We awoke this morning with a text from Tim – We broke Diane yesterday. Actually she wasn’t really permanently broken, but her feet and legs told her that today was not a day to be out on a day-long adventure, so they opted to stay on board and rejuvenate. Wise choice!
So without them we boarded the bus for the 90 minute ride from our docking location in Regensburg to Munich. We passed some interesting sights along the way:
Our first stop in Munich was the BMW headquarters/museum/showroom/restrooms. We availed ourselves of the latter and wandered the former for a bit before re-boarding the bus to continue on into town.
Come on in and spend lots of money! 
We’ve got lots of shiny cars. 
The latest models 
Some even glow in the dark 
Others are powered by hydrogen 
I wanted one of these but I left my checkbook on the bus. 
If you have to ask, you can’t afford it 
Lending new meaning to the term ‘bespoke’ 
Perhaps a bit more our style 
Turns out BMW also owns Cooper 
Minis old and new 
And we can’t forget the motorcycles
They were pretty proud of their electric car, so they cut it open for us.
They also had a cute little robot wandering around hawking their wares.
Back on the bus we headed into town, passing some interesting sties and stopping near the Residenz – the home of the House of Wittelsbach, rulers of Bavaria from 1508 to 1916.
From there we started a walking tour of the central city, ending at the Marienplatz (central square) in time to see the noon glockenspiel performance.
No visit would be complete without a stop at the Hofbräuhaus 
Classic interior 
You can rent a locker for your personal stein. 
Interesting artwork on the columns 
Someone needs to prune the house 
Go ahead, grab me. 
Augustiner cafe on Bräuhaus strasse 
Collection of mugs in antique store 
Old city hall 
New city hall 
Mary statue with towers of the Frauenkirche cathedral
I’ll be publishing a separate post with the full glockenspiel performance (all 8 minutes of it) but for now here’s a teaser.
After the glocken was done spieling we moved downstairs to the Rathskeller for lunch.
It was sausage wraps again. I thought they were better than those we had in Rothenburg. Cheryl disagreed. To each… At least the beer was good and she had a Radler so we were all happy. We chatted with a couple from Sandy Utah, one from the black hills region of South Dakota and Sandy from San Diego.
After lunch we took a few photos of the restaurant and the courtyard of the Rathaus above…
…then rode the elevator to the top of the tower for city views.
Back at ground level we headed out to do a bit of wandering and shopping on our free time.
We stopped by the church of St. Johann Nepomuk, a pint sized over-the-top baroque church tucked in along the Sendlinger street shopping district.
We made it as far as the Sendlinger gate, not finding the particular store we were looking for.
So we headed back on another street to some success.
We arrived at our meeting spot and stood around in the shade across the street for a few minutes until our bus arrived.
Interesting story – at lunch our guide Jardo joined us for a bit. He asked where we were all from. We said Idaho, he said “Des Moines?” We said, “Wrong state, Boise.” His eyes got big. He said, “Wait right here.” He disappeared and came back with his iPad and told us his story. He always wondered where his name came from. Jardo is not a common name. His father was no real help but when the interweb came about he Googled his name. There were a couple of references, but they were both dead. Then he found this one. He showed us this image.
He said that since then he’s always been looking for someone from Boise to share his story with.
He also commented that Jardo, being a good German name is an appropriate name for a German Shepherd.
Back at the ship we met Tim and Diane on the Terrace and wiled away the evening sailing off away from the sunset.
But first…
So that’s Munich.
Tomorrow’s Salzburg – another long day
So time to get rested up.
Till then…
R