Spring Break Part 4: Munich! 


       So after our brief stay in Venice, we hopped on a night train to Munich instead of paying for a hostel and then having to buy a train ticket in the morning. It turned out to be cheaper but not that comfortable of a nights sleep. Paul, Mike, and I bought our tickets separately so we didn't have to figure out who owed who. However, because of this we had seats scattered all around the train. The train didn't look that full so we decided that we would just take over one of the cabins. The cabin had six seats (two rows) facing each other. Instead of all of us trying to sleep all night sitting up, I elected to sleep on the floor between the two rows and that way mike and paul could lay down. Like I said not a great nights sleep, but absolutely worth it because we got more time in Munich which is one of my favorite cities now!
       When we got to our hostel at 6:30 in the morning, our rooms were not ready naturally, so we just sat in the lobby (for four hours) until places to eat opened. When we returned from breakfast, our room was ready so we placed all of our bags down and then asked the man at the front desk for some fun things to do. He suggested that we go to a castle named Neuschwanstein; the castle that Disney modeled Cinderella's castle after. Seeing as this was one of the things that Mrs. Johnson, a family friend that's kinda like a second mom, told me I had to do; we did it. However it required another train to get there. 
    We went back to the train station and we asked for three tickets to Füssen (a small city outside of the castle) the guy said, "how about five". Thinking this was a joke we said that we only wanted three. But then he told us about a thing called the “Bavaria Pass”. It is a round trip ticket to Füssen for five people and it was only 23 euros! This turned out to be a lot cheaper so we did it. It was nice because as we were waiting for our train people would come up and offer us money to hop on as one of the five people on our pass. We ended up allowing a good looking  German girl who was about twenty six, on as our forth. Paul was in love with her.


Here's a picture from the train window on the way to Füssen: 

I couldn't beehive there was still snow everywhere. 

       After our two hour train ride, we were there. Well, kinda. We still had to get on a bus that would take us to the bottom of the hill where the castle was. We could see the castle as we approached the hill, it was gynormous! It put all the castles in Spain to shame. This is what we saw as we were driving in on the bus:

I didn't take this picture, but this is the castle in winter. You'll see why I couldn't use my photo in a min. 

The bus dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and this beauty was over our shoulder. 

      We then purchased our tickets for the  bigger castle and the guy behind the counter told us it was a 40 minute walk up to the top where the castle was. We made it up in 15. Yes, I timed it. This gives you a hint as to how fast we walked our entire trip. 
       When we got to the top this is what we really saw: 

 The majority of it was covered in scaffolding. They are restoring it or something.  

       As bummed as we were we continued on with our tour of it. The good news is that the scaffolding did not affect the beauty of the inside. As we walked through "Cinderella's Castle" we learned about the lives of Ludwig I and Ludwig II. Pretty cool stuff. 


Here's some pictures from outside the castle: 

If you look closely there is a bridge that we wanted to walk across be we didn't know how to get there.
Later our tour guide told us that you have to tress pass to get onto it. Which explains why there were no signs telling us how to get there. 

       After walking back down the hill we realized we had just missed the bus back to the train station. When we looked at the bus schedule it said the next bus came in an hour. Instead of sitting out in the cold we decided to walk the 4k back to the train station. It turned out to be a nice walk and we got to see some cool sights. 


Here's some pictures from our walk. 

That Wraps up day 1. 

       The next morning we got up at 10:00 to go on a tour of Munich. I don't want to tell you the whole tour but I will tell you that the whole city's history is based off of beer! Which was really cool to hear how much  it influenced what when on back in the day. Also every time our Australian tour guide said beer he would 1) yell it. 2)throw his hands over his head.  3) have the biggest grin on his face. It made the tour a lot more fun. 

Here's some pics from the tour: 

The Famous Glockenspiel Clock. (youtube it, it has really old animatronics)

Quarter million eruo watch that doesn't tell time. 

We walked by this on our tour. They Love Michael Jackson. They covered a cool historical figure statue that is outside the hotel MJ used to stay at with flowers pictures and candles. Our guide said that everyday people light candles and bring fresh flowers. 

The "Devils Footprint" in one of their churches. The story behind it is way to long to blog about but I'll tell you if you ask me in person. 

BEER GARDEN! This is one of the coolest things about Germany. It will be a sunny Tuesday at 3:00 in the afternoon and the beer garden will be packed. (They only sell beer in the beer garden by the liter and half liter)

The Hofbrauhaus. Know for where the Nazi's would declare policies and hold parties. 

Initially a Nazi symbol on the roof of the Hofbrauhaus. But they painted flags over it. If you  look closely you can see the difference between the old paint and the new. 

When we finished with our tour we grabbed some food and a beer in the beer Garden and then headed over to the BMW factory. It was really cool they had the original air plane engine (for those of you who don't know they weren't initially a car manufacturer) that put them on the map. Along with all the cars they and motorcycles they have ever made. 

Here some pictures for car enthusiast: 

The old Formula One steering wheel 

The new Formula One steering wheel ('08)

All the logos of car names on a hanging timeline. 

One of the cars Pierce Brosnan Drove in James Bond. 

To top it all off here is the environment and the type of food we ate while we were there. 

12 weissbiers on tap. 

A hearty meal of meat potatoes and Gravy, with a Weissbier. 

My favorite part about germany is the environment in which you eat. Two stories packed with Germans being loud, eating hefty meals, and continually laughing with deep jolly laughs. This is some of the best food I have ever had.