Ausfahrt after ausfahrt

I woke this morning in the best way possible: to a smiling Tony, armed with a hot coffee. :-D (No more of this “Stace. Stacey./Trace. Tracey!” malarkey. Delightful.)

I asked him if he slept well and he told me “Like a baby… I shat myself twice and woke up crying!”. This guy is hilarious and I knew it was going to be another good day with this funny ol’ monkey!

We breakfasted at MacDonalds and headed into Munich at around 10am.

As we’re making up our journey a bit more now, we’re keen to please one another with our choices of stops. Tony has suggested he calls this trip “Stacey’s Trip”, or maybe even “Tracey’s Trip”. (He’s done pretty much all of the driving and I’m kind of ladying it up a little!) I’m keen, however, for this not to be my trip and, where possible, am eager for us to go to places where he hasn’t been before. It’s pretty difficult because our Tone has driven to a lot of places in the years. Prague was somewhere he’d been before, but he’d told me he hadn’t been to Munich and I was looking forward to us discovering it together.

When we spoke to Teresa last night, it turned out that Tony had, in fact, been to Munich. He’d seen surfers and naturists in the garden and she suggested he showed me all of that jazz, so that was the plan (and if we saw a hoppy-onny-offy bus then we’d give it a go too).

Entering Munich was awesome. Loads of ornate buildings, much like, from my experience, Prague/the Czech Republic. Travelling like this is really giving me a chance to see how one country blends into the next and how the neighbouring cultures are carried across the borders.

 

I'm told that Hitler replaced all the statues on the top - need to do more reading on this, me thinks!

We found a garden near to the city gate and decided we’d park up and go and check that out, in the hope it was the one Tony had visited with Teresa previously. We’re now in the Euro zone so no more zlotys (Poland) nor… < I’ve just asked Tony what currency the Czech use… His response: Czechbooks. There’s no end to his puns!! > No more Czech money either.

The sun was shining and there wasn’t a sky in the cloud for the second day running (it was also the second day running that I had to laugh at this joke, so I’m subjecting you to it too (-: - it’ll be funny for those who haven’t read it before!).

Such a wonderful day for a wonderful stroll through a wonderful park. When we got into the garden and started looking at the map, a German chap helped us out. He explained it was about an hour walk to the lake at the far end (that’ll be 2 hours for Tony and his dodgy shuffle!). We ambled along through the English garden, under the blossoming trees, past the KunstHaus *ahem* and past the Chinese garden. 

Apparently, one must visit a beer garden when in Munich and so this is what we decided to do – breakfast #2/early lunch?!

 My experience of a Bavarian beer garden was tremendous. Despite it being a little before 12pm, it was beer o’clock (when in Munich). I was asked if I wanted a small or large and, when I hesitated, the lady behind me shouted out “You’re in Bavaria now. Large!”. Large it was!

There were pretzels the size of your head and sausages the size of… very large sausages! *ahem*

We loaded up our plates and took a plonk down in the midday sun.

 

Purr!

Purr purr purr!!! (How do they make pretzels?!)

"How to Beergarden"! <3

A side anecdote (yes, another one), it’s been interesting to see two things as we’ve been trapsing around Europe so far. The first thing is how people deal with Covid and the second is how people respond to you asking the question “Do you speak English”?”. In Germany, we’re asked for Covid passports everywhere and they always respond “yes” or “no” to the question about speaking English. In Czech Republic/Poland/Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania it’s been more relaxed with Covid (there are signs on doors as you go in shops to ask you to wear masks but no specific policing) and people are reluctant to commit to saying they speak English but also want to please so the answer is often “a little”.

After our fill in the sun, we took a little toodle back to the van along the manmade river in the Hoftgarten, stopping to watch the locals play petanque. What a way to while the day away. Purr purr purr!!!

We got back on the road around 2pm and have been making our way down further south towards Lichtenstein ever since (Tony has also been here, but it seems a shame to not stop in as we’re passing!).

As the sun was setting (this has become my favourite time of the day!), mountains appeared before us in every direction. We crossed from Germany into Austria and stopped at MacDonald’s to grab wifi and book a hotel.

And now we’re sitting in the swankiest hotel around, scoffing a delicious dinner. This hotel is the real thing!! 

Not a bad day, all in all!

 

(For those who have become fans of the theme tunes, here are a few options for today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bL2BCiFkTk or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4lJUzrgSJA)