You may, in fact, enjoy this entire story. However, the cliff notes are posted at the beginning, and the end, in summary form, for those who don't have time... and for your reading convenience. (We still hope you'll read the whole story.)
Summary:
Go to Andechs Brewery and monastery. Hike 4K uphill over snow and ice. (It actually is fun.) Drink beer. Drink beer. Eat food. Drink beer. Drink more beer. Meet fun old guy. Translate German, into German, for Jonathan. Take cab to Herrsching. Take train home. Go up the down escalator (unsuccessful). Run. Stop. Run. Stop. Run. Stop. Sleep.
And now, for the whole story...
When we were in Munich last year for our honeymoon, Jonathan and I (and Mara and Anne) took the free tour offered by New Europe. Our tour guide was Matt. Matt and his girlfriend met us for a beer later that night at the Andechs restaurant here in Munich. That's when we were introduced to Andechs beer. Thanks Matt!
So, when we came back to Munich this year, we thought it would be fun to go visit the Andechs brewery and monastery. (Yes, monks still make and brew and serve Andechs beer.) Andechs lies just outside of Munich, but the strassenbahn only goes as far as Herrshing (Andechs is about 4 kilometers further than Herrshing).
So, we decided that we would go. On our walk to the station to catch the strassenbahn, who do we run into walking down the street? Matt. As Matt says, "Big planet, small world." We tell him what we are up to, and ask him if he'd like to come. It doesn't work for Matt right now, but, we still chat with each other on the street for about an hour. (It was great to see you again Matt! Hopefully we'll cross paths again soon.) It's pretty cool to be walking down a neighborhood street in Munich, Germany and run into someone you know.
From there we hop on the S5 strassenbahn to Herrshing. It is about an hour ride, but it is fun to see the scenery and get outside the city. When we arrive in Herrshing, a woman stops us on the street and tells us that we should really go see the lake, because (in her opinion), it is the "only thing worth seeing in Herrsching". So, we turn around and walk back by the station and to the lake. We spend a few quiet minutes at the lake appreciating the sunset and being outside of the city. From there it is time to trek to Andechs. 
Now, there is a bus that will take you from the Herrshing train station to Andechs. We just thought it would be nice to walk there. And it was. But, it is also up hill the entire way. And the path for us, is covered in snow and mostly ice. It makes for slower going than we expect. And, mind you, all we are following is a green triangle sticker stuck to the lamp posts that tells us which way to go. 
But eventually, we run out of lamp posts.
So then, there are only trees.


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