We arrived in Munich in mid-afternoon. By arrived I mean the first time we exited the motorway. By the fourth time we exited the motorway it was more like late afternoon. Eventually we temporarily abandoned the car and continued on foot in search of some sort of map or tourist information. We had actually been told of a good place to stay in central Munich and had booked accom. (a relatively new experience for us which we starting to get used to). This however was a two sided coin because it meant we had to find a specific hostel in Munich rather than any of the countless hostels and hotels we were passing. Eventually we happened upon a detailed road map for $4.50 (can't find the cursed euro symbol) and discovered that our hostel was indeed in prime position over the road from the central station. We proceeded there (almost) directly.
The Wombats Hostel (some tenuous Australian connection tho none of the staff are aussies) was actually pretty flash and good value for money. One of the best things was the town map and suggestions for things to do / see / eat / drink / etc which you got given after checking in. That evening we headed to one of the suggested dining locations and dined heartily on the closest thing to a parma we've come across in Europe. After tea we decided to head for Ned Kelly's aussie bar. On the way we walked down the main drag - Munich is a very pretty town (it doesn't seem like a city at all). The centre of town is dotted with churches and cathedrals and the Rathaus is a large intricately decorated gothic building. The aussie bar was almost as tacky as expected and they weren't even playing afl on the big screen so we had the requisite couple of Fosters and headed home.
The next day we repeated our tour of the main drag and checked inside a couple of the churches and the townhall (Rathaus) before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch and Mass beers (1L). That arvo we checked out the Deutches Museum which is meant to be one of the best (and biggest) technology museums in the world. It was Sarah's idea, obviously. Well all I can say is that when they offer multi-day passes at the entrance, they mean it. The place was huge. It was packed full of genuine pieces of technology ranging from windmills, to mining equipment, to laser cutters, production lines, cars, aeroplanes, space ships, rockets, submarines, diving equipment, boats, bridges, etc, etc. Sarah had a ball. We decided we'd better leave at closing time after nearly being locked in the toilets.
That night we met up with our local contact (Alister - a friend of Richard's) and got a bit of a guided tour around part of the city we hadn't seen and a great meal. We mustn't have disgraced ourselves to much because we scored the use of Alister and his girlfriend's bikes for the next day. We arose early at the indecent hour of 10am and proceeded to pick up the bikes from the agreed location. Munich is very flat so it's difficult to get an idea for the size of the city from street level so we cycled over to Munich's olympic park where there's a man made hill (from post WW2 rubble). The view was pretty decent but Sarah discovered on the way down that her bike was devoid of any form of braking equipment. We therefore proceeded at a fair clip to the English gardens - which are the biggest city gardens in Europe I think. The gardens surround a central lake, biergartens and nude bathing area. We checked out 2 of the 3 (to the great disappoinment of one of our party).
The most memorable bit about the gardens was the surfing area, no joking. Where one of the rivers flows into the gardens under a bridge a permanent wave has been created. The water was bloody freezing but there was about half a dozen well insulated surfers giving it a crack. It was pretty hilarious and unexpected.
The next day we decided to check out some of the castles surrounding Munich. Turns out the weather didn't agree and it was raining pretty solidly. We'd both seen Neuschwanstein before so Sarah decided to take me to her favourite castle from her previous trip. Linderhof is a pretty small castle compared to others but it the only one of Ludwig's castles to be completed and it was amazing inside. Packed with gold, silver, mirrors, chandeliers, and even a dinner table which rose up through the floor. In the surrounding gardens there was even a man made cave with a lake in which the king held concerts!
We'd decided to head to Berlin via Prague so we left Munich there and made tracks for the Czech Republic.
1 comment:
Hi Bidge & Sarah, another great read! I seem to recall giving you some advice before you left home, along the lines of "don't even think about driving through a European city without a decent map" tho I must say Germany is a fair bit less stressful than Italy in that department. You have nailed one of the great dilemmas of travelling, too: if you pre-book accom you then have to find it; if you don't book, you might still spend half the night trying to find it. Great that you met up with Al. xxm
Post a Comment