Day 57 (August 4th): Munich Zoo & Hofbrauhaus

We woke up at 8:30, showered and got dressed. Since the kids had put up with walking around alot without too much complaining, we promised them we would go to the zoo. Munich has one of the largest zoos in the world and we thought this would be the perfect place to spend the day. It was a gorgeous day out and we stopped at the bakery down the street to pick up breakfast (croissants and danishes) before heading over to the zoo. While Al and the kids got breakfast, I went into the supermarket to pick up some bottles of Volvic flavored water. The zoo was about a 15 minute drive from the hotel and we arrived there about 11:00 AM. After parking the car, we got a map of the zoo and started our journey. Our first stop was the petting zoo where the kids played with the goats and sheep. We saw too many animals to mention here but the highlights were the Siberian Tiger, Polar Bear, penguins and monkeys. All around the zoo they have excellent food stands. One in particular was an Asian stand where they sold really good spring rolls with a sweet and spicy sauce. It's interesting to note that the tray the spring rolls came on was eatable. Zach didn't want a spring roll so he got a big gummi worm instead. Later on the kids both got ice creams also. We took a break at the zoo biergarden where Al had a wine spritzer and I had a beer while the kids played at the playground right next to the biergarden. We kept walking around and then the kids took a camel ride that they loved. The zoo was a lot of fun and I took some great pictures. We left the zoo around 3:00 PM and headed to the Munich Alstadt where we parked the car in a parking garage since the streets were packed and there were no parking spots available. In the Platz (market square) there were many food vendors and there was a band playing music. We walked around and then passed a Subway sandwich shop and the kids got some food. Al and I figured that at least Zach would eat a real meal. We then headed over to the Rathaus clock tower that had mechanical figures dance around at 5:00 PM. It was not 5:00PM yet, so we waited in the square watching a street magician do his magic. When 5:00PM rolled around the figures in the clock tower moved around but it was pretty lame. Our next stop was a smoothie store where Hannah and Zach bought smoothies (Zach didn't like his and we ended up throwing it away). We kept walking around and found a great street performer that looked like a statue. He would shoot water out of his fingers when people passed by and the kids loved him (he was very good). We walked some more past churches, statues and a bunch of old buildings before we decided it was time for dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. You've got to go to the Hofbrauhaus while in Munich. It's like a shrine for all beer drinkers of the world (see picture on top right). The last time I was there was during college and for some reason I don't remember much. When we walked inside the Hofbrauhaus it was hot and loud since the band was playing. We decided it would be best to sit outside where most of the other families were situated. We sat down and I ordered a stein of their dunkel (dark) beer along with a Bavarian stuffed cabbage and Al had a cheese plate. Hannah wasn't hungry and Zach got a huge pretzel (see picture on bottom left) that we bought from a woman walking around selling them. The kids got drinks that were served in small steins and they had fun knocking their glasses together (see picture on top left). One of the highlights of the Hofbrauhaus is to watch the waitresses carry the big steins of beer (a full liter). These things weigh a ton and they can hold many of them at once. The most I saw a waitress carry was 8, but Hannah said she saw one carry 10. After dinner we went to a couple of souvenir shops and Hannah bought some postcards for her collection. We then got our car and headed back to the hotel to swim. The kids were hoping to see the family from Raleigh down at the pool but they never showed up. We finished swimming around 10:00PM and went back to the room to shower and pack up since this was our last night there. It was around 12:00 AM before lights out and everybody was sleeping.