Our day in Munich!

This morning, Petra had made us breakfast and bought some fresh pretzels and pain-au-chocolat from the bakery downstairs. We had fresh berries, yoghurt and boiled eggs too, along with strong coffee. How fantastic is my German Aunty!!

She took us on a walk about the city before she had to go work; this was fantastic and really helped me get orientated with this beautiful city. It was such a sunny day, and the first touches of spring were on the trees, and the river that flows through the city was full and blue.

We walked down Maximilianstraße , then right into the Hofgarden, which is right in front of the opera house and other grand municipal buildings. We walked down past a monument and church, towards the city centre. We visited an amazing delicatessen where Petra had come since she was a kid; it had the most delicious looking everything on display!!!! We walked through Alter Hof, which is the oldest building in Munich - built in 1261 (or near abouts)!!

This lead us through to Marienplatz, where the Neues Rathaus is (a very impressive Gothic building) and also the Viktualienmarkt; potentially one of my favourite places in Munich!

We went to Martine and Petra's favourite place, that's sits overlooking the markets. Here in the sunlight, we had a glass of Prosecco and discussed what else to do in this great city!

Once we finished our Prosecco and farewelled Petra, we spent the next hour or so strolling the markets, which sells fresh fruit and veges, dips, sauces, the widest selection of olives I've ever seen, breads, dips, cheese (oh the cheese!!!!) and chocolate-covered fruit... As well as other inedible knick-knacks, but being inedible they were not of much interest!

We couldnt resist; the buying began. We got two different kinds of cheese, then chocolate covered strawberries on a stick (om nom nom!!). Then we found the deli section and got some peppers, olives, mozzarella, a Mediterranean dip, loaf of turkish bread, and a basil dip that was made by this company.... Then we sat beneath a statue, in the sun, and ate our impromptu lunch :D

After gorging ourselves, we decide to walk up the St Stephan's church tower. I'm glad we did this, as the view was spectacular! Unfortunately I wish we'd waited a little longer to digest our lunch, because it was 304 steps up = Angry tummy!

Upon our decent, we walked back through the city to Hofgarten and on to the English Gardens. This place is like a nicer version of the Auckland Domain but with a river and more trees... There were lots of people playing frisbee and football, waking dogs, we even saw three guys practicing walking a tightrope!! Like you do...

We strolled around and sat for a while on a park bench, for a spot of people-watching...

As it got a bit cooler, we strolled back down to Maximilianstraße, past all the super expensive shops like Chloé, Dior, Jimmy Choo... And went for a beer at the famous Hofbrauhaus, to celebrate a great day around this beautiful city!