Old Town Hall
View from the top of the New Town Hall looking to the Old Town Hall.
Loved this "gargoyle" of a dragon attacking a group above with the spire of the Old Town hall in the background.
Madonna is the center of the square!
There has been much debate in our household on what to do about the fact that my car (a Pacifica - mommy-mobile) is still en route and we had just Chip, the old Naples beater to share between us. We came to the base and spoke the the car guys - because you can buy a car here and not pay taxes so you save a bit. The only cars they sell on the base here are Fords. I don't have anything against Fords, and in fact, if I could get a Mustang, this is where the story would end. But, the only affordable car for us was the Focus. BOOORRRRRRRIIIIINNNGGGG.
So while we negotiated for a boring car, Lenny made his way to Germany for 13 days worth of meetings. Turns out, in Germany you can buy way more cool cars - including BMWs - so we started a new debate. What can we afford and will it require me getting a JOB - which is a restricted word in our house! We settled on a Mini Cooper - and it's adorable and fun to drive.
So, thus an unplanned vacation begins. Alex and I flew up to Munich on May 7th to meet up with Lenny and drive the car over the Alps and back to Naples. It's a bit of a haul so we made a four day weekend of it. Lenny did not get to Munich until Saturday so Alex and I did our touring on Friday after landing and had a lovely day.
Munich is beautiful. Clean and friendly and even the cold, wet weather (which followed us the entire weekend) did not put us off. We dropped our luggage at the hotel and went downtown. Keep in mind, years ago - when I was 16 in fact, I did a summer Rotary Exchange program in Germany. I flew over with a large group and we all landed in Frankfort. All of the others I flew over with then headed south to Bavaria - ALL of them - and I was put on a train North. At the time I thought I must have done something bad because all I really knew of Germany was the castles and sights of Bavaria. I ended up in the Harz Mountains area near the East/West German border. It took some adjusting, but I did fall in love with the region - and the adorable blond boys who always seemed to be around, the warm beer at the pubs, etc. (Yep, 16! but it was all legal.)
So now, slightly older, I was very happy to see what Bavaria was all about and I was not disappointed. While no beautiful blond boys paid me any attention at all, I still enjoyed sharing Germany with Alex. It was a fast afternoon and we will certainly go back.
Some of the highlights, we went in the "New Town Hall" which is the building you see above that looks very much like a cathedral. There is also a shot of the Old Town Hall from the spire of the New Town Hall - it's a bit on a smaller scale. Like many of the cities we have travelled, Madonna is the highlight in the town square and you see Munich's famous Madonna with the New Town Hall in the background. In the next post you will see the famous Carillon - also called a Glockenspiel which dances three times a day. I was very glad that we were able to hang around downtown and see it do it's thing!
More pics in the following post.
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