Wilkommen in München
Hallo aus München!
We landed in Munich around 9 a.m. today, about 45 minutes earlier than scheduled. Professor Bormann picked us up at the airport and we took the S-Bahn trains to Munich’s main station, Hauptbahnhof. On the trains, we mostly tried to decipher the German voices around us and on the speaker to examine their daily conversation and try to figure out what stop we were at on the train. For a bunch of tired, sweaty and hungry students, I think we did just fine. I was surprised by how similar it seemed to the subways in Boston and I appreciated that familiarity so early on into the trip.
We dropped our bags off at the hotel and totally skipped any form of orientation – it seems Professor Bormann prefers the show, don’t tell method, which is totally fine with me. We went as a group for a walk to Marienplatz, Munich’s main square, which is about a half hour from our hotel. We passed so many open-air restaurants that had patios in the middle of the square so you couldn’t even tell what restaurant it belonged to, and most notably five different H&Ms. We were walking through the square around noon, which meant all of the church bells were chiming at the same time. In the center of the square, there is a huge tower, and every day at 11 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. figurines pop out of the opening and give a little performance as part of the square’s Glockenspiel.
Walking through Marienplatz felt like walking through Epcot at Walt Disney World – I think I’m half expecting to wake up and head over to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow.
