Munich, Germany - 1 day
I've never been to Germany before so wanted to check out the city. As it turns out, Munich has a historical city center called Marienplatz. After leaving the LH FCL, I withdrew €50 at the airport ATM for anywhere not taking credit card. I used
this page to know how to get to Marienplatz (S8 [shorter] or S1 train). Ticket costs €11 and includes unlimited rides all day, including back to the airport.
You buy the rail ticket from a machine and board the train by touch. You don't actually use the ticket. How does it know if you have a ticket? I thought it must use NFC or similar technology but not sure exactly.
I arrived at Marienplatz an hour later. It was Saturday with a big crowd.
In the middle of the plaza was a basketball game played by disabled kids, with obnoxiously loud dance music.
I climbed the few hundred steps of
Alter Peter for the view:
I wandered the historical center a bit before hitting the
Residenz, former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs. This place is HUGE and you can visit most of the interior and see the original furnishings and collections.
I spent about 2 hours here. There were more to see but I wanted to see more of the city. I started walking and bumped into Hofgarten: part garden, part beer, part bocce/lawn bowling? Apparently the latter is quite popular.
Biergarten - everywhere in Munich
Bocce or lawn bowling?
The last place I wanted to see was English Garden, which precedes and is bigger than Central Park. You can imagine its massiveness. I quite enjoyed the walk. It rained earlier in the day so not many people lying in the grass, but I can imagine it would be nice on a sunny day. It was nice to see people playing football/soccer, as well as some nice scenery:
I walked until I saw the famous surfing on the fast-flowing river:
Some of the surfers are quite skilled.
At this point I was feeling pretty tired and ready for a soak in the FCL hot tub. The upcoming massage in TG's legendary lounge sounded pretty good too!