Saturday 18th and a quick tour of Munich

It was so different in the dinning room this morning with everyone in casual dress rather than their more business clothes for the conference. This was such a special treat every day at the hotel - all you can eat buffet breakfast. And I made the most of it. :-) Added to my bacon, eggs and tomato was a daily piece of salmon with Philadelphia cheese. A lovely selection of fresh fruit (I especially enjoyed the different melons) and fresh fruit cocktail juice - which I have not had in many years.
Asher was thrilled that there were mushrooms today - she piled into those and got her daily dose of olives each morning too. :-)
I thought the girls would like to see how our toothbrushes were placed after our room was cleaned.
Today Dad was with to be able to take a photo of Asher enjoying her highlight escalator ride.
She really did love it. And she got very comfortable with the front pack and that made it so much easier for me to head out with her every day.

Then we headed out on the bus tour that we had been booked on. We were very thankful that Asher and I could join Brendon (for free) on this outing.
This is one of the city gates.
Lovely paintings.
It was beautiful to see the changing colours on this creeper.

It was a very informative tour and enjoyable to see all the details on the buildings. 60% of the city was rebuilt after the war.

The fountains get turned off during autumn and winter so that the pipes don't freeze. The statues are also covered with wooden structures to protect them from the harsh winter weather.

It was great to see our first obelisk.

Such beautiful buildings.

Beer brewing being a major part of German culture - so had to take a photo of this brewery. The tour guide said the Germans don't see beer as an alcoholic drink - it's just liquid nutrition.
The tour guide was very funny with lots of little jokes thrown in that we wondered if anyone else actually got.

We didn't stop at the summer palace and I only just managed to get this photo as we left (sorry it's a bit skew).

Quite something to think of these canals freezing over in winter so that they are used for games and ice skating.
Pretty flower boxes on many of the houses. Many houses don't have much garden space. We drove past one area where people can "rent" a piece of land. It's only about 15 - 20 square meters and there is a rule that you must grow vegetables and fruit and flowers are optional.
Left: Brendon took this photo and this time the tilt looks so good. :-)
Right: Brendon did a good job of getting a photo of this too as we drove past rather quickly.

Then we got dropped off and had almost an hour to walk around and see some of the centre of town.
For people who have never been to Europe - all these massive buildings are just so impressive.

Below: The Winter Palace.
We didn't do a tour inside and the tour guide said it does get rather boring. There are some magnificent rooms - but a lot of others that are just very monotonous.

This is taken from the other side - facing onto lovely gardens.

And then we did the typical "tourist" thing and had a photo on the steps. Brendon took a photo of Asher and I.

Below: The tour guide then said she would take a photo of all three of us. It gives you a bit of an idea how how huge these statues and structures are.

We had hoped to see the famous Frauenkirche cathedral and only realized afterwards that this was it. There were major renovations happening on the outside and it's so big that we didn't even see the towers.
Below right: A photo off the internet of the towers.
The details inside were just incredible.

Then we walked to the New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) and got to see (and listen to) the famous Glockenspiel in the tower balcony.

Then we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The whole place had been booked out for the conference with loads of different things to try on the many buffet tables. Asher had a good lunch and especially enjoyed the seafood items she got to try.
Then she enjoyed having time outside in the stones before the bus arrived to take us back to the hotel.

Asher enjoyed the trip back too - making friends with others on the bus.
This gentleman had chatted to us as we waited for the bus and even asked to take a photo of the 3 of us as Asher had her "blanket" when she got tired. He said he wanted to show his wife - that no matter what country you live in - a baby always likes a blanket to cuddle.

And one last building shot for the day - just before we left after lunch. It was a great morning filled with loads of information and fascinating things to see. We are so grateful that we got the opportunity to experience it all.