Munich

On June 12, 2009, we began our three-day trip to Munich. About fifty international students from Universität Bayreuth piled onto a coach bus and arrived in Munich after a three-hour drive. We took our bags and walked throughout a plaza. We saw a lovely church with fancy stained glass windows. At this church, we watched a choir of students perform. We think that they were American because one guy was wearing a University of Alabama sweatshirt.

We saw Marienplatz, the town square with the famous “Glockenspiel,” a clock with moving figures that come out and ring bells. The architecture is absolutely beautiful. While walking around, we noticed that there are lots of tourist-type souvenir stores, most of which sell soccer items (jerseys, stickers, pins, etc.).

We also went up St. Peter’s church tower so that we could get an aerial view of Munich. In order to reach the top of the tower, we had to climb about thirteen flights of stairs. Nevertheless, once we made it to the top, the view was breathtaking. I loved seeing the red rooftops that are characteristic of houses in Munich.

Later, we went past the Hofbräuhaus, where the famous Munich beer is brewed. For dinner, we went to a biergarten, where I had bratwurst. After the biergarten, we went to the Olympiaturm, where we went in a building that looks very much like the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, USA. The elevator rose very quickly, and within about twelve seconds, we were over one hundred flights up in the air. We had a beautiful view of Munich, and I took some very funny pictures of my friends nearly falling over due to the heavy winds (the result of being so high up from the ground).

We went to a late dinner at Augustiner Bräu München. We dawdled outside the restaurant for about an hour before going to the hostel.

The next day, we went to the BMW museum. The BMW museum is essentially an exhibit of every kind of BMW car made. There are even airplanes on display because these products were once made by BMW. My favorite part of the museum visit was getting to hop onto an R 1200 R BMW motorcycle. We even saw a blue car that had been splattered with various colors of paint (we believe that this car was in a BMW commercial back home in the United States).

After the BMW museum, we got on the bus, which took us back to the main shopping area. There happened to be a festival going on around Marienplatz. We saw horse-drawn carriages and men and women dressed in traditional Bavarian costumes.

The walk back to the hostel seemed to take forever, but we got ice cream to help pass the time. “Smurf,” a blue-colored ice cream that tastes very much like bubblegum, seems to be a very popular flavor in Munich.

We went to another biergarten for dinner. Thereafter, we wanted to dance, so we went to a German club. Supposedly, there were three separate rooms, each one with a different type of music. However, we heard mostly American music mixed with the occasional German song.

The next day, we arrived at Schloss Nymphenberg around 10:00 AM. This site was essentially a place which contained old palaces that have been preserved for tourists. There were some nice gardens surrounding the palaces. We stopped to take pictures in front of the large fountain in the garden. It was a sunny day, so all of the photos look great. We stayed at Schloss Nymphenberg for about twenty minutes, just touring the outside of the palaces and admiring the landscape.

After seeing Schoss Nymphenberg, we drove to Starnberger See (English: Lake Starnberg), which is actually a mini beach, but with grass, rather than sand, preceding the water. Few people went into the water because it was so cold, though I did make it in up to my shoulders. It’s nice to be able to go to the beach, especially considering that I probably won’t make it down to the Jersey Shore at all this summer.

I would like to thank the Universität Bayreuth ISN team for organizing such a fantastic trip to Munich. My twin sister and I came from New York City only three weeks ago and can already say that we have experienced one of the best parts of Germany. Cheers to an excellent weekend. Take care. –April