Last weekend I visited my favorite cities thus far, Munich and Salzburg. We had a long weekend at CIMBA and Dakota, my boyfriend, had the week off for his study abroad program so we decided to travel together. He let me plan the weekend, which is probably why we visited German speaking areas (for those who may not know, I am a German minor).
You know the drill! This post may be longer than usual, so if you don't want to read the entire thing I understand. I suggest just scrolling down to look at the pictures!
Wednesday evening I took the train to meet up with Dakota in Venice. He was flying in from Paris and we were going to stay the night in Venice because our train to Munich didn't leave until 1:30 the next day. Dakota had never been to Venice! It was exciting to show him the place I had been twice already. After we stumbled around trying to find out hotel we went out to dinner. Dinner was delicious, I had a seafood pasta, salad, and veal. We ate right next to the grand canal with a view of the Rialto Bridge.
We woke up the next morning and had a few hours to wander around the island. This was especially fun because Venice was having Carnivale! We had gelato, took pictures of people in costumes, walked by all the sights (St Marks Basillica, St Marks square, etc.). We then took a Vaporetto (the water bus) back to the train station. The day was so sunny and the water was so blue, we really lucked out! We were soon on a train to Munich! Our train was very nice and we both lucked out with window seats across from each other. Our train went through the mountains and the views were gorgeous. In northern Italy there were little mountain towns with grapes growing on mountainsides. The. We crossed the boarder to Austria and we stopped seeing grapes, but started seeing snow! We even traveled through a blizzard at one point! Thankfully, there was no snow on the ground in Munich because I did not bring the right clothes for that.
We hopped off the train in Munich and it was around 8:30 by the time we got to our hotel. This weekend we stayed at hotels the entire time, but strangely the prices were very reasonable (comparable to hostel prices). It was also nice to have housekeeping, a quality bathroom and great service.
That night in Munich we were starving and walking around the city center trying to find a place to go. Unfortunately we were too late for many restaurants, so we caved and got McDonalds. Surprisingly, the Munich McDonalds is my favorite McDonalds I have ever been to. I ordered a burger with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, a fried potato patty (with seasoning), and some sort of sauce. It was so savory and juicy! They also had great desserts. They had 1€ donuts (with delicious favors, like cranberry and candy), as well as a yummy black cherry McFlurry. They also have a Euro menu! This was especially refreshing because McDonalds in Europe has been much more expensive than the McDonalds I am used to (but it is better quality). We then headed back to our hotel and went to bed in preparation for our day in Salzburg!
The next morning we purchased something called the Bayern ticket. This ticket was 13.50€ for each of us and it allowed us to take all transportation in the German state of Bavaria, and it included some Austrian boarder cities like Salzburg! I love how easy and cheap German transportation was compared to Italy. We used the Bayern ticket to take a regional train to Salzburg. It was a gorgeous ride through the German countryside and then the mountains nearer to Austria. We arrived in Salzburg an hour later and began walking around. We ate kebab, frolicked through the Mirabell Gardens, strolled through the old town, then it was about time to go to our Sound of Music tour! The tour was somewhat expensive, but the movie has been a lifelong favorite of mine, so it was worth the money.
For the tour we were put into three smaller vans. Dakota and I got to sit in the front of the van (because the seats are smaller and everyone else on the tour was a bit older the us), but the views from the front were great. First we drove through town and viewed all the sights from the movie in the town, like the concert hall, the convent where the real Maria Von Trapp started off, and the Mirabell gardens and palace. We then left the city to see the palace where the Von Trapps lived in the movie. It was gorgeous, we also learned a lot about the history. Apparently the real Von Trapp family did not live there, it was the price archbishops palace for a long period of time. Also the lake the palace sits on is man-made, when the prince archbishop lived there he wanted to live on the water so he had the lake built. We drove by the mansion where the real Von Trapps lived (it was still huge), then we were to the road lined with trees and the famous gazebo.
The gazebo has a cool history. It was actually on the same property as the palace, but the scientists who own the palace now were tired of having sound of music fans come and sing at the gazebo, so they moved it across the lake. However, across the lake the gazebo was vandalized and destroyed. The people in Hollywood donated a replica that is now in a gated park of Salzburg. This worked to prevent vandalism, but then the sound of music fans were starting to get hurt from jumping from bench to bench. So now the gazebo is closed for entry, which is pretty sad, but it was still cool to see the gazebo.
After the gazebo our tour guide cranked the Sound of Music tunes as we drove through the mountains to see more sights outside the city. We sang along and it was great to see the views of the mountains and lakes. We stopped in a few of the smaller mountain towns on the lakes and saw the gorgeous scenery of movie as well. My favorite town was Mondsee. It was near a lake (the Mondsee), it had the church interior that was used in the movie for Maria and Captain Von Trapp's wedding, there was also cute shops and delicious cafés. We stopped here for an hour and we shopped then has ice cream, apple fritters and hot chocolate. This was the best dessert I have ever had. The hot chocolate was not too sweet, the ice cream was homemade, had the apples were fresh.
We then took the autobahn back to Salzburg and finished the last few sings from the Sound of Music soundtrack. Dakotas favorite song is Climb Every Mountain, mine is Do a Deer. We then did some shopping in Salzburg, ate some hot dogs from a food cart, then took a train back to Munich.
When we got back to Munich we met up with my CIMBA friend, Jennifer. Jennifer had spent the first few days of the weekend in Vienna then was going to spend the rest in Munich. We walked her to her hostel then we decided to get to bed because we were going to Dachau early the next morning.
The next morning the three of us headed out to the Dachau concentration camp. We got there right as the site opened, which I highly recommend doing. It was almost empty because the tours do not start until later in the day. We purchased the audio tour and then separated to experience the site on our own. It is hard for me to describe the experience. I was full of a wide range of emotions from grief, to uneasiness, to extreme sadness, to being curious. I had always heard about what went on here, I had seen movies and documentaries, read books, and learned in history class. I really don't think the reality of the event truly hit me until I was at the camp. I highly recommend to visit because I feel like I can't really do it justice in this blog.
We then headed back to Munich and immediately ate lunch (we were starved!). We had currywurst, fries and beer. The currywurst is not what you think of when you think Indian curry. The curry sauce for the sausages tasted like a sweet ketchup with curry powder. This meal filled me up and was so delicious. We then headed to St. Peter's church. We went in the church, then up the tower. Going up the tower is only 1€ for students and it was a great experience. The views of Munich were totally worth it. We then took a donut and pretzel break after (we deserved it after all those steps!).
Jennifer and I (after we were full of donuts ands pretzels) headed to the Deutsche Museum and Dakota went shopping. The Deutsche Museum is basically like the Smithsonian of Germany. We arrived with an hour left of the museum open (which is not enough time at all!) but we got in for free because of that. We played with all of the stuff in the museum, but I will admit I wish we had had more time to look at some of the cooler exhibits.
We then headed to some souvenir shops and met up with Dakota at a shoe store. I wanted to buy some Birkenstocks, but they didn't have much of the summer collection for sale and I am not a huge fan of the clogs. We then went back to our places of stay to drop off our stuff and get ready for dinner. We ate dinner at this wonderful place called Weisses Brauhaus. They brew wheat beer (they claim the best wheat beer in the area). We had beer, pork, bread dumpling, and apple fritters for dessert. The pork was so delicious. The gravy and meat were so savory. I had a fantastic meal.
After our delicious meal we went to the Hofbrauhaus! The Hofbrauhaus is my favorite place in Munich. The huge beer hall is filled with long tables and benches, life traditional Bavarian music and dancing, and a lot of beer and food. I actually ran into a few other Edina people who I graduated with! It was a great time. We then left and went to bed.
The next morning we had to leave at 11:30, but we did some shopping, ate gummi bears, and saw the famous Glockenspiel of Munich! We were then on a train back to Italy.
I had a fantastic weekend and I would love to go back.
Here are some photos!
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a blog post on my weekend trip to Cinque Terre, five coastal towns of Italy along clifs.
Aufwiedersehen!
Carolyn
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