Team McCrea: Epic European Adventure Volume 2

Munich- The home of Maximilian

Munich is a great city to visit. It’s very clean, the people are nice and there’s tons of food and beer! Since Munich is considered one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, Hugh and I decided to take a half-day bike tour around the city to get acquainted with the area. We chose Mike’s Bike Tours from all of the positive feedback on Tripadvisor. We spent 24€ apiece for a 4 hour bike tour. Our tour guide was named James, and he was from Australia (this was the greatest vacation for an accent lover). The bikes were called “cruisers” which really means hybrid, and they were quite comfortable. This tour was incredible! We saw all sorts of landmarks and interesting areas. James was very knowledgeable and pointed out several different points of interest and suggested places to see and eat while we were on our trip. We biked through the English Garden which is Munich’s version of Central Park. It was gorgeous! Trees everywhere and a large stream crossed through the park. We stopped and ate lunch at the Chinese Pagoda Beer Garden, and it was scrumptious. Hugh had sausages and I had pork schnitzel. Oh…and we each had a beer. A very large beer. These are actually liter glasses, and I indulged in the dark beer while Hugh had the lighter one. One thing to remember: we still had another two hours to go on our bikes.

This is the Chinese Pagoda. There was a band playing in the middle of it.

This is the beer I drank at the lunch during our bike ride. Hugh had one as well, and the bike ride was LOVELY after the beer.

One of the bridges over the river in the English Garden.

On one end of the English Garden is where you can find “the surfers”. It literally is an area where a bridge and the concrete bottom of the stream have managed to form a large wave that can actually be surfed on. It was really cool! There were several guys in their wetsuits taking turns surfing in the stream. It was awesome to watch, and it looked quite dangerous. Our guide informed us that at one time it was illegal to surf there, but people kept doing it anyways so the local government finally allowed it with the idea of, “If you’re stupid enough to do it, you’re stupid enough to take responsibility for it.” It was definitely a great thing to see.

Action shot of one of the surfers. Good job Hugh!!

This is the surfing area. The water is moving VERY fast.

Just about everywhere we looked, there were signs with the name “Maximilian” on them. We discovered from our guide that there was a King Maximilian of Bavaria (way back in history) and that he ruled from Munich. Munich’s answer to 5^th Avenue or Rodeo Drive is called the Maximilian Strasse. There were streets, beer gardens, museums, universities, etc. all with the name Maximilian on them. Why am I mentioning this? Well, Hugh’s middle name is Maximilian and it’s spelled the exact same way. So, every time we came across a Maximilian in our path we managed to take a picture of it. Needless to say, this did not help my suggestion to Hugh that we not continue the name Hugh Maximilian McCrea IV to any children we may have in the future. Hugh was pretty happy to see his name everywhere. Sadly, there were no instances of the name Jennifer anywhere to be found.

Hugh in front of one of the Maximilian signs.

Another Maximilian Street sign.

The Maximilian continues....

No trip to Munich is complete without visiting the Marienplatz to witness the Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel is over a hundred years old and it’s beautiful. It’s essentially a huge cuckoo-clock that has dolls that perform a dance and act out a story that dates back to the 16^th century. We climbed the steps of St. Peter’s Church to watch it. The church steeple is over 300 steps to the top, but you’re rewarded with incredible views of the city. We also had a beer and pretzel at the Hoffbrau House which is the oldest Bier Hall in the world. I personally think it also happens to be the loudest, the rowdiest, and the most crowded.