Munich

Our hotel (the Concorde) was on a small, side-street about 10 minutes from the Marienplatz. The place was nice except for the fact that the wheelchair couldn’t fit in the small elevator and we had to leave it in the lobby – and this after I had e-mailed them and asked them about everything. The night we arrived it was around 8 pm and we were tired and hungry and asked the receptionist for a local restaurant we could eat in. She told us about a local place about 2 minutes from the hotel. We got there and it was an Italian place (which doesn’t seem odd now, but when you read about the rest of the trip you will understand.) We went in and the menu was all in German and the woman only spoke German. I have never had any issues finding someone in Germany who speaks English, but this trip most people didn’t – except at the airport. We ordered some food and it turned out to be shrimp. I do not eat any kind of seafood and it was disgusting. I went back to the hotel and looked on-line for the words: fish, shrimp and seafood in both German and Croatian so I wouldn’t have a problem again.

The next day we walked through the snow to the Marienplatz. They had the traditional Christmas Market. I had been there before, but it was still nice to see everything. I didn’t notice any police though and since Germany was supposed to be in a terror alert you would think you would see some uniforms every now and then. I got some mixed roasted nuts and we bought a small, wooden nativity. That night we happened to find a restaurant and walked in. The host was pretty arrogant (especially when he saw we didn’t have reservations.) He seated us in the back next to an old American couple who were very loud and annoying. The food was good (especially the horseradish soup) by the host kept coming over and was pretty annoying.

On the third day we went back to the Marienplatz and saw the Glockenspiel play. It wasn’t anything special, but is one of those things you have to see at least once. I wasn’t feeling well and so we went back to the hotel. That night we went to a restaurant where we were told we could have one hour to eat before the next party came to our table. The food was good, but I didn’t like having to rush.

The side-trip to Munich was good. If it had been summer I don’t think we would have gone there. The main reason we went was to go to the Christmas Market and we did that.