Geneva to Munich

18 June - Day 94

This morning we left our hotel in Segny to drop off our mostly trusty Peugeot back to Peugeot at Geneva airport. The drive was 10km so by the time we got there, we had driven the car just shy of ten thousand kilometers in total, 9992km.

We gave the keys back off at the French side of the airport before heading over to the Swiss side to bum around for two and a half hours waiting for our train to Munich.

The train ride was 8 hours in total, consisting of 3 seperate legs and frantic dashes between platforms to reach our next train in time but we rode first class all the way so that was pretty cool. It's not as fancy as it sounds though, it just means that you have enough leg room for your knees not to touch the seat in front of you.

We arrived in Munich at quarter past nine (my [Marcus] second time in this city in less than a year) and walked to our hotel and that was it.

 

19 June - Day 95

Today we took a free walking tour of Munich. We met our guide, a British guy named Marcin (a Polish name, cos his parents were hippies), in the city's Marienplatz. Here is where they have the new town hall, which is in fact older than the old town hall, as the old town hall was blown up during the Second World War and subsequently reconstructed. It's also considered the second most overrated tourist attraction in Europe, behind Prague's astronomical clock tower.

Marcin, who was hilarious, spent about four hours taking us around and telling us about the history of Munich and Bavaria. Mostly, it revolves around beer and the antics of the Bavarian royal family, often both of them at once. For example, when Duke Wilhelm (at least I think it was Wilhelm) the First (and I think he was the first one) bankrupted the entire state of Bavaria by giving free beer to its army and all the surrounding armies. Then one generation later, his son (possibly another Wilhelm but maybe he was a Maximillian or a Ludwig) faced the threat of invasion from the Swedish. Confronted with the impending conflict, he bravely rounded up his army, marched to the city walls and promptly ran away to the mountains.

The city was saved by the citizens who coughed up 160,000 pieces of gold and all their beer to appease the Swedes.

Among other things, we were shown St Peter's Cathedral which has a cannonball lodged in its side, fired by the Austrians at some point in history. During the Allied bombings of Munich in WWII, it was dislodged and found by an emergency worker helping to shelter the people from the bombs. Years later during the restoration of the city, he went up to the workers working on St Peter's and gave them the cannoball to stick it back in its original place.

The Germans also have a place to park your dogs when you're visiting the pharmacy.

And also a statue of Juliet, a gift from the Italian city of Verona, which people like to rub for good luck.

We also stopped at the famous Hofbrauhaus, the beer hall. Here we learnt its story, mainly about its bathroom facilities. When it was first built, the Hofbrauhaus suffered from the fatal logistical flaw of not having a toilet. This resulted in the men (because at the beginning it was a male only affair) having to come outside, pee on the street then go back inside and start a punch up with whoever had taken his seat while he was gone.

To resolve this issue, they took the next logical step and built gutters and drains under the tables so the men would be able to empty their bladders where they sat and rapidly fill them back up again. The problem with this was that the urinator would inevitably make urinatees of either himself, the men on either side of him and the guy sitting across from him, predictably inciting more urine-soaked punch ups.

One night at the hall, an old man innovated the art of pissing on the floor by unveiling his walking stick which had a spiral groove carved down its length, which would direct the flow with minimal splashing and also minimal hygiene. His inebriated audience couldn't quite grasp this concept, so the man kicked aside a table and demonstrated it right there.

As far as I know, the Hofbrauhaus now has proper toilets and allows the entry of women. In fact, they even installed a vomitorium in the mens' bathroom which was a really big bucket with handles and foot flush, but they had to remove this because women constantly kept bursting in to look at it.

We also learnt a lot about Hitler and the beginnings of the Nazi party which interesting but generally a lot less entertaining.

After the tour, we went for some lunch. Dad was gonna go for a beer tasting tour but the guide never showed up so he didn't.