Munich

The train ride to Munich was S L O W. It was a seven hour ride that should easily be covered in less than 4 hours. However, the view is gorgeous going through the mountains in northern Italy and throughout Austria. We also saw a lot of snow in Austria, sure signs that our trip is about to get a bit colder. We finally got to Munich, and in my excitement to get off the train, I failed to notice which Munich train station we were in. Whoops. Got off the Ostbanhof station instead of Hauptbanhof. We had to remedy that by catching the S-bahn train to the main train station. Our hostel, Wombats, was located less than a full block away from the train station. The hostel has a very lively atmosphere. There’s a bar in the back, adjacent to a nice lounge room, which is actually an enclosed courtyard. The rooms are large and clean, and we had two Korean roommates. As we arrived in Munich pretty late, we just checked in and grabbed a few beers at the bar before calling it a night.

We spent our first day in the Munich area out of the actual city. Ingolstadt is about an hour away from Munich by train, and is home to Audi’s headquarters. If you haven’t figured out why we went there, then you clearly don’t know Naber. But moving on, we sort of didn’t look up exactly how to get there, even from the train station. Had to try to decipher German bus maps and routes to figure out how to get to the Audi complex. We made it to the Audi Forum just in time for the only English plant tour of the day. The two hour tour of the plant was awesome. The Ingolstadt plant produces almost all of the A4s, A3s, and Q5s. The Q5 is their smaller SUV, just as the BMW X3 is to the X5, and is not yet sold in the States. Therefore, it is highly likely that Naber’s car came from that very plant. They pump out 2300 cars a day, and they have incredible machinery and robots that are part of their production lines in the plant. Another interesting fact: the workers are allowed to smoke on the job, and each worker is also allowed to drink half a liter of beer per shift. As they say, Germans are good at working and drinking beer. I guess they go hand in hand in this case.

Audi’s main customer center is also in Ingolstadt, and on average, about 250 customers pick up their cars straight from the center every day. When a customer arrives, their car is brought out onto a showroom floor, where an Audi rep. shows them every nook and cranny of their car, and the customer gets to drive their car straight off the floor. It was very cool to see. After our plant tour, we grabbed lunch in a very chic cafeteria, and headed for the Audi museum, where we got to see all the Audi models from the very beginning of the company.

We got back to Munich in the evening with pretty dreary weather out; cold and rainy. We got dinner at Augustiner Braustuben, an off the tourist path restaurant. The inside of this place was exactly as I would have imagined an authentic Bavarian style restaurant. It was full of people, loud, and all drinking beer, and all the tables were shared tables. We were squeezed in at a table between two other pairs of people eating, where we ordered beer and the ‘mixed pan.’ This dish involves half a roasted chicken, a quarter of a duck, and crispy pork knuckle, with sides of potato dumplings and a red cabbage. So in other words, a man’s dinner. And also cardiac arrest waiting to happen. Probably one of the top three under 10 euro meals we’ve had in Europe.

The next day, we were joined by none other than James Fox of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Three’s a crowd right? Now I have someone to help me make fun of Naber. Not a bad deal. James got to the hostel around 10:30, having come straight from Minnesota overnight and also not having slept a whole lot. So at 11:00, we did a walking tour of the city, provided by a guy named Ozzy. It was a great tour, considering it was free, and also very informative. For instance, Bavarian beer consists of four ingredients and four only: yeast, barley, hops and water. No preservatives or anything else. Also, most locals drink beer in half liter steins because beer only keeps most of its flavor for about 20 minutes or so after it comes out of the tap. Regulars at beer halls also have their own stein locker. So drinking a big liter mug doesn’t really make you look cool, and plus, you’re in Bavaria, where half the women can probably outdrink you in beer. We also learned some Third Reich history, which a lot of the city has covered up. On another note, the Hitler salute is illegal, as in you go to jail illegal, and they’re serious about it, so if you intend on coming here, consider yourself warned. On the topic of illegal, jaywalking is also illegal and actually enforced as well, so another thing to keep in mind. Our tour group only consisted of us and one Australia dude named Al, so it was nice and a little more personalized. We saw the central Catholic Church in the city, and the noon show at the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz, and walked along part of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch March. After the tour was over, the rest of the day was dedicated to walking across the river to see the Parliament, then strolling through the English Garden before heading back to the hostel. Dinner was had at Donisl, a restaurant right off of Marienplatz, the plaza in the center of the city. After dinner we made our way over to the Augustiner Keller, one of many beer halls in the city. It was the beginning of Starkbierzeit, or the ‘strong beer festival.’ The cellar had a bit of a party going on, but we opted out of the cover charge and contented ourselves with a few beers in the main beer hall.

The next day we hopped on a regional train southbound for the town of Fussen, which lies on the Germany/Austria border. It was a beautiful sight on the train ride in, as the town lies right under the mountain range. We got lunch in the town center, then jumped on a bus that took us to a village just outside of town, where we made a short hike up to Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that Disney modeled their signature castle off it. It was beautiful out, as the ground was still covered by snow, but the temperature was in the high 40s. The castle was built to satisfy Ludwig II’s love for fairy tales and fables, and the inside of the castle was full of paintings and murals dedicated to certain fairy tales, so it was easy to see why Disney chose this castle. After our castle tour, we had noticed a bridge over a gorge with a good view of the castle, so we decided to try to get to this bridge. Unfortunately, there was a fenced off road that read, “danger: no trespassing,” and was apparently the road that lead to the bridge. Following the lead of a couple other people, we skirted the fence and walked up the road. We were greeted with a few amazing views of the Alps and a large frozen lake behind the castle. Continuing along, there was another fenced off area. Well, we’d already hopped over one fence. What’s another? Two more no trespassing signs later, we were on Marienbrucke, or Mary’s Bridge, which spanned over a 90m deep gorge. A little creepy to feel how springy the wood on the bridge was, but it was worth see the castle in its entirety, something unachievable on the walk up to the castle.

After getting back to Munich, we headed for the all famous Hofbrauhaus, the most well-known beer hall in Munich. It was PACKED with people, and we shared a table with a German woman, her mom and mom’s friend, and also a father-son pair who were very friendly and fun to chat with for a few hours. Beer is only served by the liter at night, so that was settled. It’s an enormous beer hall with a live German band, loud people singing and being obnoxious, and pretzel girls walking between the tables, and in general a fun atmosphere. The food was good, and the company was better. A few liters of beer later, we closed down the Hofbrauhaus, a good end to our trip to Munich. Vienna up next.