Munich

We've recently posted the Berlin and Papal Election posts around the same time, if you haven't read them check them out!

We took a train from Berlin to Munich. It was a 6 hour train ride (and was much, much more comfortable than a flight), but went by surprisingly fast. We arrived in Munich in the early evening, so we didn't do much on our first day other than visit the BMW museum and Olympic stadium.

BMW headquarters

Motorcycles throughout their history

View of the stadium. (The cloth looking covering is actually all glass, it makes for quite an interesting design)

Olympic pool

Inside the soccer stadium

 Our Munich hostel was located directly across the street from the train station and it was only a 5-10 minute walk to get to the city center. The city center had streets with tons of shops and restaurants. The best part about the city center was that no cars were allowed--it was a pedestrian only zone.

After getting situated at our hostel, we set out to eat dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hofbrauhaus, it is a famous beer hall. Beer halls are extremely popular in southern Germany and are famous for their Bavarian food and lively atmosphere. We had to wait outside in a massive group, and eventually we were all let in at once. You have to search the massive beer hall (it's 3 stories and holds up to 3,000 people) to find a seat. The inside consists of long tables and you sit with random people. We found a seat fairly easily, since March isn't high tourist season. We ordered beers, a bread basket, and some delicious food. After dinner we walked around for a little bit and then headed to the hostel. We were pretty tired from exploring Berlin, so we went to bed early.

Pork with potatoes au gratin

White sausage

Famous beer

Picture near the entrance

On our second day in Munich, we woke up early and went to the train station to meet a tour group that was leaving for Dachau Concentration Camp. The train station hosts multiple kiosks and small bakeries where we got breakfast every morning (usually coffee, fruit, a pretzel or bakery item). Fruit cups seemed to be very popular in Munich and all the kiosks had delicious fruit cups for only a euro. I was excited to have some fruit after eating all the food we ate in Berlin.

We left with the tour group heading to Dachau around 9:30 in the morning. We took a train from the train station to the city of Dachau, where we took a bus to the concentration camp. Dachau Concentration Camp was one of the first concentration camps built and it served as a basis for most of the others. Dachau began as a work camp for political prisoners. It started off with acceptable conditions and very little cruel treatment. However, as the war progressed more groups of people were sent to the camp, such as Jews, Homosexuals, and what the Nazi's deemed criminals. The conditions worsened as the war went on and as more people arrived at the camp. Dachau was built for 5,000 people...by the end of the war it was overflowing with over 30,000 inhabitants. It was very emotional and eyeopening to be at the camp and learn the history.

Gatehouse entrance to the camp

"Work will set you free"

Barracks (contained 13 rows of two long barracks)

Early beds, later removed dividers and overflowed with people

Guard living quarters

Later that day we went to Nymphenburg Palace, which was the Bavarian royal families summer palace. It was modeled after the French Versailles palace and was quite impressive. It is hard to tell from the pictures how amazingly large the palace was.

The king at the time went around all of Bavaria in search of the most beautiful women, he brought an artist with him who hand painted a portrait of every single one to create a room filled with the portraits.

The back

The front

View across the lake, gondolas took guests around in front. The buildings actually wrap all the way behind where we took this picture

We ate at a different beer hall called Augustiner for dinner. It is more low key than Hofbrahaus, but had just as good beer and food.

Wiener schnitzel

Streusel

Day 3 in Munich consisted of a day trip to Fussen, Germany where we toured castles. It was a 2 hour train ride to reach Fussen, and then a short bus ride up to the castles. The first one we toured was the Hohenschwangau castle. This was the older of the two castles, where the royal family would spend their summers. The second castle, Neuschwanstein, is much grander and was built by King Ludwig II (who grew up as a prince in the first castle was saw). He built this fairy tale castle once he became king. Neuschwanstein  is the castle that Walt Disney based the Magic Kingdom castle off of. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castles. However, the view from the outside was pretty incredible. The castles were situated across from one another in the German alps, and both overlooked a large lake.

Hohenschwangau

Overlooking the lake

Hohenschwangau

Neuschwanstein castle

Bridge behind the castle

Neuschwanstein castle

Neuschwanstein castle

Rhubarb and strawberry pie, one of Stefan's favorites 

We were starving by the time we got home from Fussen and we headed to Augustiner for a final Bavarian meal. The next morning we left early to fly back to Rome. It was quite a change going from Germany back to Rome, especially in regards to the weather. In Rome it was almost 70 degrees and sunny..completely different from super cold and snowing!