Day 2 - Wednesday 13th September - Munich

We had 2.5 hours in Changi airport where we wandered aimlessly for a while then waited sleepily in the gate lounge as it was 2am Melb time by then.  Second flight was on schedule and thanks to my eye mask, neck support collar and fancy new noise-cancelling earphones I slept through the meal service and then on and off until we only had 4 hours to go.  John has admitted that an eye mask would be useful because he woke when the lights were turned on for the food service but he got some sleep too. No crying kids which was helpful too. Breakfast choices were interesting, we both chose the pork noodles which gives some idea of what the other choice might have been! No issues when we arrived so found somewhere for coffee and croissants before our 45 minute train ride into Munich Hauptbahnhof. Found our hotel easily but as it was only 9am by the time we got there we left our bags and wandered into the main city square, Marienplatz. We chose a hotel close to the station because we'll be on an early train to Venice on Sat but as is the case for all train stations, the immediate surroundings aren't very elegant - we have a local strip joint just up the road which makes our comings and goings a little more interesting and interesting characters to pass by but the hotel is quite nice and comfortable. The old city centre seems to be wall to wall department stores of one sort or other and designer stores.  Marienplatz is a nice sized square with a hugely elaborately decorated city hall resplendent with huge tower housing the carillon with a display of the Coopers' dance,  reenactment of a dual wedding and a knights' jousting tournament which all are performed by figurines when it chimes daily at 11am and noon. We stopped in the square for coffee and, for some reason one huge delicious pastry each, instead of sharing one. Yum! Bellies satisfied we continued through the square,  through an arch and soon found  ourselves walking through the Victuals Market, the Viktualienmarkt. This food market has been trading on this site for 200 years. Lots of very interesting little shops to examine from meat stores, where you could also order a bread roll with deli meat and eat standing at the bar tables provided, to fruit and veg,  to stores selling beautiful fresh and dried herb decorative wreaths and bouquets. There were a variety of food  stalls where you could buy delicious looking sausages,  schnitzel and other goodies to eat in the beer gardens set under magnificent huge trees at one of the dozens of tables with bench seats. We decided that this is where we'd have lunch later! We wandered through some little streets and found the Tor Peter, the bell tower at St Peter's church. We'd seen people up the top while having our coffee and thought this would be a good thing to do. We paid our €3 each and set off to climb the 306 steps to get to the 13th floor. Even though by the time we get half way up in these towers we choose to climb and I'm huffing and puffing, red-faced and hot and regret my decision, we're always rewarded with magnificent views over the cities we're in. This was no exception. Our bird's eye view of München was lovely over its old red roofed buildings,  wide main pedestrian street and narrow little streets. I took photos of all the towers i could see. Not sure which ones are open for climbing but this one would do for today. After clambering down the narrow steps and stopping many times along the way to let people coming up pass, we headed back to the market for lunch. Well, we were overwhelmed with choice which always makes it harder to make a choice. We found 2 spots at one of the tables under a huge tree in the beer garden and John went off first to get something for himself and came back with sausages with tomato and curry sauce and bread  and then went to get beer. He returned with a huge stein - 1/2 litre was the smallest glass you could get! John said the beer was delicious but I had a few shops and,  yep, it tasted like beer ... yuk! I got myself a sausage,  sauerkraut and patate in teccia - Deelicious. I let John share some of mine because it was tastier than his. While people watching and listening we discovered that there were many aussies around us. In fact there are aussies everywhere. We left the beer garden when many people around us lit cigarettes. We'd forgotten that huge numbers of europeans smoke and you have to constantly move out of their trails of smoke. We headed back towards the station so we could get our train tickets to Venice for Saturday and then go back to the hotel because our room would be ready. We showered checked the room out and then headed out again,  this time with warmer jackets and brollies because it's not at all warm here as we were expecting and wandered back into the main square. At Karlsplatz the huge intersection we go through discovered a fabulous underpass to take you from one street to another full of shops and eating places and even a department store. We (I ) looked in a few stores but once again the stores are so over-heated that I feel like I'm going to die so there's absolutely no chance I could try anything on, so I had outside to find John who's usually sitting somewhere reading. In our wanderings we found remnants of the old city walls with a few of the towers that have survived. We were starting to feel a little weary so for dinner we went to a place in the main square called Rischart - bakery downstairs and restaurant upstairs. We must have looked baffled while checking out the menu which was all in German because the waitress asked if we'd like the English version. John had their special burger and I had a lovely turkey salad. Slowly the place emptied out and we were the last ones there. The waitress asked if we could pay cash because they had closed off the credit facilities. She explained that they closed at 8pm and had asked the chef to put our order through. We must have looked tired and in need of food.  All good. She told us not to hurry and they cleaned around us. Too early to go home so we strolled around for a while as the rain had stopped and eventually went back to the hotel and fell into bed. Very comfortable bed but those stupid feather pillows must be the worst things ever invented.