Big Adventures, Little World

We thought that rather than just drink beer we would actually get out and see some of the city, which was good seeing as the last time I was there, we only had a few hours there and didn’t get to see too much of the city. So we went on another one of the New Europe walking tours, like we had done a few of already in other cities throughout Europe. We had an American guy taking us around and at first we thought he was a bit of a tool in a typical American way, but he got better as we went along and did end up giving quite a good tour. We started in Marienplatz (Mary’s square), the main square in Munich, which is home to the most famous Glockenspiel in the world. It chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century 3 times a day and consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures. We weren’t there at the right time to see this happen, but we did come back later on to see what was a waste of about 15 minutes, as that is how long it goes for each time it chimes.

Other than that, we were taken around and told the numerous stories to go along with each place. Munich is full of history, and a lot of the places we visited came back to me from when I was there earlier in the year and we were taking on our brief walking tour. We were taken to (or at least saw) the Hofbräuhaus (the world’s most famous beer hall), the Royal Residence, the New Town Hall, the Old Town Hall, National Theater, the Church of St. Peter and Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). This has one of the more interesting stories to go along with it, but whether or not it is true or not is up to you. The church was built in a record time of just 20 years, from 1468, which is amazing because of its sheer size. It is said that this was only possible, because the architect made a deal with the devil, where it would become the devil’s church. All the architect had to do was make sure there were no windows in the church so that no one could see in on the devil. However, the architect tricked the devil, and built columns in front of all the windows so that from the foyer the windows could not be seen by the devil. When the devil found this out, the church had already been consecrated, so could go no further inside the church, so he stomped his foot so hard that it left a footprint indented in the ground, which can still be seen there today. So that’s the story of what was supposed to be the devil’s church.

Once we had finished the tour, we decided on heading back to Oktoberfest for the last night there. The Fanatics were in the Lowenbrau tent so we thought we would go there, but after lining up for about half an hour and getting nowhere, we gave up, and went looking for somewhere else. We tried a few others, but most of the tents were full and weren’t letting anyone in, or if you could get in there was nowhere to sit. Our last try was the Hofbrau Tent, which we thought for sure would be full, but when we walked in, one of the beer maids came up to us nearly straight away and asked if we were looking for a table. She said to follow her and she weaved through and then mad some people squish up a bit more so we could fit in on the table, and then proceeded to bring us 5 beers. It was crazy inside, with just about everyone standing on their chairs, or tables, and singing along as the band played including a number of German drinking songs like The Fliegerlied Song, complete with dancing and actions, which was played about 1 in every 10 songs but never got old at all. The night went on and we had more and more fun. We were surrounded by different groups of people including some German locals as well which was a lot better than being with just the Fanatics group, as it was mainly just obnoxious Australians. I’m not saying that it is all like that, it is a generalisation, but a lot of the people on the Fanatics tours I went on were like that, but of course there are exceptions to that. Sam went back to the hostel early, and after 4 or 5 steins each, (which was a good 3+ hours) we decided to head off as well. As we were walking back there was one thing we all agreed on, and that was stopping at McDonald’s where we stocked up before making our way to hotel for a night’s sleep before our journey home the next day.