We checked out of our hostel in Stuttgart early in order to catch the express train to Munich. The two hour 180kph ride was through snow covered plains and hills and was very comfortable. On the way we passed through Einstein's birthplace (which according to Emma was the birthplace of the hang-glider as well). During the trip I travelled through the train to get a coffee from the shop at the front. It was quite a feeling walking along at 180kph as houses and trees zipped by at a frenetic pace.
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| Munich's Busy Streets |
The tourist information office hooked us up with a nice, quiet bed and breakfast that was affordable and reasonably close to the city centre. We spent the afternoon taking a walking tour of the city with Emma as our tour guide. Munich is a lot denser than Stuttgart and has a more active feel about it. It has a lot of museums, galleries and historic buildings scattered right throughout its densely packed streets. Fortunately for us the weather was perfect and the temperature for the first time on the trip passed single figures.
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| Munich's Largest Church |
We took a few hours out to visit a very large (but inconspicuously named) modern art gallery. Inside there was a lot of interesting pieces but for me the most interesting was the comprehensive display of computers from Apple, IBM and various other hardware manufacturers from the 70's and 80's such as Commodore and Spectrum. A few old memories were brought back when I came to the Commodore 64 with its massive 5.25 disk drive, a computer my brother and I spent many hours of our childhood playing with. Afterwards we had a nice beer at a flashy cafe/pub before heading to dinner at the Beethoven Cafe featured in the Lonely Planet's Germany guide.
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| Munich's Modern Art Gallery |