Tavis and I slept much better lastnight! We woke up around 7:30 and had breakfast before waking the kids. Then we came up to the room so Tavis could get some emails done and I could work on my blog. At 9:00am we woke up the kids and I brought them down for breakfast. We are going to miss these morning buffets!
Olympiapark München
Around 10:00 we decided to begin our day at the Olympic Park. We caught the 53 bus from just outside the hotel, then transferred to the 144. It took about 25 minutes. When we arrived we thought we would try to purchase tickets to walk the roof of the stadium but it took us an hour of circling the park before we found the ticket booth. Then we were told that all the tours for the day were sold out so we decided to go up to the top of the Olympic Tower and check out the view instead. The elevator travelled 7 m/s up to 190 metres. It was quite an amazing view! We all enjoyed pointing out landmarks and trying to find places we knew.
Panorama view 
BMW Welt
As we were walking around the Olympic Park the boys kept pointing out the BMW Museum and the huge production facility next door. We decided to walk across and check it out. Unfortunately they were not doing tours of the production facility this week but the Welt was open to the public free of charge to check out their cars and motorcycles. Even though it was the boys who showed the most interest in this experience, Ayva and I decided it wasn’t too bad either. We especially liked hopping up on the bikes. There was even a track around the middle for people to take cars for test drives!
The Englische Garten
Next we decided to check out the English Garden. It is one of the largest Urban parks in the world with over 78 km of path and it was highly recommended in our walking tour. We didn’t arrive to the park until after 1:00 so we knew we would not see the entire network of trails on foot today. We looked into renting scooters which were scattered throughout the park. Apparently they are rented by the minute. The problem is that we only had 1 working cell phone and there is an age restriction so the kids couldn’t rent one anyways. As we carried on by foot we did manage to find some of the highlights of the park. We heard about a surfing wave that we just had to see with our own eyes. It is true! There is a fast flowing stream with a wave that people were lined up to surf. It was amazing watching as each person took their turn on the wave. There were actually 2 different spots we found, one seemed to be for beginners. There were even people swimming in the rapids and floating down the river. We contemplated getting our bathing suits but it was getting too late in the day so we decided to move on. We also came across a large beer garden (there are many of these in Munich) and a Chinese tower with a band playing up near the top. This park reminded me in some ways of Central Park. It was absolutely beautiful.
Deutsches Museum
After leaving the park we thought we would try to see the German museum before it closed at 5:00. We arrived at 4:15 and since it was almost closing they let us in for free. It was huge and extremely impressive! The focus was on technical achievements and it included everything from sailing ships, models of atoms, windmills, space probes, diesel locomotives, industrial robots, organs, astronomy and so much more! We could have spent all day here but we were glad to have experienced the small amount that we saw. We stayed right until 5:00pm, then we all used the restrooms before making our way to the next adventure.
Peter Skirche
While on our walking tour we were told we had to climb the 299 steps up St. Peter’s church. It closed at 6:00 so we hurried over and arrived at 5:30. There was a huge line but eventually we payed our 9 euros and began climbing the overcrowded and extremely narrow stairwell up to the top of the church tower. The view itself was nice but not nearly as impressive as our viewpoint from the Olympic Tower. However, the journey up the stairs was memorable and the view was still beautiful. Once the tower bell struck 6:00pm and rang 18 times it shook the whole tower. It was a littler unnerving but that just added to the experience. What an amazing day.
Opatija
Next began the hunt for a good restaurant for dinner. We walked several blocks looking for a suitable establishment. As it turns out, if you are looking for more than just beer, pastries, or sandwiches your options are quite limited. After 30 minutes of walking in circles we finally decided to go to the train station and grab something from the food court when Addison spotted a sign that read burgers, pasta, and steak. BINGO! We found our way to Opatija, a little restaurant on a second floor patio. The prices were reasonable and the meals ended up being HUGE! Be bought a litre of “lemonade” which tasted like flat sprite but actually didn’t taste so bad. As it turns out, drinks that are not beer are extremely heavily taxed at 19%. Anyways, the waiter was great, our tummies were full, and as we were leaving a couple police officers were ordering their food so we knew we found a great spot.
After dinner we walked around the streets looking for a place to buy souvenirs . This is when we learned that most of Munich shuts down at 6:00pm! The only shops open after 6:00pm sell mostly just beer. We walked around for 30 minutes looking for anything but had no luck so we hopped on a tram and came back to the hotel. After walking over 30,000 steps the kids had earned their screen time.
After getting the kids packed (we are leaving tomorrow morning) and ready for bed Tavis and I went out to find a geocache in Munich. Tavis found one about 650 metres from the hotel and scored when it had a travel bug in it. We picked it up to take with us to Switzerland. Then we found a scooter so Tavis rented it and we both rode that scooter back to the hotel. Those things go quite fast! What a great way to end our last day in Germany.
