Continuing with my overdue reports, we next had a full day in Munich before our night trip to Paris on the train.
As the train did not leave until 22:42, we had a bit of a lazy start and left the hotel about 09:30 and headed to the train station to leave our bags in a locker for the day until we were ready to board the train. We had scouted the lockers the day before and it looked like we would need 2 to fit all our bags in. However the lockers were bigger than the boot of the cars we have had and I managed to squeeze them all into 1 locker – no such luck for the family next to us as they were trying to get theirs in when we arrived and were still trying when we left !
Glockenspiel performing
We headed from the station to the old town of Munich to watch the glockenspiel perform at 11:00.
With the weather continuing to be warm – well into the 20s, the crowds were out in force and the square in front of the Rathous (town hall) was huge – all with cameras pointed skyward ! The 2 levels perform a jig for about 15 minutes a few times a day – some go longer for special performances.
The crowd watching
We then headed to the victualnmarkt which is a huge number of stalls selling various meat and produce. There is also a large maypole in the square which is used for performances on some days – not today.
We then took the Ubahn (underground train system) out to the Olympia Stadia stop which is not only the train stop for the 1972 Olympic games site but also BMW Welt (World). There are 3 huge modern buildings holding the head office, factory and a “bmw disneyland” with various models of cars on display, activities for the kids (rock climbing, Wii machines), driving simulators etc. It is also where people come to collect the cars they have bought in this huge showroom with a ramp through the building they drive down when they driveaway their new car.
People collecting their new cars
Every few hours a guy on a motorbike also does a motorcross demo driving through the building – up and down stars and ramps etc
You can also hire a number of the cars on an hourly basis – at 40 Euro an hour I was very tempted by the M3 and the nearby autobahn but Liam wasn’t keen on lying in the back seat – it has no leg room ! – so I contented myself with a little dabble in the shop.
Again we had one of those occasions of a fantastic view for lunch – a BMW M3 coupe, a BMW635i coupe, a BMW Z4 coupe – need I go on ?
After our late lunch I was dragged away kicking and screaming and we headed for the Neue Pinakotek one of the 3 art galleries – basically one each for new, old and older art (sorry – showing my couth a bit !) We saw Van Gogh’s Sunflowers amongst others on display. We also sat in the nice cafe for afternoon tea overlooking pretty gardens and a fountain before heading back on the Ubahn to the Hauptbahnhof to wait for our train. We had quite a bit of time to kill before our train departed so we browsed shops, waited, found somewhere for dinner, waited, had a coffee, waited, wandered the platforms and so on.
Munich Hauptbahnhof
After a few trains departing after ours started appearing on the departure board, we started to think we were going to have a delay – trains leaving an hour after us were on the board but not ours. We were just about to go to the information office when it appeared on the board so with relief we collected our bags from the lockers. The train arrived about 20 minutes before departure time and we got on board and squeezed into our cabin. Liam had to immediately squeeze into the rooftop bunk as there was no room for 3 of us and our luggage on the floor ! After a slight delay – about 10 minutes we were on our way to Paris.