Our final destination of the trip was Munich. I WANT TO GO BACK SO BADLY! I wish we had decided to stay there an extra day -- although I think we made a good decision to fly back on Saturday instead of Sunday to give us a day to rest before returning to work.
Munich is AMAZING -- there's still SO much I wanted to see! But first....the train ride of a lifetime that will never be happening again. For those of you that have had great overnight train travel through Europe experiences...congratulations! Honestly, our experience wasn't that bad, definitely could have been worse, but it just wasn't at all what we had expected.
We left Amsterdam around 8:30pm as the only people on the sleeper section of the train. It was a bit eerie, but we had some fun taking photos and being goofy. There was no wi-fi -- which sounds so first-world problem of me to say -- but we wanted to watch some Netflix to pass the time! We were keeping our fingers crossed we didn't have to share our cart with anyone else. About an hour into it and the final stop in the Netherlands, a young man around our age joined us. We lucked out -- he was extremely nice and chatted with us for a while. He had missed his flight to Austria for work and decided to just take the train instead. He and Scott grabbed some beers and I continued to hole up on my top bunk terrified to leave it {although I was sucked into the end of Where'd You Go, Bernadette -- I HIGHLY recommend it. It's a quick, witty read. Great for summer poolside.} As we reach the German border, a lady around our age as well joined us to make 4 close-quartered sleeping buddies for the night. She was also very nice and she translated for us as the train conductors spoke in German and the border patrol came around to check our passports. Sleep that night was touch and go -- the train would slam to a stop at every stop, and the bunks were so tiny -- at 5'3" even I was too tall. Some genius at 3am decided to smoke which then set off the fire alarm causing the train to slam to a stop. So that was fun. We finally arrived in Munich around 7:30am. After saying our goodbyes to our bunk-mates, we grabbed a cab to our hotel, Ambiance Rivoli. It was a bit out of the city, but was right next to a subway stop -- only 4 stops from the center of the city -- and was very nice. Since it was too early to check-in {although I was in desperate need of a power nap and a shower} we walked down to a cafe and grabbed some coffee and a little bit of breakfast. The hotel was kind enough to hold our luggage while we waited. Around 10:30am, we checked into our room and immediately took an hour nap. Then it was time to freshen up and grab some lunch! Since we only had one day to really explore Munich, we took the subway down to Marienplatz, Munich's town center, to wander around. We grabbed lunch at a really popular looking restaurant -- which turns out was famous as the table of Americans next to us informed us. The day couldn't have been more perfect. The sky was bluer than I had ever seen it, the sun was shining and the temp in the low 70's. After filling up on beer, sausage and the best potato salad ever -- we walked around and did some shopping. This area had everything from H&M's all the way to the typical designer stuff I could never afford {at least in this year of my life!}. We also saw some amazing architecture.
After an afternoon of wandering, we ventured back to the hotel to freshen up for an evening of beergarden tours. Earlier, while we were waiting for our room to be ready, I was reading all the fun, touristy brochures in the lobby. I found one that takes you to 4 out of the ordinary beergardens around Munich -- and for only 15 euro a person. I finally convinced Scott that we should go -- and it turns out that it was one of the highlights of the entire trip!
We met the group at the train station around 6pm. Our guide was Martin -- a German guy in his early 20s. The rest of the group included 3 students from Wisconsin, a couple from New Zealand and another girl from New Zealand that had just moved to Europe {after living in the states for a while, she decided we worked too hard...} and another girl from Canada that was studying in Europe. We grabbed our first beer -- a roadie -- and sipped on it while traveling to the first beergarden. In Germany, you can walk around with beer -- even take it on the subway {although you can't drink it while the train is moving} -- so that made this tour very convenient. The first stop was at Paulaner -- they sell this in the states, too. It was so good and I've become a huge fan of all hefeweizen beers! We had a blast talking with others about our different cultures and just random quirks we all have from all over the world. The next 3 stops are a bit fuzzy..as you can tell from the photos - and these below are the most normal looking of all. The beers were great and the company was great -- we all loved each other by the end. While traveling to the final stop on the train, our guide was telling us to all stay together. Scott, trying to take charge, raises his hand to gather the group. Martin, our guide, walks over and says, "we haven't done that since '45." and we all die laughing awkwardly. Martin also informed us that the tour was supposed to be over at 10pm -- and it was already 10:30pm. We hadn't even made it to the final destination, which made us a pretty fun group and it was time he could start drinking with us. I kindly gave him my jager shot and half of my beer to close out the night. After almost 4 liters of beer, I couldn't {and didn't} need anymore! I'm not usually a big drinker these days -- but I let loose and whoaaaaa did I feel it the next day! Scott and I left around 11pm and while it was a bit spotty back to the hotel, but we managed to make it safe and sound.
The next morning when we finally decided to move, we went to rent a car to drive out to the Alps to visit Neuschwanstein. Scott had a blast driving on the autobahn and I took in the scenery. It was GORGEOUS! About an hour and a half later, we finally arrived {after figuring out how to turn our GPS from German to English...} -- unfortunately tours were done for the day but the bus was still running up the hill for photos and to walk around the outside of the castle. It was seriously breathtaking up there. I can't even put it into words. If you go, make sure to wear comfy shoes. Flats were fine, but I wish I had worn some running shoes -- there were some fun looking trails to explore! We took the bus up, but decided to walk the mile down the hill. Again, it was just breathtaking.
One of the contract workers in my office grew up on the US Army base near Munich and used to vacation in that area so she told us about this little ski town {Garmisch-Partenkirchen} nearby that we HAD to go check out. So we decided to drive through there on our way back. The road took us on the border road between Germany and Austria and straight through the mountains. Again, no words. Gorgeous. The town was adorable, too, but we decided to keep trekking back to Munich to eat at the famous Hofbrauhaus.
After returning the rental car, we made it to dinner. The Hofbrauhaus place is HUGE! We enjoyed the live music as we searched for a table that we finally found in the very back room -- randomly right by the Wisconsin students from our group the night before! We found out that everyone had stayed up until 3am {um, what? I could barely function at 11pm....} although they couldn't recall too many details, ha. We ate pretzels, sausage, potato salad and drank more beer until we couldn't anymore.
By that time, we headed back to the hotel to gather our things to leave bright and early for the flight back to the states.
Eurotrip 2014 was a complete success and I absolutely cannot wait to plan our next trip back -- Italy, France, Spain?? The list is too long!
Eurotrip 2014 was a complete success and I absolutely cannot wait to plan our next trip back -- Italy, France, Spain?? The list is too long!
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