Germany (Munich)

Arriving in Munich had different anticipation than our previous cities.  We had family waiting for us!  When we showed up at our hotel Marilyn’s mom and brother Danny were awaiting our arrival.  As wonderful as all this time has been for the two of us, we were excited to see some familiar faces.  We didn’t want to waste any time, so we began our reunion at the Chinesischer Turm, a beer garden in the Englischer Park.  The Bavarian region is known for their beer gardens and beer halls (beer gardens you can bring your own food, not the case for beer halls).  We spent the night trying to catch up as best we could over large pretzels, sausage, and delicious German beer.  We could not have asked for a better return to Germany.

 

Danny and Judi had rented a car for the first few days, so the following morning we piled into the car and headed on the southern route of the ‘Romantic Road’ toward the Bavarian Alps.  The Romantic Road term was coined after WWII as Germany tried to revitalize its tourism industry.  It follows a series of picturesque towns through the beautiful Bavarian countryside.  Our first destination was Fussen, a city near the Austrian border where King Ludwig II had built a fairytale castle for himself.  His main advisor when undertaking the project was not an architect, but a play set designer.  It was a job well done because Disney actually copied it (as can be seen in Orlando).  As he also drained the royal coffers in the process, it is no surprise that he was deemed insane and forced to abdicate the throne.  Ludwig knew what he was doing though, as the huge number of tourists and high ticket prices suggested that the coffers have been refilled many times over.  Nearby was a more modest castle, the one that Ludwig lived in as a child (the one just wasn’t enough).  From the castles we continued driving down along the Alps, giving us fantastic views along the way.

The Fairytale Castle

The 'Other' Castle

 

The next and final day with the car we took the northern route of the Romantic Road, visiting three medieval towns.  Our first stop was Harburg, known for its castle.  This was quite different from the castles we had seen the previous day.  There were very few tourists and all the tours were in German, clearly catering to different audience.  This medieval castle was meant for defense, standing on a hill with high walls and was certainly not constructed by a set designer.  From there we went to Dinklesbuhl and Rothenberg ob der Tauber, two picturesque towns with lots of medieval architecture.

Harburg Castle

Rothenberg Town Square

Since we no longer had the car, and we were staying there we decided it might be a good idea to actually see the city of Munich.  We used our familiar walking tour as a way of getting to know the city.  We started in the center of the city, Marienplatz, known for its City Hall that houses the famous Glockenspiel, a musical bell show with moving models.  It was made clear to us by our tour guide that beer plays an important role in Munich’s history and modern life.  This city is probably most known for Oktoberfest where Munich’s population goes from 1.5 to 7.5 million.  People flood the streets and drink from the local breweries for a two week festival.  Beer gardens and beer halls are scattered all around the city, always filled with all types of people imaginable, drinking from 1L mugs. 

Munich Town Hall where the Glockenspiel is housed

Munich Cathedral

The beer! (and Dan)

Munich hasn’t always been so fun and lighthearted however.  Hitler nearly came to power even sooner here in the 1920s, when he staged an unsuccessful coup.  Munich proved to be his area of strongest support when he later took power with the Nazi party in the 1930s through a democratic vote.  It was also the beginning of the infamous Jewish pogrom, called Kristallnacht, where SS men began race riots in the streets, destroying Jewish property and synagogues.  About 20 minutes away by train was the first Nazi concentration camp in Dachau which we visited the next day.

Site where Hitler delivered many of his speeches in Munich

Dachau was in operation for the entire duration of the Third Reich, from 1933-1945.  In the first few years of operation it might have been considered tame as far as concentration camps go, mainly imprisoning political rivals of the Nazi party.  However as time went on and violence increased it became much more horrifying and bloody.  We knew that we wanted to visit a concentration camp during our time in Germany; however it was not an experience we would say that we enjoyed.  It was very powerful walking the grounds and learning the more specific history of what went on there.

Dachau wall and fence

 

Since this was our last day together we tried to cram in as much as possible.  After the draining tour at Dachau we returned to Munich to explore the Residenz, the royal palace.  This “house” was very impressive and overwhelming.  Each room was an incredible piece of art; however it became exhausting after a while due to the sheer number of rooms.  We were officially wiped after this day, however disappointed to see it end because we knew we would have to say goodbye.  

A Residenz Dining Room

After Judi and Danny left, we had a few more days to look around Munich.  We decided to check out the Duetsches Museum, a science and technology museum.  One of us was clearly more excited and engaged while the other had to take frequent breaks (hmm who could that be?).  Marilyn did admit however that this was an amazing museum.  It had information and exhibits on everything you could think of, from aviation, to computers, to machine tools, to pharmaceuticals…. etc.  Our two favorite were the marine transport and aviation exhibits.  The marine transport area had extremely detailed models of different types of ships and boats as they appeared throughout history.  In addition they had some full size boats which had been cross-sectioned for viewing.  The same was true in the aviation section, except with planes and jet engines.  They even had a full size replica of the Wright brothers’ plane hanging from the ceiling!

Life size original and replica early flying machines

A scale model of an 1800s clipper ship

 

On our last day we decided to take the S-Bahn out to Freising, where Matt’s favorite brewery, Weihenstephaner, is located.  It is the oldest brewery in the world, dating back to 1040.  We hoped that we could get a tour, but were doubtful as it wasn’t a huge tourist attraction.  Unfortunately, this did prove to be the case; asking the receptionist about a tour elicited the simple response, ‘nein’.  Even though our tour did not work out, we had lunch there as the brewery grounds had several beautiful gardens and great views of the countryside from its hilltop vantage.  Another unexpected gem was the Freising Dom.  We could tell that some kind of church complex was perched on top of another hill in town and decided to explore.  Once we got up to the main courtyard we were presented with a large but seemingly plain cathedral.  The inside proved to be quite the opposite though, we both agreed it was the most impressive we have seen yet.  And if you’ve been following our blog, you know that we have seen our fair share of churches.  The inside of the church was beautifully decorated with paintings, but it was the dark basement chapel, filled with various relics and tombs that added to the allure.

Entrance to the brewery

Interior of the Freising Cathedral

We are currently on our way to Venice.  We have been saving up our pennies to splurge on our favorite food.  And it looks as though this is the end of our beer blog, bring on the vino!