Part I: München and Bayern

This past weekend, Daniela, Kaitlyn, and I traveled to München (Munich) and Bayern (Bavaria). München is a city in the region of Bayern, which is located in southeast Germany. Rather then writing one really lengthy blog entry, I have decided to split this trip into two separate blogs. The first post will talk about my time in München and my day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. My second post will be devoted entirely to my experience at Dachau Concentration Camp. I hope to get Part II up by tomorrow night, so be on the lookout.

We flew into München Friday evening, dropped our stuff off at the hostel, and headed straight to a local beer garden. We met this really nice guy on the train who warned us that the Hofbräuhaus was extremely touristy and a recommended a more local brewery to go to. So, we took his advice and went to Augustiner-Bräu München instead. We quickly learned that their beer garden is only operational during the summer. Whoops. But, we had gone there specifically to drink a beer outside, so we ordered our beer, paid for our beer, and then drank our beer outside to drink. We then headed over to their indoor restaurant where we all ordered and drank the stereotypical 1L mug of beer. All I have to say is ohhh wooow that was a lot of liquid. The glass and beer were so heavy that we jokingly used two hands to drink out of it ;)

The brewery was really cool. When we walked in, the waiter immediately sat us at this really long table filled with a bunch of older Bayern men. They were all sitting around, drinking beer, and having a good time. Kaitlyn started talking to them right away, but I remained more closed off. I thought it was weird that we got placed at a table with a bunch of strange men who had very clearly reserved the table for their party. I felt really bad - I almost felt like we were crashing their good time. Either way, they didn't seem to mind, and it ended up being a lot of fun. When I tried to read the menu, I was faced with a bunch of really German looking food options. I had no idea what anything was, so I asked one of the guys sitting next to me what was good. He pointed to "Deftiger Schweinsbraten mit Kruste, Kartoffelknödel, Dunkelbiersosse und Speckkrautsalat." (Translation: Hearty Roasted Pork, Crackling, and Potato Dumpling in a Dark Beer Sauce with a side of Kraut salad) So, I ordered it, ate it, and didn't realize until I got home that I had just eaten pig skin. The skin was actually pretty good. It was really hard on one side and then had a softer, fatty layer on the bottom. You couldn't even cut through the top layer - you had flip it over and cut it from the fatty side. The Potato Dumpling was super weird. It was kind of doughy, but in general it just couldn't make up its mind as to whether it was trying to be bread or potato. Lastly, the Kraut salad was disgusting. I've actually come to enjoy Sauerkraut, but this salad was too much. It was completely drenched in vinegar and it left this really awful taste in my mouth.

A traditional Bayern meal: Pork, Crackling, Potato
Dumplin, Kraut Salad, and a 1L beer.

After a depressing visit to Dachau Concentration Camp Saturday morning (see next post for details), we traveled back into the city where we met up with Daniela and Kaitlyn's old roommate, Christoph. Christoph is a Bayern native, so he gave us a personalized tour of  München. He showed us all the famous tourist sites as well as a few lesser known attractions. It was so much fun spending the day with him and his friend. Below, I have posted pictures of my favorite sights in München:

Little Athens - One of the three Greek buildings surrounding
a courtyard. 

Alte Pinakothek - A large art museum in München. Do you
see where the stone has been replaced with brick? The
middle of this building was bombed during WWII.  So
after the war, they reconstructed the building with a
different middle.

Siegestor - A large archway in München that is
topped with a statue of Bavaria and four lions.

Englischer Garten - One of the worlds largest public parks.
This park is larger then Central Park in NYC and Richmond
Park in London.

The Chinese Tower - In the center of the Englischer Garten is a
Chinese Tower and beer garden. This is one of München's most
popular beer gardens. A brass band was playing traditional
Bayer Music on the first floor of the tower while we were there.

Eisbach/Surfing - A manmade wave was created on the river
running through the Englischer Garten. Surfers will come and
surf on the wave, which is located smack dab in the center
of the city. It was such a strange sight seeing men surfing in
the middle of an an urban setting!

Hofgarten - A large garden in the center of München. In the
background is the Theatiner Kirche and Odeonsplatz.

A closer view of Theatiner Kirche

München Residenz - Former residence of Bayern monarchs

Neues Rathaus - München's Town Hall. This picture was
taken from the top of a nearby church.

Three times a day, the Glockenspiel located
on the front of the Neues Rathaus will go off.
The characters dance, sing, and play music for
12 minutes. Thankfully, we made it just in time
to see the show! 

View of München from the top of a church. It was such a
crystal clear day that you could see all the way to the
German Alps!

Bavaria Statue - This female statue represents all of Bayern.
She stands for strength and glory. The statue overlooks
Theresien-Wiese, which is the large open space used to
host Oktoberfest.

We saw a lot more sights along the way, but those shown above were my favorites. That evening, Christoph and his friend took us to another Augustiner Brewery (they were all over the city - it was ridiculous!) where I got another traditional Bayern meal of veal meatballs. Hands down, best veal meatballs I've ever had. We ended up going back to the hostel pretty early because we had a really early train to catch the next morning. We all wanted to get a good night's rest, but this plan didn't work out too well for us. We were all awoken at 2:30 am by a brawl out in the hallway. A bunch of guys had gotten back to the hostel, and one of them was really drunk and angry. He was yelling at all his friends, throwing punches, and hitting the wall. I was really afraid that he was going to bust through our door. After about 10 minutes of screaming, one of his friends convinced him to move into the bedroom. The yelling continued for awhile, but I was so exhausted that I fell asleep once they retreated into the room. Unfortunately, being startled awake by a large, angry brawl was not what we had in mind for a good night's rest!

On Sunday morning, we caught the train to southern Bayern to visit Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein which is located on the edge of the German Alps. For those of you who do not know, Neuschwanstein Castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney's famous Sleeping Beauty Castle. Neuschwanstein was commissioned by Kind Ludwig II in the 19th Century as a tribute to the composer Richard Wagner. Unfortunately, Ludwig died during the construction, so the castle was never finished. This was somewhat disappointing because we traveled two hours from München and only saw a partially completed castle. Also, a large part of the castle, including the famous tower, was undergoing construction. So, they were completely covered in plastic and staging. This was obviously a disappointment, but oh well, what are you going to do?

Up until that point, we had been having freakishly good luck with weather while traveling. Lüneburg, Florence, London, Dublin, Cliffs of Moher, Prague, and Amsterdam were all, for the most part, sunny and rain-free. Well, our luck finally ran out on Sunday. In München, conditions were cool and misty, but after traveling two hours south into the foothills of the Alps, the temperature had plummeted and the mist had turned into a heavy snowfall. It snowed for about an hour before it transitioned back over to a misty rain. The weather was really disappointing because the clouds and fog blocked our view of the Alps. But, this problem will be shortly be rectified when I visit the Swiss Alps in two weeks! Plus, even though it was foggy, I was still able to enjoy the natural surroundings. To be perfectly honest, my favorite part about the entire trip to Neuschwanstein was walking through the woods, seeing all the snow, and hiking up to the castle.

The only way to get to the castle was by hiking up this long, steep road. The road ran 1 mile up the side of the mountain, and it was steep enough to ensure that my calfs and shins were burning by the top. The castle sits on the top of a hill overlooking the entire valley. It is situated in a really beautiful spot. Woods and waterfalls surround it, and it overlooks the Alpsee (a large lake) and Schloss Hohenschwangau - a smaller but more lived in castle. The tour of the castle was a bit of a disappointment. We waited over an hour for the tour, and it lasted all of 20 minutes. They took us through the completed part of the castle, which included the King's living quarters, the Throne Room, and the Maid's quarters. The completed rooms were impressive, but it was such a short tour that it seemed almost worthless. One thing we did learn on the tour was that King Ludwig was obsessed with swans. There was a large ceramic swans in every room, and the faucet in his bedroom was in the shape of a swan (the neck and mouth serving as the faucet). Because the castle was constructed so recently, modern amenities such as running water and central heating were included. The strangest room in the castle was a cave constructed off his bedroom. Apparently, he had a massive waterfall and electric lightning show set up in the cave during his short residence in the castle.

View of Schloss Neuschwanstein from below.

Standing in front of the Foothills of the Alps.
Please note that for the first time in probably
15 years, I wore sneakers two days in a row.

Another view from Schloss Neuschwanstein.
We hiked to the bridge (Marienbrücke) after
touring the castle. 

View of the Alpsee and Schloss Hohenschwangau

A waterfall underneath Marienbrücke.

View of Schloss Neuschwanstein from Marienbrücke.

Alspee with the fog covered Alps in the background. 

A view of Schloss Neuschwanstein from the base of the
mountain. You can see from this picture just how foggy
it was that day.

Our trip home was relatively smooth. Except for a slight hiccup in miscalculating how long it would take to get through München airport, we had no problems. Considering we had to take a bus to a train, to a subway, to a plane, to a subway to get home, it's a miracle that everything went as planned! And, for the first time ever, I made it through a European metal detector without setting it off! I view that as a huge accomplishment. 

Just a reminder that Part II (Dachau Concentration Camp) will be posted sometime tonight or tomorrow. 

Tschüss!