Sunshine in Munich

Day 5

We had a relaxing last morning in Dornheim packing and saying goodbyes before heading to Munich. We were excited to take the ICE to Munich! We arrived at the Frankfurt airport early to enjoy the 1st class lounge. I purchased our train tickets far in advance when 1st class was nearly the same cost as 2nd class. Why not?

The Frankfurt DB lounge offered great views of the train station as well as free drinks and snacks. We had our own compartment on the train. At one point, we hit around 300 kilometers per hour. Smokin' fast!

We arrived in Munich and got a little confused with the subway system. After a few extra stops, we found our hotel for the next three nights: Hotel Brack. Our room had plenty of space at the top floor. The kids enjoyed the tiny elevator and getting little packs of Haribo gummy bears every time they walked past the front desk.

The hotel concierge suggested a great beer garden only 10 minutes away. We had to walk across Bavaria Park where the huge Oktoberfest is held to get there. We enjoyed a massive German meal! Delicious and located right by a great playground. It's so wonderful that nearly all biergardens have playgrounds for kids.

DH headed out to the BMW Welt for some Saturday night pictures while I attempted to get the kids to bed. Despite great effort, they are getting to bed late every night. Oh well, eventually everyone got rest.

Day 6

I got up first and went for a nice run along the Isar River and through the Marienplatz. I always enjoy seeing a city as it wakes up. On Sundays, many businesses stay closed all day. We were all ready to go around 9am. We had a fabulous breakfast at our hotel. DD#2 said, "this is more like a feast!" Kids had hot chocolate among many other delicious bread, meats, cheeses, fruits, yogurts, etc... Definitely enough to sustain us for hours!

We took the U Bahn just a few stops to the Hellabrunn Zoo. Animals were easy to spot and it was relaxing to wander around. DH and I joked at the lack of zoo personnel especially in the children's petting area. Not a worker to be seen. It was kind of a free-for-all with all those goats! Unlike the US, there were were no hand sanitizing stations around. Funny little differences. I suppose one of the big ones was all of the dogs at the zoo. That's right - people can bring their dogs to the zoo!

After several hours at the zoo, we took a bus just a few stops to a beer garden, Hinterbruhl. It was located right along the river with another entertaining playground. We had a snack and watched the many party rafts travel down the river with live music and lots of whooping it up! Looked like a ton of fun!

We were hot and sweaty and decided to take a break back at the hotel to recharge. After an hour or so, we took the U Bahn to Englischer Park to the Seehaus Biergarten. We grabbed a couple doner sandwiches along the way and had a nice casual dinner right along a lake in the park. We walked around the park a bit more, grabbed some ice cream for the kids, and called it a day. It was hot in Munich and we are definitely missing AC in our hotel room. Last time we were here, it rained much of the time so I am not complaining. I'm looking forward to another lovely day in Munich tomorrow.