dinner we drove around Munich a little to see the city at night, and then off to bed. 

My relatives have a beautiful house about 20 minutes from the city center.  In the morning we had a lovely breakfast of those delicious rolls, lunchmeats, cheese and tea.  Yummy!  After breakfast, Michael brought out his collection of eyeglasses.  I think he was quite please to see that Michele and I both wear glasses.  He has an online business where he sells frames to customers and let us try on a bunch of pairs.  Some of them were pretty crazy (and awful) but some were really nice and trendy.  He let us each pick out a pair.  That was so nice of him!  All we need to do is get lenses when we get home!  If you are interested in the frames, he has a website:

www.eyewear-collection.com

After over an hour of trying on glasses, Michael drove us back into town.  After storing our luggage at the train station, we got dropped off a few blocks from the Marienplatz.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  I suggested climbing the tower of St. Peter's Church, since you get a great view of Marienplatz, the Rathaus, and the Frauenkirche.  So we climbed up and on the way I thought I saw a few snowflakes outside the window.  Hmm.  Sure enough, we get to the top and it is snowing like crazy and the wind is blowing the snow horizontal!  Yikes!  We braved the outdoor viewing platform and got our snow-filled pics of Marienplatz.  All the while I'm thinking how can it be snowing this late in March when I was here before in the first week of January and there was no snow?!

I also talked Michele into the Hofbrauhaus (see my review).  It is a great Beer Hall with a live band, large beers and delicious food.  We popped in for a light lunch - we shared the wiener platter and each had a Radler (half beer half lemonade).  It was yummy.  We had just sat down when a German family joined us at the table.  We didn't talk to eachother - I'm sure they knew we were tourists - but thanks to them we were able to get service faster.  It is really busy in there, with a lot of turnover and our tablemates got the waiter's attention to order and also for the bill.  We enjoyed the music and food and only saw one drunk, obnoxious person.  But when we left, it was still snowing.

We decided not to stick around much, so we walked back to the train station in the snow.  Then we went in to a store that was connected to the underground shopping area and worked our way back out of the snow!  We caught a train back to Stuttgart for a little R&R before our big Easter trip to Kiel.

I wasnt expecting Munich to be the way it was. I half expected a smaller city like Berlin but I was far from wrong. As soon as I stepped off the train I could see that not only were the locals a different class of people but the tourists were also on a league of their own. I stayed in a hostel quite close to the train stn whichwas handy.  met a few peope in the rom who were also travelloing alone so we decided to hit the town for some grub and  few bevvies. We wandered around a little looking for somewhere special and ended  in Haufbrauhaus beer hall. What a place! Thats where we met the rather large pot bellied (from all the beer consumption) inappropriatly dressed men. By inappropriately dressed i mean in their traditional bavarian dress..... lederhosen!!! When sitting down to bangers and mash with sweet cabbage stuff (the german name escapes me) the last thing you want to see is a man with leather flappy trousers  just managing to hold in his manly bits! Now the women were something to behold!!!! Young waitresses rushing around with their hands full of litre glasses of the famous bavarian HB. I swear, maybe two or three glasses in each hand, their ample busts pushed up to display a cleavage that any woman would be proud off, by their bavairan style dress and with smiles that could dazzle, its everymans dream :-). The beer was fantastic. Such large glasses at such cheap prices and it doesnt take long to become tipsy (in fact one guy went beyond tipsy and fell aslepp and had to get carried out). Women also went around selling giant pretzels! One lady caught my attention.... not because she was beautiful, far from it actually. She caught my eye because in her hand she was holding these giant pretzels and they looked so massive next to this tiny wee woman! What a workout for her to carry a large basket and have to hand these giant pretzels to the customers. After that we left and wandered around to see the city at night before heading back to the hostel for an early start.

School is going well. After class Jen, Scott and I went to have lunch at a Chinese place. It was really good! Everyone else headed towards the market, but you can only eat so much German food. After lunch the 3 of us browsed some stores and bought some liquor for later – cheaper than going to bars. We got in around 4pm and all went our separate ways to relax for a bit. About an hour later we reconvened in Jen’s room and broke out the liquor, a few other people from the program came down. Around 6:30pm we left to watch a soccer game – the Europe Cup is going on right now. Every game is big, regardless of which country is playing. So we wound up at this outdoor bar and got a great table. About an hour later we were surrounded by an all-Italian crowd, so it was quite easy to decide who we were going to cheer for. I had a great time chatting with some people behind us. The atmosphere was absolutely crazy! People were going nuts when Italy scored (or just came close to scoring). In the end Italy won 2-0 (over France), so everyone was very happy. It was one of the best nights thus far.

Munich was an awesome city and I wish I had another day here, but my flight to Rome is tomorrow morning.  There is a lot to see here and I just didnt have time to do it all.  Yesterday I went around downtown Munich to see all the buildings and Beer Gardens.  The streets were full of people in traditional Bavarian dress because it was the celebration of Munichs 850th Birthday.  I met up with three other guys from my hostel for the tour and then to explore the city.

This morning I took a trip out to Neuschwanstein Castle.  Its a castle build on the top of a gorge in the alps.  Its quite a site to see and was the inspiration for the Disney castles.  I met a lot of people on the trip including a couple of engineers who are in town for a compressor conference.  They're here with their wives and visiting the sites when they aren't at the conference.  One of the couples is from near the Columbus area and I spent a good amount of time talking with them.  I got a beer stein and couple of other larger items today at the castle since everything in Munich was closed yesterday for the celebration and again today for the soccer game against Austria and the couple from Marysville is taking them back for me since they have a lot of room in their suitcase and they had a daughter who backpacked and know how hard it is to squeeze everything in. 

I head to Rome in the morning, but need to wrap this up because I'm almost out of time.