And so began the final leg of our trip in Munich, Germany. I
was especially excited for this destination due to my sister and brother-in-law
having lived in Germany for the past year. I was excited to get a taste of what
their German life was like.
It was an interesting visit due to many unfortunate events
that happened throughout the way. My friend, Ashley, has injured her foot the
previous day in Austria so her and Chelsea sought out medical attention upon
arrival in Munich. Krista and I went on a nice walk through the city center and
saw some of the main sites. We then ate at a nice German restaurant across from
our hostel. It was a fun atmosphere with the waitresses wearing the traditional dirndls.
The next day we woke up early to go on a tour of the Neuschwanstein
castle. We had previously purchased these tickets online from Autobus Oberbayern for
this day trip to the castle, Oberammergau and Linderhof Palace. We arrived to
the meeting point and after trying to get on a bus, we soon discovered they had
overbooked by eleven people, and we unfortunately did not make it on any three
of the buses. After working out somewhat of a deal with the SIGHTseeing by
GrayLine employee (the company that ran the tour), we got our money back and a 24-hour sightseeing ticket for
the day. This alternative obviously did not satisfy us, but it did allow us to
use the bus to get dropped off at the major sites throughout the city (this was
especially helpful with my friends foot).
We spent the day using the bus to get us around the city and
seeing all of the main sites. We took a walk in the snow covered Englischer Gartens
that was surprisingly filled with people running. Also, there were numerous men
in wet suits surfing in the Eisbach river in the park. People have been surfing
here since the ‘70s and the river does provide some decent waves for being in
the middle of Munich. I would not recommend the Gartens on a dreary, cold day
because there is very little to see. It would be enjoyable in the summer time
for a picnic or drink at the biergarten by the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese
pagoda).
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| Chiensischer Turm |
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| Two men surfing in the river |
After seeing many of the sites, we left the tour and
ventured to the famous Hofbrauhaus. This biergarten was a blast because we were
able to enjoy some good beer, in a great atmosphere and forget our frustrations
from earlier in the day. After the Hofbrauhuas we found the Marienplatz where
the glockenspiel goes at every hour. We decided we had seen enough for the
afternoon so we headed back to the hostel to take a quick power nap. That
evening our four roommates (from mexico) invited us to hang out with them in
the bar attached to our hostel. We enjoyed some good company and had a blast
without ever leaving the hostel.
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| Outside of the Hofbrauhaus |
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| Enjoying my liter of beer. |
For our final day in Munich we wandered to the
Virtualienmarkt that was an amazing market where tents were set up everywhere
selling flowers, spices, bread, meat and dried fruit. It was enticing and
extremely hard not to buy every pastry in sight. I bought some dry pesto mix that
I will use to spice up my pasta here in Spain. After the market we enjoyed some
lunch at the St. Augustiner biergarten. I order Käsespätzle, which is the German
version of macaroni and cheese. It was delicious and I am going to have my
sister make me some when I return home. One strange thing I noticed in Germany
and Austria is that everywhere is animal friendly: restaurants, stores,
Mcdonalds. A couple people brought their dogs to St. Augustiner’s, one lady sat
with her dog in a McDonalds, and more than one person was accompanied by their
dog when shopping in stores such as H&M. It was very strange to be browsing
through H&M and see a dog walk past, but they do love their animals in
Europe!
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| The wide variety of fruit at the market. |
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| Virtualienmarkt |
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| Käsespätzle |
Other photos:
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| Marienplatz |
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| Glockenspiel |
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| Being the pigeon lady! |
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| Englischer Gartens |
Tips:
1.
Try the beer.
2.
Go in the warmer months to fully experience the
German culture (outdoor biergartens and such).
3.
The tour bus through the city was nice because
we saw many buildings and sites I would not have walked to otherwise.
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