Tour, Tour, Tourists

The company that we toured Paris with, New Europe Tours, is all over the place. In each city they over a Free Tour which is like a three hour-ish orientation of the place. Then they offer all sorts of other paid tours that they often try to snag you into. So here in Germany we meant to take the Free Tour but got to the pick-up spot at the meeting time. ( I didn't read the fine print.) The pick-up spot meets a half an hour earlier. No big deal though, the Free Tours run all day, every day. But we didn't have time to go to the other one as we had reservations with MIKE'S BIKE TOURS!

I guess David went on and on to Mike about Mike's Bike Tours. And I don't know if it was regarding the actual tour or the name. Either way, we can still say Mike rode a bike on the Mike's Bike tour. And it was worth it. It felt good to be off our feet and freely wheeling about the city. We learned a bit about the architecture and a bit about the early days of the Hitler Regime. We rode through the beautiful and large English Garden where our guide told us to be on the look for naked sun bathers, however all we saw was a very tan man they've coined "Robo-Cock" due the abundance of piercings in his genital area. Apparently he's always there in the park, same spot, nude waiting for the bike tours. He wasn't old or creepy, just very much enjoys the attention I guess.

In the middle of the park is the Chinese Beer Garden where we made a stop. Most tours stop for maybe one beer, but we got delayed while our guide went out looking for the 4 bikers that went astray. Two liters later we were back on our bikes and finished the tour soon after. Start to finish was about 5 hours.

Then, just around the corner from the bike shop was the grand Hofbräuhaus. Two english guys from the tour and ourselves went over for some beers and food. The four of us chatted along with some others at the table while we ate bread and drank bread. Literally, this is the place to bulk up.

We have two more tours lined up between today, Friday, and Sunday and we're even considering staying another day. Lots of stuff of interest for both of us here and the accommodations are very reasonable. As of today we actually have to share our spacious six-bunk room. First there was the young German that must have checked in over night (he wasn't there when we went to bed) and just this morning a middle-aged man in a suit showed up. He's been sleeping sitting up against the wall all morning (still in his suit). Hasn't said a word.

We'll find out.