The Professional Tourist

One of the most common question themes I get on tours, probably the most asked, is this:

“What are those little shacks with the little gardens?  Do people live there?”…”Is that where poor Germans live?  …like, their slums?”…

It’s okay, you don’t have to worry.  That’s where the term “garden gnome” comes from!  There are hundreds of thousands of small German people that mostly keep to themselves and live in their own separate communities preferring to live solely amongst their own kind.  Since it is not politically correct to pick on the little people, they are rarely in the news….anyways, click here for further information on the little guys.

[Listening to NOFX from the album Concerns of a GOP Neo-Phyte (]

Yesterday’s tour was not the greatest, I’ll admit.  The bus drivers decided they would try to do everything as chaotic as possible which meant a hell of a lot of pushing by everyone…and not a lot of fun.

The weather, around 40F, wasn’t bad at all…and when the group was in the throne room, there was a bat flying all over.  Yes, it was a real bat, and no, I don’t think everyone saw it.  The thing is, when I tour Neuschwanstein,  I’ve seen it hundreds of times and I’m not looking at nor paying much attention to what the tour guides say or do.  Anyways, I was entertained for 2 minutes…and it made my day.  In a huge room like that, it’s fun to see a bat.  A bat for Christmas.

Recently in the news here in Germnay, there has been quite a lot of speculation as far as the relaxing of laws which restrict bus services within Germany. Since 1931 long haul bus services have been restricted, except those that travel to and from Berlin. Currently, only companies that apply for a special Deutsche Bahn (usually just referred to as DB) approved permit can get around the ban.

One of the questions I get most is "where can I get a bus to ____, since buses have to be cheaper."…well, there really aren’t any at the moment, but there could be soon. The new coalition government of the CDU and FDP plan to change the laws and allow bus companies to compete on a level playing field, apparently. Currently, bus companies are claiming they could offer prices at least 30% ceaper than DB’s trains.

I like cheap prices and all the options I can get…(ask anyone that has ever been on one of my tours…), so I like the idea, though it will certainly shake things up.

If this goes through, the new bus terminal in Munich will see a hell of a lot more traffic than it was today. This afternoon I decided it was finally time that I go and have a look at this new bus terminal which has been open since September. It’s located about a 5-10 minute walk from the main train station, just up the road. It was dead quiet around there, but the building looks good at least.

Here’s some pictures from today:

…and finally…the view from the main bus station to the main train station in Munich:

This is where it’s at…although both Bing and Google haven’t updated their maps

[Listening to One Man Army from the album She Wants Me Dead]

As usual, I wake up and I have a look at the BBC news, then check twitter out, then facebook…and then wikipedia. Today’s featured picture on wikipedia is of the Frauenkirche. It’s one of the few places I would say every visitor to Munich absolutely has to go to see. At the same time, it’s not a personal favorite, but it is one of the symbols of Munich.

A few facts:

Capacity: 20,000
Length: 109 meters (358 ft)
Width: 40 meters (131 ft)

(this is my own picture, which is better than wiki’s, in my opinion)

[Listening to: Done Reckoning - Avail - Wrecktrospective (0:-1)]

1. For nearly 60 years the mayor of Munich has been tapping the first keg at the Oktoberfest, what brand of beer was that first keg?

Hofbräu (in 1950, which was the first year the mayor tapped the first keg starting the tradition,  the tent had a price dispute with Spaten…)

2. Is there any part of the famous glockenspiel at the New Town Hall in Munich that has anything to do with a plague?

Not one single part of it, sorry free tours. The fictitious plague of 1517 is just that, fictitious.

3. How did Emperor Ludwig IV the Bavarian die?

While bear hunting, at the age of 65, he had a stroke…remember, this was back in 1347! He’s my all time favorite Wittelsbach for many reasons, including these…

(this picture is of a cenotaph to Ludwig IV which is located in the Frauenkirche)

4. Where are the hearts of the Wittelsbach dynasty? (the royal family of Bavaria)

Altötting…in the Gnadenkapelle (Chapel of the Miraculous Image).

[Listening to: Unite - Randy - Wrecktrospective (2:25)]

The numbers are in and although the press conference is in 20 minutes, it looks pretty clear.

I’m currently seeing 13.9%…which sounds pretty darn good to me.

EDIT: results below…these are the numbers of German citizens in Bavaria that signed the petition for a real smoking ban.

[Listening to: Dumb reminders - No Use For a Name - Live at the backstage, Munich (2:47)]

For the first several years living here I dealt with more smoke than you could possibly believe…people would light up and blow smoke right at my food.

In the last couple of years Bavaria has been kinda strange. First, there was a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars…but it was A: not enforced, and B: ignored pretty easily with a loophole allowing for “smokers clubs” (which included a lot of restaurants).

Then, the conservative government (CSU) decided to go ahead and relax the smoking laws allowing for more people to smoke wherever the hell they want. That brings us to the big petition that is going on right now getting 10% of Bavarian citizens to force the state govt to re-ban smoking (and hopefully outlaw smoking clubs). There’s one more day left…and it looks to be close…

If you know of any Bavarian that hasn’t gone down to their local Rathaus and signed the petition, please…drag them there in the next 24 hrs (Munich’s Rathaus is open til 8pm today and tomorrow).

I’ve had a LOT of tourists visit and say how wonderful it is that they can breathe in the HBhaus or any of the other beer halls, where in previous years they couldn’t..

BTW: I have nothing against you smoking, just as you probably have nothing against me eating mexican food and farting up a storm, but not in confined spaces, please.

For those playing the home game, here’s a few links:

TT forum, in English

Live updates of the vote in Munich (as the thing is over, this link is now dead)

…and this is the one from the organizers, only in German (sorry)

Here’s a couple trivia questions for my readers:

1. For nearly 60 years the mayor of Munich has been tapping the first keg at the Oktoberfest, what brand of beer was that first keg?

2. Is there any part of the famous glockenspiel at the New Town Hall in Munich that has anything to do with a plague?

3. How did Emperor Ludwig IV the Bavarian die?

4. Where are the hearts of the Wittelsbach dynasty? (the royal family of Bavaria)

If you just know the answer to one of them, then just answer one…that’s cool. Otherwise, I’ll give the answers on Friday.

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a guide book for, well,  a couple years now. The name has changed and there’s been quite a long delay, but it is coming. This last week I’ve worked on it more than I did for about a year. The reason? well, we almost moved…and while things were up in the air, we put everything on hold.

In September I tried to set a deadline for myself for the 1st edition of the book to come out in November or so, now I’m thinking maybe January/Feb. Here’s the deal: at the moment I’m working on the 48 hour edition which I believe will be what most people actually want as I would say 90% of the people I talk to on my tours are here for between 24 and 72 hours. In that time they want to see all the highlights of the city and that may be the only time they ever have to see Munich. So anyways, that will be the first release…followed some time later (probably a few months) by a 5-7 day edition…

Because the guide book publisher that I chose is very easy and all sales are online, I can update these versions as needed and I believe these willl be the best guide books to Munich found anywhere. At least that is my goal.

If anyone has anything they’d like to say that might help…ideas, personal restaurant or sight reviews, etc….let me know. nofxmike@gmail.com

[Listening to: Can’t Stop Partying - Weezer - Raditude (Deluxe Edition) (4:21)]

This is probably the best iphone app I’ve seen yet, brought to you by Rick Steves. Check it out here.

Now, I HATE everything apple…but if you happen to have an iphone…well, you should definitely check his app out. There’s a demo video that explains what it can do…

Personally, if he ports it to the S60 (for Nokia, samsung, etc.) then I would download them in a heartbeat. When I watched the demo all I was thinking was that with this app you could do all your research beforehand with the book, but then when you’re actually touring, you could leave the book (and the WEIGHT) at home and just bring the phone…so much lighter.

I ca’t believe how cold it is this Oktober. We had a beautifully warm Oktoberfest and then October hit and the temp went from highs of 75F to 40F. We’ve had snow down at Neuschwanstein (I hate it when there’s snow down there, kinda makes things miserable…and illegal to get to Mary’s bridge, which everyone WANTS to go to….so…it sucks). We don’t normally get this weather til at least late November.

Anyways, the tour numbers have finally dropped a little bit and that is a nice thing for me (not for the company, of course). The huge tours were starting to wear me down.

(by the way, these pictures were taken from where I was sitting while reading my book, I didn’t get up and compose the shots or anything…I just enjoy this view all the time)

The Munich Oktoberfest is being quite disturbed by all the terror alerts.  Honestly, it’s a complete waste of time, if they wanted to attack, they would, JUST LET US DRINK OUR BEER WITHOUT A HASSLE.  Locking down the train station just makes for a hassle, that’s all…

*sigh* oh well…here’s some pics:

Tags: Munich, trainstation, train, beer, oktoberfest, 2009

Hi everybody, as you can read from my twitter updates (which you can see on the left hand side of the site), I’ve been busy doing tours, visiting Washington DC and New York City, but I really should get back to the blog.

I went to the Oktoberfest today and so it’s not going to happen now, but soon  (Thursday?)  I’ll have all kinds of new pictures to show you.

Tags: Oktoberfest, wiesn, beer, pictures, WashingtonDC, NYC

I tried not to like Venice, I really did. However, although it is flawed like everywhere in Italy that I’ve seen, it is still one of a kind and absolutely beautiful.

Prices…yes they are high, but nothing dramatic. One thing that did annoy me was that many of the churches charge an admission fee. At the same time, those churches give you a laminated information card to read while you’re looking around the church so you at least get a slightly better experience for your money. I still feel it’s wrong for a church to charge an admission fee. A big sign saying donations strongly encouraged would be cool, though.

Petra and I got to see everything we wanted to, at least for this trip.  We didn’t see EVERYTHING, but we certainly saw everything major.

My highlights, I think in this order, were:

The Doge’s palace
St. Mark’s basilica
San Zanipolo (The Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo)

Our hotel was interesting…we never did figure out what she was saying.

Anyways, I don’t know why, but I haven’t been in the mood to write lately, I’ll blame the heat.  Here’s a few pics:

Tags: Venice, SaintMark’sbasilica, Canal, SanZanipolo, Doge, Church, birthday, gondola, bananas

So, now that we’re back from Venice I’m damn tired and don’t want to write.  Huh.

Okay, so I’ll try to come up with something a little better tomorrow night after my tour, but for now, if you’d just like to look at pics, I already uploaded most of them to both Photobucket and Facebook.

If you don’t have me on facebook, click here:  photobucket 

Tags: facebook, photobucket, Venice, pictures, vacation, beer, wingedlion, hardrockcafe, saintmark, icecream, boat

It’s my birthday on Sunday.  So as I’ve been telling people for a few weeks now, I’m finally going to see Venice.  Most tourists I have are absolutely shocked that I haven’t seen ALL of Europe.  Just because you live in Munich, doesn’t make European travel any cheaper.  Also, unlike your average tourist, I’m actually interested in history and want to see everything in every guidebook…and more. 

This will be sort of a whirl-wind trip for us, but we’ll do our best.  I’ve got my Rick Steves and my Fodor’s…and made a spreadsheet with all the sights.

Until next Tuesday, have a good one everybody, I’ll be enjoying Venice.

Tags: Venice, birthday, Italy, Europe, sights, beerpong

Well, it’s been a busy summer so far, but actually a lot LESS busy than the last few.  I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of tourists or tours, just that I haven’t been that busy myself.

This week is a very odd break in the action.  There’s no real reason for it other than that’s how the schedule happened and I don’t have any private tours this week.  So, I’ve got 6 days in a row off.  Kinda odd.  Not bad necessarily, but if I have 6 days off I would prefer my wife to have 6 days off too, so that we can do something more interesting than rollerblading in the olympic park.

Technically, it’s 4pm and I just watched an episode of Quantum Leap.  Soon I’ll have to take off, because in the afternoons our apartment is about 20 degrees warmer than the outside air temp.  Outside today, it’s 84F, so in the apartment, it should be 100F and miserable.  I’m hoping our axolotls don’t boil!

I took some pictures from Salzburg tours last week, but still haven’t posted them.  Maybe later…

If you’re still reading this, I have a question for you:  Based off of Wikipedia, which tour would you rather do:  Augsburg or Landshut?

Tags: Landshut, Augsburg, Salzburg, Tours