"Tour" Day 6 - Munich

Note : Please read the previous blogs to catch up on any of the adventures you may have missed! There has been a flurry of blog activity in the past couple of days...

Sunday, September 10th

We all woke up from the church bells chiming, well rested. Our plan for the day was to just wonder all around Munich so after a feast of a breakfast (eggs, sausage, fruit, pastries, granolas, etc) we went out to explore. Rumor had it that the Pope was in town today and was going to be speaking in the city. Hummmmm….maybe we will see him?

So we literally walked around everywhere and had a very relaxing day. The weather was awesome (as it had been the entire trip), we went into a few brew houses (Lowenbrau and Hofbrau haus’, to be specific), walked through the pedestrian streets and window shopped, etc. I have to say, there were lots of locals just wondering around in the streets in the whole “German” gear - guys in the leather shorts with suspenders and caps, gals in their Dirndl’s - too which was cool.

There were lots of cops out setting up barriers for where the Pope was going to be later that evening. The center area (Marienplatz) also had some big screens set up so that you could see the Pope saying mass. After walking a bit, we found a bench to rest on and then we notice people walking/running down this one side street and you could hear people cheering at the end of it.
Well, I could tell my mom wanted to check it out so I went with her down the street as Ag and Ferd enjoyed resting. We got to the end of the road and stood in the crowd for about 2 minutes. All of the sudden the German Shepard himself walks out on this balcony, literally 20 feet from us! He gave a blessing and then went back into the “dog house.” I wonder if Snoop was in there too??

Upon returning to Agnes and Fred’s spot, we noticed a bunch of Cardinals hanging out on the sidewalk. It was kind of funny…a bunch of these Holy dudes walking around, chillin, smoking some cigs, etc, right underneath a sign for “Trader Vic’s Night Club.” I had to get a picture!

After that we walked to one of the big parks located in the city and found a beer garden “planted” right in the middle of it (get it?…beer garden…they grow beers there…“planted”…). Talk about a great set up! There were tons of picnic tables set up, a bunch of trees with Christmas lights strung though them and I could just envision this place being an awesome place to hang out at night. We had a drink and then headed off to an English speaking mass. Mass was at 6pm in a really small church that had probably 20 pews and 25 participants. It was very quaint.

By 7:30 we were having dinner at the HB haus. In true Catholic form, we had headed there right after mass. Talk about some serious people watching! We sat there and ate and drank and enjoyed the live music. Of course, we had a crabby server but that did not ruin our spirits! We were in Munich, the beer capital of the world and no one was going to destroy my happy mood!

We strolled home and again, I went right to sleep….