The Sawyer Stories

I got stuck when naming this post. Our time in Munich rounds out to about one day including the evening of Day 1, morning and afternoon of Day 2, and our brains being convinced it was the middle of the night the whole time. We had neither one ever been to Germany, so this was our way of sneaking in another country to our visit. It also gave us a grace period to let our bodies start to adjust to the 6 hour time difference.

We took a taxi into Munich from the airport so we didn’t waste any time. The driver must have sensed our eagerness because he was going a solid 150 km (93 mph) on the interstate. Gotta love a Mercedes as a taxi car! Munich is our one destination where we are staying at a hotel (rather than an Airbnb) and we picked one right in the heart of Alstadt (Old Town). We checked in, cleaned up, and headed right out to grab dinner. We found this wonderful sushi place with a whole vegan sushi menu! We got a huge sampler to try them all. While the food was fantastic, my entertainment might have been better. I got to watch as Michael’s head continually dropped to the side while his eyes followed the pattern of slowly lowering and then shooting open. It was quite reminiscent of the days Liam would fall asleep in his highchair as a toddler. I am still devastated I didn’t get a video.

We then spent the evening wandering the gorgeous streets, looking at the amazing architecture of each building, and listening to the many many many bells ringing out over the city. We walked through Viktualienmarkt which was an open air market with meat, produce, and flower vendors all around and made our way back toward the hotel. We happened to find a dessert place along the way and ended our night eating cinnamon rolls in bed. I love being a grownup.

We talked our bodies into sleeping all night (even though they were convinced we had taken an excellent nap and should be ready to go at midnight). Michael and I both love breakfast food and we were giddy to find an authentic German place called Max Pett with several vegan options. We did our favorite thing to do when we travel which is order different options and split. You won’t be surprised to find out the this included a giant pretzel and sausages.

We didn’t have a lot of time, so we headed straight for the historic central square, Marienplatz. Turns out all those bells we heard the night before actually come from the famous glockenspiel on the Gothic Revival New Town Hall. 3 times a day, the mechanical clock’s figurines comes to life and reenact moments from Munich’s history. We joined hundreds of our friends to see the spectacle at noon.

We then headed to the cathedral, Alter Peter. I should pause to mention that our way-finder had been Michael (as it should be, I’m terrible at directions). However his method was to study the map on his phone, then put it away. Several blocks later he’d check again and we’d correct any wrong turns we’d just made. After a handful of what felt like hide-a-seek moments with places around town, I decided I was going to put the walking directions on my phone for the cathedral. This was a detail I then promptly forgot when we entered the solemn, holy space inside. As all European cathedrals are, it was ornately painted and candles were lit. We stood in the back, silently taking it all in. Right as I got to the back center, I raised my phone to take a photo….and it loudly proclaimed (and might I add echoed), “YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION”. I panically push buttons to quiet it and looked up to try and make wide-eye contact with Michael. Nope. He immediately fled the scene and walked out without me. 20 years of marriage, folks.

We recovered and headed to the primary reason we were at Alter Peter, to climb the 306 stairs to the top of the clock tower. The stair case was winding, narrow, and one way. While ascending, we would have to side step or wait for descending visitors to pass by. These pauses made us look oh so polite, but were actually required respite for our legs and lungs. At the top we were greeted with a view of the whole city of Munich. Totally worth it. Fun fact, there are 8 clocks on the tower to see the time from all angles around town.

Time was running out on our visit to Munich. We grab another soft pretzel and some sandwiches from a vegan butcher shop (that’s right…it’s a thing) for the train and headed to the station. On to Austria!