Munich

17th -21st July 2010

We had pre-booked train tickets for our 4.5 hour trip from Zurich to Munich. It saved us about 150 Euros by buying them in advance from the German train company than buying them from the Swiss company. While we were waiting for the train to come a young Asian couple and their 3ish year old child as well as the grandparents arrived. The kid was quite content in his pram, but grandma pulled him out, pulled down his pants and then made him piss into a juice bottle; All on the side of the train platform. It was quite something to watch. She then put the lid on the apple juice bottle and sat it on the seat next to me. Ahhh. Anyway, the journey was nice but long. It took us through parts of Austria, and through some lovely countryside.

Our directions to our hotel were vague. We had a s-bahn station name and a rough idea from Google maps. We knew that we were staying a bit out of the city centre, but it was cheap and we had a 4* suite. We got to the s-bahn station and then walked. And walked. And walked. About 45 minutes later we finally found the hotel, and found that there was a much easier and quicker way to get there - so nice of them to put that information on their website!!!

It was about 3pm by the time we got all checked in and settled in the hotel, so we decided to write the day off and spend it doing some washing at the hotel. They had a cheap washing machine and dryer, and as we had done any washing since Rock Werchter it was well overdue. The first load went well, until I realised that I forgot to put the powder in the correct slot and we had to re wash it again.

We ate dinner at the Italian restaurant, which was next door to our hotel, and it was delicious. The only downside was that we got completely drenched in the rain as we made our way there. I'm not sure what it is with the weather here, but its stinking hot through the day, then in the evenings it buckets down with rain.

The next day we were up and about after our awesome buffet breakfast. It came complete with pretzels, sausages, bacon, eggs, heaps of fruit and yoghurts, chocolate mousse, heaps of cheeses and hams. There was so much to choose from.

We got into town just in time to join the free walking tour, which took us around all the important spots in Munich. Churches, Beer halls, Palaces, Hitler's hang outs etc. We walked up 'Maximillionstrasse', which is apparently worth more than the Paris' Champs Elysees. We saw the spot where a watch worth almost 200,000 Euros usually sits when the store is open. When the tour ended we had no cash to tip the girl with, so Dan went in search of an ATM. When we couldn't find one we had to find out where they were going to eat and meet up with them there. We eventually found our way there, had a beer and gave her some cash and were on our way. We thought that place was a bit pricey to eat at so we went in search of somewhere a little more suited to our price range.

We found a nice little schnitzel house, that served beer by the litre, and we could dine out on the street. We chose an unfortunate table, next to a group of about 15 British guys enjoying the end of a stag party. They were all incredibly drunk, and were talking about getting to the airport shortly to catch their flight back to London. Highly unlikely. A group of German's came and sat next to us and joined in watching the spectacle, but they started becoming a little gross. One decided that he wanted to come and start a conversation with us, but we weren't overly appreciative of this; he was really quite racist to the group of Germans. It was pretty gross. They ended up all trying to leave on about 4 bikes, which ended in a few of them on the ground, causing quite the scene to the many people walking past. Eventually they left and we got to enjoy our second litre of beer each in peace.

We grabbed a couple of takeaway beers from a convenience store (I litre cans with 10% alcohol for a couple of Euro's each) and made the trip back to the hotel where we quietly enjoyed a nightcap before bed.

The next morning we indulged in breakfast again, before heading into town. We did a bit of shopping in all the nice shops on the main street; I finally gave in and bought a Swatch watch I'd been admiring for about 6 months (We have about £400 to last us the last 3 weeks, and I blow £100 on a watch - great financial smarts!). Later that afternoon we headed to an English cinema, where for only 4 Euros we got to watch the latest Twilight movie. It was great.

By the time the movie was done we made our way to the Main train station, the Hauptbahnhof, where we bought ourselves a yummy butter bretzel and met up with the New Europe group for our 'Beer Challenge Tour'. The group was way too big, and mostly American's, only a very small handful of Aussies (thankfully). We were each given what all the guides claim is the best Munich beer, Augustiner, and we were put on a train to the first stop.

(I will warn, that everything is written here, comes from Dan's notes he made shortly after returning home - my memory of the evening is very sketchy from after leaving the first venue)

The first stop was the council owned Beer Gardens in the centre of town. We each had another litre of Augustiner (It was the beer that was currently being served - because they're council owned and not affiliated with a particular brewer, they alternate through the 6 big brew houses). It went down quite quickly, and we made friends with a lovely English girl, and a French Canadian who were both travelling solo.

The second stop was just around the corner, and the famous Hofbrauhaus. It is massive, seating around 3500 people. We all sat together in a side section and had to wait ages for our Bavarian Beer Wenches to bring us another liter. We ended up staying a little too long there as some (smart - not us) people ordered food, and the service was ridiculously slow.

The third stop was the second largest beer garden in Munich, the Augustiner Keller. This beer garden seats about 8,000 people - and it was pretty bloody busy there. We got chatting to the Aussies this time, they were too bad value actually, we found out one of the older guys had been on the same tour the night before and had a 'kiss and a cuddle' with one of the very young Californian girls on our free walking tour the day before. Dan also got chatting to a old Californian guy, a cop, who was travelling with his daughter. She was training to become an Ultimate fighter. I was not going to mess around with either of them.Apparently I hadn't finished my litre by the time we were told to leave, so I committed the worst sin that there is in Munich, I stole a stein.

Stein, nicely packed into my bag, we made our way, by foot or train, I don't know, onto the last venue. It was some s***ty bar/club place that I was not impressed with. I collected my free (Maybe 2 or 3) shots of Jagermeister, and my beer. Dan eventually had to drag me out, after I'd met the 'most beautiful girl in the world'.

We ended up missing the last train to our stop, which mean we had missed the last bus to the hotel. Dan dragged me down to the s-bahn station and while he was somehow trying to figure out the trains, I spewed all over the platform, the passing train, the floor and myself. (Sorry mum, no class). He eventually pulled me onto a train, where I continued to vomit in the little bin type things on the wall, then slept until he dragged me off the train. We next found ourselves in a cab, where I fell 'asleep' straight away, but Dan claims he took us along the Autobahn back to our hotel. He also claims that the car got up to about 160km/h. I cannot verify these facts.

Whence (Yay I used whence again!) at the hotel, I continued to vomit my way through our apartment. Thoughtful Dan emptied the bin for me so I could do it from the comfort of bed.

Next morning, things were foggy. Dan pried himself out of bed, not to miss out on breakfast, but I slept into the afternoon. We thought that we should make something of the day, so I managed to pull myself together to get into town. We couldn't manage much, so we headed for the massive English Gardens. We went for a stroll through, stopping for lunch at surprisingly, the massive beer garden at the Chinese tower. I only bought a schnitzel, while Dan had a sausage, but we couldn't stay long, the sight of all that beer was making me feel ill again. We went and recovered by having a little lay on the nice grass.

I had had my couple of hours of sunlight, so after a quick stroll through the University districy we got back on the train and headed for home. We stopped off at a supermarket along the way for some microwaveable dinners and a night in front of MTV on the television!

The next morning I think I still may have been suffering from a hangover. I'd strained all the muscles in my back and chest from all the heaving I'd done. I insisted that we were up early, eaten and out the door of the hotel by 8.30. We had to take a bus to the u-bahn, which took us to the Hauptbahnhof. We had to wait around for about 45 minutes, but then we boarded the very crowded train which after 2 hours, brought us out at the small Bavarian city of Fussen. We had special tickets which allowed both of us to travel as much as we liked on any mode of transport in Bavaria for 28 Euros, so we jumped on a bus, with the hundreds of others (Mainly Asians) which took us up to where the castle are.

We had to wait in line for about 20 minutes to get our tickets into Neuschwenstein Castle, on a guided tour, at 4pm!!! It was just before 12 when we bought our tickets, so it looked as though we were going to have lots of free time. We bought some currywurst in a little food stand, before starting the '40 minute' climb up to the castle. 40 minutes was a complete over-estimate, must be for people with no legs, because even at my snails pace it only took us 25 at most. The walk up through the Bavarian forest was nice, would've been better if there wasn't thousands of other people there too! We sat around at the top for a bit, writing stupid postcards (You'll get is soon Cheryl….) then continued to climb up a bit further to Mary's Bridge. The view of the famous castle, from the bridge was perfect, although a little bit scary. The bridge is quite old, and while I was lining up for a photo, I put my hand up on the railing and it popped out. I s*** myself, because it was a bloody long drop into the gorge below.

The castle is like something out of a fairy tale, probably why Walt Disney used it as his inspiration when designing the Sleeping Beauty Castle. It is only a fairly new one, built only in the late 1800's by King Ludwig II. He was deemed 'crazy', kicked off the throne and then found mysteriously dead with his shrink. The castle was never finished.

The tour was an interesting experience. Despite the thousands of signs and repeat messages from our guide "No Photos" there were far too many people taking a sneaky snap. It pisses me off. I do the right thing and they get the photos. Not far. Also on our tour we had some again, familiar faces, in the older Aussie couple we met in Lauterbrunnen and then again in Lucerne. They'd done a train journey down to Lake Como in Italy, and then come back up to Munich. And of all the tours they could've been on, it was the same one as us - small world! The state apartments were pretty glitzy and standard royal extravagance, but the bit of the castle that I completely loved was his man made 'grotto'. He had a cave built in connecting his dining room with another part of the castle. It was pretty cool.

After waiting 4 hours for our tour, it was over in 30 minutes, and we were shown the door. It was definitely worth it though. On our way out we had to go through some of the unfinished rooms, which were great to see after the highly decorated rooms on the floors above. Ludwig II also built a few other palaces, but the one I would love to go and see is his replica of the Palace of Versailles. The only difference between his and the real one is that his Hall of Mirrors is bigger and has more mirrors and chandeliers!!

As we were making our way back down the castle the biggest and heaviest downpour of rain hit us. We pretty much rain the whole way down the mountain and got completely soaked in the process. The bus appeared shortly after we arrived (Despite the lady in the info office telling us it would be 40 minutes away) and we were at the train station shortly after. Sadly we had to wait about 45 minutes for a train to come and take us the two hours back to Munich.

It was about 8.30 by the time we were back in Munich, so we went off and ate at a restaurant Matt and Jodie had recommended. Dan had a massive pork knuckle, complete with crackling, and I had a s***ty turkey breast with mushrooms. It was ok, but not as carnivorous as Dan's! We also went and had a proper poke through the Hofbrauhaus - no beers though- and checked up the impressive hall upstairs where Hitler held a few of his rallies.

After our final Munich sightseeing we were back off to the apartment to pack our bags and get some sleep before heading off to Austria the following morning!