Munich

Final Destination - Munich

Our last part of the trip was Munich! Chris has always expressed his fascination with Germany and what better way to experience the country but in the city of Munich. After we left Fussen, we continued our drive to the big city. The view was calm and the rural until we eventually hit the autobahn. In Germany, it's a known rule where only the left lane is used to pass the slow car in front of you. Therefore, there are no speed limits. It feels like everyone owns a racecar and people tend to drive up to 200km/hr. The drive to Munich took about 2-3 hours so we made a pit stop to a fancy Mcdonalds before we went into the city. This McDonalds has interesting things like chicken wings that tastes like St. Louis wings, curly fries, mixed lemonades and has servers bringing out your food to the patio.

As we got closer to the big city, things start to slow down. There were traffic jams, road closures, detours and one-way roads. We were desperate to get our car back to the rental office and it took us 2 hours from just driving around the city and to finally find a series of roads not under construction to get to the car return garage. After checking in at our hotel, we decided to get our schnitzel fix and we went to one of the best schnitzel restaurants in the city – Andy's Krablergarten. When we looked at the menu, we noticed how drastically cheaper the prices were compared to food in than Switzerland (almost half). The portions where also much more generous. The schnitzel was as big as Chris' face! 

Over the next few days, we really indulged ourselves in the history of Munich. We visited the infamous Marienplatz (the center of Munich), the city square where you can go up the towers of New and Old town halls and churches which all have an amazing view of the city. Around the area, we also walked passed Feldherrnhalle which was intended to be a Field Marshals' Hall to honour King Ludwig I's army. In WW2, it became a brief memorial site site for the Nazis killed during the failed putsch appointed by Hitler and later restored back to its original form. We also visited Hofgarten and Residenz Munchen and saw how royalty lived. Of course, along the way, we saw some really funny sculptures and had some fun ourselves.

Along the way, we went to a couple of really good restaurants which Chris claims to have the best duck he's ever had. We also passed by Viktualienmarkt which is a 200-year-old food market to get some yummy food. 

We also took a half day trip to Nymphenburg Palace – a Baroque palace. It. Was. HUGE!  Not only has this 490 acre of garden/park around the palace, it has many rooms, each of which is exceptionally extravagant. Everything is so detailed and amazingly crafted. One thing that was particularly fascinating was that they had carriages and sleighs for almost every occasion. They had certain carriages made of solid gold and had very intricate designs. Every facet of the carriage had mini sculptures that had us in awe.

And what's a Germany trip without going to the infamous beer hall - The Hofbrauhaus. It was built in 16th century and it's honestly one of the most lively and energetic places we’ve ever been. They have long with bench seating so everyone sits together. People typically bang on the tables, sing, clinking beers and drinking in unison. It was so much fun. We ordered the pork knuckles and pork chop and it was delicious (for a beer hall)! Chris ordered a stein of beer and I ordered a drink called russn. It was by far my favourite drink. It's a mixture of their famous beer and lemonade. (Kind of like a radler) Their beer was so good Chris and I ordered a second stein each. By the end, we had 4 pints each. We were definitely "buzzed". 

Our friendly server who had to leave in the middle of his shift. He slipped and completely hurt his knee. He is a big guy and even then he had to limp his way back to our table. :(

Munich is also famous for their cars – BMW, so we headed to their museum. The museum shows BMW's technical development throughout the company's history. There where engines and turbines, aircraft, motorcycles, and vehicles in so many possible variations on display. In addition to actual cars, there where many futuristic-looking conceptual designs from the past 20 years.

After we visited the museum, we came across large amounts of people heading to the Olympic Park all dressed up with traditional German clothing - lederhosen and dirndl. Not sure what festival it is, but for us, it was perfect for people watching :)

On the last day, which was a Sunday, we were planning to do some souvenir shopping. However, the plan failed miserably because we didn't know in most Europe, everything closes on Sundays. The only places in the city that stay open are churches and bars. So in desperation, even though it's way out of the city and wasn't planned in our itinerary, we went to Allianz Arena. I used to work for an agency that did apps for Bayern Munich and DFB Pokal (Germany Soccer league). So for me, even though I'm not much of a soccer fan, to see the official arena for Bayern Munich and the actual DFB Pokal trophy has a special place in my heart. We did a tour of the arena and where informed that the arena can hold an astounding 75 thousand people. You think with that amount of people, you can see a game for cheap. But no. It's still really hard to buy tickets even if you have a couple thousand dollars to spend. 

And that concludes our trip to Switzerland and Germany. We loved every minute of it and we hope to visit again soon!