Guten Tag from München

It has been a long (two) days.  After spending a few hours in the office Friday morning, I caught a flight to Toronto and then on to Munich (München in German).

Boarding the flight in Toronto was the most chaotic I have ever seen for an Air Canada flight.  Usually things are pretty organized since they started boarding by zones - signs are posted and announcements made to say when each zone can board.  The boarding lounge can be a little hectic but generally people know where to stand.

In Toronto, it was nuts.  There were no signs and hardly any announcements.  The gate was being shared between two flights (one going to Brussels one going to Munich, both at gate E67.  Because of this chaos and having to shuttle us to the plane by bus, our depart was delay about 30 mins.  Not too bad.

The flight was routine - dinner was served and then it was time to try and get some sleep.  I think I got the better part of 3 hrs of sleep.  A short breakfast snack of cinnamon bread and we were ready to land.

Apparently over 25% of the flight was making connections to places like Lviv Ukraine, Budapest Hungary, Glasgow Scotland (not sure why you wouldn't fly to England) and some were being escorted by airport personelle so they can make their connections.  The airport was quite empty.  And quite impressive - there were many shops and restaurants, all very new.

German efficiency

I waited about 20 mins for my bag, just long enough to start to wonder if maybe it didn't make the journey with me.  Alas it arrived and I was able to make my way to get my rental car.  The outside of the airport was equally impressive with a setup for a BMX bike demonstration in the open area between the terminal and the rental car and garage complex.

My ride - 2017 VW Tiguan

With my bag and car, it was time to kill time.  I saw a pretty cool Technology Museum in Munich and thought that would be a good way to occupy my time before I could check into my hotel.  It was a short 20 min drive to the museum and then another 10 to find parking.  As luck would have it, I wasn't able to get the parking machine to work with my credit card and it would only take coins (which I did not have), so I needed to go and make some change.  I bought a bottle of water and then made my way back to pay for 3 hrs of street parking, this should be enough time to see a good amount of the museum.

Well, I was wrong.  There was a line up of about 200 people to get tickets to the museum.  I thought I would be smart and try to purchase tickets online - apparently I wasn't the only one thinking this as the website was extremely slow and looking at it now, I believe it eventually crashed.

Instead, I spent some time in the gift shop looking at all the interesting things they had (like a tea infuser shaped like a fuel pump nozzle and another that looked like a scubba diver connected to his tank outside your mug).  As interesting as they were, I didn't get any of them.

After killing half an hour in the gift shop and another 15 mins walking around the outdoor exhibits in front of the museum entrance, I decided to find somewhere to eat.  I figured I should probably eat sometime soon to get my body somewhat accustomed to the +7 hrs time change.

A "solar flower" that tracks the sun and can produce enough energy for one household

A Search and Rescue boat

I found a restaurant near the museum and ordered the "mini meatloaf, potato and radish salad and pretzel".  And a beer.  Lunch was delicious.  The meatloaf was more like the inners of a European weiner or balogna and the salad was like a warm, sliced version of a potato salad.  The pretzel was excellent, especially with the honey mustard.  And the beer was good too - it would be pretty hard for the Germans to not get beer right.

They had a trough!

After lunch, I made my way to the hotel so I could unpack, take a shower and a nap.  And nap I did, for about 3 hrs (by accident).  I originally wanted to only take a 2 hrs nap but after turning off my alarm and texting Lola a bit, I fell back to sleep.  Oh well, I definitely needed the sleep.

My room

It was about 6pm and I decided I should probably find somewhere to eat.  I decided on Hard Rock Cafe (we usually try to eat at one in the cities we visit).  The restaurant is downtown Munich and near some scenic sights so I had something to do after dinner.

After a club sandwich (and beer), I wandered around Munich seeing the Opera House:

The Munich Residenz (home to former German monarchs):

The Feldherrnhalle (army monument):

(on the left)

Theatinerkirche (a church from the 1660's):

and Hofgarten:

Now, it's 10pm and I'm feeling ready for bed (again).  Tomorrow will be some more exploring so you will need to check the blog again ;)

Gute nacht!

Bonus pictures:

A pedestrian street near the Church

This guy had to get real close in the parking garage to fit (not really)

This place is apparently the Greatest Gambling Hall in all of Europe