Town and Around Munich

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Today was just a settling into holiday mode with very little planning going into the day other than having yesterday purchased a ticket for the Hop-On Hop-Off bus run by Gray Line. In my case it was more of Hop-On then Hop-Off.

Gray Line run an Express service of six stops or the Grand Circle of ten stops. Surprising they do not kick off until 9:40AM for the Express and 11:10AM for the Grand Circle by then the day is half over in my opinion.

The room rate for my hotel includes breakfast and having endulged substantially I set off around 7:30AM with the intention of finding where I needed to be get on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, as the same stop I also need for the three following days for 8:30AM departures on full day tours. I could have taken the tram with a stop being right outside the hotel door and knowing where I needed to be was two stops away, sounded easy enough, however I chose to walk. Having only been given limited information, it did take a wee while for me to work out where I was supposed to be. I may point out that my German is zero and having left my phrase book at home, now this is not a criticism but I have been surprised that English here although is prevalent job wise, it is not extensive as what I found in other European countries last year and so far this has resulted in some interesting outcomes.

The Hop-On Hop-Of bus had a commentary in German and English and all others needed headphones and as the Grand Circle was starting much later I decided to do the Express six stops first, at that stage not knowing that I would have to go around that circuit again to get the four extra stops of the Grand Circle. Not that I was particularly concerned as I did not have the energy to do much else and looked at things I missed on the first time around. The day was overcast but still warm at 27C so the double decker bus was able to be roofless.

While I was on the bus I had big intentions of going to Marienplatz to see the Glockenspiel, and the Old City Hall which is a Toy Museum and walking Karlsplatz (the pedestrian Zone) however by 2:30PM when I eventually left the bus I was over being a tourist and headed back towards my hotel, with a slight deviation for lunch which involved a glass of beer, two sausages, mustard, and potato.

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