July 14 - Munich

July 14th (Bastille Day) found your Ramblers on the way to Munich via train.  Now that we had conquered the train system, the country was our auster (oyster in German).  Like our arrival in Stuttgart, the first task was find, and check into, our hotel. Again, Agent Dale found us a great spot just a block from the train station (the Sofitel).  They are very nice in our experience.  We also got some perks by using the Virtuoso Travel Program courtesy of Agent Dale.  After check-in we got the lowdown from the front desk folk and set out to find a real German beer garden.  After a relatively short walk we found a great one. Lots of trees, big tables, and lots of large heavy steins of golden love.  Tables for six were common but we found an empty one only to be told by "Fritz" the semi-obnoxious waiter that we had to sit somewhere else because a two person party could not take up a six top table. Almost immediately a nearby couple said "come sit with us" and we realized they were Americans like us. We had a great time hanging out.

We had to stop at McDonald's again in Stuttgart. Muffins were nice, as is the McCafe setup in Europe.

Our train lane

Sofitel

What they called a cake on the train (it's a cookie)

Mad SIDEWALK cleaner that almost ran us down on the way to the beer garden

Mmmmmm

Our new Wichita friends Katie and Kyle 

Inside the beer garden beast

Another beastly view

After a liter of beer and afraid that a second would make us permanent garden residents, we set off to walk the city and find the Rathaus Glockenspiel. I would describe it as a very large musical clock with a large number of moving people.

Rathaus-Glockenspiel

 On our way to the 'Spiel we ran into huge crowds celebrating Pride Day.  Mostly lots of rainbow stuff but we finally made it just in time to hear it play.  Here is a video.

Here is a better sounding version.  The Real Spiel

Cruising any major city feels so relatively familiar it is somewhat depressing. The same stores are everywhere.

Same Disney stuff in Germany as in Florida....or New York.....or London.....or Richmond

Pretty building

Pride

More Pride

Glockenspiel

Another Glockenspiel view

American muscle

 After we sauntered back to our hotel, we had dinner in the hotel's French restaurant. It was nice.

Tomorrow, we head home and sadly our Cruisin' the Rhine adventures will come to an end.

Until then, mach weiter (keep on rambling).