Munchin in Munchen

Neuschwanstein Castle

Hey all. So we arrived to Munich on Thursday and it's been a somewhat good relaxing time here. Munich is definitely a city one must check out in their lifetime. The beer is great, the women are beautiful (Melissa is still more beautiful), the architecture is pretty, and, most importantly the food is awesome! Check out what we had to say about our stay in Munich.

On Thursday when we arrived, our first night we were to stay at our now companion hostel Wombats. Now we had stayed in Wombats in all three of their locations starting in Berlin, than in Vienna, and now finally in Munich. If you stay in all three hotels you get a secret prize so Melissa and I were excited to find out what we would get. Would it be a free breakfast? An extra free night at the hostel? A free drink at their bar perhaps? Ehhhhhh no. It was 2 free "wombats towels." Well I still asked if we could at least have a free breakfast and they were more than happy to give us that.

Schnitzel Munich Style!

Alright. Enough with the jibber jabber. Lets get down to business. What did we do in Munich? Well, the first day when we arrived it was around evening time so after Melissa and I got settled into our hostel we were really craving some German food. So, we found this traditional German restaurant not too far from the hostel and decided to check it out. Both Melissa and I decided to order Schnitzel. However, mine was a little different from hers. For those of you who don't know what Schnitzel is it's either fried pork or chicken breast. Kind of like a big chicken nugget. Melissa's was just a regular Schnitzel with fries. But, mine was the Munich Schnitzel which is a regular Schnitzel but it has horseradish inside. It also came with this potato cucumber salad that was really delicious. To top it all off I had a delicious dark or dunkel German beer.

Neuschwanstein Castle

On Friday, Melissa and I went out to a little town called Fussen where King Ludwig II built a castle called Neuschwanstein Castle, which means "New Swan Stone Castle." It wasn't actually originally called that. However, I don't really remember what the original name was. King Ludwig II never finished the castle because he mysteriously died while in the process of building it. He was found dead in a lake somewhere in Bavaria. However, it still remains a mystery as to why or how he died.

Now lets get to the details of the castle. The exterior of the castle is really beautiful. It kind of resembles Walt Disney's castle. Or should I say Walt Disney's castle resembles Neuschwanstein because he based the Walt Disney castle off of it. It is built in a neo-gothic style and actually looks much smaller in person as compared to all the pictures I've seen.

The interior was created as a homage to the German composer, director, and conductor Richard Wagner. Almost every room in the castle has a theme that was based on one of his operas, or stories. Another interior focal point in the castle, was the the fact that you can find all different designs inspired by the swan. Apparently Ludwig II had an obsession with swans and you could see that all over in the interior of the castle.
There is also a really beautiful chapel inside the castle showing scenes of different monarchs that ruled Bavaria as well as Jesus and his apostles.

After we came back from our castle adventure we went to our new location for the rest of our stay in Munich. The person we were staying with has an apartment in one of the most busiest areas in Munich. His name is Paddy and he is a professional chef. When we arrived at his place he was in the process of cooking dinner for a little gathering of his friends and we got to join in on the fun! He cooked some cream of asparagus soup, along with some ratatouille. The food was really great and the people we met were really nice and friendly. It was a real treat to get to meet some people that live in this area and get to hear about how their live their lives here.

Beer, wurst, and kraut 

Gold ally way

On Saturday, we slept in and then woke up and went to the Augustiner Beer Haus for lunch. This would be our first beer house and we were excited to experience it for ourselves. I ordered a Augstiner dunkel (dark), Melissa ordered this beer mixed with lemonade which tasted pretty good, and we both split some sausage and sauerkraut. The food was great and the beer definitely hit the spot. Afterward, we went on a Third Reich tour which explained about the rise and reign of Hitler in Munich using specific locations where certain events occurred. The tour was okay, however, the tour guide was really politically opinionated and went on rants that weren't really specific to the tour itself. He was pretty unprofessional. On the other hand he did bring us to some interesting locations and showed us some cool monuments that if you saw it you wouldn't really know what it was unless you researched it. For example, there is this monument that just shows a little narrow strip of gold in an alley way. To the average person you might not even realize it is there. But it was specifically put there to honor 200 Germans who were killed because they refused to give the Nazi salute to a statue on another street so they would go down this alley way to avoid the statue. When the Nazis found out what they were doing they rounded up the people who would go down the alley and killed them.

Melissa with huge pretzel!

Today, Melissa and I were going to go to some museums because every Sunday they are free, or cheaper than normal days. However, when we got to the first museum we found out that all the museums are closed because it is May 1st which is a national holiday to ring in the spring season. That was a bummer. We decided to take a stroll in Munich's huge park called the English Garden. It is called English Garden because it resembles the style of an English garden. While walking in the park we came to this area called the Chinese tower which is an area with a large tower in the form of Chinese architecture. There is a bunch of food stands and places to sit and eat. Melissa and I both ordered our own huge pretzels. Melissa really liked them. I only thought they were pretty good because they aren't kept warm. Afterwards, we came back to the apartment, relaxed for a couple of hours than went out to dinner. (More food!) We ate at another German restaurant that was literally about 50 feet away from our apartment down an alleyway. Melissa and I split this potato soup with bacon and grilled onions, and we both ordered an assortment of sausage and more sauerkraut! I also ordered more dark beer! (delicious!) Later on, we went to the famous Hofbrauhaus which is known for its 1 liter mug beers and traditional German folk music, and dancing. Of course I ordered the 1 liter mug of Hofbrau Dunkel beer and Melissa ordered some apple strudel. All in all it was a great day of relaxing, and eating.

At the Hofbrauhaus 

Munich was a great city to visit. Both Melissa and I were really glad we got a chance to come here. Hopefully next time we have a chance to come back it will be for Oktoberfest! That is all for now. Auf Wiedersehen!


-Orry and Melissa