Munich

With moving, and E being sick - we haven't traveled much lately. We decided to change that yesterday, and took a nice little day trip to Munich. It was an easy two-and-a-half hour drive, and we got there around 11:00. I had done some research on the most popular restaurants, so we already knew where we wanted to eat. Parking was a breeze once we did a few loops around the city to find the garage. We were right in the city center, so it was a short walk to Haxnbauer ... a restaurant famous for its pork knuckle, or schweinshaxe - which Vic had his heart set on after we read the online reviews of the menu. This place did not disappoint. From the window you could see the giant hocks of meat roasting on a spit - Vic was in man-heaven. The restaurant itself was a traditional, Baravian-ish beer hall, and it was not crowded - which made life with a wiggly baby much more pleasant. Our Turkish waitress was slightly obsessed with Elliott - she was taking pictures of him, and carrying him all around the restaurant (she would hold open her arms and say, 'come to me, baby'). It was kind of nice because we got to eat in peace, and E was LOVING the attention - but it was a little creepy that a strange women was carting around my child. Nothing against Turkish people, but if you've ever seen the movie Taken - you can understand my anxiety with this scenario. It would have put a damper on the day if we had to go on a Liam Neeson type rampage around the city.

Anyway, Vic's pork knuckle was amazing (I helped myself to half), and we washed it down with a couple Hefeweizens (our beer of choice). We had no real plan for the rest of the day, so we just wondered around, and managed to stumble onto a majority of the major sites. I think you probably need 3 days to see ALL of Munich, but we did pretty well for a day trip.

THE Pork Knuckle ...

I snuck a picture of Eli and his new friend .... this is when she was introducing him to the kitchen staff ...

The New Town Hall ... with the Frauenkirche in the background ...

Glockenspiel on the New Town Hall ...

Inside the Town Hall ...

The were getting everything ready for the Christmas Market ...

Inside the Town Hall ... beautiful ...

Posing by the famous Ratskeller ...

Sweets, sweets, and more sweets. Vic has developed quite the sweet tooth since we've moved here ... he's always talking me into doughnuts and pastries. He doesn't have to twist my arm too much ...

HUGE concert type amphitheater ... it was massive ...

Church from inside the palace gardens ...

Palace ...

Bubble boy taking a nap ...

 Nationaltheater München ...

Vic, patiently waiting for me to finish taking pictures ...

Crypt inside the Frauenkirch ...

Frauenkirch ...

Up from his nap, and so happy!

The most famous beer hall in the world ...

Over 1,000 people can fit in the first floor restaurant ...

Definitely the highlight of the trip ... complete with an Ompah band playing while we enjoyed our beers. Very cool ...

Eli will be entertained for hours by teething on a coaster ... it's our go-to device in every restaurant ...

The next day we drove into Czech Republic to do a little shopping at their Black Market - which was pretty interesting. They had about 400 booths of merchandise - mostly knock-offs of American brands. We didn't find too much stuff, but it was fun to haggle with them ...

Ready to shop!

Along with traveling, we also made quite the Thanksgiving feast on Thursday ... and we're still eating leftovers. It was a great long weekend - after a less than stellar week!