Munich

I have been busy these past two weeks, first the photography workshop and then after a few days at home I was off again on another adventure.  Our AWA group's fall trip was to Munich so I packed my warm woolies and I was on my way.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, checked into our hotel and headed out to explore.  We found shops, lots of shops.  The variety of shops was great, we stopped into a couple of souvenir shops and saw some amazing handmade cookoo clocks and beer steins.  We found a great traditional German restaurant and had some fantastic schnitzel and spetzel.

Friday morning dawned and we were scheduled to go on a tour.  A bike tour.  We went to Frankie's bike shop and met Frankie, who was our tour guide for the morning.  The poor guy had been riding his bike home 2 days earlier and was hit by a car.  He had a dislocated shoulder but was still willing to take us around town, now that's commitment!  It was a great tour and was such a nice way to cruise around town.    We saw a few nice historic buildings and heard a couple of interesting stories from the time of the Nazi regime.  Then we went into the English Garden, a beautiful park full of trees, paths, streams and of course a beer garden.  We stopped by the beer garden for lunch and a beer, of course, and Frankie told us that during Octoberfest they can accommodate 6000 people there.  Although, being that Octoberfest was over, there were only a handful of people besides us.  So we sat in the sun and enjoyed our lunches.

We took the long way back by a bunch of crazy guys surfing in the frigid glacial waters that come from the Isar river, through the park.  Then we rode along the Isar and admired the beauty of Munich.  It really is a pretty place.  Our tour ended and we said goodbye and thanks to Frankie.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with a healthy amount of shopping and we all met up for a fantastic dinner that evening.

Saturday, our group split up, with a most of the women off on a bus tour to see Neuschwanstein Castle.  Three of us were left and we decided to go and try and find some more shops specialising in handmade German items.  Our search did not yield any more than the 2 we had found before, but we had a wonderful day out and about in Munich.  That night we all met up again for dinner, Frankie had recommended a Mexican restaurant and being that most of the women were from the Southern US, they missed their tex-mex and so we decided to go.  It wasn't a tex-mex restaurant but served fantastic authentic mexican food and the best mojitos.  It was a really enjoyable evening.