München

Last weekend, we finally took a trip to München (Munich for all you English speakers). Finally because it's only an hour 15 minutes away by train, and because Kristen hadn't been there before (although she did go right by during her high school trip to Europe, even stopping in Dachau). Anyway, we took the train and then walked into the city center, where we were just in time for the moving figures in the clock on the Rathaus (town hall). We then wandered a bit through the old town before heading over to the "Englischer Garten", the München equivalent of Central Park, where we had lunch in the beer garden at the Chinese tower (originally from the 18th century). The weather was fantastic, and many other people, both native and tourists, had the same idea. After satisfying our bodily necessities, we were keen on also stimulating our intellects, so we walked over to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the great art museums in Germany (and indeed the world). The nice thing, being a Sunday, was that admission was only 1 Euro, although we paid extra for a special exhibition on Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance (which turns out to have been a loan from the National Gallery in Washington, so we had probably seen it before). From there, we headed back into the city, walked through the Platzl quarter (part of the old town), and relaxed some in a cafe in the pedestrian area before heading back to the train station and taking the train back to Ulm.