Dates: July 13-16
Stayed at: Wombats (hostel)
Thoughts: Way better than the first Wombats. Rooms were well-lit and spacious, the loungey area seemed cleaner, and the breakfast spread was pretty good.
July 13
So we checked into our hostel, and this time we were sharing a 6-bedroom room. ES and I went out to find dinner. Conveniently, we passed by the Glockenspiel as it was turning on the 17:00 hour so we got to see its performance! (We had been wondering why everyone was crowded around it.) People cheered while the lancers were fighting, and it was a pretty nifty little show (lasted longer than I expected). We had dinner at Andescher. Somehow they thought we knew German (what??? I’m Asian) because we were given a full Deutsch menu (only afterward did they figure out we had no idea what was going on so we were given the English menu). We both got a beef and veggie noodle soup, which was so warm and yummy in the cooler weather.
Clock tower!
We went back to our room; ES napped while I edited photos. Somehow I lucked out with a few of my Florence ones, and I was able to generate a beautiful HDR that was sheer luck (the infamous picture that everyone loves). Eventually, we went downstairs to use the Internet for the rest of the night (I guess it was just one of those nights). When we went back to our room, one of our roommates (we had two Aussies and two Brazilians) was SUPER trashed and throwing up everywhere before passing out. We found out that the two Brazilians (one of the drunk girls) were actually premed/med students!
July 14
Got breakfast at Wombats and then went to the bus meet-up for our day tour of the Bavarian castles. I slept on the ride there to Schloss Linderhof. It was quite pretty but very small (and intimate?). It was ridiculously decadent and rich inside (no pics because we weren’t allowed to).
Fountain outside.
The palace itself.
Part of a garden?
Nearby lake. They called the King (Ludwig II) the Swan King because he loved swans!
After Linderhof, we went to this town called Oberamagau. Unfortunately, it started raining, so no one really wanted to walk around. The shops were very cool though with really cool woodworkings and cuckoo clocks. I also saw some really pretty handmade cards, but I didn’t buy anything. :(
From Oberamagau, we went off to the main highlight of the tour: Schloss Neuschwanstein! We first had a fast lunch at this hotel where I got goulash soup, and ES got this Tyrolean soup. They were good but pretty small so I think we also split an apple cake. Then we climbed up this hill to the top of the mountain to get to the castle. The map guide thing said that it’d take 40 minutes to get there but we were able to do it in 25! Yay. So because we had time before our tour, we went to all of the viewpoints, including this one that was a very precarious, shaky, crowded bridge between two mountains. They were EXCELLENT views of the castle and the surrounding area. I took many photos to make sure I wouldn’t miss the “perfect” shot although I already “did”… I really wanted to get a picture of the castle with fog/mist around it but by the time we got there the rain had gone away so it was just sunny. Which I guess was nice comfort-wise but it didn’t make my photography self happy… I think it would’ve looked prettier with more muted lighting. ANYWAY…
From one viewpoint… the yellow thing on the left is the other castle (Schloss Hohenschwangau).
The Disney castle itself. YES it’s in scaffolding… apparently it’s been like that for years and will still be for a while. =\
The castle was somewhat impressive inside but out of all of the castles I saw on the trip, Schonbrunn from Vienna was still the best. We got out of the tour early, so we took a leisurely walk back down the hill, buying some items along the way. I also got some pictures of the other castle:
We took the bus back to Munich. Along the way, ES and I discussed everything from school to healthy habits, people we knew, and what futures we expected for everyone. At the hostel we joined up with the two Aussie girls to go out for a drink. We originally wanted to go to Hofbrauhaus, the famous one, but someone at the Wombats reception recommended that we go to Augustine instead for dinner too. So we did… and I got a Radler with lemonade (hah), which wasn’t too bad considering I don’t like beer. I shared dinner with ES, which was VERY yummy. I think we were all a fan of the place. When we got back, we tried to plan our trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but we soon realized that it’d be a very expensive endeavor. SOOOOOOO we decided to go to Innsbruck instead.
July 15
The Brazilians left in the night… everyone else said they woke up to them leaving really loudly, but I didn’t hear anything. We got breakfast and then went to the meet-up point to go to Dachau.
The memorial was very “mundane” in that it was pretty “unremarkable”. I’m putting quotes around these words because I don’t want you to think that a concentration camp is mundane/unremarkable. It was more that the area looked very normal and blended into the rest of the city; you wouldn’t have expected that so many awful things happened there. There was a cool exhibit about this artist featuring some of his drawings while he was there. The sculptures and memorials themselves were very moving. By far the most eery thing of the entire trip was standing inside the gas chamber. I couldn’t be there for long before feeling suffocated myself. It really felt very uncomfortable. I thought it was interesting how our guide (Irish) glossed over American genocides in his tour (Western bias?). It also rained almost the entire time we were at the camp, which was perhaps appropriate.
Entrance gates.
The International Monument.
Zoomed in.
When we came back, we ate lunch at this nearby Italian joint before it started POURING. Thankfully Wombats was across the street, so we raced over and hid inside.
During this time, ES went downstairs to use the Internet while I was reading in the room. When she came back, she said she had met someone JS who went to undergrad at the institution I’m at for med school who was on our Dachau tour. He had lost his passport (!) so he was stranded in Munich while his friends (going to my med school; for the record I have met them here [JJ, CC]). So all of us (ES, me, JS, and the two Aussie girls) went back to Augustinier for dinner and drinks. Along the way I found out that JS not only went to my high school (two years above me) but also lives in my hometown!! CRAZY! The world is too small sometimes. After dinner, we all went back to the WomBar to use our free drink coupons and chat. JS and I instantly connected (perhaps to the point of alienating the others); this only further confirmed to me that my high school really built a strong community for its students to the point where you can run into someone in another country whom you’d never met previously and yet feel like you’re family.
July 16
We checked out in the morning and stored our luggage away before heading to the train station to go to Innsbruck. On the train we ran into SF, a friend of mine from Boston. WHAT THE HECK?! It blows my mind how connected people are these days. We sat in the same cabin and chatted most of the way. We all had to get off at Innsbruck since she had to catch another train/bus there to Rome. There was beautiful Alps scenery all around.
At Innsbruck we bought the Innsbruck Card for 30 Euros and then went to find the lift (Nordkette…something) to go up the mountain. Our walk was pretty great. The town is really cute with pretty architecture and absolutely gorgeous surrounding scenery. We passed by Arko, this sweets store that we knew we were going to make a stop at on the way back. We also saw a Swarovski store (unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to go to Swarovski World) where we got free crystal pencils courtesy of our card.
Innsbruck streets. Look at the mountains!!!
Swarovski flashing lights display thing.
The lift that looks like a space station.
We took the lift up half the mountain to go to the Alpenzoo. It was surprisingly warm there for being so high up in elevation. We saw lots of animals, and I guess due to the timing of the visit we also saw lots of cute baby animals!!! The best were the lynx! :) They were adorable to watch; unfortunately, they were darting around so quickly it was hard to get good pictures. We also went to this petting zoo with farm animals that ES was somehow very fascinated with… haha. Farm animals aren’t for me (too dirty?) but I took some pictures for her. There weren’t any otters, which was sad, but I saw lots of funny owls.
Funny owl.
Pretty bird!
Cute baby lynx.
From the Alpenzoo we took the funiculare (?!) to the end and then switched over to the cable carts to go higher up the mountain. At the mid-level, we got out. It was REALLY cold by there, windy, and filled with birds. The air was extremely fresh and crisp. Then we took the lift all the way up. We climbed the remaining way to get to the highest point of the mountain. It was so gorgeous and nice up there. At one point the cloud even enveloped us, which was kind of cool! As I was attempting to take pictures for a panorama, I realized that there were some mysterious scratches on my viewscreen… I still haven’t figured out where they are from but they at least aren’t showing up on my pictures.
Going up…
Beautiful.. and yes, that’s snow.
Cloud!
We took the lifts/funicolare back down, ate lunch, and shopped around, buying lots of gifts for people (were you lucky enough to get one?) before racing back to the train station and then back to Munich.
We picked up our luggage from Wombats and then left to the train station to catch our night train to Berlin. The couchettes ended up actually being these really small beds, which was at least an upgrade from what we were expecting (leaning chairs) but it was definitely very cramped and crowded. It also smelled like feet the whole time. I didn’t end up sleeping too well because from my cot, the light from outside kept shining through the shades into my face.
Tips/Suggestions for Munich (and around)
(1) Yeah… we didn’t do too much in Munich.
(2) Definitely you must go to a bier garten; I mean, that’s what Munich is known for! If you have time, I’d still suggest going to Hofbrauhaus, but Augustinier was definitely worth a stop (not as crazy, great food and prices, etc.).
(3) Try to get on a good tour to Neuschwanstein. It might take a full day like ours did but it’s definitely worth it!
(4) If you can make it to a nearby Alps town from any place you stop at (Austria, etc.), you should definitely do it and at least attempt to go to some part of the mountains. It’s so gorgeous, fresh, and cleansing to the soul up there.
(5) Go to a concentration camp at some point. It’s so much more to see and be in one than to just learn about it in a history class.
under my scrubs 