A day in Munich

We slept in this morning and about 8.30 woke to the sound of sirens - not something we've heard or seen much of on this trip. Unlike Rome where it's the norm!! I looked out our hotel window to see dozens of police vehicles screaming to a halt and personnel pouring out of them. We are opposite the main train station, and also a big police station as well. They didn't seem to be in a big hurry, so I figured it wasn't a terrorist alert!! Anyway, when we were ready to go out for the day we headed over to the train station, and just as we were buying our tickets there's this huge commotion and we looked up to see hundreds of young guys and an equal number of police!! A lady was able to tell us that there was a big football match on today - Munich v Basel and these were testerone driven fans (my description!!) on their way to the match. She said there'd be 1,1000 police on the trains with them. Quite a sight to see so many armed police in any one place.

We headed off to a new plaza today - Odeonplatz. What a treasure trove that proved to be! The Catholic cathedral was breath taking inside - Baroque style. Very ornate. We then came across another Christmas Market with a difference. It had stalls depicting different christmas, fairy tale stories etc. The best/funniest was the animated talking reindeer!! The photo you'll see can't possibly convey what it was like. Very, very amusing. There were lots of wee kindergarten children visiting and it was all very cute. Timing was good as they were only just opening up.

From there we walked up to the English Gardens which we'd viewed from the bus last week when they were under a foot of snow! We didn't go too far in as the snow has melted and it was mushy and muddy. The weather today has been so warm. Last week when we were here it was -12 deg overnight. Today it was probably +15 deg and sunny.

From the Gardens we headed off to find a shop that Paul had sourced before we left home. Wouldn't you know it - another huge flurry of speeding police cars ended up right in the street we needed to go down! It was obviously something at the University. We eventually got through and made it to our destination - only to find the shop was no longer in existence! Oh well - it was a good walk with plenty of sidewalk action.

This will probably be our last post before we start our long journey home tomorrow night. Unfortunately, I've now caught the cold too which is a bummer with travel. I'm not great at the best of times, let alone with sore throat etc.

It's been a wonderful trip and we hope you've enjoyed our travel tales.

Mary - I look forward to catching up with you. Probably Sunday night.

Love to all.
Marie & Paul xx