Travelling back to Munich after my little solo adventure in Ireland and Berlin kind of felt like coming home, obviously not the same as the feeling I'll have when I hit the tarmac in Australia again, but the familiarity was a welcome kind of feeling.
As the train ride from Berlin to Munich is in excess of six hours I decided to break up the journey a little by stopping in Leipzig for a few hours on the way. This was a quick but enjoyable break and I loved being able to utilise the convenience of train station lockers to look after the majority of my stuff while I ventured off to check out Völkerschlachdenkmal, a massive war memorial. As I stowed my belongings I of course pretended that I was stashing bags of cash and fake passports 007 style - this was after all my first European train station locker experience and really, some days are only an adventure if you make them one.
The memorial in Leipzig was quite impressive, with a big rectangular pool that leads your eye straight up to the largest monument of its kind in Europe. I would have stayed longer to learn more of the history of the place but as I'm a tight-ass about some things these days I opted to climb the hundreds of tiny stairs right up to the apex of the tower (as opposed to spending one euro on the lift) so, by the time I reached the top, took a few token selfies and trundled back down the very narrow and tight winding staircase - apart taking a few minutes at the bottom to let the room stop spinning - it was time to head back to the station.
Getting back to Ralf's apartment was as easy as heading home to my own place in Melbourne and I think that's why it felt like coming home, when the journey to your destination feels second nature in your muscle memory then you can relax and let your mind have a rest and your instincts take over. I wasn't sure what the next few weeks had in store and to be honest I didn't quite know where I was headed next, but I had told Ralf that I would only be staying for a few weeks and although I'm sure he wouldn't mind me staying longer I would hate to overstay a welcome. At this point however that was all too much to think about, and the first things on my agenda were a shower and a load of washing - it's never good to officially be down to your last pair of knickers! Dinner that night was baked mushrooms and salad followed by yogurt with honey and nuts for dessert (if you're wondering why I keep listing menus it's because there are some meals that I really don't want to forget and will definitely be giving a try when I get home). Anyway, the rest of that night and the following day were very chilled out, the only thing on my 'to-do' list was to figure out what kind of day trips I wanted to do while based in Munich and to go and buy a pair of walking shoes as there was a high chance we'd be going hiking on Sunday. The experience in the regionally located sports equipment store was quite interesting as only the one salesman that helped me with my shoes spoke a tiny bit of broken English, the rest only spoke German and really didn't want to know me. I made it through and with Ralf's discount card which got me 15% off my purchase, so aside from the fact that I may have bought them half a size too small and there was a slightly stressful mission to go and find an ATM as I didn't know they wouldn't accept credit cards (WTF!) I am still going to label my shoe shopping expedition a success. I also desperately needed to re-group and sort out the mess of a pack I had done in Berlin before I left - it was easy enough really, anything that was a clothing item went in the wash and everything else ended up in a big pile for sorting. By late afternoon I had been for a walk to enjoy the sunshine, stopped at the shops for a few essentials and was back at 'home' checking e-mails etc when an e-mail came through regarding a house/dog sitting opportunity over easter in Italy that timed perfectly in the little gap I had between leaving Ralf's and starting my Italian course! This was a very exciting opportunity so I e-mailed the home owner and hoped for the best. The following day I had a pretty late start which was fine as the weather wasn't brilliant, but I did venture out in the afternoon to check out the BMW museum that dad told me I really must see if I had the chance and it was pretty cool, BMW is such a huge contributor to the city of Munich as it employes a very large percentage of the local population and over the years the city has benefited from its success in many different ways.

Friday was my first day trip from Munich to the biggest inland lake in Bavaria that has a few islands on it, one of which has the incomplete castle, Herrenchiemsee, built buy King Ludwig the second as a tribute to the sun king, Louis 14th (I think)... you know, the dude from France (again with the terrible memory and basic history knowledge) anyway the few rooms that you get to see on the tour of this extraordinary palace are the most ornately decorated and exquisitely executed masterpieces of every type of interior craftsmanship imaginable. Everything is covered in gold leaf, the chandeliers are huge and absolutely dripping with crystal pieces. The number of priceless items is extensive and to make it all even more outrageous, as the place was never finished (literally fifty of the seventy rooms in the palace are bare brick as the King ran out of money to complete them), Ludwig himself moved in to live in a section of the part that was finished and as it turned out, I believe, he spent a grand total of ten days there before he was mysteriously found dead in a boat with his psychiatrist (also dead) and the cause of death will forever remain a mystery as it was Ludwig's wish that his family never disclose the details, and they never did. The grounds at Herrenchiemsee are also stunning and I immensely enjoyed walking through the woods and along the dirt road that connected the palace to the far end of the island. I actually had to stop and record the sounds that the birds were making as apart from a slight breeze that ticked the luscious green grass of the mirrored fields on either side of the road, they were all I could hear. I also had to stop a bit further up the road to take some pictures of a single daffodil that for some reason was the only daffodil I had seen along the roadside and was, I believe, the only daffodil in existence not only along that road but also in the surrounding fields as well, which made it quite the little trooper. I took the boat over to one of the other islands for a quick stop to take some pictures and grab a bite to eat however the only thing open were a few restaurants and I couldn't justify a full sit down meal that day so I caught the ferry back to the main port at Chiemsee and took advantage of the extra time I had in town to window shop before my train to Munich departed.
Saturday was going to be spent on a bike checking out the English garden and a few other places around Munich that I didn't venture to last time however Ralph's Brother and (soon to be) sister-in-law, were coming to town and wanted some help suit shopping for Peter's big day. I decided to tag along and the plan was to depart for my own shopping venture at some point, however, when we got into town there were SO many people I could no longer be bothered shopping as I was not armed with a riot shield or baton that I would no doubt require in order to bust through the hoards of people. Anyway, the suit shopping turned out to be a blast, Peter and Marlena were just gorgeous and so much fun to hang out with for the day, in fact after a couple of hours they'd invited me to the wedding and even after Ralf left for some other evening plans that he'd organised, the three of us went to dinner and had a great time - making new friends is what this kind of life is all about. On Sunday we met up with Thomas and Anna and went hiking through the Perlacher Forest and when we stopped for lunch the three piece band who were doing their rounds through the restaurant had a great time with us as Anna joined in and sung a couple of tunes and, as it turned out, the three band members had actually spent some time in Australia and even bashed out a little Waltzing Matilda for my amusement - not sure anyone else knew what the tune was but it was a pretty special moment. The forest hiking was just magical, we made friends with a tiny little frog, attempted to photograph a bumble bee in flight and got a bit drenched when the heavens opened up on our way back - it was the most fun I've had since - well probably the day before that really, it's just been such a fun adventure so far.

Monday, shopping... let's not talk about that, I may have busted my budget a little but man I found some great stuff!

Tuesday it was back on the tourist itinerary I'd planned for myself and I spent the day in the 'Old Town' of Rothenburg which is one of the few remaining, completely walled off cities from medieval times left in Germany and it was utterly breathtaking. As it was about a three and a half hour train ride from Munich I only had about four hours in the city which is why I spent all my time in the 'old town', as Rothenburg city actually consists of much more, but the main feature was far to distracting for me. I took loads of photos, walked the entire inside perimeter of the wall and even climbed up and walked a massive section of it up on the elevated inside track that would have been used in battle times to give the archers a high vantage point to shoot any approaching enemy forces. It really was a very special day out and I encourage anyone visiting Germany to get there for a day if they can. Wednesday, it was time to venture into Austria and see what all the fuss for Salzburg was about. To be honest after my first half our off the train I was almost ready to profusely contradict everything I'd ever heard about the place... until of course, it occurred to me that I hadn't seen one tourist sign, shop or attraction and this made me realise that my acute sense of direction had lead me astray once again - seriously, I should just start following my ass instead of my nose because nine and a half times out of ten I will start walking in one direction only to eventually discover that I should in-fact be headed in exactly the opposite direction! Anyway, my random little detour into the more residential part of the city was such a contrast to the bustling and overwhelmingly beautiful tourist area that I was actually quite glad of it. It's so easy to spend all your time in mostly tourist populated areas when you travel, that it's easy to forget that people also live and work in these areas in places other that the ticket box at the museum or restaurant/ kiosk that you stop in for lunch. Once back in tourist mode though I did treat myself to a chocolate covered pretzel which was actually less like a pretzel and more like a pretzel shaped doughnut, regardless though it was totally delicious. I also took the little mountain train/lift thing up to the castle place at the top of the hill - no idea what it was, I was exhausted from all the walking at this point and really just enjoyed the view from the top. As my initial detour took a decent chunk of time and tired me out right at the start of the day I didn't do much else in Salzburg other than check out the cathedral and walk through the streets and look at how all the different retailers have occupied the old buildings and given them a modern interior while maintaining the heritage facade... I guess this is true of most european towns but for some reason the craftsmanship of it was quite prominent to me that day.

Thursday, rest day... ahhhhh! There was tea, blog, crochet, blankets and a rainy Munich day out the window, it was bliss.

I had decided earlier in the week when doing a bit of research for my day trips that it would be much better to see Linderhof and Neuschwanstein palaces in one day via an organised tour company. Doing it this way meant less mucking around with local trains and more time actually seeing the castles, so I booked this in for Friday. I guess when travelling on a massive double decker coach with a mix of Japanese, Chinese, American, Spanish, Russian and quite a few Australian tourists there are bound to be hiccups and delays to keep the day interesting. There was one couple in particular, I'm not sure where they were from but the gentleman misplaced his wallet while he was out and about and after holding us up for about fifteen minutes they then proceeded to have an argument with another couple on the bus who had taken their seats. This same wallet losing couple held us up after our last stop by thirty minutes, for God only knows what reason this time, and as it was the end of the day and we were all keen to get back to Munich this didn't go down too well with anyone! Worst part was that had we left on time we would have no doubt missed the ghost rider who decided to drive at speed the wrong way up the autobahn and cause some kind of accident. Our amazing bus driver did actually manage to get us back very close to our scheduled time even though we had to turn the coach around and navigate back to Munich via a whole bunch of tiny villages - yay bus driver!

So, the castles, well they were worth it in the end I think. The first we visited was Linderhof, this was the castle that Ludwig II built away from Munich to be on his own and as far from the parliament etc as he could. Ludwig II actually spent quite a lot of time here and only ever returned to his Munich apartments when he absolutely had to. It is definitely a luxurious castle and the workmanship in the wall dressings, furnishings, tapestries etc really is extraordinary - however compared to Herrenchiemsee this place is tiny. I guess what I found most interesting about the style of the interior of it, in fact of all the castles built by Ludwig, is that there is nothing unique about his designs, he had no ideas of his own and rather based everything on other cultures and existing buildings designs. For example, most of the interior work is in a french style because he had been to France and liked what he saw, then I'm not sure if he ever travelled to China or just read about their customs but the multiple vases on the walls in one of the rooms was reflective of Chinese design. Why I found this point interesting was because it's not as though he would have been lacking in Bavarian craftsmen, he just didn't know how to express his own version of status and I guess got lost in the whole 'I want what he has' mentality that he never would have grown out of being that he became a king at such a young age. Anyway, through both the castles that I visited that day you were not permitted to take photos in either which is why I'm going into my observations in more detail than I normally would, I wouldn't be able to account what I saw from memory but I can describe how what I saw lead me to these observations of one of Bavaria's most notorious and influential leaders. In between the two castle visits we stopped at a town best known for its wood carving school and graduate craftsmen as well as the once a decade staging of their passion plays. The history is that back in the day this particular town, Oberammergau, was hit by the plague and after the death of eighty of its residents they prayed to the heavens and promised that if the Black Death left their town and no more people died that the members of the community promised to re-enact the passion play (the last five days of the life of Jesus Christ) once every ten years - and to this day they still do. Planning, rehearsals and casting for this will begin five years before the event which now draws record numbers of tourists (over two and a half million at the last one) to the town.
Neuschwanstein, otherwise known as 'Cinderella's Castle' was a special treat. I had not initially planned to visit it but I am glad that I did, the location of the castle its self, perched up high on the mountain side overlooking acres of farmland and villages, is truly a sight to see. The interior was beautiful and as the castle was a tribute to Ludwig's good friend and composer, Richard Wagner, many of the wall paintings and room designs tell the stories told in some of Wagner's operas. This castle was built over a period of seventeen years because Ludwig kept changing his mind about what he wanted, can you imagine, "I know you've just built three towers but I think I'd like two instead", third tower demolished, "No you were right, three looks better, put it back up again"... #beforewehad3DCADplans! However even after seventeen years of construction this castle was also never finished before Ludwig died and because of the debt that he owed on it etc it opened to the public as a tourist attraction only six weeks after Ludwig's death (yeah they were really cut up about his passing!). Seriously though, I can't believe that no one ever lived there - such a waste! The reason that Neuschwanstein is now known as Cinderella's castle though is because in the 1920's Walt Disney visited the site as a tourist himself and loved the design so much that he used it as a model that he based Cinderella's fairytale castle on - nice part of the story I think.

Gosh, so after the long exhausting castle's tour I arrived back in Munich and came home to a delicious pork belly dinner after which we hit the town and went to some really great bars not far from Ralf's place. I thankfully paced myself and wasn't too tipsy at the end of the night because when we left the bar we'd walked all of two of the twenty five minutes home when we passed a couple of 'call a bike' bikes, so Ralf punched in his code to unlock the bikes and we rode home in less than half the time - ugh the convenience of it was glorious! The following day we had a bit of a late start and then I procrastinated as long as I could to pack my bags (I just couldn't be bothered), but as the day slipped away and the beautiful sunshine beckoned me outside I changed gears and got myself organised so I could head out for a few hours on the bike to see more of the English Gardens - and I'm so glad I did. I don't think I've ever been in a park on a sunny day and seen more people doing such a variety of activities, I'm not joking, in the hour or so that I rode around I witnessed people walking, running, playing football, having an egg-and-spoon race, surfing on the river, sailing row boats in the lake, taking horse and cart rides, blowing giant bubbles, juggling, riding bikes... the list goes on for days. This was just a regular Saturday, the sun was shining so people got amongst it just to enjoy life and it completely overwhelmed me. After a while I could hear some pretty loud German folk music playing and went in search of the band that was behind it only to discover a giant beer garden where people ate wonderful food and washed it all down with a stein. After I strolled around for a while taking photos and soaking up the atmosphere I was stopped by a bucks group, who thankfully spoke English, and they asked me to play a little game that consisted of trying to kick a ball through one of the holes in the sheet wings that the groom was wearing on his arms. I missed three times of course (never really been good at sports), but regardless of my failed attempts I still got to drink a shot of schnapps with the groom and I even got a couple of photos with the group - so random but so much fun!
I guess now that brings me to my last night in Munich, quiet night in and early to bed as I had an early train ride in the morning..... I think not! It was Susanne's birthday party at her's and Julian's apartment so I met Thomas and Anna there and Martin was on the guest list too, all the new friends I had made in Munich in the one place drinking, eating and having a great time on my last night was just heaven. I also met a bunch of new people as well and as most of them spoke fantastic English I didn't feel too out of place. The dinner just happened to be Italian themed which I thought was very fitting considering where I was headed next, and Susanne had made her own Tiramisu cake for dessert which she said was her first attempt but was in-fact, hands down, the best tiramisu I've ever had. I think we left there at about two in the morning and got most of the way home by Ralf dinking me on the back of Julians bike when we were stopped by the cops and told off for our not exactly legal mode of transportation home... was all good though, like I said we were most of the way back so walking the last bit wasn't so bad. I went to bed that night with the bittersweet thought of how sad I was to be leaving Germany in the morning but also excited to be heading to Italy as my next destination, the hardship of traveling I suppose.