Our trip to Greece was so regimented we decided to take a more relaxed approach in Germany.
Our itinerary (March 17-21, 2012)
Friday, March 17
Pre-planned:
-
We struggled briefly and had to ask a few people to point us in the right direction until we finally found Hotel Gastehaus Englischer Garten, which was about 5-6 blocks away from the subway station. Before I get into anything else, I have to describe our wonderful B&B. We got there very early - around 10:30am. Our room hadn't been cleaned yet but they let us drop our suitcases off and then served us complimentary coffee and mini lemon cakes in the garden. Charming doesn't come close to summing up the place. It's the perfect combination of cozy and peaceful. Our room (90) was exceptionally spacious, clean, comfortable, and beautiful. The breakfasts went above and beyond my expectations. I thought they'd serve some bread and jam but we had meats, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, fried eggs with meat, yogurt, cereal, rolls, jam, nutella, juices, coffee, etc. We left satisfied every morning. Additionally, the staff was friendly and helpful, some more than others. On the day of our departure we felt like we were being sent off by family. Lastly, the location is SUBLIME. It's literally steps away from the Englischer Garten which in my opinion is one of, if not THE highlight of the city. It's the biggest park in continental Europe and has the glorious Kleinhesseloher See (or lake), also seconds away from our B&B.
I chose the B&B based on a recommendation from frommers.com. I went to tripadvisor.com to get a second opinion and what I noticed was a lot of mixed feedback. This is where being an independent traveler gets tricky. On our last trip, to California, I went with a frommer's recommendation and wasn't happy with the results. Needless to say, this time around I was a little more skeptical. At one point, I actually tried to switch our accommodations. Luckily, the alternative was fully booked so I didn't have a choice but to stick with my original plan. Having experienced a wonderful stay at the Hotel Gastehaus Englischer Garten, I've added a five star review to tripadvisor to tip the scales in a positive direction. I can't understand why some people would have had a less than stellar stay there but for me, it's one of the BEST B&B's I've ever stayed at and I wouldn't hesitate to go there again.
The B&B also has a very sweet feline mascot:
The weather was amazing our first day in Munich. We were so delighted to have the sun shining on us that we decided to spend the day in its entirety in the Englischer Garten. We started out on a bench by the lake and watched the waterfowl for a spell.
If you look closely you can see the Seehaus in the background. It's one part fancy restaurant and one part casual beer garten. We took advantage of both during the course of our trip.
Something we got a first glimpse of while we spent our day in the park was the amazing discipline of German dogs. 90% of the dogs we saw were off-leash and wouldn't go up to strangers. In fact, the one time a wayward dog came up to us (we didn't mind, of course) the owner disciplined it almost immediately. She pinched the back of its neck and it squealed. :( As Evan pointed out, why have a dog if you're not going to let it be a dog? I mean, dogs are supposed to be friendly. German dogs, however, come across as a little aloof and they're trained to be that way.
When we were able to remove ourselves from the bench we decided to explore more of the park.
We saw some musicians (they were all over the city):
And then we found ourselves at the Chinesischer Turm or Chinese Tower, which was overflowing with people. We decided to join the crowd and have our first taste of a real beer garten.
Evan got the big stein on the right. We split a single serving of bratwurst with sauerkraut and country potatoes. It was my least favorite sausage of the trip. In our effort to play it safe (beef) we were left unimpressed. Let me just say though, this was the most relaxing day of the trip and maybe our most relaxing vacation day ever. There's nothing like being in unfamiliar surroundings and just soaking them in as opposed to running yourself ragged trying to see everything. The more we travel, the better we get at it. I think we're starting to realize that relaxing is just as important as seeing the sights.
We must have spent a good 1.5-2 hours in the beer garten trying to blend in with the locals. There was a band playing music inside the Chinese Tower, people smoking, playing cards, and catching up with their friends. You could get lost in the audible buzz and just daydream. Mmm. I miss it!
When we were done relaxing we continued our walk until we eventually found ourselves back at the B&B.
We ended our evening at a beer garten/restaurant directly across the street from our B&B called Osterwaldgarten. We wanted to eat somewhere convenient because we knew we'd be turning in early. What we hadn't considered was that there would be a language barrier. It felt like a local joint and we stuck out like sore thumbs. As I recall, we were the only foreigners there. Our service wasn't unfriendly but we didn't feel welcome either. We were also kind of horrified to be staring at a five page menu ALL in German. We were somehow able to determine that they had beef and tomato soup (Evan got the beef and I got tomato) and then we shared wiener schnitzel because this was the only entree I recognized and knew that I liked from my time in Austria over 10 years ago. The food was actually quite delicious but since the reception was chilly we ate like Americans (fast) and got out of there as quickly as possible.
Sunday, March 18
Pre-planned:
-Day-trip to Salzburg
We woke up to another beautiful day and set out for the U-Bahn station to take the subway to Marienplatz for our first glimpse of the city center.
With the weather being such a good sport, we thought today would be a great opportunity to do Rick Steves Walking Tour. It started in Marienplatz where we hung around taking pictures until 11:00am when the first of two glockenspiel "shows" was to start. The best way I can describe a glockenspiel is that it's a clock with moving parts and those moving parts tell a story. The world-famous glockenspiel of Munich tells the story of a marital union between families from Bavaria and France and the accompanying revelry. It was definitely worth the wait and the sore neck muscles from straining to look upwards for several minutes.
This is the New Town Hall, which survived the bombings in WWII:
A close-up of the glockenspiel:
Pictures from the Square's centerpiece:
The Old Town Hall (the building was completely destroyed during WWII but was obviously, rebuilt):
Unfortunately, because it was Sunday many of the highlights on the walking tour were closed. We resolved this issue later in the trip by re-visiting some of the sights when they were open. About half-way through the walking tour, which brought us close to the tram line, we decided to have lunch and then make our way to Schloss Nymphenburg.
Don't judge, but we had lunch at McDonald's. Sometimes it's fun to try the different concoctions international chains come up with. I had a McChicken meal but Evan tried one of the "special" meals, which consisted of a beef caprese - a hamburger with tomato and mozzarella cheese. He liked it but I thought it was just OK.
Afterward, we took the tram to Nymphenburg, which is about 15 minutes outside the city center. We fully intended on having to pay to see the grounds but knew that we didn't necessarily need or want to see the interior. Still, we expected that it would somehow be included in the ticket and then we'd feel compelled to tour the palace. Well, lucky us! Viewing the grounds is completely FREE. So that's what we did. We were completely spoiled by our own Englischer Garten so we weren't overly impressed with the Nymphenburg park nor did we spend much time there before returning to Marienplatz.
The front of the palace:
The grounds:
When we returned to Munich proper we continued the second half of our walking tour.
We went inside the Frauenkirche, the double-spired church that's featured prominently in Munich's skyline. Unfortunately, one of the spires was covered in scaffolding so we didn't get a great exterior shot.
An interior shot:
We also walked by the Hofbrauhaus, which is a world-famous beer hall for locals and tourists. We ended up eating there twice.
We ended our walk in the Odeonplatz. Its resemblance to Piazza della Signoria in Florence is uncanny. Well, one aspect of it is the same, and that's the loggia. There's even Il Porcellino just like the one in Florence but I've seen him in several other cities including Sydney, Australia. I guess lots of people think rubbing a boar's nose is lucky! Near Marienplatz they even have a Giulietta (as in, Romeo and Juliet) statue like the one in Verona. I guess Munich is Italy lite.
As you might have noticed from the pictures the weather started to deteriorate toward the end of our walk. We hopped on the U-bahn and went "home" to relax a little before dinner.
By evening the wind had picked up and there was a steady rain outside. Again, we decided to stick close to our B&B and walked a short way to the Seehaus Restaurant where we had the most amazing meal of our entire European adventure (Greece included). First of all, they had English menus. Hallelujah! So that was a great start - being able to identify the food. We skipped appetizers and went right for the entrees. Evan got a succulent and flavorful dish of veal meatballs garnished with an onion sauce and potato salad on the side. I got Südtiroler Schlutzkrapfen, which translates to spinach ravioli with a parmesan cheese and butter sauce. It was delicious and light - a nice break from some of the heavy meat dishes. For dessert, we each got an apple streudel with whipped cream and a vanilla sauce. It was to die for! We both practically licked our plates. We wanted to come back for a farewell dinner our last night in Munich but the plans changed.
Monday, March 19
Pre-planned:
-Day-trip to Nuremberg
One of Evan's co-workers had suggested a day-trip to Nuremberg but early on, before we even left for Europe, we decided that it would be silly to try and jam it in our schedule. At this point, we were focused on enjoying Munich. So much so that we also decided to cut Salzburg from our itinerary. I had been to Salzburg some 10+ years earlier and thought it would be something Evan would enjoy but with a roundtrip of four hours it just didn't seem worth it.
Since we knew the day was going to be soggy we focused on doing indoor activities.
We started out the day at Deutsches Museum. This Museum is specifically tailored to science and technology geeks but even Evan had his limit. Haha. I was bored to tears and it was also suffocatingly hot in there. I couldn't tell if the temperature needed to be that high for the exhibits or if their heating system was just too efficient but after an hour I had to get outside! Still, IF you're into that kind of thing it's a sort of mecca and you should probably visit it. It's got everything - computers, planes, cars, musical intruments, maps, etc.
When we got back to town it was around lunch time and we went to the Hofbrauhaus. I'm not much of a beer or alcohol-drinker in general but I do like their original beer. Evan got the beef broth with sausage meat spaetzle (noodles), which he really enjoyed. I ordered something off the specialities section called baked Bavarian meat loaf. I also ordered a bread basket (recommended) to go with it. Well, wasn't I surprised when I was served a one inch thick slice of BOLOGNA! It was fine but certainly not what I was expecting or had an appetite for. I guess I learned my lesson about ordering meat loaf in Germany.
Then, because that wasn't enough food, we ordered two GINORMOUS desserts - Munich Dampfnudel and Hofbrauhaus Kaiserschmarrn. They both struck me as two very different versions of bread pudding but I could be wrong. They were both very good but entirely too big and filling on top of what we had just eaten.
We spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping. There were a lot of lovely displays of Easter bunnies and other treats. We also returned to St. Peter's Church to take a few pictures.
I think Skeletor is saying Happy Easter!
For dinner, we ventured out a little bit in our neighborhood. On our first day in town we noticed a taco place called Condesa and thought, really? Mexican food in Germany? How good could that be? We felt experimental so we decided to give it a try. As it turns out, the owner is German but the staff and more importantly, the cook, is Mexican. It was kind of like having a slice of home. Evan got chicken tacos while I got a chicken burrito. Our server (from Playa del Carmen) explained that these were the "real deal". If that's the case, then maybe I've never had the real deal before! I liked my burrito but I'll sheepishly admit that as inauthentic as it might be, I like a lot of filler in my burritos like sour cream and guacamole. I guess the real thing is more simplified.
For dessert we wandered around our neighborhood some more until we came upon a cute little cafe called Das GaumenSpiel. We had some hot chocolate to warm ourselves up before the walk back to the B&B. Like in the beer garten, we just sat and relaxed while sipping our drinks and listening to the background music. We were the only patrons for a long spell so it was quite tranquil. We also chatted with one of the women on staff who was very friendly. If I lived in the area, I would totally make this one of my go-to spots.
Tuesday, March 20
Pre-planned:
-Free time in Munich
-Half-day trip to Schloss Nymphenburg
The good weather returned today! It wasn't quite as warm as our first two days in Munich but the sun was out and that was good enough for us.
We returned to the city center again and began the day at the Viktualienmarkt, which is equivalent to a farmer's market. There's all sorts of fresh produce, butchers, cheese, arts & crafts, etc. It's also supposed to be the location of Munich's maypole but it wasn't there during our stay. We met a nice man who explained that every couple of years they take it down and replace it. I guess this was one of those years.
After we did a little shopping and sample-testing we walked over to the nearby Munich City Museum. You might want to know beforehand that the permanent exhibition is ALL in German. We gave it a very cursory look and then after the fact I read the English booklet. The National Socialism exhibition is partially in English and we "enjoyed" that much more. It's hard to say you enjoyed an exhibit on something so sinister but it was well done. Even if you don't read the placards available in English, it's really haunting to see old photographs of Nazi rallies and recognize the squares that you've walked through or buildings you've walked past just moments before with laughing, smiling people. Pretty creepy. I didn't even know or understand the extent of Munich's intimate relationship with the Nazis. Munich is basically where it all started. There probably isn't a corner of the city that isn't marred by the Nazis. It's pretty weird when you think about it. I'm not sure if the exhibit covered the shame or collective responsibility of Munich's citizens (this didn't come up in the English portion) but it would be disappointing to think that they've swept it all under the rug.
We returned to Hofbrauhaus for lunch (sometimes repetition is easier) but before we did we walked through Alois Dallmayr Deli, which is famous for having catered to the Royal Family. It reminded me of Wegman's in the sense that it had everything - a deli, pastries, chocolates, hot food, coffee, etc. We thought about eating there but it was way too crowded!
Check out the sausage:
Our second round at Hofbrauhaus was just as successful for Evan but a little less successful for me. He got the pumpkin and apple soup while I got the Bavarian-style roast chicken with potato salad. Maybe it's Bavarian-style for the chicken to be chewy? Either way, we had a nice time. The band was playing and the place was packed, as usual. We also split a giant pretzel (awesome).
For dessert we stopped by a gelateria we had seen a couple of days before.
After lunch we hopped on the U-bahn and got out at Odeonplatz. From there we continued our walk all the way to Universitat, which as you might have guessed, is the University-area.
We had dinner at the Seehaus beer garten. Unfortunately, it got chilly fairly quickly so we didn't have as much leisure time outside as we would have liked. Still, we had a delicious sausage meal called currywurst. It's pork sausage with a spicy ketchup with curry powder sprinkled on top. Surprisingly good!
We walked around our neighborhood and found Black Bean for dessert. We each got a hot chocolate and split a slice of cheesecake. The hot chocolate made sitting outside bearable but we also had the smokers to compete with so we didn't last long before we headed back to the B&B for the night.
Wednesday, March 21
Pre-planned:
-Hohenschwangau/Neuschwanstein with Big Hat Tours
The entire trip, today was the only day where we had set-in-stone plans. Everything else was fluid. Based on his reviews on tripadvisor.com, I picked Curt to guide us on our tour of Mad Ludwig II's childhood home and dream castle.
Curt picked us up in front of our B&B and the three of us navigated Munich's public transportation together. On the two hour train ride to Fussen, the base for setting off toward the castles, Curt gave us an iPad presentation of Ludwig's upbringing, childhood, and life up until his death. He said he'd save his presentation of Ludwig's suicide/murder mystery for the train ride back.
We boarded a bus from Fussen up the hill to Schwangau where we got out and grabbed some currywurst for lunch. Then we took a bit of a steep walk to Hohenschwangau. Curt already bought our tickets, handed them to us, and then told us he'd wait for us at the back of the castle. Bavaria strictly controls tourism of the castles so Curt had no choice but to step aside.
The guided tour is an audio one. A woman follows you around and "tags" your audio device to activate it for the room you're in. I found this method to be really inefficient and demeaning. If they're not going to take the time to talk to you then they should at least empower you to be in charge of your own audio device. I didn't like having to "get in line" so I could get zapped again.
That being said, I enjoyed Hohenschwangau very much. It's one of the most understated castles I've ever visited but that doesn't mean it wasn't impressive. It's a very liveable castle, almost homey. It also had some amazing murals. It was neat to be in Ludwig's childhood home and also to have something to compare to his more opulent dream castle later.
The beautiful Alpine glacial lake nearby:
The town maypole:
Curt left us plenty of time between castles so we could get adequate pictures and then hop on yet another bus that would take us up the mountain to Neuschwanstein, Ludwig's unfinished brainchild. When we were up there we first made a stop at Mary's Bridge, which offers the most famous view of Neuschwanstein. There was a little bit of scaffolding on the castle but fortunately, it doesn't ruin the picture.
The environs on the way up to Neuschwanstein (Ludwig could see his childhood home from his new dream home):
Another close-up picture:
Curt had to drop us off because Bavaria has strict control over tours at Neuschwanstein just like Hohenschwangau. Unlike Hohenschwangau, we had a live talking guide. We climbed a lot of stairs to the different floors - the castle is incomplete so there were at most, a dozen rooms to see. That being said, they were breathtakingly beautiful rooms. Say what you want about Ludwig but he had a great imagination. The colors and the murals, many symbolic of his favorite fairy tales and his friend Richard Wagner's operas, were gorgeous. I felt kind of stifled by the guided tour. We seemed to rush from one room to the next when I could have spent a long time studying the intricacies of Ludwig's whimsies. I especially loved the Singer's Hall.
After our castle tours Curt suggested that we walk around Fussen especially if we hadn't seen any of the Romantic Road. We hadn't so we thought that was a good idea. It's a very small, charming town.
We stopped in a bakery for a quick snack of German snowballs or schneeballen. Evan and I split a chocolate/coconut one. The best way to describe it is that it's round in shape and hard on the inside. I was surprised it wasn't soft like a donut when I bit into it but I really liked it!
Curt took us to Fussen's baroque church, St. Mang Basilica.
After our brief tour of Fussen we boarded the train back to Munich. Then Curt picked up where we left off with the Ludwig suicide/murder mystery. To this day, no one knows for sure what happened. All we know is that Ludwig, age 40, and his psychiatrist went for a walk and an hour (or was it two hours?) later their bodies were found in the lake. Ludwig doesn't appear to have drowned based on his autopsy. The psychiatrist had bruises on his face. Apparently, I had the same theory as Curt. I think the government, after having de-throned him, realized that he wasn't going to go silently into the night so they had him eliminated. I think the psychiatrist unknowingly got caught up in the assassination attempt and was killed accidentally. It's something I'd really like to read about.
When we got back to Munich around 8:00pm we followed Curt to a local Bavarian haunt, Augustiner Braustuben. Curt got a dark, bitter beer and Evan and I tried the Radler, which is a mix of lemonade or 7-up with beer. It was...refreshing! We got pretzels and then split an order of Obatzder, a Bavarian style cream cheese to accompany them. For dinner, Evan got meatballs, which weren't nearly as good as the ones he had at Seehaus. I got meat ravioli with sauerkraut and onion gravy. I'm not afraid to say that I didn't like it. At all. I mean, it wasn't regular ravioli. It was a multi-layered, lasagna-like thick ravioli. Too heavy.
We had a great day with Curt. Traveling with him was more like spending the day with a friend than with a tour guide. He's an American ex-pat from the mid-west and a really nice guy. He's knowledgeable about the area and has a compelling way of presenting his thoughts. I also really liked the personal attentiveness of having a two-on-one tour versus a big group.
Overall, this was one of our favorite trips. We LOVED Munich. It's a beautiful, clean, walkable city. There's plenty to do and see. The food was great. The public transportation is easy to access and incredibly efficient (as it is in most European cities). We encountered a lot of friendly people. We also encountered some not so friendly people, but that's OK. I could totally see myself living in Munich if I learned German, of course. Based on this travel experience we'd really like to return to Munich as well as do a comprehensive foray into the rest of Germany.
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