My First Trip to Europe - Day 2:  Exploring Downtown Munich with Hannes and Percy

March 20, 2007

Saturday morning arrived, and John and I got in his new BMW 335i, and headed downtown Munich.  Several weeks prior, I'd made arrangements to meet someone whom I've interacted with quite a bit over the past couple of years online, but had never met - a German fellow named Hannes.  Hannes is one of the world's most significant contributors to the online Rolex community having started the informational site http://www.oysterworld.de/ and the world-famous German Rolex Forum at  http://www.r-l-x.de/.  Since I started http://www.rolexreferencepage.com/ and http://www.watchtalkforums.info/ Hannes has been a great friend, and I was quite anxious to meet him in person finally.   Hannes also brought along another person whom I've gotten to know online - his friend and R-L-X moderator Percy.  Hannes told us to meet him at a very chic and trendy cafe in Munich called Cafe Roma (http://www.caferoma.de/). 

Fortunately, prior to our trip John rented a European Navigation DVD for use with the navigation system in his new BMW.  It took all the worries and challenges of finding our way around a large foreign city in Germany away, and let us focus on enjoying ourselves and the scenery:

We very easily found our meeting place for breakfast - cafe Roma:

Munich was bustling with activity early on a Saturday morning, but we lucked out and found a street parking place right across from the cafe. 

Once inside, we found Hannes and Percy.  It was like meeting with old friends:

After the delicious breakfast we decided to take a "group photo" of all the Rolex watches we brought with us for the day.  Hannes was kind enough to bring along his vintage double red Sea-Dweller (I'd never seen one before "in person") as well as his solid gold Zenith movement Daytona:

We left Cafe Roma and decided to venture out a bit into downtown Munich.  But before we did, Hannes needed to put some more coins into the street perking meter where he had his newest toy parked.  Hannes has recently acquired a late 1980's "whale tail" 911 Porsche.  I love this particular 911, and have always been a Porsche fan (I tooled around in a white 1987 944 back in my college days).  His car is absolutely immaculate!

After feeding the meeting, did some sight seeing - Hannes and Percy were fantastic tour guides, and very patient with both John and myself with our constant stopping for picture taking.  Munich has some of the most fabulous old world European architecture - it's an absolute photographers delight!

 I love what Hannes said about this bank building when I asked him about it - "It may very well be older than your country."

Hannes told us this is the nicest, most exclusive hotel in Munich where celebrities and well to do folks usually stay while in Munich

Of course, Hannes and Percy pointed out where several of Munich's Rolex authorized dealers are located:

"How much is that Rolex in the window?" The recently released anniversary Presidential:

Certainly one of the highlights of the day was coming upon the Metropolitan Church of Our Lady - a huge building, magnificent both inside and out!

Perhaps the most famous structure in the downtown Munich area is the New Gothic Rathaus (town hall) which houses the famous "Glockenspiel."

Not far from the town hall, we found the famous Munich "fruit market" - an open air market where many different goods can be purchased.

After all that walking, we all decided to get some lunch.  We walked through the famous "Hofbrauhause", but decided it was too crowded and noisy.

We walked around some more, but settled on a much better location for lunch:

John and I both got some turkey schnitzel with some potatoes, and we couldn't resist getting some more wit worst. 

John decided to open "diplomatic relations" with our waitress:

Hannes and Percy had a three hour drive back home, so we bid our farewells after lunch.  Before leaving, Hannes and Percy presented us with some nice Rolex catalogs (Rolex doesn't produce catalogs for the US market) as well as some official R-L-X catalogs!  Our time spent on Saturday with Hannes and Percy will not soon be forgotten, and we're hoping both can make the big Rolex get together in New York this May! 

After seeing Hannes and Percy on their way, John and I headed back to the hotel for a break from all that walking.  After a couple hours rest, we decided we'd give Munich's underground train system  (called the U-Bahn) a try, and head back toward downtown for some dinner.  Fortunately, the U-6 train station going to Marienplatz street is right around the corner from our hotel.

Down we go!

The station is alive with activity on a Saturday night.  It's very clean and we never felt unsafe - European public transportation lives up to it's fine reputation:

After just a few short minutes wait, our train arrives:

John gets some insight from a friendly German fellow on how to read the maps which are on the ceiling of the train:

It only takes about 20 minutes for us to get downtown and emerge on Marienplatz street.

Munich is quite lovely at night:

We walk around a bit, and see Munich's night life before having dinner and heading back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we'll be up early to check out of the hotel and hit the Autobahn - Austria here we come!