A fast two day visit to Munich and surrounds
It’s getting on towards 11pm and we are just about packed for the next leg of our journey. Tomorrow we cross almost the entire country by train as we depart Munich and head for Berlin for 4 or 5 days.
Yesterday we focussed on the city centre, starting at the stone gateway known as Karlstor the western entrance to Neuhaser Strasse, the main pedestrian street. Our first stop was St Michaels Church with it’s massive vaulted ceiling and altar. Continuing east we found ourselves in Marienplatz with its world famous clock tower (Glockenspiel) and the Rathaus ( parliament building) We then made a detour into the Viktualienmarkt, essentially an open air food court and produce market where we had a lunch of pork on a bun before making a quick visit to the adjacent St Peters Church. The next holy shrine we visited was the Hofbräuhaus, one of the city’s most famous, or infamous Beer Halls. Needless to say we did not partake of the offerings- nothing like a litre of beer to take the edge off at 1pm.
A fruitless search for the restaurant we ate at on our last trip wasted a good half hour- maybe it went broke or changed its name, before we took the long way back to the hotel, stopping to take photos of the makeshift Michael Jackson shrine. We didn’t see any babies dangling from the nearby hotel though.
While Susanna napped I returned to the town centre to catch the 5pm clock tower performance- statues pirouetting for about 5 minutes to the sound of barrel organ music.
Dinner was at an Italian restaurant where we dined to the musical sounds of ambulances rushing by every 2 or 3 minutes- perhaps we were near a hospital. 47 euro got us a tasty meal of veal for me and grilled squid for Susanna. Great food but rather small portions for the money.
Thursday was a full day of travel, as we headed by train to Fussen, the closest stop to Neuschwanstein Castle. Our tour started at 2:25pm and we had to be there no later than 1pm to get our ticket reservations. We killed a bit of time walking to the Marienbridge that overlooks the castle. Fighting for space along with a hundred or so other tourists we managed a few photos of the castle and surrounding hills.
The castle tour itself lasted about 45 minutes and allowed us to see, but not photograph, the principal rooms of the building. Ornately decorated in various styles the 10 to 12 rooms we saw must be valued in the millions in today’s currency. Sadly the owner died before completion so he did not get very much use out of his enormous building project.
The return journey to Munich required a change of train in the middle of nowhere and we landed back at the main station at 7:20, tired and hungry. Dinner was at a Chinese/ Thai/sushi restaurant serving poor imitations of Real Asian food. It served it’s purpose but I wouldn’t go back, although locals were streaming in and out picking up rather cheap take out meals. It was after 9 when we arrived at our hotel and began to pack for tomorrow’s ride to Berlin. Sadly this was all to short a trip to see everything that Munich offers. This was our second visit, but probably not our last.
Yesterday we focussed on the city centre, starting at the stone gateway known as Karlstor the western entrance to Neuhaser Strasse, the main pedestrian street. Our first stop was St Michaels Church with it’s massive vaulted ceiling and altar. Continuing east we found ourselves in Marienplatz with its world famous clock tower (Glockenspiel) and the Rathaus ( parliament building) We then made a detour into the Viktualienmarkt, essentially an open air food court and produce market where we had a lunch of pork on a bun before making a quick visit to the adjacent St Peters Church. The next holy shrine we visited was the Hofbräuhaus, one of the city’s most famous, or infamous Beer Halls. Needless to say we did not partake of the offerings- nothing like a litre of beer to take the edge off at 1pm.
A fruitless search for the restaurant we ate at on our last trip wasted a good half hour- maybe it went broke or changed its name, before we took the long way back to the hotel, stopping to take photos of the makeshift Michael Jackson shrine. We didn’t see any babies dangling from the nearby hotel though.
While Susanna napped I returned to the town centre to catch the 5pm clock tower performance- statues pirouetting for about 5 minutes to the sound of barrel organ music.
Dinner was at an Italian restaurant where we dined to the musical sounds of ambulances rushing by every 2 or 3 minutes- perhaps we were near a hospital. 47 euro got us a tasty meal of veal for me and grilled squid for Susanna. Great food but rather small portions for the money.
Thursday was a full day of travel, as we headed by train to Fussen, the closest stop to Neuschwanstein Castle. Our tour started at 2:25pm and we had to be there no later than 1pm to get our ticket reservations. We killed a bit of time walking to the Marienbridge that overlooks the castle. Fighting for space along with a hundred or so other tourists we managed a few photos of the castle and surrounding hills.
The castle tour itself lasted about 45 minutes and allowed us to see, but not photograph, the principal rooms of the building. Ornately decorated in various styles the 10 to 12 rooms we saw must be valued in the millions in today’s currency. Sadly the owner died before completion so he did not get very much use out of his enormous building project.
The return journey to Munich required a change of train in the middle of nowhere and we landed back at the main station at 7:20, tired and hungry. Dinner was at a Chinese/ Thai/sushi restaurant serving poor imitations of Real Asian food. It served it’s purpose but I wouldn’t go back, although locals were streaming in and out picking up rather cheap take out meals. It was after 9 when we arrived at our hotel and began to pack for tomorrow’s ride to Berlin. Sadly this was all to short a trip to see everything that Munich offers. This was our second visit, but probably not our last.
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