Day 1

Müchen, or Munich as it’s known to us English speaking folk was the last stop on our 4 week trip around Europe. After doing some research we found that staying in a hostel would be more expensive than a hotel (crazy) and Munich accommodation prices were quite high.

We settled on Hotel Munich City and it was well located. The hotel rooms were pretty small and the bathrooms were in need of a renovation but breakfast was included and there was a free sauna!

We woke up on Wednesday morning and had what the Europeans call breakfast (cold meats, lots of bread, pretzels and terrible coffee). Only a month in to the trip and I would already sacrifice my first born child for a decent Brisbane brunch and Bellissimo Coffee.  Alas, some sacrifices have to be made.

After breakfast we and made our way by train in to the old town to do a bike tour of Munich. Just a tip, in Germany they don’t accept Visa or Mastercard at the ticket machines so have some euros on you or people will pester you for money while you are trying to figure out how to buy a ticket, and other people will tap their feet impatiently behind you. You will then give up and free ride the train.

Mike’s Bike Tours came highly recommended to us by some friends so we paid our 30 euro and were taken on a 4.5 hour tour of Munich with an cool American expat named Tony. There were about 12 people on our tour and two American guys that were absolutely hilarious!

The bike tour covered the main highlights of Munich including the English Gardens which are around 400 year old, the Government Building that is mainly glass in the hopes of being transparent, a ride along the Isar River, a few churches, the Defence Building and then lunch at the very popular Chinese Garden. Most of us had pork knuckle and half litre to litre beers, when in Germany!

The architecture in Munich is spectacular, the buildings are beautiful and very detailed, and we noticed a lot of gold mosaics on numerous buildings. Interestingly all of these mosaics face west. Super handy to know for someone like me who is geographically challenged at the best of times.

I had heard that apparently people surf in the English Gardens and was sure that people were pulling my leg until we got there and saw this…

In the summertime the gardens are filled with thousands of people surfing, swimming, drinking beer and having a great old time.

One of the best things about the bike tour was that we didn’t do name introductions. This seemed a little odd that we would think this was a bonus but it wasn’t until a few people on other parts of our trip had asked our name and I’d be like “I’m Britt” and then comes the “and I’m Brad” that we realised how ridiculous it sounded Everyone would start laughing and asked if we were a folk band, and we would both blush. Woo no red face today!

After the tour we said our goodbye’s and headed back to Marienplatz, a lively old town square. Here we had a beer and a snack (took over an hour due to the typical german service) and made our way back to the Hotel. We had hit a wall by the time we arrived back, had a night nap, woke up around 7pm and headed out to dinner where we stumbled upon an amazing restaurant. The streets were so quiet and then you stepped inside this place and there wasn’t a spare seat and the it was beautifully fitted out and decorated. The service was a little slow but the waitress completely made up for it. Her English wasn’t the best but she helped us translate the menu and when she couldn’t think of the English word for chicken she clucked, literally clucked. That’s going above and beyond! I had a delicious steak and grilled vegetables that also came with a bowl of salad..fair too health conscious!

After a delicious meal we were ready for bed and incredibly excited about what Thursday had in store for us. We had pre-booked a motorbike for the day and not told anyone… #sorrymum

Brad will be taking over Millennial Adventures for another guest post. Stay tuned.