Waking Up in the Alps, Mike's Bike Tour, and the Hofbrauhaus

Sleeping on the train last night was better than I expected, but my expectations were pretty low. The couchette "beds" were more comfortable than crashing on a buddy's floor, but less comfortable than sleeping on a self-inflating backpacking mattress. Think plywood covered with a thin layer of padding.






I fell asleep easily around 10, but woke up at many of the stops throughout the night. When I got up to use the bathroom around 1:30, we were in Venice, where this whole adventure began 10 days ago.

When I woke up around 5:45 I looked out the window and was greeted by amazing views of foggy Alpine (literally) peaks and little Austrian villages. It was so cool, I couldn't stop watching out the window. I was up for good.









Everyone else woke up about 1/2 hour later, we ate the fruit we bought in Orvieto, cleaned up as best we could, and packed our things.



We arrived in Munich about 1/2 hour late, around 9AM. We grabbed coffee and a bite in the station, and headed for our hotel. Our first sign that we were no longer in Italy was the coffee, which was drinkable, but tasted like something you'd get in a rural American gas station.



We left our bags at the Hotel Eder since our room wasn't ready yet. We set off for the Altstadt and the Marienplatz.












Lori switched her Dachau tour she had scheduled for 1PM to 10:15, and we said goodbye. The kids and I walked around the Viktuelienmarkt for a bit, watched the famous Glockenspiel play at 11, and then went on a Mike's Bike Tour at 11:30.









The kids and I enjoyed the tour. We learned about a few places in Munich, stopped at a biergarten for lunch, and had a lot of fun.


















We met back up with Lori under the glockenspiel after both of our tours were done. We went back to our hotel, took showers and rested. Other than the shower I took after backpacking in Maine for 4 days without one, this may have been my most enjoyable shower ever. It felt great to get clean.

We went to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. As our tour guide on the bike tour told us, it's a totally touristy thing to do, but not doing it would be like visiting Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower. We had a lot of fun.

















The smallest beer they serve is "ein Mass" - 1 Liter. Lori Finished her Radler (1/2 beer, 1/2 lemonade), and I finished my Hofbrauhaus Original.






Afterward we walked back to our hotel, enjoying a few of the street musicians along the way.






Tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Salzburg, which looked amazing from our train window early this morning.

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Location:Zweigstraße, Munich,Germany