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Published: June 20th 2005
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Late afternoon on Marienplatz
This view (of a fountain and statue of Mary) almost makes me feel Catholic. Still got that cold today. I declared myself a day off; even if I weren't already totally entitled to one, it helps that most museums and major attractions are closed on Mondays. I slept until 9:30 and dinked around, rearranged luggage, watched CNN International, and so forth until about 11:30 before showering. My hotel room is in a small suite with toilet and shower shared with two other rooms; annoying, but survivable and nicely affordable.
I headed out after noon on a Mission From God™ to get some laundry done in a real washing machine with real soap. The travel wash I bought from Rick's store
leaked (thank heavens for Ziploc, but, hello,
travel wash, Rick?!!) and washing stuff in a sink without a stopper was minimally effective in a pinch, but kinda yucky (clean but crunchy socks... ick). I found a great self-serve Waschcenter (laundromat) listed in Rick's guidebook, on Paul-Heyse-Straße (Straße = Strasse = street) just a couple blocks from my hotel and most importantly, with instructions in both German and English. In addition to the wonderful front-loading washers (a front-loader
will be my next major purchase after I've recovered financially from this trip), they have a most marvellous invention called a spinner, which does what it says, it just spins the hell out of your clothes to get them even drier than the washer's spin cycle does. This was heaven-sent because most of my clothes have to line-dry. I spun those and machine-dried the unmentionables and socks. Everything looks, feels and smells great (all socks are accounted for, too). I also stopped at an Apotheke (druggist) and I'm not sure she approved of me buying 50 tablets of ibuprofen, but she did let me have them (there's no such thing as an over-the-counter medication in Germany, but the apotheke will dispense those sorts of things without a prescription, you just have to ask).
I got an idea to take the Munich Walks tour of Third Reich sites, but wasn't paying close enough attention to the clock and missed the 15:00 start time by about 2 minutes. Grrr. My own fault. I headed to Marienplatz (the old town center) to see whether I could catch up to the group, but failed, but then realized I was in the old town center. 😊 I had a beer and some pork and sauerkraut at one of München's famous beer halls, although I shortly came to think that that might not be the best meal for 88°F weather. :P In any case, I strolled around to München's three famous churches: St. Peter's, Frauenkirche and St. Michael's, and took pictures inside all but the Frauenkirche, where an evening Mass was starting. (I decided not to stay and share my noisy cough with them.) I also managed to catch the 17:00 performance of the famous glockenspiel at the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall).
In other words, on my day off I have managed to catch most of the sights in München that I wanted to see. 😊
Tomorrow, I'll take the tour out to Dachau, which might get back in time for that Third Reich walk if I am still in the mood for it. Hopefully it will not be too incongruous to catch a tram out to the Englischer Garten later on to drink some beer and ogle the nekkid sunbathers.
For the remainder of tonight, my agenda is to rehydrate, watch some more CNN International, and turn in early. Bis morgen ('til tomorrow)!
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Aimee
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Catch a Beer at the Famous Hoffbrau House
Though a bit crazy and loud, a night of fun can definitely be had at the Hoffbrau House in Munich. Just seeing the tiny little women carting 6 or so liters of beer around is worth going in and having a drink! And if you are into cars, go out to the BMW Museum near the Olympic Stadium :)