A Visitor from Austria!

Another fun-filled and exciting day here in Germany!  Today our friend Chris took the train in for the day from Salzburg, Austria to hang out with us in Munich.  Chris arrived shortly after lunch, so we had some time before lunch to do some more exploring of the Marienplatz on our own.  After an awesome breakfast spread at the hotel, we set out on foot toward the "Fraunkirche" or Church of Our Lady in the historic Marienplatz district of Munich.  The church was built in the late 1400s and currently serves as the main city church in Munich.  One of the cool facts about the church is the fact that the current Pope Benedict XVI was the Archbishop at this very church in the late 1970's!  The inside of the church was decorated in a Gothic style and features several tributes to Pope Benedict.

After exploring the inside of the church, we ventured to the top of the church's towers, which is the highest public viewpoint in Munich (280 feet).  We tried to capture some of the beautiful views from the top...

From there we headed around the corner to check out the famous Glockenspiel at the New Town Hall (also in the Marienplatz).  It is basically a giant cuckoo clock.  We took a short video of the action to share with you all later, although the actual show lasted several minutes.  Here is a picture in the meantime.

Next we headed to the AMAZING Viktualienmarkt, a large town market with local delicacies (such as wurst, produce, cheeses, etc) and crafts which runs daily.  All of course surrounding a large beer garden.  After a short stint in the market, we decided to briefly check out the Hofbrauhaus, the world's most famous beer hall.  According to our Rick Steves guidebook, the Hofbrauhaus sells over 10,000 liters of beer per day!  Crazy!  Although after spending some time here during Oktoberfest and seeing the enormous beer hall, we could believe it.

With no time for a beer (we vowed to return later), we rushed back to meet Chris at our hotel.  Somehow it was still only noon (yes, we were busy)!  Chris suggested that we head to Paulaner, yet another famous German brewery for a bite of lunch and the obligatory beer.  Matt enjoyed a traditional German meal, per suggestion from Chris.

It was definitely awesome to have Chris along to help us with translating and understanding the German culture and language!  We suggested that he just be our tour guide for the rest of the trip, but unfortunately he has to work on Monday.

After lunch, we decided to head to the famous Nymphenburg Palace by train.  The palace and grounds were absolutely beautiful.  These are a few of the numerous pictures we took at the palace:

Exhausted, we headed back towards the downtown area and grabbed a cup of coffee en route.  When we asked Chris what we should do in the remaining 30 minutes before he had to catch the train back to Salzburg, he readily suggested we grab another beer (big surprise)! 

After a sad goodbye, we headed back to the hotel to plan out our day tomorrow and figure out dinner.  We settled on a "lighter" vegetarian option (after all the food and beers throughout the day) at Prinz Myshkin.

Because we were "good" at dinner, we decided to have dessert as well, as the restaurant is proudly known for their pastries and desserts.  Unfortunately, the dessert was so delicious that we had already eaten half of it before realizing we hadn't taken a picture...trust us, they were beautiful and delicious.  Perhaps this means we'll HAVE to go back again tomorrow to prove it?  Haha!  Speaking of tomorrow, we have another busy day planned and it's already past midnight here, so we better get some sleep!  Gute Nacht!