Thursday, 8th of May, Munich

Phil felt slightly hot in the morning – and not the right way – so we decided to keep the room until late in the night when our train will leave for Vienna. So much more civilized this way! Now we can relax and hope Phil’s cold disappears soon. Luckily, there is a pharmacy in the same building so we did not have to go far for some aspirin.

The morning was spent in cultural activities. We took a tram to the other side of town and visited the archaeological museum. That is the prehistoric and Romano-German museum of Bayern. This museum had a lot to offer. There was a walkthrough of local archaeology from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages and a temporal exhibition on local Limes. The Hallstatt room showed how much they had pottery in their cemeteries by showing all found from a one on one high wall – or at least it felt like it. Unlike the yesterday’s Antikensammlung, this did not definitely feel half empty! The only murmur was not discussing the trade links with the south and the Mediterranean properly. It remained unclear if the metal vessels also found in great numbers from Etruria were made locally after Etruscan example or not. But that is to me to check. Nevertheless, the Hallstatt pottery could definitely brew all nice Iron Age beer.

After the pleasant visit to the Museum we had a short walk in Englische Garten; the Japanese tearoom did not look very well with its roof partly gone missing, though. But the rapids surfers took me by surprise. The locals don’t seem to respect the danger signs at that spot very tightly and we saw at least three surfers and a couple of other swimmers. Too lovely a day!

The lunch was spent in a brilliant sunshine in a beer garden near the royal residence and Opera. Phil reconfirmed his inner carnivore by tasting some more sausages whereas I tried a local speciality: some kind of meatloaf although the name suggested liver sausage of some form. This was served with a fried egg and some potato salad. I just took a taster portion but it was quite heavy and it surely filled me up. What a perfect timing for a rest! Especially, since my arms and face are still red from the Seine cruise in Paris. Although should not complain of marvellous sunshine.