Munich=München

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Our next stop of the day was the center of Munich.

Making our way to the Marienplatz, one of the city's central squares, Em was almost swallowed by a fish.

The 100-year old New Town Hall in the Marienplatz in the center of Munich. This was one of the only buildings in the area not heavily damaged during WWII bombing raids.

Em and a Golden Man

A dragon making his way up the New Town Hall

The hall's famous glockenspiel tells two stories: 1) a wedding day celebration and 2) the end of a plague celebration. We were too late and didn't get to see the 15-minute show.

You can see the glockenspiel in the center of the building.

David and the kids jumped at the chance to explore the Apple store we spied around the corner. As Micaela walked around the store, she came upon yet another computer display and typed on the keyboard a bit and clicked on the mouse, when a voice behind her said in German, "Excuse me, but that's the cash register." Micaela turned around and came face to face with a semi-amused security guard. She said later, "I was wondering why there was a credit card scanner there."

Lederhosen!

The Old Town Hall

If we had had more time, we would have toured the Barbie exhibit in Munich's Toy Museum housed in the tower of the Old Town Hall.

We were totally amazed to find ourselves in front of the world-famous beer hall Hofbräuhaus am Platzl.

James in the entryway

The beer hall building was originally built in 1607 as an extension of the original Hofbräu brewery built decades before.

In the bombing of WWII, everything but the ground floor was destroyed; it took until 1958 to be rebuilt.

Oom-pah band added to the Oktoberfest-like atmosphere

The menu

David with his beer. We still had to drive 1-1/2 hours to our hotel, so David and I had mixed beers -- his was a dark beer diluted with soda water....

....while mine was a lighter beer mixed with Sprite, a drink I found wonderfully refreshing. And for the record, neither of us finished the whole stein.

For a snack, we opted for Munich’s meatiest delicacy: the delicate, white veal sausage called weisswurst, served with sweet mustard, and soft pretzels for the kids.

Becca and a fanta

We allowed Micaela to order her first cup of coffee

Our waitress