An Afternoon in München

Our first Saturday all together we drove back to Munich, but not to the airport this time.  We hit a stau and it was a longer drive than expected.  Then we were faced with August crowds and parking issues.  It will be SO much easier to travel in a few weeks when local school starts back up and the continent's holiday break is over.  But it was a very successful trip in Jessica's opinion because she had gelatto twice (it was a hot day) and she had her long awaited wurst and a pretzel.  We climbed up the tall tower inside St. Peter's church and also visited the grounds of a castle.  We didn't have enough time to go inside and see it properly, so we visited the swans and walked around the gardens and fountain.  We stopped by the castle cafe on the grounds to get something cold to drink.  We are getting accustomed to having to buy water, without gas, but miss the availability of drinking fountains.

 We had tried getting wursts at a little cafe inside a store, but she wouldn't serve them on rolls.  She insisted that the Bayern way was to eat them with a pretzel.  She also put a funny sauce on the plate.  They had been boiled, but not grilled or pan cooked and were just gross.  We have since found MANY places to disagree with her.  Here they are ordering and then eating their first of many proper Wursts.

View up one of MANY sections we climbed to the church tower.  There were some stone, but mostly wood sections.  Some were obviously older, some rebuilt more recently.  All were very narrow and there were many places that would get jammed up waiting for a group to go up while you wait to go down or visa versa because the stairs weren't wide enough in most places for 2 lanes.  The next few shots show us at the top looking down over the city.

We waited an extra 10 minutes at the top for the hour to strike so we could watch the figures dance on the clock tower across the square from us (it looks like another church and was once, but is now a government building) But 2:00 came and went without any dancing figures.  Bummer.  Oh well, it gave us time to play I Spy, Waldo style.  Example: I spy a tiny person with a blue jacket and white pants.  Or I spy someone with an orange dress walking a dog.  Below is the scene with which we were working.

 These are some views inside the cathedral.  It was lighter and happier than some you find in Europe.  The kids identified some Biblical paintings on the ceiling and were a little disturbed by the tombstones on the walls marking who is buried in the wall.

 This is a more modern castle, but still old enough that parts need to be restored.  Jess sacrificed some of her precious pretzel to entice the swans for a photo shoot.  They were quite fond of it, but there were also two insistant geese that were completely intimidating her.  I gave Isaac the job of shooing away the geese so swans could have a shot.

Mostly we are just hot and sticky at this point.  Where's the ice cream?