The second leg of Cory and I’s summer 2017 European adventure was in the great city of Munich Germany. Munich ended up being our favorite of the trip, and we were able to pack in a ton of events into our three days. We ended up taking a 4 hour bus from Zurich Switzerland to Munich. Of course we stocked up on snacks before the bus ride and I promptly exploded my carbonated water all over myself right after finding my seat on the bus. Classic. It made for a good laugh at least. The bus was rather nice with comfortable adjustable seats, WiFi and a paid food service. The European countryside provided great views, and we listened to music and chilled the entire way to Munich. Once in Munich we checked into hotel Metropol which was a very nice modern hotel with a complimentary buffet breakfast! Our first stop was to visit Marienplatz which is the main square in the center of Munich.
The square was surrounded by classic European style cathedrals and buildings providing a very impressive scene. We sat in the square and people watched and took in the sights. We even went inside the building shown above to the tourist information center and booked a trip for a castle tour later in the week. After Marienplatz we just started exploring the nearby area for a spot to eat. We ended up selecting a nice outdoor venue specializing in German food, how appropriate. We got several different beers, and a sample platter of various German sausages with potato salad. It was delicious and hit the spot. After lunch we decided to venture to the English Gardens, which is one of the largest urban outdoor parks in the world.
The English Gardens are massive. The park is larger than Central Park in NYC, and it is very diverse. There are large open grass fields perfect for playing sports, a river that flows through the park, and many locations with stone gazebos as seen above. There were tons of people out enjoying the nice day and the park was buzzing with energy. Our first stop in the park was to the China Tower. This was a large tower that also served as an outdoor beer garden! So Cory and I did our best to try as much beer as we could! It was served by the liter, and we wanted to try all the different varieties so we had our work cut out for us. We ended up talking with some Australian tourists while we drank and it was a lot of fun! Unfortunately by this point we had both drank a lot and I didn’t take anymore pictures for the rest of the night.
After we were good and honestly drunk, we stumbled our way through the park. We walked along the river and enjoyed the summer afternoon. There was quite a bit of nudity going on in the park primarily by people in the river. The German people are quite confident. We ended up running into a group of college aged kids playing volleyball and we joined their game for a little while. They were very friendly and the volleyball was a great time.
After our volleyball the sun was starting to set, and we began the journey back to our hotel. It was about a 45 min walk in total and I am impressed that we were able to find our way home due to our somewhat intoxicated state. There were only two hiccups. First, Cory accidentally kicked a hedgehog when it snuck up on him in the park. Don’t worry we checked on him afterwards and the hedgehog was perfectly fine. Secondly, we stopped for dinner at a doner kebab place and ended up circling the block and coming back to the same place for a second dinner. Shortly after that we finally managed to get back to our hotel room and we fell asleep watching the Karate Kid in German.
Our second day in Munich was a busy one. After breakfast at the hotel we decided to check out St. Peter’s Church which is right near Marienplatz. The inside of the church was very elegant, and there was even someone playing the church organ while we were inside.
Now while the inside of the church was very impressive, it was the view from the top that took the cake. We were basically high above Marienplatz, and could see the entire city stretched out in front of us. I enjoy climbing to the top of old church towers because the stairways to the top are usually worn down, small, spiraling, and they really give a feel for how old these structures are.
Once we were finished at the church we decided to check out one of the many famous museums in Munich. We went to Residenzmuseum SchatzKammer which used to be a palace for the Bavarian Kings that has since been transformed into a museum. The cool thing about this museum was the sheer size, and the amount of detail there was in everything. It was honestly a sensory overload. There was so much artwork and gold covering almost every surface that it was hard to truly enjoy or appreciate any one thing.
Every room we went into was decorated to the nines. The cool part was that there was really no pattern or repetition to the different rooms. They were all fancy, but each one had its own specific thing that made it unique. Cory and I each got English listening devices to help explain what we were looking at. This really improved our experience because we could go up to anything in the museum and type in its number and our device would tell us what it was, and why it was important. Unfortunately, since there was so much to see and learn about, it was impossible to see everything. So we were tactful and picked and chose the best things to spend our time viewing.
When we left the museum, we had to take a couple minutes to reset our brains and decompress all of the information we just absorbed. Since we had just seen the best of the past in Munich it was time for a more modern approach. We decided to check out the BMW Welt museum and showroom. So, we hopped onto a city train and went across town to check it out. The BMW Welt is a very modern building that has some very unique architecture. Inside there were BMWs of all shapes, sizes, and colors out on display. There were also sections dedicated to Rolls Royce, and Mini Cooper. It was really cool to see all of the new cars, and it made both of us want to get BMWs.
The BMW Welt is conveniently located right next to the Olympic Park of Munich which hosted the 1972 Summer Olympic Games! There was a large complex that contained the pools for swimming and diving, and tons of other sporting venues like tennis and volleyball courts. The crown jewel was the main stadium for the track and field which was an architecture masterpiece all in itself. Now while the majority of the park is no longer used, and all of the stadiums seemed abandoned, there were still a ton of people here. That was due to the fact that the rest of the Olympic Park was a beautiful outdoor park. There was a lovely lake in the middle and there were tons of people out running, biking, and having picnics. Cory and I got some pulled pork sandwiches from a food truck outside of the BMW Welt and ate them as we walked around the park. After we checked out the sights, we stopped and listened to a local band playing a free concert in the park. It was a really fun place to be.
Once we were finished in the park we decided to head back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner. Our dinner location was Hofbrauhaus which is one of the largest beer gardens and restaurants in Munich! The inside of the restaurant was buzzing. There was live German music, people everywhere, and the beer was flowing. It was a very exciting vibe. Cory and I each got veal weinerschnitzle with a side of German potato salad. It was delicious!
There were several waitresses walking around with stacks of fresh, hot, giant pretzels, and I had to have one. Nothing goes with a cold liter of beer like a giant pretzel. I was a very happy camper.
To finish off our meal, we both got some lemon gelato from a nearby store and it was the perfect ending to a great German meal. Overall it was a jammed packed day, and it was only going to get busier as we had a German castle tour scheduled for tomorrow!
The next morning we woke up and immediately caught a bus to start our castle tour. It was another tour through Gray Line tours that took us to two castles/palaces of King Ludwig II. King Ludwig II was the king of Bavaria right before the 1900’s started. The tour left from the train station in Munich and took a total of 10.5 hours. To start out we took the bus to Linderhof which was the king’s palace where he spent the majority of his time throughout his life. It was also the only palace/castle of his three that he was actually able to completely finish. The rest of his estates/castles were never 100% finished because he ran out of money! Construction began in 1874 and was completed in 1878. Linderhof was relatively small, but it was very fancy. I had never seen so much wealth packed into a space before. Each room had extremely high ceilings and were very detailed with gold, statues, tapestries, paintings, and wood workings. It was extremely impressive.
As you can see above, the gardens in front of the palace were very extravagant and multilevel. The highlight of the gardens was the golden fountain right in front of the palace. The fountain shot water 100 feet up into the air every hour.
Unfortunately, they did not allow pictures to be taken inside the palace. I guess you guys will all have to visit yourself to see how the king of Bavaria lived! The tour of the inside took 30 min, and we were able to learn quite a bit about the king. He was a tall dude standing at 6’4″. Our tour guide made the joke that he truly had a king sized bed, and as it turns out, his bed was massive! The most interesting fact I learned dealt with the king’s meals. He would always eat alone, and he ate a ton! On average his meals would consist of 7-12 different courses that he would polish off with ease. If that wasn’t enough, the kitchen was located below his dining chambers. So he had a system of pulleys set up that would allow his food to be hoisted up through the floor on a table for each course of his meal. It was ridiculous. The tour ended by going through a secret passageway installed if the king ever needed a quick escape. This led us to the rest of the garden surround the back side of the palace.
Once our tour of Linderhof was completed we hopped back on the bus and drove to the German village of Oberammergau. This small village is known for being home to the famous Passion Play. This play started back in the 1600s during the Black Plague. The play is about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and the townspeople believed that the play would please God and help save them. They deemed that they would preform the play every 10 years after the first performance to prevent further plagues. The play is six hours long, and they preform it 6 days a week between the months of May through September. Another interesting fact is that only people who live in the town are allowed to preform in the play. It is quite the event, and it takes place at an outdoor amphitheater seating around 2,000 people. Unfortunately, the amphitheater was closed and we were not able to really get all that close to it.
Oberammergau is also know for producing beautiful wood carvings including cuckoo clocks. Cory and I wondered through the streets of the village and stopped in the various shops and admired the carvings. The village seemed pretty quiet, I bet that it gets quite crazy when the plays are going on. Many buildings in the town had paintings on them of various fairy tails which added a cool touch.
Once we finished touring Oberammergau, we once again loaded onto the bus and drove to the highlight of the tour Neuschwanstein Castle. King Ludwig II started construction on this castle back in 1869, and he used his personal money to finance the project. It ended up costing over twice as much as he originally thought, and practically bankrupted him. The castle itself was never fully finished and the King never spent more than 200 total days under its roof. Once he passed away, the castle was opened to the public in order to raise money to finish paying off the debts. The bus dropped us off at the bottom of a hill, and the castle was located at the top. It took about 20 min to reach the castle on foot, but they also had horse drawn carriages to the top if you wanted to pay extra. On the way up, Cory and I stopped for pizza and some fried donut balls. Yummy! Once we arrived at the base of the castle we realized how massive this thing was. It looked just like the castles you would see in movies and cartoons.
The only thing the castle was missing was a water filled moat and a drawbridge. We walked around the circumference of the castle and were truly blown away with its staggering beauty. Next, we did the 10 minute walk to Marian bridge which provides the perfect view of the castle. This was also the spot with the most tourists, and we were packed in like sardines and had to fight our way to get a good spot. It was well worth it though!
It was quite the sight. By this point we could not wait to get inside so we made our way back to the entrance and got our tickets. The tour was about 30 minutes and it made its way through a good portion of the castle. Unfortunately, like Linderhof we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle. The inside was definitely very fancy, but the amount of detail was not to par with Linderhof. There were parts of the castle that seemed cheaply made, and it was evident that it was never fully finished. None the less it was an amazing experience and really cool to be inside of a real castle! My favorite room we saw was the grand ballroom, it was by far the largest and most elegant room on the tour.
Obviously, we were not able to see the entire castle on our tour. It would have been really cool to get a behind the scenes tour that went to the parts of the castle that were not open to the general public. I wonder if there is a dungeon! We were able to see another castle called Hohenschwangau from the balcony of Neuschwanstein. Hohenschwangau was the childhood castle of King Ludwig II, and it is famous for its yellow appearance.
The entire area was truly beautiful and it made since why the royalty wanted their castles to be in the midst of these mountains. King Ludwig II is said to have built Neuschwanstein on the hill above his childhood castle as a form of improvement. I guess you could say he wanted to be the king of the hill. There was a cool 3D model of Neuschwanstein inside the castle that provides great perspective.
Once the tour was finished we started our walk back to the buses. We found ourselves constantly looking back at the castle as we went down the hill. I mean, how could you not?
We stopped in a few shops on the way down, and were able to find some awesome hats. I tried to convince Cory to get one, but he couldn’t pull the trigger. I’m sure he regrets not buying one to this day.
The trip ended up costing each of us 68 euros, which in our opinion was a steal! When we got back to Munich it was getting dark and we were hungry. We decided to go to a German beer hall called Augustiner Keller and it was a blast. It was raining outside so we got pretty wet on our walk over but that didn’t matter once we got inside. The place was packed full of people having a great time. We fit in perfectly. There were long community tables, and we found a spot to squeeze in. There was live German music playing up on stage, and plenty of beer and food to go around for everyone. We each got a plate of sausages for dinner and we each drank 3 liters of beer. We tried a Radler which was beer mixed with lemonade and it was very refreshing. I would recommend! We even saw one of the waiters carry out at 10 liters of beer at one time. This guy was a true professional and he didn’t spill a drop.
This was the perfect ending to our German portion of the trip. After dinner we went back to our hotel and packed our bags so that we were ready for our train to Vienna in the morning. More to come!
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