This post is a little longer than usual as we spent 5 days
in Munich and is our longest stop anywhere yet. Its split between Oktoberfest
and exploring Munich and its surrounding beauty. 50% more content! We always try to deliver a life on the road pic, so here is us waiting for our train in Munich.
Initial impressions
German rail continued to not live up to standards aka
Deutsch Barn is nicht gut, ja. See previous blog post for a description of the
adventure we had getting to Munich. Thank God, we had a private bathroom with a
hairdryer in our room! It may be the size of a shoebox but it is a private and
sparkling clean! It’s the little things we come to love in life.
Day 1
Simon headed out with Josh and Tim to find a Lederhosen
(traditional German male attire), Amy had already purchased a Drindle from
Berlin.
Oktoberfest is like the Easter Fair back home with some
important differences.
- Everyone dresses in traditional Bavarian attire.
- The rides and amusements whilst there are many, this is a small part of the fun
- Beer tents. Think marquees that seat thousands surround by beer gardens that seat thousands more. Some tents are literally tents whereas others are proper structures that are erected for 2.5 weeks during Oktoberfest then dismantled and packed away until next year.
- Beer is MUCH better value than at home, though still inflated
- Everyone is you friend, everyone is there for a good time
- It is huge, it takes about 45 minutes to walk the length of it, and its easy to get lost.
We got to the ground a little before 12 and had the fun
experience of being asked to take some pictures with a group of tourists. We
happily obliged and after about 6 of them had rotated through for photos one
asked “Are you German?” and we replied “No, we’re Australian.” I wish we had a
picture of their faces it was priceless.
In Bavarian tradition the mayor of Munich opened the first keg
at 12pm launching Oktoberfest 2013 officially. The beer started flowing and a
band marched through our beer garden. We were lucky enough to get a table, an
impressive feat considering we did not start waiting in line at 8am like most
people need to. Not only did we get a table but we were speaking to some
Germans next to us and they informed us that this was the best beer hall in
Oktoberfest and it also has the most superb and authentic German food in all of
Munich. They weren’t wrong. It was obvious this place was something special
through its beautiful décor and the fact that its patrons were mostly German.
This is unusual because mostly at Oktoberfest you meet anyone but Germans. One
German man and his friends took particular interest in the colour of Amys skin,
asking whether they have sun in Australia. He called her a cheesecake (in the
most affectionate of ways) to which Simon replied “Ich liebe cheesecake!” – I
love cheesecake. Should have grabbed some fake tan but unfortunately hostel
bathrooms make this a little challenging.
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| This is serious skill! |
After many rounds of 1L steins with Amy pulling her weight
in the beer count we proceeded to hit the fair proper with Josh and Amy riding
all the big rides. Tim and Simon stayed grounded and looked on. The evening
turned somewhat rough after we entered the Hofbrauhaus tent which is known as
the biggest tent. It was a complete zoo! Without going into too much detail you
could hardly move, people were rude and borderline aggressive and a good time
was not had in the tent. All in in all though, a good first day.
Day 2
We awoke early, if by 9am you can say early and headed
downstairs for food. Feeling somewhat under the weather we ate lightly and
drank coffee. With Tim and Josh we agreed to have a quieter day and maybe have
one beer. We suited up in our genuine authentic made in China German lederhosen
and drindl and once again hit the grounds at around 12.
Starting slow as promised we sampled some food and had a
wander around before settling into a different beer garden, Spaten. We ordered
our first round and we all starting sipping slowly. We agreed this brewer was
not as enjoyable as yesterdays so finished up there and went back to
Hofbrauhaus but to the beer garden there instead. There we settled in and met
some fantastic people. Starting with an Italian trio on our table. They spoke
little English, we speak no Italian between the four of us so with a little
help from google translate and the power of pop music we bonded by belting out
“Sweet Caroline” at the top of our lungs. After they left we were joined by a
couple from the States for a while who promised to meet up with Josh and Tim in
Vienna. Following them was a Danish gent who was here with some lifelong
friends (sounds familiar!) and we had a great time discussing all sorts of
things. When he and his group left a quartet of British students joined us and
after the sun had set we went inside the Hofbrauhaus once more. This time en
masse we found a table and had a party.
Amy had great success dancing on the
table but was told “only on the benches!” Nevertheless she can claim to have
danced on a table at the genuine Oktoberfest. We split off from the students to
find food and found the world’s best pork rolls* at a snack stand and devoured
them gleefully before getting lost in the wonder of Oktoberfest for the second
night in a row. Our ‘slow day’ actually turned into another 12hour session at
Oktoberfest.
*Independently verified by all four of us.
Day 3
Very late start. Simon had been keen on the BMW Weld (world)
tour and seeing the factory in action since he first looked at going to Munich.
Of course on arrival you need to book the tour in advance and purchase tickets
so with 6.5 million people visiting Munich in 2.5 weeks you can imagine it was
completely sold out. So after a brief look around BMW Welt we left back to the
city to get some lunch
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Making our way to Marienplatz (the centre of Munich) we
found a nice restaurant and proceeded to have some delicious traditional German
food for lunch with… Pepsis all round.
We walked back to the hotel and had a little crash, got
organised to move to our next hotel in Munich and said our goodbyes to Tim and
Josh. We had an awesome time gents. Let it never be forgotten.
Checking into our Ibis Budget we quickly discovered we had
the worlds crappiest mattress and pillows and found out how true the ‘budget’
part of the name is.
Day 4
After a truly awful nights sleep, if it could be called
that, we got up early to get to Mikes Bike Shop where the tour the Castle
Neuschwanstein would leave from. This is something we had organised well before
we left Australia as the castle is one of the top things to see in Europe not
just Germany. We boarded the coach with 57 other tourists and realised that for
backpacking tourists, we actually dress pretty darn well (looking at you USA).
We drove for 2 hours through some truly postcard worthy German countryside,
lush green fields, jersey cows, white cottages, alps on the horizon (Austria just
on the other side)… you get the idea. We had managed to get the most perfect
weather you could possibly ask for, clear skies and warm. It is usually raining
or snowing and freezing at this time of year according to our tour guide.
Upon arriving at the base of the mountain we had lunch and
Simon went for a ride on the toboggan. It is no match for Corin forest back
home but was still fun nevertheless. The food at the restaurant was great and
we sampled the world wide best wheat beir. It tasted like wheat beir!
The castle itself even from a distance is incredible, perched
on a high mountain by itself with sheer drops around it to make it look even
taller. We took the hike option to get up the mountain, we climbed and climbed,
and can now officially say we have hiked the German alps. Along the way we saw
a spectacular river and waterfall that was used previously to power machinery
in the construction of the castle, still providing fresh water to the castle
just as it did in the 1800’s. We made our way up to the top of the hiking trail
passing some seriously fit older people complete with hiking poles coming the
other way.
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| You can see the viewing bridge on top of the waterfall, views from here are amazing! |
At the top we were greeted with a great view of the back of the
castle but better was to come. Walking even higher we came to Marys bridge.
This bridge was constructed prior to the castle was even thought of by Ludwigs
mother Queen Mary to make crossing from one mountain to other easier. As a side
effect now it gives an absolutely breath taking view of the castle itself. So
breath taking that everyone stops at the first five metres of the bridge to
take photos and clogs it up for everyone even though the bridge is 150m long…
good work people. We took some pics and made our way through the throng of
others back to the path.
Descending down further to castle itself we met up with the
rest of the group to enter the castle for our tour. Some fun facts for you. The
castle has 11,000 visitors a day. We were castle tour number 500 at 4.30pm and
the tour runs until 8pm every 5 minutes. At 13 Euro entrance times 11,000
visitors it’s a pretty decent earner for the Government.
A quick background, the castle has only 16 rooms of 60
completed as the king died before the interior was completed and spent only 6
months living in the castle. The state seized the property after his death as
the king owed millions of golds (I cannot remember the currency of the period)
and opened it as a museum just 6 weeks later. The king placed no value on money
and just wanted what he wanted, this is pretty evident by the things inside the
castle. We think that given how much revenue it makes now, its probably covered
its debts.
Inside the castle no photos are allowed but this king
thought creatively. He had 4 carpenters working for 4 and a half years on his
bed alone which was carved from a single piece of wood. He had a cave, an
actual cave built inside on the corridors leading to his winter garden. The
throne room has a 2000 pound gold coated, Bavarian coloured glass encrusted
chandelier. There are paintings from Wagners operas on every wall, apparently
the king was madly in love with Wagner and they were ‘good friends’. Its
opulent and over the top, like all other palaces and castles so far but with a
creative flair that we thought was unique.
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| View from inside the castle walls |
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| Here you can see the size of the balcony |
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| This is only a small bit of the view from the balcony! |
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| View from the very front of the castle |
Day 5
We had planned an early start to maximise our final day but
again a terrible nights sleep on the worlds most budget bed and pillow, forced
us to have a slow start. We left our sunscreen somewhere so we found a
replacement 75mls for 15euro – yes that is $23!!!Having been in Munich for 4
days we realised we really hadn’t seen much of the city at all so we opted for
a walking tour. It started in Marienplatz - the centre of Munich and the
meeting point was outside the new town hall which has the worlds biggest
glockenspiel (mechanical clock).
We set off and went around the corner to the ‘womens church’
where we got a quick rundown on the history of Munich with Simon playing the
river that runs through the middle of the city. Oscar winning performance
there. Our next stop was the Michael Jackson memorial. It is kind of weird to
have an MJ memorial in the middle of Munich but it is outside a hotel where he
stayed whenever he came to town and when he died people gathered there and
since then this memorial has become protected by the city and is tended to by
fans on an almost daily basis.
We went past the Opera house which has a fun story to its
history. It was constructed by King Maximillian and it was not popular with the
people. 5 years later during one of the coldest winters Munich had ever seen
the Opera house caught fire. The people gathered to watch it burn and the fire
brigade was powerless to do anything due to the water in the fire hydrants and
trucks being frozen! The king desperate to save his Opera house ordered that
the city bring in its supply of beer to extinguish the fire. All people were to
help throw the beer on the fire, but it became a little beer for the fire and
another one for me… things escalated until it became a massive party next a
huge opera house bonfire. The king was pretty annoyed so he raised taxes on
beer for two years to generate money to rebuild the opera house. People were OK
with this because they had such a good party and so much free beer.
We popped down a small alley to hear the some stories about
Hitlers history in Munich and how he came to power and his failed attempt at a
coup in 1923. This gold path in the pavement is where people would duck down
“dodgers alley” to avoid having to salute a memorial Hitler erected in memory
of 16 SA members who were killed by police during HItlers first attempt at a
coup.
We then went to Odeonplatz (a city square next to the
palace) which is just around the corner where the coup was put down and Hitler
was nearly killed except for his two bodyguards taking bullets and falling on
him. After the shooting stopped he ran away to a friends outside of Munich and
was found two days later, arrested and sentenced to 5 years prison. He served
11 months and during this time wrote Mein Kampf. 10 years later Adolf Hitler
became chancellor of Germany and the rest is tragic history. What is
interesting is that Hitler was actually a budding artist, and tried to get
accepted into art college but was denied 2 times. Would things have ended
differently should he have been accepted?
The square itself though is beautiful. It has the former
royal palace, the yellow church which was built for a priest after a promise
from the King at the time that if the priest would pray for a week straight for
the Kings 8th child to be a boy (7 daughters previously) that he
would give him whatever he wanted. The priest asked for a yellow church on the
outside and completely white inside. The king kept his promise and built the
priest his church.
We ducked into the palace courtyard (now a museum) for a
quick run down on the Kings and Dukes of Bavaria. Old mate Ludwig showed up
near the end. We heard a story about a King who during a particularly bad
harvest to price of grain rose. No one cared but then the price of beer rose
and riots broke out! The king dispatched police to quash the riots but the
police, also miffed at the rise in the price joined the riots! Eventually the
king himself subsidised the cost of beer and the people settled down. Another
king was unhappy with the quality of local beer so he imported it from all over
Europe. This was obviously expensive so his advisors asked him to set up his
own brewery so he did. The HopBrauHaus aka The Royal Brewery which still exists
today and is the largest local brewery.
After the tour was finished we went for a bit of a wander
Kings garden out the front of the palace. It’s a beautiful garden with box cut
hedges, flower beds and a gazebo in the middle.
Just walking the streets of old Munich is an experience in
itself with cute little shops, ivy covered buildings and cobblestone streets.
Its really quite charming.
We decided to head to the beer garden our guide had told us
about that was in the English gardens. The gardens were constructed by a King
during the French revolution to become more popular so his people wouldn’t turn
on him like the French did their King. The gardens themselves are quite nice
and theres even a rapids spot where locals go surfing!
We ran into two Canadians who we had met on our tour that
day, they had gotten lost in the gardens seeking the beer garden. We teamed up
and made our way to the traditional beer garden that the locals love. Its easy
to see why. There are two things that make a beer garden traditional.
- You must be able to bring you own foo
- There must be chestnut trees
Tick and tick, this place is traditional. It also has an
impresseive “chinese tower” for whatever reason.
After a lengthy afternoon whiling away time talking about
all sorts of things we made our way back to the Haupbahnhoff (central station)
to catch our overnight ride to Amsterdam.
Lessons Learnt
- Do a quick check of everywhere before you leave for items (sunscreen), because its really expensive to replace.
- The language of beer is universal and the answer to everything in Munich is Bier!
- Amy does actually like beer if she has to
- Budget hotels can be worse than hostels
- Bier is taken really seriously, there is even a law which governs how bier is made and that it can only have 4 ingrediants. Meaning Munich has some really pure bier. We learnt that preservatives in bier contribute a lot to a hangover
- A rolled up blanket can make an excellent pillow in a pinch
- You can totally overdo pretzels and wurst of any kind.
Parting Thoughts
- Oktoberfest was amazing, we would go back again
- Munich and surrounds is full of interesting sights besides beer
- German trains are still rubbish
- Lederhosen should be the norm, totally comfortable
- We have barely touched the sides of Germany and the little taste of the countryside was amazing. Staring at the alps with Austria over the otherside made us even more excited about what is still to come on our journey.
Auf Wiedersehen (Until we meet again) Munich.
Simon and Amy
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