On The Ground In Munich

Let’s get this blog started.  I wanted to have a few posts up before unleashing this beast to the world, but I’ve been on the ground in Munich for three days already and thought I just better get it online or it may never happen.  At this point the sites count down timer should be in negative territory.  I’ll provide some more complete updates and photos in the future.  Stay tuned.

I’ve got more than a bit of jet lag.  My flight out of Philly was smooth, but it left at 4 pm and arrived at 1 am EST.  Local time was 7 am.  I had maybe a good two hours of sleep on the plane.  Trying to nip the jet lag in the bud, I stowed my bags in the hotel, changed cloths and headed out to have a look around.  I spent a good few hours walking around Marienplatz looking at the sights but not touring any of them, just getting oriented and taking a few photos.

I crashed early the first night, but jet lag being that persistent pest, I awoke very early as well.  I spent the rest of the second day going back down to Marienplatz, guide book in hand, touring the sites and doing the recommended city walk.  The highlight was the Residenz, the former palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria.

After six hours on my feet I headed back to the hotel.  And just in time.  The heavens opened and the rain started coming down.  Not interested in braving the weather to get a bite to eat, I settled for a beer and pizza in the hotel bar.

Once again I tried to get to sleep early, but my sleep patterns are all messed up and I didn’t end up getting much rest.  I awoke early to find the rain was still coming down, and a look at the weather app on my phone told me it wasn’t going till let up till 3 pm.  I decided to scrap my planned tour of Dachau and instead headed to the train station to arrange my tickets to Nuremberg and a sightseeing tour of Neuschwanstein Castle.

These first three days have been both a blast and a blur.  I spent much of the day walking and I’ve been completely spent, in a good way.  I’m really enjoying Munich and am looking forward to further exploring Germany and Europe.

That’s all for now.  I’ll be in Nuremberg on Sunday and will have some time to do some proper updates.