Hallo Munchen!

Guten Tag!

We arrived in Munich after a six hour train ride from Berlin. It felt great to arrive at our hotel after a long day of travel. The hotel in Munich is a little smaller and less modern than our hotel in Berlin. However, we have a refridgerator now and they have mineralwasser, coca cola, and apfel saft (mineral water, coke, and apple juice) in our fridge for free! Furthermore, they refill it if you drink something from the fridge. Also, Internet is a lot more reasonable at 3 euro (about $4) for 24 hours.

Munich is a smaller city with more historic looking buildings. Munich is also a very expensive city because the city and people here are very rich. For example, they have stores like Dolce & Gabbana, Rolex, and Tiffany Co.Yesterday we walked to the Glockenspiel which is about a two minute walk from our hotel. This is a great big clock in the Neues Rathaus (New City Hall). It is similar to a cuckoo clock with statues of people that move around the clock at certain times. After little sightseeing, we walked around to find a restaurant. We eventually found a place that was not too expensive. Eventually, Allie and I sat down at an empty table. I, however, forgot to mention to Allie that it is a norm in Germany to have people sit at your table. Shortly after we sat down an older couple came and sat with us. They spoke some english and said they were visiting from Dusseldorf. It was very nice to not be completely ostracized with a language barrier. Allie and I split a plate of wiener schnitzel, which was lecker (delicious). I had a beer called Andechs DoppelBock Dunkel. It is a dark bock beer with about 7.1% alcohol by volume which makes it much stronger than any American beers. After having one half liter I was rather happy and enjoyed using Allie as a shoulder to lean on when walking back to our hotel. I love Germany!

Today
Allie and I walked over to a church called the St. Paul Kirche. It was a very pretty church. Luckily, a door was open so we were able to walk inside. Something miraculous had happend to me upon walking into the church. For the first time ever, I had felt calm and like a weight had been instantly lifted off of my shoulders. The church was very quiet and pretty empty. It was certainly an experience I will never forget.

I must also admit how much I love the beer options here. I can get a half liter of beer from the grocery store for less than one euro. Furthermore, beer is cheaper than juice in most cases. When Allie and I were walking around Munich this morning we say countless people drinking beer before noon; I love it!

Museum Island in Berlin



Ryan on the train ride to Munich

St. Paul Kirche

Sendlinger Tor, the gate to the old munich city, built in 1318.

Glockenspiel