On our first full day in Munich, we headed into downtown to pick up our tour guide, John Mountain, a British ex-pat who settled in Germany with his wife more than 30 years ago. Unfortunately, the traffic was awful, so we were a little late getting him, which cut into our time with him. He was one of the best guides, and pointed out all the awesome and obscure places in the city, while giving us a fantastic and comprehensive look at history.
While Munich is a place I don't have much of a desire to live in, it is undeniably absolutely gorgeous. I felt like I was home in Sonoma/Marin counties with the surroundings of clean and beautiful architecture, classy and hip places and lots of lots of green (although that's kind of a signature of the whole country).
One of our first stops was
Nymphenburg Palace, which is a Baroque style palace and was the summer home of the Bavarian royalty. It's a place I wouldn't have minded growing up in...
After the stop-off at the palace, we continued on seeing more historic sites, before we made our way to the city center to see the town hall glockenspiel, which goes off at 11 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. daily. While it wasn't the most impressive thing ever, it was far better (and less anti-climactic) than the clock in Prague (in my mind).
When the show ended, we parted ways with Mr. Mountain and Elia, Jesse and I went to a nearby side street cafe for lunch and some beers, before meeting up again to head out to Dachau.
