Day 17

I did get grabbed pretty strongly though by Munich. The campsite was really cool. It was set next to a river and a forest which had some sweet walking tracks. It did cost 1 euro to have a shower, which was a bit of a bummer – what wasn’t a bummer though was that it was here that we kept the volley ball up for 33 heads in a row – surely some sort of record! We started out or day in Munich with some free time to check out the Munich stadium which hosted the 1972 Olympics – I chose to investigate the BMW museum across the road from it. It was a massive building the shape of four cylinders slightly overlapping each other, and out the front doors were parked six white, top of the line BM’s from the current line. As soon as I stepped into the building I knew that it wasn’t a museum though – there were only two other people around – both dressed in suits and it was all a bit too clean. A was planning on investigating for myself what the building was, but one of the men was looking at me a bit too intently so I asked him and he directed me back across the road in German mixed with a few English words. Turns out that a BMW museum was still being built and there was a temporary one right next to the stadium – so I checked that out. There were a couple of cars there that I wanted to see like the 70’s M1 super car and the hydrogen 7 series, but a fair few were missing – I guess I now have a reason to see the new museum when it is built.
When we arrived in central Munich we had enough time to get some lunch before our bike ride – I got bratwurst and sour crout. Both of them tasted a little funky actually – but they were certainly edible and then I headed off to meet Stevo the crazy Irishman from Mikes Bikes that would take us on a tour of Munich. This was certainly one of the highlights of the trip for me –Stevo was awesome, a bit nutty but full of energy, and jokes (often naughty) but also of information about the city that we were in. I learned a lot from him that I wouldn’t have if I had not been on the tour – he told us to walk down an alley way and pay attention to the ground. There was a gold treacle set into the cobble stones. Apparently this is a silent mark of respect to people who used to use this alley way to avoid walking past a statue representing the Nazi regime where they would be forced to salute it. Also there were many lion statues and one in particular that was good luck to rub. The story goes that the king of Germany used to sleep around a lot with many women even though he was married and everyone knew this but said nothing – apart from a student who wrote him a letter telling him off and saying that he should be faithful. So the king was very angry at being told what to do and said that he would give 2000 francs to anyone who would bring this student to him - who was most likely going to be hanged. So the student walked in to meet the king on his own accord and the king not wanting to appear a tyrant to everyone in Munich gave the student the 2000 francs for his bravery, and on the way out of the palace, the student rubbed the lions nose – which made it lucky. We rode around for a while doing skids in the parks scaring couples walking arm in arm (Stevo’s idea) and then stopped at the second largest beer garden in Europe that holds 7500 people and sat there for about 1 or two hours while people drank between one and three steins each ( as stein is one litre) of beer. Unsurprisingly, when we started up again there were a few accidents - getting the front and back brakes confused and not seeing a boom gate. The boom gate was outside the ex Luftwaffe headquarters that had somehow escaped the bombing from world war two – so Gary mashing the gate and taking out some of the pavement when the side post came out, actually did more damage to the area then the entire allied force did during the war. That night we went to a Bavarian beer hall – I got a big stein full of Coke and Fanta mixed together (apparently it is a German soft drink) – I felt cool. The food was pretty ace too, a lot of pork and dumplings, as I was eating it I saw the girl from the Mozart and I thought she was looking at me – so I looked away having already put myself on display enough. The man on the stage continued to call for people to Prost (cheers) and then girls started dancing and yodelling and playing with bells. I then caught the eye of the girl from the Mozart concert again and she poked her tongue out at me and smiled, so I tilted my head in her direction – and then checked to see if she had actually been poking her tongue out as a gesture for me to clean something off my face. I then noticed that the people that I had been sitting next to had gotten up and I was all alone, so I got up too and walked to join them where they were standing. But the girl also got up and walked towards the end of the table where I was going – so without realising it had had made the first move and must have appeared strong and decisive. Yah! So I met her at the end of the table and we went out of the noise into the arriving room and chatted. She plays the flute well enough to have her own CD, and teach it for $60 an hour and also likes Aussie Hip hop. At the moment she is living in London but is only there until January when she is heading back to the north shore of Sydney where she lives. We went back inside and I paid for her next drink and asked if she was much of a dancer – she said that it depended on who was leading….. Time to shine Justo! So we did a bit of an awkward jig and then busted out some waltzing moves that I had learned from what Mum and Dad had learned at their dancing classes and then finished it all up with the funky chicken dance that German band was playing. Cool!