Munich Day 4: In Photos

I got up and went to Aroma Kaffeebar to drink a latte and eat müseli:

We visited BMW Welk (BMW World) and peeked in at the museum:

We wandered around Olympiapark, built on hills made of WWII rubble, and where the 1972 Olympics were held:

Aquatic center still in use!

SUNNNNNnnnnnn

The construction is for a RedBull downhill skating race in January. 

Sunnnn!

YARN BOMB'D

Munich / München from the top

Then Britton and I found more beers. We'd hoped to revisit the Jodlerwirt, but today it was closed. Sad face. We wandered around a bit, and decided to cut our losses and head to the Hofbrauhaus for one last gigantic beer each. I always love the energy and atmosphere of that place! Plus we got to hear some live oompa-loompa music and see dancers perform some traditional steps.

The end!

Munich Day 3 (Part 2): "I want to try" not "eins zwei drei"

Dachau was pretty heavy stuff, so we found lighter activities for the afternoon.

First stop, a quick look at the Victory Gate (Siegestor). This arch sits in the middle of a rather busy street, crowned with a statue of Bavaria and four lions. The arch was heavily damaged during World War II, and was never fully restored, in order to serve as a reminder of the war. In the second photo below, the columns should be supporting a ledge, like you can see in the first photo.

Second stop, watching the surfers at the Eisbach River. (Yep, surfing in water with the name "ice brook".) I can't believe these guys were still out there when it's nearly January! Today was mild, but it sounds like this is a year-round activity even when the weather isn't abnormally warm. It was really fun to watch. I'd be here weekly if I lived in Munich. You could tell some of these guys were very new at this, and for such a strenuous sport I can imagine the learning curve is pretty steep. 

We walked back through the Englischer Garten, aka Munich's "Green Lung" — a huge park near the east side of central Munich. It was very popular on a Saturday evening, with musicians, picnickers, and lots of doggies. And of course a biergarten!

We finished up the day at Augustiner Keller, a beer hall near-ish to where we're staying. I only ordered potato dumplings, and the waiter only rolled his eyes a little bit. It was a win-win.

Today's title came from yesterday. We were attempting to order pretzels with a waiter who was really energetic but not so great with English. We wanted one order to try, but "I want to try" sounds just like "eins zwei drei", drei being the German word for three! We almost ordered three baskets of bread (not pretzels; the pretzels never materialized) for four people before we realized why he kept holding up three fingers. Language!

Munich: Dachau Concentration Camp Tour

There's no easy way to write about visiting a Concentration Camp. But I think it's important that you visit, if you have an opportunity. I'm not going to write much about it because it seems like everyone will have a similar-but-different, powerful experience. I certainly did.

It's horrifying and astounding to realize the scale of Dachau, and how it compares to other camps and other atrocities during the war: the 41,000+ who were murdered at Dachau are a fraction of the millions at other camps.

It's redeeming to realize that Germany today has a very deep respect, reverence, or even shame, for what happened. You don't make jokes about the Holocaust here. A Nazi salute — even in jest — is punishable with jail time.

And there's hope in realizing that we can say "Never Again" and mean it.

What's this?

I went to Dachau with a tour, which I would highly recommend. Our trip today was actually the second time my husband toured Dachau; he was here in 2007 on his own and did the self-guided, read-the-placards method. He mentioned a couple times that he preferred the guided since our guide provided a lot of context for what the signs within the memorial and museum describe. Guides also have answers to your random questions. A four-hour tour only covered the very basics of Dachau; with a guide you can ask more in-depth questions between group stops. We used Sandemans New Munich Tours, but there are plenty of tour groups to choose from.

Travel pro-tip: we bought sandwiches at the train station before heading out. Our tour started at 9:30 and finished at Dachau around 2:30/3:00, so I was quite thankful that the family had the forethought to grab some sandwiches to eat on the S-bahn home. (No food allowed within the memorial.)

DIY Travel: Getting to and from Dachau would be very easy. Take the S2 S-bahn toward Petershausen; get off at Dachau Bahnhof. Exit the station and walk to the bus stop, which is right outside. Then, take bus 726 to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. If you have a metro pass for the entire network, your travel costs are already covered. The bus waited for a long time at either terminus, so it's very easy to navigate. (Most tours include travel costs in the price if you don't have a travel pass.)

Munich Day 2: Walking Tour on Christmas

Merry Christmas! Wishing you good cheer and happiness on what is hopefully a lazy day with your favorite people. Have you signed up for a postcard yet? 

Today was a beautiful, clear Christmas day in Munich! Coming in to this trip I was a bit anxious about traveling over Christmas, but was relieved to wake up and find the cafe across the street open (and serving tasty sandwiches), plus plenty of other sight-seers and pedestrians walking out enjoying the unseasonably warm holiday.

Today we started with a walking tour of the city center. Britton and I have had great success in many cities around Europe using Sandemans New Europe Tours, and they operated their daily "free" tour today, just like any other day. And it was popular — nearly 100 people showed up! (They split the group: one-third were Spanish-speakers and they set off with a native hispanohablante, and the rest of us divided between two guides, so our final group was large but not unruly.) You can see us on their Facebook Page. Every tour is different so how about some photos instead of words?

SO MUCH BEER. They can't *not* talk about beer. It's too connected with Munich and Bavarian history!

Dodger's Alley Memorial. Look it up. Here's a brief but beautiful post from Clare over at Need Another Holiday. It's one of the best memorials that I've come across anywhere in my travels.

After the tour, we sucked it up and paid a bit more than we would have liked at a German-food restaurant. My food was delicious, so I'm dubbing the price tag a "Christmas Surcharge". I ate potato dumplings, which I LOVE. (And I don't like potatoes, so this is saying something, people.) They're gummy-steamed-squishy goodness topped with gravy. DELISH.

To round out a beautiful Christmas day, we made the quick trek out to the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace (my brain immediately associated it with a nympho, so that's been a Freudian slip waiting to happen all day...). It's about 30 minutes outside the city center via public transit. It is a huge (HUGE), wandering palace, originally used as the summer home for the Bavarian royal family. Tough life. But it's really beautiful and the grounds are open year-round, even if the palace itself isn't.

Would you get a look at these tourists? Gosh. So cliché!

Britton: "Why did we stop?"

Me: "You're going to stick your arm out and take a pic of us smashing our faces together in front of this palace!"

And we found a bakery that is strategically positioned between the palace (which is a big tourist attraction) and the tram stop to get back to town. I ate a croissant stuffed with apricot filling and dusted with powdered sugar. I will never meet its equal.

Also a beautiful sunset to end the day. OMG THE SUN WAS OUT ALL DAY. The WHOLE day. All of it. Sunny sunny sunshine. Merry Christmas to me!

New Europe Tours: Munich

In our search for things to discover in all of these new cities, we've come across some excellent tip-based tours (read: advertised as free but you're expected to tip the guide). Munich was our first experience with New Europe Tours - one "free" and one we paid for ahead of time.

Our first tour was the "free" tour which left from Marienplatz, one of the main squares in Munich (at 3pm - turns out when you drink with Germans the night before, you tend to sleep til 11 without realizing it!) which is famous for the glockenspiel, a large cuckoo clock of sorts. More about that later.

Our guide was fun; a young 20-something from Ireland who was losing his voice and explained at the beginning that "over 80% of the questions he asks can be answered with 'beer.'" This is our kind of guide!

The tour was also wonderful. We learned a lot of facts - some fun and some somber - about Munich and Germany. Most memorable were Dodgers Alley (a memorial to citizens who were sent to concentration camps because they purposefully avoided a Nazi memorial), a brief history of Oktoberfest and the kings leading up to its founding, and of course the glockenspiel.

Ah, yes, the glockenspiel. Not only is it fun to say, it's also boring to watch! For some reason, the touristy thing to do in Munich three times each day is to watch a not-so-intricate cuckoo clock chime horrifically out of tune from the bell tower of what looks like an old church but which was actually built in the 20th century.

It was more interesting to me that SO MANY PEOPLE packed the square! Find a YouTube video of this clock and you'll see why I'm so amazed - it's large figurines on a turntable twirling around! That's all! Though, some native Munich residents have added their own flair: at one point two jousters, er, joust, and Bavaria wins which sets off big whoops of victory from what looked like very drunk members of a bachelor party.

(By the way, if you think your bachelor/ette party was over-the-top or well organized, you are wrong. In Munich, the group of 10-20 buy matching t-shirts or matching outfits - one group of girls wore the traditional Bavarian beer maid dress - and have to interact with the crowd and embarrass the honoree. To say the groups stood out is an understatement. Oh, and they're also really drunk and causing a scene.)

Our second New Munich tour was the Beer Challenge. I'm not sure why it's a beer "challenge," other than at the beginning the guide mentioned there is a completely subjective drawing at the end to win a free tour from New Europe tours. It's a well-organized, guided pub crawl. Which is awesome!

We went to a beer garden, Hofbräuhaus, a bar across from Hofbräuhaus, and another bar. There might have been one more but that's not important.

The BEST part was it's a bilingual tour, and I wound up sitting next to a couple from Spain! After our guide gave the group a set of instructions on how to order beer within the group, they gave each other the 'I don't know what she said, do you know why she said?' look and I intervened. And then we were friends! I learned a lot about Spain - they're from Barcelona - and we had fun.

We hung out off-and-on with them as well as a couple from Brazil, a kid from Russia, and other random people from the world. The group was huge - probably 30-40 people being herded by two tour guides.

And - Bonus! - it ended three blocks from our hotel!

(photo is of musicians in the beer garden on the Beer Challenge)

Hardy and Anka at the Jodlerwirt

We realized Munich would be fun when we found the Jodlerwirt and met Hardy & Anka.

We had a big day of driving on the autobahn and through castle road (more on both of those in the previous post!) and were looking for some delicious, authentic German food.

What we found was not only authentic German food (thankfully still being served at 10pm) but authentic Germans, authentic German songs, a staff that spoke only German, a German accordion player, and lots brewed-in-house German beer.

This place was tiny, loud, and packed. We followed a waitress — definitely a Woman In Charge —through the crowd. I figured if she was pushing through, we had free reign to push, too, and we found ourselves looking at a table with another couple already there! They let us squeeze in and we ordered a couple of beers by pointing at their beers and smiling really big. (Lucky for us the Woman smiled back!)

We figured out how to order some food (chicken & beef? Or maybe pork? With mushrooms and delicious gravy, plus some pasta thing. Schnitzel? Again, pretty big language barrier at this point!) and took in our surroundings: loud, German pop music was playing while big groups of friends talked/yelled/laughed around their tables. Sometimes singing along, usually ending in a toast to whatever the song was about.

About the same time our food arrived, Hardy and Anka did, too, and slid into the table with the four of us — pretty much the only two seats left in the place. They spoke English! Yay!

They were an older couple — maybe in their late 60s? — but you could tell they refused to acknowledge that. We soon learned they live in Texas, and sometimes California, and sometimes Germany or Austria. And according to Hardy, Anka used to be a cop but according to Anka, she works at an antique store in Houston. And according to Anka, Hardy is a famous singer in Austria! Whatever it is they do, they were both delightfully drunk when we met them, an had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

When the accordion player started, Hardy would sing along and Anka would grab his and whosever hands she could (usually mine!) to sway left to right with the music. The guy from first couple at the table was, according to Anka, from Berlin, which "explained why he didn't know how to enjoy himself" when he chose to sit and enjoy the music and didn't also grab Britton's hand to sway like a drunkard through every song.

So, in between bites of food and acting like I knew what was going on by yelling syllables along with these German accordion tunes, and the swaying and the talking, we had a really good, how-did-we-get-here time, even though we couldn't speak, sing, or understand ANY of what was going on. (Turns out the Sinatra song, "bona sera, señorita, kiss me good night" is almost the same in German!)

They were thrilled that we knew how to play along ("most Americans are so stiff!") and that we just got married ("We just got married, too! In 1966!") and about their new grandbaby, which was either the second or third. The story was a little different each time.

As we walked back to the Best Western (ha! Travel across an ocean to stay at a Best Western!) we knew Munich was going to be a memorable leg of our journey.

Anka (L) and Hardy

PROST!

Getting lost in a Mercedes is way more fun

Everything you've heard about the autobahn is just about true.

Things I didn't realize:
1 - it's not just one stretch of road, it's Germany's entire highway network
2 - some parts do have limits
3 - some people still drive normal speeds; it's just a highway to them I guess?
4 - the highways aren't labeled as north/south or east/west. You have to know a city in the direction you're headed.

Things I'd heard that really are true:
1 - a large number of the cars are Audis, Mercedes, BMWs, and other built-for-speed cars.
2 - these cars drive FAST and you'd best not be in their way when the speed limits are lifted!
3 - driving fast is FUN.

We set out from Frankfurt in our rented Benz, and immediately found the highway we wanted to get us to "Castle Road" - a stretch of scenic byway that is dotted for miles with castles. It was even labeled, "Kassel" so I figured they must know a lot of tourists head out to find this road - how convenient!

As navigator, it was my job to get us headed in the right direction so that Britton could focus on driving since we didn't know what to expect. Let's jut say it's a really good thing we opted for the GPS unit.

Upon further inspection of the map, it turns our that there is a city in Germany named 'Kassel' and that it is in the opposite direction of the castle road. Oops! It also turns out there are fewer exits (Ausfahrts, lol) than on a highway in the States. And that when in Germany, the street signs tend to be in German, if they have any words at all! Go figure!

We got ourselves turned around without much further issue, and kept a close eye on the road signs until - yes! - we saw the sign that means all limits are lifted! Britton was cautious to check the road ahead for other cars, etc., and started to gradually increase our speed.

First to 90, which seemed to be a comfortable pace. You might hit that in the states, if you aren't paying attention. Then 100, a milestone of 3 digits! Giddy from the first burst, we settled down for a few minutes to keep our heads.

Next to 100 - much quicker this time. The Benz just wanted to go faster, faster! Then 110 - 120! We were passing most, but still a few others were passing us. Must mean it's ok to get a little faster!

Britton hit 130mph! It was exhilarating!

The funny thing was after driving that fast, how slow 80 or 90mph felt now. Driving to St. Louis will never be the same.

We kept up those quick speeds (not as fast as 130, but still around 90-100 on average, I'd say) and found our scenic highway, which alas, had a speed limit (about 55mph).

But the road delivered as promised! It seemed that there was a castle every 10-15 minutes! We wandered around a few, just the outsides, as our previous detours had chewed through some time.

We stopped for lunch in a small, picturesque town with a name I can't remember but had a lot of letters. Lunch was delicious. Kind of like a gyro wrapped in a large, thin pita bread that we watched the owner cook right in front of us. Best of all it cost only 4€ and fed both of us! Yummmm.

We eventually realized that if we wanted to get in to Munich to return the car at a decent time, we would need to get back on the autobahn and say good-bye to the castles. That meant it was my turn to drive.

Fun fact - 5pm in Germany is also rush hour. And just as many drivers pile onto the highways as in a major city at home. So for the first part of my stint on the autobahn, I was driving about 40mph in stop-and-go traffic with a manual transmission. Oh, joy.

It did clear up after some time, and I got to experience the thrill of driving as fast as I wanted. And as I said before - it was FUN.

And it meant we made it to Munich in time to return the car, find our hotel (best western - ha!) and find some food. That proved to be more fun than expected! Read "Hardy & Anka" for that story!

Turn off the Internet, turn off exploring?

The train rise from Köln (Cologne) to Frankfurt, Germany is so far much more interesting - visually - than other routes we've been on (and awake for) this trip. There are mountains, small towns, and a nice winding river that we've followed most of the way.

But, unlike Thalys, Bahn doesn't offer wifi. Which means I don't know what mountains, which towns, or what river I'm next to.

In a world where the information follows is around in our back pockets, what does that do to old-fashioned exploring?

What is new exploring?

Before leaving for my trip, my boss passed on some stories of when he lived in Budapest 20ish years ago. He had books, maps, train schedules and was gathering them all up at home when he realized, that isn't how traveling works anymore. Britton and I aren't carrying big, awkward maps or heavy guide books. It's all in our phones - even this blog post is being typed letter by letter with my two sturdy thumbs.

We're left to speculate uses for things instead of immediately asking Google, "what is that?" We have to memorize directions while we have a wifi signal because we can't refer to our little blue GPS dot when we don't have a working GPS phone.

Some of that has been fun - in Amsterdam there was no possible way for us to remember all of these new sounds so we made associations. 'Turn left on lederhosen, then right on Lichtenstein.'

But as a child of technology, I do tend to feel stunted when I don't have that connection to the info that the Internet provides. It's a conundrum: technology simultaneously moving us forward but holding us back. What's left to wonder, what's left to explore?