Munich (Days 28-31)

This will be another unconventional post as our time in Munich was not really spent exploring the city. Instead we did a day trip to Salzburg (home of The Sound of Music), participated in Freulingfest (the spring version of Oktoberfest), and took a second day trip to the Bavarian castles. I also celebrated my one month in Europe (less than 3 weeks to go :( ).

Salzburg, Austria

Our original plan was to do a day trip to Bratislava and then spend a full day exploring the city of Munich. But Vienna had a couple sites we didn't get to, and after looking at all our options it was a little pricey to go directly from Vienna to Munich on a train. Solution: take a day trip to Salzburg on our way to Munich, slicing our travel costs in half and giving us a peek of the Austrian alps. It was a genius solution.

Panoramic view of downtown Salzburg

Enjoying a sweet apple pretzel in Salzburg

When we arrived in Salzburg we had three main objectives: 1. Visit the sound of music sites, 2. See Mozart's home, 3. Sing the hills are alive while looking at the alps.

Objective 1:

While there is an official Sound of Music tour we wanted to spend our time a little more broadly. So when we arrived we went to the tourist information desk, asked where the important SOM sites were located, and began our walking tour.

Fountain where the Do-Re-Mi song is sung

I'm pretty sure this appears in the movie as well

Retracing the steps of The Von Trapp family

Summary: I need to rewatch this movie when I get back home.....

Objective 2:

When we asked about the SOM sites, we also asked about Mozart. He was born in this sleepy city, and actually spent a good chunk of his life here. The museums were a little pricey so out of price and time considerations, we skipped them. 

Mozart's Home

Objective 3:

To accomplish our final objective we used our afternoon to climb up to the top of one of the oldest fortresses in Europe. The view was incredible, but it was quite the uphill hike! One of the main things that we learned at the fortress is that the name Salzburg actually represents the regions importance in producing salt.

At the top of the fortress

The hills are alive!

It was fun to see all the rain falling over the mountains

Freulingfest (Munich, Germany)

Day 2 of our Munich visit was spent how the typical German would spend it. Drinking beer and enjoying German culture. There really isn't much more to say about this day. We spent most of the morning and afternoon sitting in tents/gardens, enjoying German music, and saying Probst while clinking our steins!

Our first stop was the beer garden

Our first tent was the typical German beer tent. These tents are also used during Oktoberfest when there are 10x the amount of people in attendance

The final tent we visited, it is known as the one for young people

A very long, but super fun day complete!

Bavarian Castles

This was probably the day I was most looking forward to in Munich. The famous  Bavarian castles are located in South Western Germany amongst the alps. We took a two hour train from Munich to Füssen and then a bus from Füssen to the castles. 

Some nice scenery on our train ride

More mountains

First view of the castle

The other Bavarian castle, unclear what its name is but pretty nonetheless!

Neuschwanstein is actually the castle that the Disney castle is modeled after. I have to admit that I felt a little bit like a Disney princess when we were walking through it.

The castle from the famous bridge (pictured below). We also toured the interior of the castle, but no photos are allowed. It was completed around 1890 so we were surprised by the modernity of the building.

Pictures here is the bridge that we went on to get the photo above. It was VERY rickety and we all thought that someone would fall off.

Not too bad a view from the castle!  Also in the castle are a cave, ballroom for concerts, and LOTS of swan references (faucet, humidifier, handles, decals...just to name a few)

Conclusion:

We ended our stay in Munich with a (partial) walking tour of the city. Unfortunately our train to Prague left at 12:45 so we only got to see the first hour of our tour. I think the tour company was called New Europe Tours and I would HIGHLY recommend them if you're ever in a place that offers them. Also, I want to encourage using Seat 61 for train reservations. It's a website that literally tells you how to get from each city in Europe to another for the cheapest. We just saved ourselves HUNDREDS of euros by using their advice! 

Finally, while typically no post is complete without a mention of food....I'm going to pass on that this post. We were traveling a lot and actually spent one night on typical average Chinese, and Aspen and Cristina caved and got McDonalds another night. Nothing to write home about, but I'm confident the eating in Prague will be much better.

See ya in 3 days Germany.

Summary:

Rating: 6.2/10 (Katie), 7.5/10 (Aspen), 8.5/10 (Cristina)

Likelihood of Returning: 40% (K), 65% (A), 90% (C)