Munich

We arrived in Munich in the afternoon after a pleasant drive along the Autobahn. We made a beeline for our Pension (like a B&B) and found a park right outside! We checked in, and dropped our luggage.

Our Pension was directly across the road from the site of Oktoberfest, which has just finished. With no fences to stop us, we walked through. Most of the beer tents are still intact, with some partly disassembled. They are huge, many of them have a larger floor area than the Wellington Town Hall. It must be amazing in full swing. Apparently this year there were 6 million visitors!

Over the next 1 1/2 days we spent all our time discovering Munich. Two unexpected turn of events - the first being that on Sundays most shops the closed, the only exception being bars and restaurants. Even supermarkets and convenience stores are closed. The second was that on the Sunday was the Munich Marathon, so the tour bus routes were messed up.

Munich is a fantastic city to explore on foot, with great underground trains although some do look old, like some old Soviet relic. They are however very clean, smooth and quiet, but somehow look really old and rattly. The shopping is out of this world and thankfully the shops were closed Sunday so Helen couldn't spend too much. But the architecture is incredible and there are some huge buildings around the wider city.

We went up the Olympiapark Tower for an amazing view. In particular this looks down on top of BMW Welt and BMW Headquarters, and the Olympiapark, the old Olympic village which is now a popular recreational area for locals.

We had just come from BMW Welt, this is in essence a large and high tech BMW showroom. They have every model of BMW, both cars and motorcycles, and innovative displays of how some of the new features in their cars work. Also the ability to individually spec and order your own car, and a delivery area where you can take delivery of your new car in front of visitors. An amazing place, and I would dearly love to be taking delivery myself!!! I got to sit on all the motorcycles except the K1300GT which was missing, perhaps because the new 1600 is about to be released. Unfortunately the factory tour was fully booked so we missed out.

The highlight in Munich is the Hofbräuhaus, a large and popular beer hall which serve beer by the 1/2 litre and full liter steins, and wholesome food like schitzel and pork knuckles. This place is loud, and happy, you grab a seat and sit at large tables next to strangers. A great experience, we went there for dinner both nights! Highly recommended.

I am disappointed we have to leave already as there is more to see. It is a shame I lost a day due to my hospital stay.

Tomorrow we depart and head to towards Austria. More autobahn time - good stuff :-)