Munich - Altstadt, Marienplatz and Maxvorstadt

Munich is a gorgeous city with friendly people, beautiful architecture, fabulous food, and breathtaking autumn colors.  We spent Sunday walking around the Altstadt (old part of town).  The famous Glockenspiel is at the heart of Marienplatz.  It's a very tall clock tower with pretty figurines and flowers.  We also saw the Opera House and a strange, tiny little car with a little custom-made U-Haul behind it.

We also ate at Andechser Dom, a traditional Bavarian biergarten.  Even though it was the end of October, we got to sit outside on the patio in the sunshine and enjoy a sumptuous lunch.  Kieran and Alex loved their noodles with mushroom cream sauce.  I had a really yummy Wienerschnitzel and Jeff ordered delicious sausages with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.  For dessert we had apple strudel, apple fritters and chocolate cake.  Some of us also sampled the homemade beer, which was very tasty.

Believe it or not, Jeff wanted to go to a patisserie after we finished our enormous meal.  We all looked at him like he was crazy, but he persisted, "It looked really, really good when we passed by it.  Come on, let's go get some treats!"  So, we walked along Theatinerstrasse and found Maeser-Luksch, a luxurious pastry boutique.  Rich, brown boxes filled with pralines and tied with Burberry-plaid silk ribbons lined the window's shelves.  Inside the store, glass cases held macaroons of every color along with pastries, chocolates, and ice cream.  Forty Euros later, we piled into a cab and headed back to the hotel.

When we got into the hotel room, Jeff looked around and exclaimed, "The pastries!  I left them in the cab!!!"  Alex just laughed and said, "Daddy, you're so silly."  Kieran got a look of horror on his face as he asked, "You mean we have no treats?"

That evening, we ate at Bei Mario, an Italian pizzeria and pasta joint popular with the university students of Munich.  We got to watch the cooks shove enormous pizzas into a brick oven before we tucked into our dinners.  When we finished dinner, the restaurant called a taxi for us and the car arrived 5 minutes later.  Those Germans are incredibly efficient!

Whenever we visit a country in Europe, Jeff makes me sit in the front seat so that he can listen to me try to talk in a different language.  The Munich taxi drivers are the most chatty I've ever encountered, and they shared all kinds of information about everything...Bayern-Munchen ticket sales, Italian restaurant tips, Bavarian monarch history, fun places to take kids, etc.