Munich: Day 2 - Around Marienplatz

AlterBotanischer Garten: We walked over to the Botanical Gardens to start our day. It was such a quiet peaceful place in the early morning. We took some pictures and looked at the flowers. The girls love flowers so it was fun for them to be able to see all the different colors. In the center of the garden is a fountain of Neptune. It wasn't running when we were there but it was pretty to see the water in the bottom anyway.


Walk to Marienplatz: Sofia was very excited to see everything and with her late night partying she was also tired. The combination meant she was a klutz. She bumped her head at the gardens and then fell, scraping her knees. We all know how that hurts. Luckily she didn't hurt them too bad although she "really" needed a bandaid. We went in to the pharmacy and I bought band-aids. I also bought sunblock since it was such a beautiful day and I hadn't packed any. We stopped at Frauenkirche. This church is the largest Gothic basilica in Southern Germany. It was really interesting because they had pictures inside the church of what the church looked like after World War II. It was amazing to the see the destruction caused by the war.

We arrived at Marienplatz which is surrounded with a pedestrian only area with lots of shops. I think living in the city has turned me into more of a shopper because I wanted to go in all the stores and check out the clothes. I controlled myself though and just enjoyed the beautiful day and seeing all the old buildings.

The Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) dominates Marienplatz but unfortunately they had scaffolding over a lot of it so I couldn't get any good pictures of it. I was able to get one of the top of the town hall where they had already cleaned and removed the scaffolding. The town hall has a famous glockenspiel but we did not see it. I'm not sure if it was even running since all the scaffolding was around it. Maybe we will see it on our next trip to Munich.

Viktualienmarket: The market is just a few steps away from Marienplatz. It has been here since 1807 and has around 140 different vendors. It was really nice. Jason and I both commented on how we wished there was something like it in Prague. The market had vendors selling pretzels, beer, cheese, sausages, deli meats, fruit, vegetable, flowers, souveniers, herbs etc. It was fun to walk through and see it all. We stopped for a snack when we first got to the market and then continued to walk around. We picked up a couple souveniers for the kids. Sofia chose a small music box that you wind the handle and it plays music. Before leaving the market we picked up some apples, bread, cheese, and sausage to bring with us for lunch.

Hofgarten: We walked over to the Hofgarten which is the park on the north side of the Residenz. It was nice to take a break and sit on the grass and eat lunch. There was clasical music playing in the garden too. I think it was coming from the Temple of Diana in the middle of the garden. The kids ate and then played in the gravel lined walkway. It was a good thing I had bought the band-aids earlier since Sofia took another fall. This fall managed to really scrape one of her knees. It was bleeding which I think scared her but we put a band-aid on and Ali let Sofia ride in her stroller while Ali went on my shoulders. Sofia was happy to have a break from walking and she likes "borrowing" Ali's stroller. I think people where laughing at the number of band-aids on Sofia's knees but she was happy!

A Little Shopping: We left the garden in search of two stores mentioned in our guide book. The first store was known for its coffee and the second for chocolate. The first store was great. There were so many specialty items there it was fun to look at although we noticed that the prices on the meats where ridiculously high. Jason bought himself some coffee and we headed over to find the chocolate store. Since the store was small Jason and the girls stayed outside while I went in to buy the chocolate. The ladies that worked there were very nice. I had to keep asking what everything was since it was all written in German. For things they couldn't explain to me in English they would just give me a piece to try. Needless to say I didn't decline any of the samples. When I looked out the window to see what Jason was doing with the girls while I was sampling I found him looking in laughing at me and making fun of me eating everything. I was only being polite and tasting the chocolate!! hahaha. I finished up in the chocolate store and we headed off to find dinner. We really wanted to find a beer garden so we headed off to find one of the beer gardens mentioned in our book. We did find one but it wasn't what we were picturing. It was very small and more of a restaurant. Oh well, we ate dinner and headed back to the hotel. The girls had another little party in their room after we put them down for bed. I had to go in and quite them down. When I walked in, Sofia was standing in front of Ali's crib with her snugly around her shoulders as a cape and performing something for Ali. It was very cute and it was hard not to laugh but I got through it and put them back in bed. View all Munich photos