München
Let's just agree from the start to pretend that I don't care that Germany lost last night. I don't care that I went to the largest Beer Hall in Germany - Hofbrauhaus - and drank a liter of beer in order to see Germany lose their chance at the cup. After a record-breaking ass kicking of England and an incredible journey through the cup, I'll pretend to not care that they just didn't DO anything in yesterday's game. Okay?
In any case, here's me watching the game, photo courtesy of the Australian couple sitting next to me.
Aside from Germany's loss, I'm having a lovely time in Munich. Yesterday I mostly walked around the Altstadt and popped into a few buildings. Of particular interest is the Rathaus
, a neo-Gothic building in the heart of Marienplatz, and which is, refreshingly open free to the public. I explored one of the ground floors but didn't get too carried away, seeing as it's a government building and my German isn't that good. There's a cafe in the courtyard, which is a neat idea but it's really expensive (like a lot of things in this city...), and for 2 Euros I took an elevator ride up the tower and got a pretty lovely view of central Munich. I stuck around till eleven, when there was a Glockenspiel performance, complete with moving figurines in the tower. (Basically, it's the world's most kickass cuckoo clock.)
After the Rathaus, I simply explored. I stopped by the fresh markets and bought 2 pounds of fruit for 4 Euros, which was lunch. I went to the Englisch Garten, which is basically Central Park (and the surrounding neighborhood is pretty much the Upper East Side of Munich). The whole night, beginning at 6:30, was devoted to Weltmeisterschaft and Beer. Jawohl =).
Today I started in the Altstadt again, and then made my way to the Olympic Park, where Munich hosted the Olympics in the 1970's. Like Berlin, there's an admission fee for the stadium, and I don't care so much about the interior, so I just spent a couple of hours in the park. I took some pure mammalian pleasure and fell asleep in the shade for an hour. Perfect.
Other than that, just a lot of wandering around and sitting in pretty parks. I'm almost done with the body of my sweater! Tomorrow I think I'm taking a trip out to Dachau, which will be sobering, to say the least. But I think it's important.
Bis Morgen,
Katharine
