Munich!

My co-workers and I spent our Saturday in Munich seeing the sights. I volunteered to drive. When I made the car reservation and someone pointed out to me that it would be a manual transmission unless I requested automatic, I decided to play it cool and claim that I could drive a stick. It turned out ok (although I did stall a couple embarrassing times because I couldn't seem to find second gear) but I was really nervous! No better place to practice driving skills than on the Audabon, right? I never tested to see how fast I could go. I cruised around 140 km/hr, which is about 85 mph. Not too fast!

By the time we got there around noon we didn't really have time to see much before it got dark. We started at the BMW museum, which was pretty interesting. We wanted to do a plant tour but they only have them during the week, when we'll be working. It kinda made me want a BMW!

The most impressive car showroom I've ever seen...

A crazy looking little car. This was the first BMW. It had a motorcycle engine and the door opens on the front!

There was an exhibit of the BMW "Art Cars" on display temporarily. Various famous artists painted cars and it's a traveling exhibit.

After the BMW museum we went to the Neue Pinakothek Art Museum. It had all art from the 1800s and early 1900s. I've never had a huge appreciation for art, but I really enjoyed it. Here are a couple pictures that I liked. The first I took to prove I really went, since I didn't have any pictures of me! It's in front of a Monet that was my favorite. The second picture is three van Gogh paintings that I also liked.

To top off the day, we went to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus (means "beer house" maybe?) It's supposed to be one of the "must do" things in Munich. It was a huge room packed with tables where you had to seat yourself, which for us meant finally going up to a table with two people and asking to sit with them. It seems like that isn't too uncommon. Since the place is based on beer I had to get one, of course, but they only came in liter mugs. It was huge! I'm also surprised here about the limited selection of beer at most restaurants, since beer is so German. Most places seem to have a wheat beer, a dunkel (darker) and an "ordinary" beer (according to the English menus). I think the "ordinary" is a lagar. But there's typically only one brand, which is different from the US. And I'm CRAVING a huge glass of ice water, but that's not nearly as easy to obtain as a beer. And is probably at least as expensive!

I've held off on ordering weiner schnitzel because I figured that would be a good fallback option when I find myself in a restaurant with no Germans co-workers and no English menu, but I decided to go ahead and get it tonight. It was great! Here are some pictures...

My co-worker Craig and I.

My dinner!

The Hafbrauhaus -