May Day!!!

Got an early start and found our way to the Deutsches Museum – and it is closed!
We should have suspected, when we saw no traffic on the streets and all the shops were closed – it is May Day (and apparently, we learned later, also Mens" (Fathers’ Day??) Oh well… we were right on the Isar River, and there was a nice path so we decided to take a stroll. Munich’s river “valley” is much like Edmonton's – only way longer! We could have walked or biked about 35Km in either direction from the museum – to the next towns, and possibly beyond. We walked about 3Km down the river – lots of runners and bikers and people walking dogs and families enjoying the day off - and then came back the same way, hoping that maybe the museum was open “holiday hours” and that we could still get in. No luck. We did stop at one enormous church, which was open, with a couple of men inside. We walked in, had a wander around, and were sitting in a pew, just absorbing the enormity of the place, when one of the men handed us a prayer book and a hymn sheet. They were about to start a service. We thanked him and gave them back, and asked him if it was a Catholic church. (It was vaguely familiar, but with enough differences to put us in doubt.) He pointed us towards a man who spoke very good English – possibly the pastor – who explained that it was a Lutheran church, and spent quite a while explaining the differences in our Creed, the similarities in our symbols, and then invited us to stay for the service. We graciously declined.

Back to our hotel, and lo and behold, the square is again full of beer tents and live music- Spanish sounding music! So back down to the square for a beer – it was noon by then! The entertainment changed to what Owen thinks was a bunch of old guys singing a “Doors” cover in German. Decided to check out the main square – and along the way discovered a series of information booths – people asking for signatures on petitions, people handing out leaflets and bumper stickers and buttons. At the places we stopped to try to figure out what they were promoting, the people were most helpful. When we said “Canadian… English” someone would explain their cause to us in English. One group was campaigning for a legislated minimum wage in Bavaria, another was worried about the political situation in China, there was Greenpeace and we think a gay rights display (a rainbow flag, but with a bunch of guns drawn on their display – maybe they were against gay rights!). There were lots of free things for kids to do – a climbing wall, a mechanical bull, games of skill, face painting etc, all seemingly for free. Eventually, made it to the main square, bought a couple of bratwursts on a bun, but again, the music there was for a younger generation.

Back to our hotel for a check of the internet and a rest, then the music in the square was calling us back. The beergardens was in full swing – with the German version of Great Big Sea on stage. We had a litre of beer, followed by a half litre, and eventually our table-mates were people who spoke English. A young girl from Berlin, who was in Munich for surgery on her foot – free in Munich, but 1900€ in Berlin – had lived as an exchange student in California for 6 months, 3 years ago, and spoke very good English. Her mother had come with her for the operation – the mom grew up in East Berlin, so knew Russian, but not English. Then a group of young people joined us, 2 guys and a girl. The one guy spoke excellent English – he had lived in Australia and Indonesia and had been to private school with English classes. He carried on quite the conversation with Owen – we are invited back for Oktoberfest, and he may be coming to Alberta for Folk Fest (such are the relationships after 1.5L of beer!)

So this has been a great bonus day – not at all what we had planned, but so much more than we expected

! And we still have tomorrow – our last day – to visit the museum.