Day 2: 28 June 2010

Woke up early to say goodbye to Ina before she went to school.  Then we headed into town one more time.  Found a great bakery with delicious croissants (no filling!) and laugerbretzels and apple streudel for breakfast.  Stumbled upon a European dollar store and grabbed some souvenirs for ourselves and Jim & Fitzy at Economy who lived in Wurzburg as kids after WWII.  Went on a quick mission to take pictures of the houses they lived in and then it was on to Munchen.

The drive on the autobahn to Munich was scenic….lots of farms and small towns in the distance, fields of hops, wind turbines, fast drivers and TONS of truckers!  It actually reminded me of Rt. 80 in Pennsylvania.

Took about 2hrs 45min. to get to Munich. Driving into the city, we passed the big bubble stadium built for the World Cup 2006 and the BMW headquarters.  We easily found street metered parking and within 10 minutes we were at Frauenkirche (Munich’s cathedral).  The church itself dates back to the 1400s, but like many buildings in German cities, it was badly damaged during WWII.  It has since been restored, but the new altar is not as ornate as the old. 

From the cathedral we walked down the pedestrian road to Marienplatz to view the old and new city halls. One of the big attractions here is the glockenspiel which plays 2-3 times per day.  We caught the 17:00 show, a royal 16^th century wedding in which a bride and duke watch knights joust and people dance to the clock’s music.  It was a neat show, and much more impressive than the one we saw last year in Bern.  We stopped at St. Peter’s Church afterwards and climbed 306 steps to the top for a great view of Munich.  Although we didn’t make it to Olympic Park, we did get a good view of the Olympic Tower from the top. 

Back down on the street, we took a quick stroll through Viktualienmarkt, the open market area.  We ended our quick tour of Munich at Hofbrauhaus, a huge touristy beer hall where we randomly sat at a long table with a random couple from Texas.  Cindy and Cam couldn’t have been nicer.  Although they were old enough to be our parents, we got along very well as we tried to translate the German menu, shared stories about our travels, and compared schools in TX and MA.  (Cindy teaches kindergarten!) We must have sounded boring compared to Cindy & Cam who grew up in Montana and Chicago, met in Oregon, and now live in Texas.  Had some good food again tonight…huge brezels, chicken and potato salad for me, and bratwurst and sauerkraut for Joe. Just as we were leaving, we met two not-so-sober American teachers from Arkansas who were Euro-railing it around.  Took a few pictures and then we were off.  Wished we had a little more time in Munich, but on to Salzburg we must go!

The drive from Munchen to Salzburg was about 1.5hrs.  Once again we passed by cute towns with church steeples, mountains in the background, and the constant smell of manure from the fields (another reminder of my days in Central PA).  We made a quick stop for an Austrian vignette (7.90 euro sticker for car in lieu of tolls).  Arrived in Salzburg by 9:30pm, and fortunately our hotel room was still waiting for us.  Our first impression of the weird décor at Snooze Hotel was not favorable.  Our room had a funny smell, not musty, not smoky, but weird…the shower stall looked like something you would see at the gym, and we weren’t really sure how we would dry off with hand towels in the morning…went to bed a bit sketched out to say the least!  Guess this is what you get for 64 euros, but parking was included so we couldn’t pass it up!