Munich, Germany :: Third Reich Tour & the Hofbrauhaus

Earlier this month we took the train down to Munich. Highlights of the trip? 

Third Reich Tour led by an Irish man. Dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus. 

Stumbling upon Taco Libre- where we ended up eating TWICE in less than 24 hrs. 

 Don't judge. Good Mexican food is hard to come by in Germany. 

Mom's Visit: Bamberg, Germany

Day three of Mom's visit was spent in Bamberg. Another town within an hour radius of "home". This was my first time to Bamberg and I so enjoyed it! The weather had dropped a bit and I must admit I preferred keeping my hands in my pockets rather than taking pictures. So unfortunately there are only a couple Instragram shots of the town. 

These day trips with my mom have made me realize how much more I prefer exploring the city on a weekday. Less weekend hustle and bustle.  We walked aimlessly for the most part, but used the awesome 'blue dot' on the Google maps iPhone app to hit a few key sights. All in all a great trip exploring another picturesque German town. 

Mom's Visit: A Day Trip to Rothenburg

I seriously can not get enough of this city. I think this is the 3rd time I've visited and it still has not gotten old! While Mom was still adjusting to the new time zone we decided to stay close and just make day trips the first few days of her visit. The first of which was Rothenburg. We leisurely strolled the town, did a little shopping, and had a delicious lunch.

Pumpkin Festival at Ludwigsburg Castle

Only in Germany are pumpkin festivals located in the backyard of a freakin' castle. 

So we started at the upper grounds of the Ludwigsburg Castle and made our way down to where the winners of Germany's biggest pumpkin competition were being shown off. And boy were they huge! Then we ended up wandering for oh, I don't know, about half an hour trying to find where all the delicious pumpkin flavored food & beverages were located. We ended up completely encircling the entire castle grounds and realized after that if we had taken a right instead of a left at the front of the castle we would have been there in about 2 minutes flat. Fail.

Once we made it to the "backyard" of the castle we were welcome by the aroma of cinnamon-sugar roasted pumpkin seeds. We made sure to pick up some pumpkin wine and ate a delicious variety of pumpkin dishes. I chose a large portion of pumpkin ravioli placed in pumpkin soup. There were pumpkins literally everywhere & even statues made out of pumpkins.

Our quick little day trip was abosolutely perfect! Everything I love about fall rolled into one day. Perfect fall weather. Beautiful blue skies. A crispness in the air. The leaves changing. Pumpkins everywhere. And boots and scarves as the dress code. 

Neuschwanstein Castle

I was recently looking through my pictures and realized I never did a post on the Neuschwanstein Castle. 

So here it is! During RC's last weekend here we decided to make the drive down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a nice & relaxing weekend. The Neuschwanstein Castle was only an hour away from where we were staying. So after seeing the Zugspitze we decided to drive over to the town of Schwangua where the castle was located.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Neuschwanstein Castle was built by Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria as a place where he could retreat. Construction began in 1869 and the architecture was based off of medieval castles and the operas of Richard Wagner. However Ludwig II died in 1886 before the castle could be completed. Only 15 of the 200 rooms were completed prior to his death. Since the castle was so far from being finished it was opened up to paying customers for viewing. Those revenues were used to balance construction debts, and later became a large source of income for the Bavarian family. Ludwig II was a popular king after his death because of the amount of money he brought into the state of Bavaria.

I think the most interesting part revolves around King Ludwig II's death. The construction fees of the Neuschwanstein castle ended up almost doubling the estimate and Ludwig began to run into serious financial problems as he was also building two other castles. Along with his financial problems there were also claims of mental insanity. In June of 1886 Ludwig was deposed of his power by reason of mental illness and removed from the castle. Just a few days later he was mysteriously found dead in the shallow waters of Lake Starnberg. 

WALT DISNEY'S INSPIRATION

Okay. So here's the thing about the Neuschanstein Castle. Before we actually visited I kept hearing about hearing how it inspired Walt Disney. TRUE! And about how the Cinderella castle was modeled after it. WRONG! Apparently it inspired Sleeping Beauty's castle. Being an east coast girl I've been to Disney World numerous times. I'm not going to lie. I didn't even know Sleeping Beauty had her own castle in Disneyland. 

THE TOUR

Now, the tour. You cannot go inside the castle without taking a tour. That was kind of strike one for me. I'm more of a fan of going at our pace on our own time. But it was not too expensive and while we're in Germany why not!? Y'all, I'm not going to lie the tour was gawd-awful. The tour guide spoke "English" which was more like Germish... maybe. So I had no clue what he was saying the entire time. His accent was very thick, echoed in the large rooms, and our group was so large I couldn't try and read his lips. So that was kind of strike 2. It was also unclear on whether or not you could take pictures which was strike 3. So I have no pictures of the inside, but I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. So while the tour wasn't very good I would still recommend going! I found King Ludwig II's story interesting and I loved the ties back to Walt Disney.

The Zugspitze in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

If you are in the military and located somewhere in Europe you have most likely heard of Edelweiss, a lodge and resort located in Garmisch-Parktenkirchen. With RC's upcoming deployment we wanted to plan a relaxing and memorable trip. So based on many recommendations we decided Garmisch-Parktenkirchen was the place. Although we weren't able to get reservations at Edelweiss (they're booked months in advance) we found a nice hotel right down the road. 

Garmisch-Parktenkirchen is a mountain resort town located in southern Germany. So southern, in fact, that part of our drive to Garmisch was through Austria. Nestled in the valleys of the Alps at every turn you have a breathtaking view. Not too from our hotel and the town of Garmisch is the Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany. So we decided to pay for our expensive (but well worth it) tickets and take the cable car up 2,962 meters above sea level. The ride up was a little nerve racking and our cable car was packed. It was hard to see anything, but once we reached the top the view was unbelievable! The border between Austria and Germany runs right over the summit so we were able to look out upon to gorgeous countries at one time. 

TSCHUSS!

That One Time My Parent's Came to Visit 'Ausfahrt'

Yup, so, I am one lucky girl! After being in Germany for only a little over a month I got to see my parents! Talk about helping with being homesick. My parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary [wahoo! how awesome is that?!] earlier this month. So they planned a two week trip of a lifetime to Europe. They stayed mostly in England and visited beautiful placed like Bath, London, and Salisbury. Once RC and I found out we were moving to Germany, my parents altered their plans a little bit and made a pit stop in Deutschland. We had two full days together and had such a good time!

Now onto the title of the post... the lengthy explanation will probably take away from the humor, BUT when you're in a foreign country and especially ones that don't speak English road signs can be a little tricky. 1. they don't look like signs in the States, and 2. the obvious one, they aren't in English. So distinguishing between directional signs (one way, exit, etc.) and city signs (Wipfeld, Niedernhausen, etc.) can be a little challenging. 

Case in point: AUSFAHRT 

Looks like it would be one of those crazy sounding German towns, right? Wrong, it means exit!

And apparently its a mistake a lot of people make. So I was blabbing to my parents about how wonderful ACS is, how helpful SNAPS was, and about another newcomers class they offered titled "Ausfahrt is Not a Town: Living and Driving in Germany". Then I noticed the silence [which is uncommon] and the blank stares. Then the hysterical laughing. Apparently my parents had been making potty jokes [I think you can see what "aus" and "fahrt" would break down to?] about this "stinky town" their entire drive down from Frankfurt. :)

Back to their visit...

The first day I just showed them around the city we are living in and then we went to the Volksfest. 

On the second day we went to two somewhat neighboring cities Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Wurzburg. 

ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER

Rottenburg ob der Tauber quickly became one of my favorite cities. Granted we haven't seen THAT much of Germany, but it just has the cutest feel to it. Rottenburg is a walled city that has been able to preserve much of its medieval history which makes it popular for tourists, producers of major movies like Harry Potter, and [back in the day] Nazi ideologists who revered it as a quintessential German home town. 

Fun little story about Rothenburg: (thanks Wikipedia)

During WWII the Assistant Secretary of War ordered American troops to take over the city WITHOUT artillery because he knew the historical importance of the city. [Later he was named the 'Honorable Protectorate of Rothenburg.] On the other end, the German military commander defied Hitler's orders of "fighting to the end" and relinquished the city to the Americans. Essentially saving the city from further destruction. I just found this so interesting that two sides were willing to compromise to save a historical town. Anyway.

So if you're ever in the area, and by area I mean Germany, you should definitely check out Rothenburg. It's a neat tourist town that isn't overly "touristy". I'm already planning on going back to do some Christmas shopping. They have the cutest stores that AREN'T filled with crappy tourist trinkets that are made in China.

 Also, read Rick Steves' review on Rothenburg here.  He describes it perfectly. 

WURZBURG: FESTUNG MARIENBURG

I already blabbed about Wurzburg in this post if you want to read more about the city. Because we only had one day to cram in BOTH Rothenburg and Wurzburg we were only able to see the Marienburg Fortress and ran out of time to see the residence. I really enjoyed seeing the fortress for the second time because our visit was during the week. So it was much less crowded than when RC and I went. 

TSCHUSS! 

Munich, Germany

For the four day weekend RC and I took a trip to Munich. Munich is the capital of Bavaria and the third largest city in Germany. We took the Bahn (train) down so we didn't have to worry about driving and parking in a big city. PLUS it was only 62 Euro round trip for both of us! That was much less than we'd spend on gas alone. 

The highlight of the trip for me was our visit to the Munich Residenz, the former palace to many Bavarian royals. This was my favorite residenz to date! Absolutely beautiful. There are over 130 rooms and every single one was stunning. Unlike the Wurzburg Residenz we were able to take pictures inside. Also the Munich Residenz facade was under construction. So unlike my Wurzburg post there are a ton of pictures of the inside of the residenz and almost none of the outside!

Grottenhof, a courtyard

Renaissance Antiquarium

at the end of the Renaissance Antiquarium hall

The following pictures are just shots of the ceilings. Every room would have antique furniture that was hundreds of years old, but my eyes were always drawn to the ceiling. Each ceiling was completely unique.  I feel like the pictures don't do it justice and that I'm running out of adjectives to describe appropriately describe them. Believe, me it was unreal. 

We also went to the marienplatz which is like the central square of Munich. It was a Saturday and beautiful out so it was PACKED. This was the only somewhat decent picture I could get. We also hopped on the tram and walked to Olympiapark where the 1972 Olympics were held. It's a huge area and we only walked near the tennis courts and track field. Again, since it was such a beautiful day there were cyclists everywhere and lots of people picnicking in the park.

Overall I really enjoyed our trip to Munich. On this trip we accomplished a lot of "firsts" and everything went well!  We figured out the train system and not miss any of our stops. (I'm sure we'll be using it much more.) Our hotel was really nice, close to the train station, and the marienplatz. It was fun to be in a larger more urban city. There was so much to do. I'm looking forward to comparing it to another large city like Berlin or Frankfurt. Or maybe just coming back to Munich for Oktoberfest. :)