Day 8 – A Quick Tour Of Munich
Today’s Blog Entry
On Saturday we headed back to Munich by train so that we’d be close to the airport for our flight home early on Sunday morning. It seemed like a lot of other folks were re-routing their train travels through Kufstein as the train was quite full. Fortunately Cindy had the foresight to purchase First Class tickets and ensure our seating. This made for a more relaxed trip overall, but we were surprised to see that the OBB didn’t make much provision for baggage on an InterCity train that was obviously intended for long distance travel. All of the overheads were full and there was even some baggage in the aisles. At least the seats were big and relatively comfortable.
We arrived in Munich a little after 12 Noon, instead of three hours earlier as we had originally planned to maximize our time for sightseeing. This actually worked out well as we still had plenty of time to wander the historic district of Munich. The later arrival also meant that our hotel, the Eden Hotel Wolff, was able to have our room ready for early check-in as soon as we arrived from the Munich Bahnhof.
We’ve stayed in a lot of in-city hotels in Europe (usually just for one night before an international flight the next day) and have to say that the Eden Hotel Wolff is a keeper. The staff was very friendly, our top-floor room under the eaves had just been renovated, the price was right, and the location could not have been better as it was literally just across the street from the main Bahnhof (an important consideration when you’re lugging a ski tube!). The location made for a convenient arrival as well as a quick departure the next morning via the S Bahn direct to the Munich Flughafen.
After dropping our bags in our room (and leaving the ski tube with the bell hop!) we strolled several blocks to the Marienplatz, more or less the heart of the tourist area of Munich. We passed the Justizpalast (Palace of Justice) before passing through an archway into the Marienplatz area and reaching the Neues Rathaus. Neues Rathaus means ‘New Town Hall’, which is a relative term as the building was actually finished in 1908!
The biggest attraction of the Rathaus is arguably the Glockenspiel. Mounted high above the plaza, the Glockenspiel consists of 32 life-sized figures and 43 bells arranged on an elaborate mechanical stage. The whole show lasts somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes long depending on which tune it plays. At the very end of the show, a very small golden bird at the top chirps three times, marking the end of the spectacle. This cuckoo clock on steroids chimes every day at 11 AM (as well as at 12 Noon and 5 PM in the summer).
The basement of the Rathaus is almost completely occupied by a large restaurant called the Ratskeller. Presumably there is no relation to the Rathskeller in State College PA where so much Rolling Rock is consumed, although they’re both in the basement and both beer-oriented so maybe there is a secret connection?
A few blocks further on we strolled through the Viktualienmarkt, which is a large outdoor food market that is open every day. The Viktualienmarkt developed from an original farmers’ market to a popular market for gourmets. It covers nearly six acres with 140 stalls and shops that offer flowers, exotic fruit, game, poultry, spices, cheese, fish, juices, and beer (of course!).
After all this walking (as well as the sights and smells of the Viktualienmarkt) we were more than ready for lunch. We checked out the menus at the Ratskeller and the Hofbrauhaus before deciding on the notably quieter but equally charming Augustiner Am Platzl – it was definitely more our style.
Cindy had the crispy grilled duck with potato dumplings and Stuart had the Wiener Schnitzel, accompanied by the fine in-house Augustiner Lagerbier in 0.5 liter mugs. It seemed like everyone around us was getting the Schweinshaxe, a roasted pork knuckle (a.k.a. ham hock) served on a wooden cutting board with sauerkraut or potatoes and fresh ground horseradish. It doesn’t sound particularly appetizing, but boy it looked good!
After eating we wandered back through the old town area to our hotel for a quiet evening before our departure for home early the following morning. The digital thermostat in our room was either a) all in German and we didn’t understand it or b) psychotic (Stuart thinks ‘b’) so the heater ran a lot more than we needed given the down-filled duvets. As a result we slept with our dormer windows open to be comfortable. It was remarkably quiet for an in-city hotel, aside from a brief time around 2 AM when we were serenaded with robust German voices singing from the street six stories down.
In the morning we toted all of our luggage across the street to the Munich Hauptbahnhof where we boarded the ‘S8’ S-Bahn train for the airport. This is a 40 minute trip given the airport’s location in the countryside 17 miles outside of town. The airport, the second largest in Germany behind Berlin, was moved to this location to make room for more and larger jets vs. the original location in Munich.
Our flight home was smooth aside from strong headwinds that made our flight time around 11-1/2 hours, just to Atlanta. I’m not quite sure how we managed to have strong headwinds in both directions over the Atlantic; maybe we’re just lucky.
We made our connection to Richmond with ease but when we landed in Richmond we found ourselves in a rather nasty snowstorm. The snow was wet, heavy, and sticking to everything in sight. Apparently VDOT had no clue that there was any snow falling as we saw only one or two plows during our 50+ mile drive back to Williamsburg. We had seen forecasts about the storm even before we left Germany, so apparently VDOT hasn’t heard of this little thing called the Internet.
The roads were in really poor shape and the visibility even worse, but we made it home safely in spite of taking much longer than usual. At times the Interstate slowed to a crawl so we finally bailed and finished the journey on a smaller state route that runs more or less parallel. Given all the time that we’ve spent in the mountains over the years we’re used to snow driving, but this was easily top five in terms of the worst roads we’ve ever seen. It would have been a challenging drive anytime, but given that we’d just arrived back from Europe and were ready to be home it was especially bad. Ah well, that’s just one of the joys of winter travel.
Today’s Map
Today’s Photos
