And then there was Munich!

GERMANY, my dear-old-beautiful-amazing-breathtaking-stunning-perfect Germany! How I love this place!

I first visited this country in 2011 and fell in love instantly. Anyone who knows me knows about this love affair, and I never ever EVER turn down a chance to keep going back!

This trip marks my 5th visit to Germany in 7 years (really!). There was a shadow of a doubt when I was trying to plan this vacation because it was a very special one, given the timing. And so I thought maybe a new place and new experiences would be good? But also BECAUSE this was such a special trip, it made all the sense in the world to go back to the country that holds my heart outside of India. I had to.

If I’m being totally honest, Berlin is my favourite place in all of Europe. But I decided to sprinkle a little Bavarian charm into my life this time and headed back to Munich 🙂 Since all 3 of us travelling together had already seen Munich before, our agenda had ZERO touristy things on it. But having said that, Munich is one of the most perfect base camps for a lot of day trips around, like Salzburg, Vienna, Neuschwanstein Castle or even the Dachau concentration camp. So all you Europe travellers will be spoilt for choice if you wish to wander around. There’s also a couple of lakes just outside the city if you want to take a quick dip on a bright summer day (Germans LOVE swimming in lakes !)

Getting back on track, we travelled to Munich by train from Prague, which is about a 5 and a half hour journey. But the European countryside is so gorgeous that it was worth it! Never mind the fact that we had to switch to a bus and then hop back on another train in between due to some ramp maintenance 😛 but it was a fun journey nonetheless! Here I intend to warn you that this particular post will not educate you about Munich and what to do there, it will only describe how I ate and drank and relaxed 😀

It remains a testament of our love towards Germany, when I tell you that all 3 of us girls travelling together in that train instinctively realised that we had crossed over into German land, and then suddenly there was an instantaneous upliftment of mood and the smiles got as wide as our facial muscles would allow!

My sole intention of going to Munich was chill time. My last day was ideally going to be a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, but we had had a hectic week and so decided to soak up some German summer sun instead! To this day, Neuschwanstein remains the one big German attraction I’ve missed, but I’ll get there one day 🙂

Munich began on a warm June afternoon in the beautiful Marienplatz, the city centre. Now this is a special place for me. We had a couple of hours to kill in Munich on our way to Spain back in 2008, and so we came here, and this was my first ever sight of Germany. This square is always brimming with tourists. Everyday at 11 am (and noon in summer) and 5 pm, the Rathaus Glockenspiel (the town hall clock) comes alive and all the intricately carved figures dance around to some beautiful music. Each one of the parts of the clock tells a story one by one as they begin to spin, so this is definitely something to look out for!

Just a minute’s walk from the Rathaus (the town hall), is one of Munich’s most famous markets, Viktualienmarkt. It’s a HUGE open-air market which sells local produce, meats, cheese, baked goods and of course, BEER! Of course that was the first stop! And while walking to the market we came across a lone fruit stall which caught our eye immediately, and why? Because they sold the BIGGEST BERRIES WE HAD EVER LAID EYES ON! I’m a fruit junkie in Europe, and my snack of choice, especially in Germany, is boxes of berries and SOUR CHERRIES! I’m sorry, but these sour, black cherries don’t taste the same anywhere else in the world! So we grabbed a couple of boxes of each and proceeded.

First order of business? BEER. I AM in Bavaria after all. So we sprinted to a biergarten in the market and began guzzling down some fantastic German Bier. Call me a snob, but Germany has completely spoilt me when it comes to beer now. It just doesn’t get better than this. I can’t help but sneer at most bottled brews now, because the beer here is so fresh and traditional and addictively good! My personal favourite is the Hefeweizen (wheat beer). It’s light and easy to drink and isn’t totally filtered so it’s slightly opaque and THAT is what gives it that special character. Amazing! Pace yourselves though, because German pints are BIG. Small usually means 500ml, so make sure you’re well-fed if you plan on drinking a lot! Generally speaking, German beers are incredibly fresh and easy to drink. I’m not one for the dark beers, I prefer the wheat and pils (which I like better than the Czech ones), but some craft breweries make these smoked beers which are just amazing. Although I don’t think you can steadily keep drinking these because they tend to be a little heavy.

We had some time to kill after this and so I went looking for Crêpes! Which made us notice a frozen yogurt shop! 😛 okay this is what I LOVE about the FroYo here, there’s only one flavour, the natural yoghurt! And all you do is add toppings. So I went with blueberries and strawberries and cheesecake bits, BECAUSE I had raspberries in my bag so I topped off this huge dessert with those too! I’m telling you, if I died after that, I would have died the happiest soul ever! Yummy yummy yummy!

Our venue for dinner was pre-decided before I even reached Munich! One of Munich’s oldest beer halls, the Hofbräuhaus!! This is one of the largest beer halls in Germany, and one of the 6 breweries allowed to produce Oktoberfest brews, so you KNOW it’s going to be good! Seating here works in the way that you go in, find empty seats, even if it’s at an occupied table, and sit yourself down! The waiters wear lederhosen and the waitress don dirndls! You can buy gigantic Brezeln (pretzels) from a waitress carrying them around in a basket! There’s also traditional Bavarian folk music playing all through the day. There were cute little couples dancing together to the music too! It’s all so traditional and beautiful that my heart was about to jump out of my body with excitement!

On day 2, I met up with a friend of mine and we headed back to Viktualienmarkt to grab some coffee, which ended up being beer 😛 (they didn’t have coffee okay?) And so the morning was spent in beer, conversation and strolling around. Luckily, we walked into Marienplatz just around noon when the Glockenspiel (the clock) started chiming! On the other side of the Rathaus is one of Munich’s largest shopping streets, so you definitely have some time to treat yourself! We headed to the other side though, because hunger was striking!

Just a couple of minutes away from Marienplatz, there’s a few small bylanes which are full of restaurants, cafes and breweries. We chose a Brauhaus (brewery) called Augustine Keller, just next to the Hofbräuhaus since they had outdoor seating, and we wanted to enjoy the sun! Got guzzling again on the house brews, and also gorged on some sausages and schnitzel ! What a German meal 😀

But the star of the show was definitely the dessert. My friend’s recommendation, the Kaiserschmarrn mit Apfelmus. Translation: it’s a light fluffy shredded pancake with freshly made applesauce. And being that we got a proper German-size portion, suffice to say that 4 hungry girls did NOT manage to finish it, but it was DELICIOUS!

All-in-all, I think I pretty much hit the dream vacation jackpot this time. There are moments of that week that I wouldn’t ever share with anyone outside of the 3 of us. I saved Germany for the end because a lot of the happiest moments of my life have happened here, and so I wanted this week to end on the sweetest note possible and I was lucky enough to travel with probably the only 2 people in the world who would GET the point of it.

Sooooo I hope you all enjoyed my little saga here and it made you smile just a little bit..and also travel a lot more 😛