Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Our journey to Munich in Asia wouldn't have been possible, or remotely easy. We boarded three separate trains just to get us to the city, first our hour train left the graffiti ruined buildings of Bratislava behind and we jumped off at Vienna. After an hour or so wait we boarded our next train to Salzburg, which was such a beautiful journey looking out onto the mountains. After our Vienna train we boarded our last one to Munich crossing our first police manned border of Europe, in Germany. If we did this journey in Asia we would have been delayed somewhere or jumped on the wrong train!
Our accommodation was in a local area of city next to a metro station. We had a shared bathroom or should we say 1 shared toilet and shower for the whole floor. The decor wasn't our taste with pattern carpets, mish mash furniture and a broken radiator, not to mention a huge TV that looked like it might fall off the wall. We loved how they'd forked out for an LCD smart TV but failed to update any furniture or a delightful creaking floor board. Aside from all of that we were happy with the place and it had a great breakfast included!
Munich is the capital city of the Bavarian area of Germany, its also the location of the world famous beer festival Octoberfest. The area prides itself highly on its beers and the city is dotted with large beer halls and gardens. We were unsure of what we wanted to see here, as we had planned the journey so long ago. So we opted for an early rise and a walk around the city centre, which we had heard was full of beautiful buildings and churches.
Marineplatz was our first stop, after taking the metro into the town centre, it is a huge square surrounded by churches and beautiful buildings. It's one of the major tourist destinations due to Rathaus-Glockenspiel clock on the town hall. When the clock strikes 11am it plays two stories. Lifesize figures move around with music playing in the background for 12 minutes It was magical to see and we stumbled into it by accident. After watching the show we walked around the square taking in the beauty of the churches, which were all designed in different ways. One stone church was painted white inside with delicate gold painted statues and pictures. Some of the other churches had a more modern feel with tall clock towers. Frauenkirshe, another church, had two tall brick towers with copper spherical roofs.
But we had made one big mistake, our one and only day in Munich was a SUNDAY! In Germany Sundays are a day of rest taken very seriously, which meant that every single shop was shut excluding resturants (we should have realised with the hundreds of bells chiming throughout the day). No gift shops, no clothes shops, no supermarkets which meant no cheap food! We saw other tourists wandering the street looking longingly into gift shops at the items on show, locals window shopping seems to be normality. It was bizarre to us and sadly affected our experience there as our budget wouldn't really have allowed us to sit in a cafe or resturant, but we had to give in after wandering the freezing cold streets for three hours, and have some food in a Italian restaurant in the main train station. But we got our monies worth when Matts pizza arrived the size of a tyre and Nicoles pasta was piled high. Sadly the rest of our meals consisted of popping to a nearby kebab shop for a falafel sandwich with some left over crisps. On a positive we watched the snow come down, for the first time in Europe, out of our window. Whilst we scoffed on crisps, watched Shrek and snuggled under the duvet in our unheated room.
Munich must be magical at Christmas time with its markets and amazing in summer with its beer gardens and beautiful weather. But never ever visit Munich on a Sunday! Especially if you can't afford to pop into a cafe or resturant for a decent meal.
- comments