The Mulders: Munich

Our next stop on the trip was Munich. Germany by far was Jake's favorite place on this trip. He probably could have spent the entire two weeks in Germany. We booked an overnight train from Amsterdam to Munich. It was one of the funniest experiences of my life. Jake and I got our own room, thank goodness. There were bunk beds and then probably two feet by seven feet of moving room and then a bathroom that you barely had room to turn around in. The entire time you are on the train, it was rocking back and forth. At one point I was sleeping and the train turned quickly and it made me roll from one side of the bed to the other and slam my face against this poll. hahah Awesome. I didn't mind cause I took a sleeping pill so I was zonked. Jake, on the other hand, didn't get any sleep at all. Poor guy!

Once we got to Munich, we started with the residenz museum. The treasury was amazing. They had a wide arrange of a jewelry collection (including crowns), as well as furniture, glassware, etc. That was personally my favorite part about Munich. I loved that museum!

We also walked through the opera house in the museum. It was beautiful! The ceilings were made of gold, the drapery probably cost millions to make. It was breathtaking.

Germany was very different from the rest of Europe. A lot of the architecture was very gothic. It gave off this very dark appeal. There was impeccable detail on the churches and buildings. The church of paul in particular. We weren't allowed in because it was closed, but there was a walkway where you walk underneath the second story of the church into this courtyard that shows the finite detail of the church. It was beautiful!

What's Germany without oktoberfest park? We also had to walk into a little pub to see the Germans singing like the movies portray. Well, the movies don't lie! Much of the culture here revolves around beer and cigarettes. People order beer for breakfast. It is also sold in vending machines, right next to cigarettes. This means that everyone smokes and drinks, including young teenagers!

Despite being pretty spread out, there was a very small town feel. It wasn't what I expected at all, but it still had that European feel. Most of the city was destoryed during the war but was rebuilt to look like the original renderings. After seeing the beauty of the city, I understand why they wouldn't want to build differently. They wanted it exactly as it had been built in the past.

The only downside to Germany was that we were completely lost with language. It was the first time everything hadn't been in english. People see me and Jake and immediately start speaking english. Apparently it was pretty obvious to them that Jake and I were American. There was no blending in here!

Jake loved Munich. Since it is Germany, naturally there was a dealership of very expensive and very nice cars. Jake probably spent just as much time in here as we did in the Residenz museum. A guy can dream right? Poor guy left his toiletries on the night train so we had to go find him a toothbrush which was unusually hard. Apparently they don't sell toothbrushes because they want the beer smell all day? I'm not sure, but it probably took a good hour to find him a toothbrush. We bought him a fresh squeezed orange juice to make him feel better about losing his tooth brush. haha. He loved this juice.