Days 1 and 2

Day 1 (Munich), Day 2 (Salzburg)

We arrived in Munich on the Red-Eye flight and for the first time I was unable to sleep on a red-eye due to this asinine stewardess on a 75% empty flight, bummer. It was 11AM, by the time we cleared customs and checked into the hotel it was nearly 2PM. It was located in a really nice area just outside the city center, right next to Theresienwiese, the location of the Octoberfest grounds. We shower and embark upon Munich in attempt to force ourselves to stay awake.

My first thoughts on Germany:

-The view right after getting above ground at the Marienplatz stop, holy cow awesome. Photo is the first one in this post.

-The train systems, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and DB trains, all awesome, efficient, clean and quiet.

-Munich is VERY commercialized –the main square is enveloped in stores like Gucci, Armani, Prada, Dolce-Gabbana, this was high end, add to it the weak $ and well, we weren’t going to be spending money in Munich, not much anyway.
-the hotel? Well worth being one stop off the Hauptbahnof, the central and largest station
-mmmm, pretzels, good.

Munich, Day 1
We toured the Marienplatz (see picture) as the vendors set up for the Christmas Markets starting the very next day. The buildings were beautiful, the streets charming and it was a delightful choice rather than sticking toothpicks in our eyelids to stay awake. We ate at a place on the Marienplatz called the Ratskellar, good German food, I had Weiner Schnitzel and E had roasted pork leg, both excellent. We also quickly found out that Pretzels, GERMAN pretzels, were to become a staple in our diet, several daily.

We went back and crashed for the night, tickets in hand for an early train to Salzburg to make the most of a day that included our longest train ride of just over 2 hours.

Salzburg, Day 2
Very grateful we made the trip there, it was so well worth it. The train system we used for all the “out of Munich” trips was DB (Deustch-Bahn) and we took only the Regional trains, some have a few stops, some have many. Our passes didn’t allow us to take the highspeed trains anywhere but honestly at nearly 5 times the cost it didn’t make sense. It’s so wonderful to be on a train system where you can hear conversations with your travel mates, where the ride is so smooth it’s tough to feel the stops jerk you around and where it’s just a plain peaceful mode of transit.

We visited the “castle on the hill” via the Funicular, always an interesting way to get up a hill. Walking around the castle walls, taking tours, marveling at the beauty of it and the history over hundreds of years. In one courtyard of the castle was a group of Austrian School children, singing various Christmas carols, including ‘Oh Christmas Tree’, in English, it was so touching and beautiful. While up at the castle, we took several pictures of Salzburg, it was ‘grey’ that day so the colors don’t so through, but take my word, Salzburg is beautiful. Nearing the end of the time at the castle the fog rolled in and we could see it happening from high above, it was pretty neat.

Toured the beautiful city and really fell in love with it’s quaintness, charm and lovely streets which twisted and turned, interconnected in surprising ways and all lined in cobblestone. We feasted on Bavarian pretzel, sorry, if you haven’t had them I cannot really explain the texture, same taste but it’s the texture that made them great, American pretzels are like old stale bread compared to them. We also ate lots of sausages, candies and croissants.

Their Christmas Markets were much smaller than Munich but enjoyable, popping up at the intersections of streets, though most located in the main square (put name in here). One of the two toughest days/moments of the trip occurred in the Christmas markets here, we were looking at the booths, ohhing and ahhhing over things and we came to a children’s toy booth. Eric pointed out this cute as a button wooden carved snail pull toy, with the name Sophia engraved on it, insert lump in throat and tear in eye at this moment. He asked if I wanted him to buy it but I said no. I was touched that he pointed it out and asked and it reminded me, that in our own way, we remember, we mourn and we miss what we never got to experience with every ounce of our hearts.

We spent the rest of the day just touring the cobblestone streets, wandering aimlessly, peacefully, chilly and yet warm all over from just being able to "get away". Each night we talked about the day, what we saw, what we enjoyed and lastly, most importantly, the things we were grateful for from the days adventures. It was a good way to end every day. Something we need to continue to do.

I’ll leave you with this very strange site located just below the castle wall. As E liked to say “Boy that guy is REALLY on the ball”. There were no placards or storylines to tell us what this was about, but it was a strange sight indeed.

Many more pictures to come. I know I didn't put many of Munich in but literally we stopped by the downtown area every day on our way home... there will be more photos! It was a hopping place.